As many of you know, we have been using My Father's World since Kindergarten. We really love them, and can't imagine using other curriculum. That said, there are always some parts of each year that work for our family, and some that don't. Please take these as just our experience. Your family may seem of our pros as cons, or vice versa. Pros History We always love the History sections of MFW, and it is usually my favorite part of the teacher's manual. Story of the U.S. and American Pioneers and Patriots were great living books, each week my kids asking to read more than assigned for that day. The books were very age appropriate and kept them engaged. The many other History books, such as North American Indians, were all very kid friendly and informative. The student sheets and sticker books were also fun, and very easy to use. We still use the map placement in school, almost every day. Bible Learning the names of Jesus was informative, and always tied easily with s science lesson. For example, when we learned that Jesus was the Bread of Life, we also learned about yeast. The Bible Memory wasn't too daunting this year, like we have seen in later years of the family cycle. Science- The Book First Encyclopedia of Science was very fun, and kid friendly. We also printed a list of Magic School bus episodes, found on MFW facebook page. We also enjoy the student sheets and the Bird Nature Study using Birds, Nests, and Eggs because it actually tied to the study of the states. Each time you study a state bird, you study that bird. We went on several nature walks, but were never that great about note booking. The Fun with Magnets set was also used a lot, but mostly in just free exploration. Language Arts- We like Language Lessons for Today. We really enjoy the gentle introduction to English and grammar. We tried a traditional approach on recommendation from a friend, and it was way too much repetition for us. Spelling by Sound and Structure has also been a wonderful curriculum that goes perfectly with our second grade workboxes. Music appreciation lessons that focused on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker were fun, and went along with our field trip to see the Nutcracker (in the Deluxe Package). We listed to the CDs while we colored the History Student Sheets. In the student sheets & on a CD, you get to learn some simple patriotic songs that were very fun. Read-Alouds These were almost a Con. The books themselves (The Courage of Sarah, Noble On the Banks of Plum Creek, Sarah Whitcher's Story, In Grandma's Attic, Mountain Born, Farmer Boy) were all great, but we never seemed to get to them during the day, so I started a chapter at bedtime. When that didn't work on a consistent schedule, we got them them in audio book from the library and it turned them into a Pro! Farmer Boy was our favorite, especially if you have young boys. This was great for along car ride to our in-laws, or for playing while my kids ate their lunch. Book Basket This year's book basket list was well done and we used at least a few of the books every week. I do not read these books to the kids, they read themselves from the library basket. The books from each state always helped them go into more depth than I could manage to fit in during our Together Time. Like always, I use it as my jumping off point for my library search. I reserve all my books online, and pick them up once every 2 weeks. Cons Art I Can Do All Things (in the Deluxe Package) wasn't for us.We did about half of the beginning lessons, and they were interesting, but we just never got that into these lessons. Granted,m we didn't have the DVDs. We stopped, and switched to Draw Write Now , which my kids LOVED; so much that we ended up using all through third grade Exploring Countries and Cultures. Math We have never had great luck with MFW recommend Math. We use Math U See, you can see our review here. Science Science in the Kitchen and Science with Air. We also didn't use the Soda Bottle Bird Feeder, and just used Toilet Paper Rolls, with peanut butter and bird seed. These books never connected to the curriclum, and just didn't' seem like they had much meaning or depth. Add-ons/Supplements Stack the States App -Inexpensive app that we used ALL THE TIME. My husband and I even play on it a lot! Scrambled States- Simple board game about America, so easy that 2nd graders can play easily without much assistance after first time. Liberty's Kids - The Complete Series- Great for sick days, and on those long winter days stuck inside! Draw Write Now with MFW Adventures Second Grade Workboxes MFW Thank you for using affiliate links, they help keep the blog open at no extra cost to you.

