Weeks 1-2 Adventures in U.S. history

Our first week went well.  He was eager to get started back in his routine, as was I.  Week 2 has been more of a struggle.  Some days are great and others a filled with some complaining but who loves school 100% anyway.  Week 1, We learned about the U.S.A. Map. First we colored the state where we live, then we colored the states where we have family living.  We also learned about the World Map and the 7 continents and the oceans.  We read about Leif Ericsson and his journey. We also learned about the importance of a name of what our names mean.  My Father's World suggested making a bracelet with letter beads that spell the child's name but I felt that was a bit too girly so we made a bookmark. It's coming in handy with all our books we are reading.

Here is Cooper when I told him it was his turn to do school work.  What a stinker! Hiding in the computer hutch.  I then convinced him to get dressed and he could 'learn' on the computer.

 Our first science experiment this school year was adding salt to a cup of water and seeing how the egg floats.  It was neat to see how the salt made the water more dense. Carter's anticipation on what would happen was so cute!

Week 2, We started learning about Christopher Columbus and his journey.  After reading about the beginning of his journey Carter had to summarize the story. I enjoy relearning all these things as he's learning it for his first time.

I then attempted to do a viking craft with him that I had got at Michael's a couple of weeks ago.  EPIC FAIL, but not on our part.  The foam boat holes were cut to small for the large cardboard pieces to go through.  So we took it back, I don't recommend this...

Today we made Columbus' 3 ships that he used to travel. The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.  We used aluminum foil, per My Father's World recommendations, but we used popsicle sticks instead of a pencil for our sails, which we decorated.  Well I decorated, haha.  Also, they recommended putting the boats in a bathtub or sink.  But because I wanted to focus on the fact that his ships didn't have a motor I really wanted to take them outside and see where the wind took them and how slow the boats must have moved on a day with no wind.  We have a little drainage spillway at the end of our cul da sac and thankfully it had rained the day before.  The boys were excited to try them out and so was I.

And off they went....

What a great day!!!! Minus the boys playing in dirty rain water.  Oh the joys of boys!

First Day of 2nd Grade

Today was Carter's first day of school.  He is doing My Father's World 2nd grade curriculum, Adventures in U.S. History.  Im fairly certain, and hoping, that this will be our best and most enjoyable year yet.  Carter loves maps, presidents, and history facts so this is right up his alley.  Cooper is just doing basic Pre-K worksheets here but starting in September he will go to a once a week Pre-K class.  In January we will start My Father's World Kindergarten.  Here are our morning pictures before we started our day.

In addition to normal subjects he started Rosetta Stone Spanish Homeschool Edition.  He is LOVING it and didn't want to stop.  He says next he wants to learn Chinese and French.  He also had a great time going through his books during book basket time.

Cooper had a pretty good day but it's a lot harder for this little guy to sit and be still.  But we got through it with only a bit of whining and maybe a cry or two, haha.  His favorite part was using our Melissa & Doug Reusable Animal sticker packs and Melissa & Doug Transportation Reusable sticker pack.  I made up a story about a little boy who went to the airport and got on a plane to grandma's house.  While on the plane, he looked down and saw..... etc.  He used his stickers and scene pages to create what I was telling him.  A fun way to get him listen closely to what I am saying.  All in all we had a pretty good first day!