Tag Archives: homeschooling

The Nina & The Pinta

We headed out to Muskogee, OK Saturday to see replica’s of the Nina & The Pinta.

They were two of the ships in the armada that Columbus sailed with in search of a new passage to Asia (finding the new world instead).

Whenever I get the chance to touch and feel history I jump at it!

“What’s down there anyway?”

When I was telling my kids about the ships before we got there, my oldest got really excited and thought we were going to sail across the ocean.

Then my youngest thought up a plan to make that happen. He said, “I am going to push it and jump in and sail away! Do you think that will work?”

No, you may not steal the ship.

My little pirates.

The Niña – Most Historically Accurate Columbus Replica Ship Ever Built

The Niña is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his three voyages of discovery to the new world beginning in 1492.  Columbus sailed the tiny ship over 25,000 miles.  That ship was last heard of in 1501, but the new Niña has a different mission.  We are a floating museum, and we visit ports all over the Western Hemisphere. (Taken from their site.)

View of the Pinta from aboard the Nina.


One of the crew members that sails around on her.

It was a great experience!

They are only here until December 7th, then they sail to the next port.

Adults are $8

Children $6

The day I supervised an archaeology dig

This is the book that started it all.

We have been studying ancient history so I thought archaeology was a good subject to study at the same time.

I tried to find as much “equipment” as I could, that I had just laying around the house.

Then we heading outside to find a good location for our dig.

Sifting the dirt they excavated.

Brushing off artifacts.

It is important to hold the magnifying glass right against your eye.

They tried the whole team work thing…

It ended about how I thought it would.

Documenting locations for his finds.

More brushing.

More documenting.

The grid.

Our artifacts or as the boys like to call them “clues”.

1st day of school~ 2011

Last week was our first week of school for the year. We are doing Kindergarten and Pre-school.

Here is a peek into our day.

A lot of our school involves reading.

There is some great historical fiction for young children you just have to be willing to search for it!

After reading about Galileo’s experiment, we decided to try it for ourselves.

First you drop a rock and a flat piece of paper then you crumple the piece of paper up into a ball and drop them both again.

The crumpled paper falls faster then the flat paper.

In case you are wondering. Yes, my boys did hate dropping things.

Worst experiment ever for boys.

You can tell by looking at their faces how bored they were…

My husband had the day off so he did math with the boys.

We are using RightStart curriculum for math and the boys seem to really enjoy it.

I like how hands on it is.

I should have had Nick take pictures while I was reading to the boys but I did not think about it until later.

I seem to do that a lot…

My days are changing with this new challenge but I am really enjoying sharing my love of learning with my two little men.

Great ideas after the fact count, right?