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 29 This week we will learn about Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska. Also start using our "Fun with Magnets" set and learn about magnets. BOOK Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep, and my sheep know me." ~John 10:14 ~Psalm 23 READING This week we read together Mountain Boy so I didn't get any pictures. LANGUAGE ARTS Worked on more spelling words and workbooks. MATH This week we finished our Singapore 1B workbook and textbook. U.S. NOTEBOOK Completed her Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska state worksheets. TIMELINE None for this week. ART Made tie-dye shirts, Kanani really enjoyed dying all the shirts. SCIENCE Learning about Magnets this week Kids enjoyed playing with our magnet wands and different magnetic objects. Placed several objects on the table and the kids had to see if it was magnetic or not. Dartanian really enjoyed making the objects move inside the water bottle with his magnetic. Testing the magnetic attraction and magnetic repulsion. She build different shapes out of her magnetic blocks. NATURE WALK Went to a friends house and the kids spent their time outdoors playing together and playing with our friends chickens and dogs. We got 1,000 superworms for our bearded dragon and the kids love feeding them and watching devour all the food. VIDEOS First video is the farmer talking a little about the ostriches, second video is Kanani feeding the ostriches, and the third one is me feeding them. They are very quick and you can't keep your hand in there too long if not they will bite. ACTIVITIES This week we went to an Ostrich farm with our homeschool co-op. Before we went on the trip I read some information to the kids so they would know a little about the animal they were going to see. Some of the animals on the farm. Kids loved holding the one-eyed chicken or like they called "Pirate Chicken". Meet several of their ostriches and got to learn about them, the owner definitely has done his research on these beautiful animals. Holding an Ostrich egg. This week we finished our Singapore math 1B workbook and textbook, learned about Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska, and magnets. Got a wonderful chance to go to an Ostrich farm and learn a lot on them. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 30 This week we will be learning about the great pioneer of all, the building of the transcontinental railroad, how the United States grew, Colorado, and more on magnets. BOOK Some of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory Verse: . . . "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies . . ." ~John 11:25 ~Mark 5:21-24; 35-43 ~Luke 7:11-17 ~John 19:1-3, 28-30 ~John 10:11 ~Luke 23:27 ~John 3:16 ~Isaiah 1:18 ~Matthew 27:57-60, 65-66 ~John 16:20 + 22 Love how this is coming along, its just beautiful. READING Putting together a message for the members of the family. We started reading "In Grandma's Attic" together. LANGUAGE ARTS Working on her spelling words and language workbook. Handwriting Practice: writing her memory verse down. MATH We went to Chuck E. Cheese and had Kanani split the 100 coins between her and her brother. U.S. NOTEBOOK Learned about Colorado this week. Filling in the Transcontinental Railroad worksheet. TIMELINE Transcontinental Railroad was added to the timeline. ART We didn't do much art work just colored in the worksheets for the week. SCIENCE She does an awesome job in helping me take care of all our pets. NATURE WALK Kids did yoga in their homeschool co-op group. They wanted to wear their Superman shirts while we ran errands around town. VIDEOS No videos for this week. ACTIVITIES We were blessed to go Secret Keeper Girl, it was such a blessing for the both of us. Love spending time with my princess. She was so excited to finally have this one on one time. Chuck E. Cheese with the family. This is been a great week, mostly because I was finally able to go somewhere with Kanani and it just be her and me. We were blessed to be able to go to Secret Keeper Girl together. Learned about the greatest pioneer of all, the building of the transcontinental railroad, Colorado and work with magnets. Ready to see what next week has in store. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29

This week is full of activities! The focus this week is Jamestown. Colonial life! Bland food and no fun! To start the week, I put together an outfit that was similar to one that would be worn by a …

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 1 This week we will start learning some spelling words, learn about meaning of names, Vikings, pledge of allegiance, look at the U.S. map, and practice reading plus much more. BOOKS Some of the books we used this week This was our first day back to starting school after taking a month off. We do year round schooling but always take the month of April off since we celebrate all of our birthdays that month. She was very excited to start school and learn about Vikings hence the reason why she is wearing her Viking helmet. BIBLE Observing and discussing the value of the Bible. READING "Dear Dragon goes to the hospital" by Margaret Hillert. "Play, Play, Play, Dear Dragon" by Margaret Hillert "Barbie School Days" by Apple Jordan "My New Town" by Kirsten Hall "My New School" by Kirsten Hall LANGUAGE ARTS Reading her spelling words which I wrote on some index cards and completing the first part of her worksheet. Observing the picture and then answering some questions about the picture. Completing the second page of her Spelling worksheet and some handwriting practice by copying a few sentences from a poem. Had her spell out the spelling words using our banagram tiles then she closed her eyes and spelled out the words. This is the first time we are actually doing spelling words. She really enjoyed this activity. Some handwriting practice Practicing writing the letters A and B in cursive Working on the other half of our spelling word Doing all the spelling words and then spelling all of them while she kept her eyes closed. MATH Comparing different items and pictures Greater than and Less than practice Counting the difference between the pictures Working on fewer than problems U.S. WORK Saying the pledge of allegiance and learning more in detail as to what the pledge means. Made this several years ago when I was first teaching her "Where we live". Found this on 123 Homeschool 4 Me blog. Learning about the compass rose and locating where we live on the map. Playing with a magnetic USA Map at our local library Reviewed our maps, we have always talked about our planet, where we live, and the continents. It was nice to see how she hasn't forgotten what we have discussed. Looked through several books of Vikings to better understand the way they lived. Wrote in her worksheet "Leif Ericsson was a brave Viking sailor". TIMELINE We added the baby Jesus and Leif Ericsson to our timeline this week. Not in the picture but we also added the "2017" at the end of our timeline. Use velcro dots to keep the pictures on the timeline. ART Learning to draw straight lines Completing some pictures with lines and trying to draw a copy of the picture. Working on drawing a worm and its reflection or double Drawing railroad tracks and picket fences SCIENCE Learning about "What is a science?". After learning about "What is a Scientist?" we did the egg experiment mentioned in the book: First Encyclopedia of Science p.7. We completed our science worksheet, I wrote down all she said. I'll be writing things down for now but as we continue through the school year she will be doing all the writing. NATURE WALK Went to one of our local park for our nature walk. Kids went exploring one of the many streams in the park They had lots of fun exploring Looked in the water to find different creatures in it and then they built a bridge out of bricks. Completed our Nature Walk worksheet once we got home from the park. VIDEOS Watched the movies "How to train your dragon 1 & 2" and "Lyle the Kindly Viking" to go with our Viking theme of the week. Also watched "Shows and Tells" from the Magic School Bus (S3 E6) about archaeology to go with our science theme "What is a Scientist". ACTIVITIES Made a viking boat for the kids to play with. They had two vikings from their Tangled collection which went great for this week. Little man has a pirate ship which the kids said goes great for this week, they pretended the pirate ship was actually a viking ship. Pretending to be a very cute Viking. After writing a note to Kanani as to why we chose her name we discussed in detail the meaning of her name. She was touched by the words in the letter and was very happy to know the true meaning of her name, "PRINCESS FROM HEAVEN, BEAUTIFUL ONE". Spelled out her whole name using wooden alphabet beads I got from Wal-mart. Hid some letter puzzle pieces in rainbow pasta for the kids to search for and place in the correct spots. They really loved this activity and wanted me to hide more items in the rice for them to find. Went to the library for story time and this week the theme was Mothers For craft the kids made "Mother's Day" cards and decorated a water bottle with some stickers to place their flowers in, while the moms got to sit down and enjoy a delicious Red Velvet cupcake with some water. This was such a sweet surprise and it was great watching the kids work so hard on their crafts. This week for our co-op we had a end of the school year party at the skating ring and enjoyed some pizza and cupcakes too. Our first week back to school and we have enjoyed every bit of it and learning lots of new things. We all enjoyed learning about Vikings and the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, what our names mean and practicing our spelling words. Looking forward to what next week holds for us. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST MFW: Adventures in U.S. (How I organize for the school year)

Handy Jamestown for Kids mini book to color and learn facts about Jamestown Colony, the first permament settlement in America. K-5th.

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 22 This week we will learn about Illinois, Alabama, Pioneers going west by wagon train and how they lived in the covered wagons. Also learn about quilt making and our body. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: And he is the head of the body, the church . . . ~Colossians 1:18 ~Ephesians 1:22-23 ~1 Corinthians 12:12-26 ~Ezekiel 37:1-14 READING The Three Goats by Margaret Hillert Merry Christmas Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert Little Puff by Margaret Hillert The Magic Beans by Margaret Hillert LANGUAGE ARTS Working on her handwriting Reading her spelling words and writing them down. MATH Addition and Subtraction U.S. NOTEBOOK While reading about the pioneers going west by wagon train and living in them the kids observed the models we have. The kids created their version of a wagon train using their legos. Observing Lincoln on the five dollar bill and penny. Placing her sticker on the map. TIMELINENone for the week. ART Painting with Abuela Painting with Abuelo SCIENCE Touch and Feel boards, water beads bottle, and hide and seek bottle. Five Senses Stick Talked about our human body and the five senses I covered the kids eyes to see if they could identify what they were touching. It was a very fun game. Hid some items into some plastic eggs and blindfolded the kids for them to tell me if they can identify what's in egg just using their ears. He really enjoyed this game. Instead of doing the activity in the book I decided to do this activity to test their lungs. Got the idea from our librarian, cut the top part off the water bottles and then punched a hole in the cap for the straw to fit. Then placed some pom poms inside the bottle for the kids to blow in the air. NATURE WALK How they felt coming back from their nature walk and bath. VIDEOS Watched the new episode of "The Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie" to learn about digestive tract. ACTIVITIES Perfect day to fly a kite Best way to spend the day. This week we learned about Illinois, Alabama, the Pioneers going west by wagon train and living in a wagon train. Also learned how they made quilts and about our human bodies. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21

And so it begins…with Vikings! I had grand plans for this week, my MFW friends. Have you done a pinterest search for Viking projects? Chances are you have. I know I have. In fact, I have a pinteres…

Has it been a week already?! This week we learned about the Dutch Pilgrims. We also talked about how New Netherland became what is now known as New York. We covered a bunch of details in between t…

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 19 This week we will learn about Ohio, what pioneers schools were like, animals, and Jesus being the lamb of God. BOOKS Few books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: "...the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" ~John 1:29 ~John 3:16-17 ~Isaiah 53:7-8 ~1 Peter 1:18-19 ~1 John 1:5-9 ~Revelation 5:7-14 READING We started reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek" this week together. Even Larry Boy wanted to join in reading the story. LANGUAGE ARTS After working on writing her name we worked on her spelling words and then completed her spelling and reading workbook for the week. MATH Forgot to take pictures of her working on in her math book this week. We also counted apples and took a graph to see how many people would prefer green or red apples. She asked 20 people and 12 of them preferred red apples over green. U.S. NOTEBOOK Placing Ohio on her map Learning about what pioneers schools were like TIMELINE None for this week. ART Made a lamb by tracing the kids hands and using cotton balls for the fleece. Wrote the memory verse on the paper as a reminder for the kids whenever they look at their picture. Placed an apple on top of several books for the kids to draw it. Their painting came out awesome. SCIENCE Playing the animal card game Apple Lapbook After reading about Johnny Appleseed we looked over our apple lapbook. Prepped everything to make an apple volcano. Made a hole in the middle of an apple and placed some baking soda inside it, filled a cup with vinegar and green food coloring with droppers for the kids to drop in the baking soda. The expressions on their face never gets old. My science report :) Kanani's science report NATURE WALK Kids enjoyed eating apples and trying some with chocolate and caramel my favorite. VIDEOS We watched a video on YouTube about an apple orchid and the many ways they use apples. ACTIVITIES Kids decorated sugar cookies at our co-op Christmas party They made Christmas ornaments with their school pictures. In our 4H homeschool group we made Christmas cards to handle out to the Health & Rehabilitation Center and the kids also sang Christmas carols. This week we learned about Ohio, what Pioneer school was like, animals, apples, and Jesus being the lamb of God. Also had a Christmas party at our co-op and made Christmas cards for a home and went caroling with our 4H homeschool group. We've had a very eventful week. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 11 This week we will learn about George Washington, Delaware, Water, more about Jesus the giver of living water and The Best of the Nutcracker. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: ..." If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." ~John 7:37 ~John 7:37-39 ~Exodus 17:1-6 ~Proverbs 25:21 READING It's Fall Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert It's Winter, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert It's St. Patrick's Day, Dear Dragon LANGUAGE ARTS Working on her spelling and language arts worksheets More worksheet fun Practicing her spelling words using our Bananagram tiles MATH Added and subtracted double digits this week Worked on lots of graphs U.S. NOTEBOOK Learned about Delaware the first state Placed our first sticker on our U.S. map: DELAWARE Delaware Learned about George Washington, she was laughing because she was saying once she was done writing she was going to give Washington a mustache. She's so silly. TIMELINE Nothing to add this week ART Worked on primary colors SCIENCE Soaked some red beans in a container and then placed a lid on top. Left the container on top of a plate over night to observe what would happen the next day. She was surprised that the beans popped the lid off the container and the beans had grown twice its size due to it soaking up all the water. Drying to Keep Experiment NATURE WALK Stop and smell the flowers VIDEOS Watched a movie of the Nutcracker and listened to the Nutcracker while coloring in the worksheet. ACTIVITIES This week for in her Hoke Rockets 4H group the kids started a reading log, collecting can goods for the homeless shelter, and collecting soda tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. Got to have some fun at a friend's pool and get introduced to some of their animals. This week has been a fun week learning more about George Washington, the first state Delaware, doing different wet and dry experiments, visiting friends and enjoying the great outdoors. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 12 This week we will learn about the weather, Liberty Bell, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and different things about birds. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week One of the books we will be using to go with each state as we learn them. Got this book in the dollar section of Target. BIBLE Memory Verse: ..."If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." ~John 7:37 ~Genesis 8:6-19 ~Isaiah 40:28-31 ~Matthew 3:13-17 ~Matthew 6:19-27 READING What's in the Sky, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert The Nutcraker Ballet by Deborah Hautzig It's Groundhog Day, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert LANGUAGE ARTS While trying to do her language arts and spelling workbooks CoCo wanted to join in. Spelling and language arts workbooks MATH Picture and graph problems Counting by tens, ones, and double digits. U.S. NOTEBOOK Reviewing how people used open fires Learned about Pennsylvania Coloring in Pennsylvania and New Jersey Finishing her New Jersey worksheet Learned about the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania. Made a Liberty Bell using some cups, aluminum foil, and bells. On July 8, 1776 in Pennsylvania, the bell was rung because the Declaration of Independence had just been signed. We looked through a Georgia magazine and learned some information about the state. TIMELINE None this week ART SCIENCE Measuring different types of birds and learning about different ways to find birds and identify them. Learned about the American Goldfinch NATURE WALK Love watching the rain especially the sound of it at night, makes for a great night sleep. Playing in the rain Went bird watching while walking in the rain Learning about Biomes and the changes each of them go through in her Biome class at one of our homeschool co-ops. Found this neat worksheet on Worksheet Place website to go with our Biome studies. She loved making her Biome book, found this on Teachers Pay Teachers Website. Matching her biome cards with the animals, she got this activity from her teacher at our co-op. VIDEOS After listening to Tchaikovsky we watched Little Einstein (since her younger brother loves watching them) while they played some the composer songs on the show. ACTIVITIES Story time at the library learning about the different types of stories you can find a book. Kids made their own book markers after story time to go with their books they picked for reading. Made some Johnny Cakes with the kids today, they were excited because daddy got to help out in this activity. Glad we got to make some but we really didn't them, lol :) This week has been a fun week with lots of hands on activities. We learned about Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Liberty Bell, and birds. Also got to make Johnny Cakes with the family and learn about the different types of Biomes and so much more. Now for next week to see what adventures are in store for us. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 24 This week we will learn about Florida, Texas, Samuel Morse, Morse Code, and do several different types of experiments. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory Verse: ". . . the Lamb . . . is Lord of lords and King of kings . . ." ~Revelation 17:14 ~Ephesians 6:13 ~Matthew 28:16-19 ~Revelation 17:14 ~Luke 6:46-49 ~James 1:12 Memory verse cards. READING Lego City Fire truck to the REscue! LANGUAGE ARTS Reading and practicing spelling her spelling words, and writing her memory verse on her worksheet. MATH Working on some math problem, counting money. U.S. NOTEBOOK After reading about the Morse Code the kids wrote their names and pretended to do the code by tapping on the table. Added Florida and Texas stickers to her map. Sang "You're a Grand Old Flag" TIMELINE She added the Morse Cold to the timeline ART Kids decorated crowns and I wrote down the memory verse on them, then we taped it in their rooms so whenever they look at it they will remember the verse. Kids made their own polar bears and penguins during craft time at the library. SCIENCE Red Cabbage Test Draining the red cabbage and seeing how the water changes color. Testing for acid reaction. Cola clean Experiment: I asked her what she thought would happen and she said I don't know. Set up an experiment with several different items for the kids to pour the coins in. This is what happens to the coin when you only dip half of the coin in vinegar and salt. Here the kids are counting the coins to place 10 in each cup Our test results after leaving there for 30 minutes, the picture doesn't do it justice. Salt/Vinegar and Soda are the best ones to clean the coins. NATURE WALK Fun time at the playground with friends. VIDEOS Went on YouTube and watched some videos on how our lungs work. ACTIVITIES This week at story time we learned about Arctic animals Kids acted like penguins with a ball between their legs to represent an egg. Kanani would spray the pictures to show how the polar bears fur keeps the water out, one of the pictures had wax (crayon) all over it and the other didn't. Abuela took the kids to Build a Bear to pick out their Valentine gifts. This week we learned about Florida, Texas, Samuel Morse and the morse code. Also did several experiments on red cabbage and breathing air (not pictured). We really love all the Usborne Science Activities. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 5 This week we will be learning about Pilgrims, Oiled windows, constellations, the patriotic song of the U.S.A. "America", and work on adding 3 numbers together. BOOKS Few of these weeks books BIBLE "Jesus is the light of the World" wall hanging art, which we hung in our window. Memory Verse: ..."I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." ~John 8:12 ~Matthew 5:14-16 ~John 1:9 ~John 3:19-21 ~1 John 1:5-10 ~Revelation 21:1-7, 22-23 READING "Dear Dragon gets a Pet" by: Margaret Hillert "Dear Dragon learns to Read" by: Margaret Hillert "Dear Dragon's Day with Father" by: Margaret Hillert "Lolly-Pops" LANGUAGE ARTS Reading her spelling words and working on sentences ending with a question mark. Spelling word worksheet and answering some questions about the picture "Wide Awake" by Julius Adam Working on her spelling words MATH Addition practice Adding 3 numbers problems Working on Picture problems U.S. NOTEBOOK Singing the song "America" Learning about Pilgrims Writing practice, which she doesn't like to do much. Looking through pictures of how a pilgrim girl and boy live and how they dressed. TIMELINE Added Pilgrims picture to our timeline ART Ellipses Practice Drawing Objects with Ellipses Drawing Ovals Water and Ripples SCIENCE Searching for the planets in the rainbow pasta Took out some parchment paper and regular computer paper and had her rub vegetable oil on the parchment paper. After rubbing oil on the parchment paper I had her put a few drops on it and on regular paper to see what happens. On the parchment paper the water would roll off but on the regular paper it would soak right through. NATURE WALK We planted corn in one of our pots and several days later it had already started to sprout. VIDEOS Brain Pop video on Thanksgiving ACTIVITIES Went to the library for a special event "Bob the Builder". They were so excited to meet Bob Took the kids to Legoland for our vacation. They were so excited. So many neat statues made out of Legos Enjoyed every minute at Legoland. It took us two weeks to finish the lesson. The kids both got sick so we took things slow. One of the perks of homeschooling, taking our time. We learned about pilgrims, thanksgiving, oiled windows, constellations, the patriotic song of the U.S.A. "America", and work on adding 3 numbers together. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 16 This week we will learn about Rhode Island, Vermont, and Daniel Boone. We will work on several air and water experiments. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory Verse: "...they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us." ~ Matthew 1:23 ~Isaiah 7:14 ~Romans 8:38-39 Our Memory Verse wall READING City Fun by Margaret Hillert Can't remember the title of the story she was reading :( She read the cards and then matched them to their pictures Away go the Boats by Margaret Hillert LANGUAGE ARTS Working on her spelling and reading workbook Writing her memory verse on her worksheet MATH Learning about time Fractions and Money Counting U.S. NOTEBOOK Coloring her state worksheets and our bearded dragon (Larry Boy) wanted to join us in our studies. TIMELINE Added Daniel Boone to the timeline ART This was an art and science project, she had to do a report for her 4H group and she choose "The Honey Bee". SCIENCE Getting colder experiment Placed the ince in the plastic bottle and then screwed on the lid. Her and her brother shook the bottle and watched the ice cool the air inside. Once the air cooled the bottle's side started going inward so no empty space was left inside. It was a really neat experiment. A Jumping Coin Experiment They were excited to see how the warm water heated the air inside the bottle making the coin move upward. Changing Size and Disappearing dent experiment, this experiment didn't work for us. We tried it several times but no success. NATURE WALK Went to our local park for our Nature Walk, it was such a beautiful day. We observed how nature was changing through the leaves. Searched for different types of bugs and animals in the stream. My little Nature Boy When did she get so big, my little model. ACTIVITIES Went with our church group to Gallberry Corn Maze, it was so much fun sharing this time with the youth group. Kids went down the slide and got covered in baby powder, bouncing around in the corral. Loved petting the farm animals and playing in the corn room. Some cool kids. Kids enjoyed the Harvest Fest at my parents church Workers were dressed as the fruits of the spirit Their favorite part was getting to ride the ponies This week we learned about Rhode Island, Vermont, Daniel Boone and did several experiments of air and water. Got to enjoy lots of outdoor time and made some wonderful memories. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you. Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested. TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards. Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state. Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week. Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states. STUDENT NOTEBOOK In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there. In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website. Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips. EXTRAS We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more. Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section. On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books). SUPPLIES/SET-UP This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it. In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at. This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more. Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans. Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs. On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together. This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more. This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc.. This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf. On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister. Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade. UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention. Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf. All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf. Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work. The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time. I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes. PREVIOUS POST MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten) MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade) WEEKLY POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Conclusion

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 4 This week we will learn about wigwam, tepee, different types of North American Indians, our closest star and solar system. We will also learn about Memorial day and the reason we celebrate it. BOOKS A few of the books we used this week, used some we had already used last week. BIBLE LIGHT OF THE WORLD Put our memory verse on the board so we can review it every day. Memory verse: ..."I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." ~John 8:12 Added the "I am the light" to our poster board Prepping our "Jesus is the light" candle. Our finished project, Kanani didn't want to write so she asked me to please do it for her. Remembering the memory verse and writing down the verse for handwriting practice. As we sat down for dinner we turned off the light and lit the candle and Kanani quickly starting thanking God for being our light. She then said a wonderful prayer and told all of us about how God was the light in our lives. ~Exodus 13:21-22 ~Nehemiah 9:7-12 READING "Dear Dragon Eats Out" by: Margaret Hillert "Dear Dragon Goes to the Carnival" by: Margarett Hillert "Dear Dragon goes to Grandpa's Farm" and "Dear Dragon gets a Pet" both by: Margarett Hillert LANGUAGE ARTS Spelling words worksheets and telling me what a sentence begins with and ends with. Letters S and T handwriting practice. Retelling a poem and working on her spelling words worksheet. Letters U and V handwriting practice. Telling about the poem of kittens and reviewing her spelling words for the week. Letters W and X handwriting practice. Reviewing all the spelling words from week 1 till now. Letters Y and Z handwriting practice. MATH Filling in the missing numbers Adding and subtracting problems and more filling in the missing numbers. Greater than and Less than practice Placing numbers in tens and ones section. U.S. NOTEBOOK Got a chance to experience a wigwam in person. We went for the kids birthdays in April, before we started school, to Town Creek Indian Mound. Wigwam Mounds Learning about Indians and American Pioneers or how the kids call them cowboys. Bought a tepee set at Michael's to go with our theme this week. Our wigwam and tepee houses with some indian figurines. After finishing the North Americans Indians in the back of the book we did some of the sign languages the Indians used to use. TIMELINE We had no pictures to add to our timeline this week. ART Designs on balls practice Texture: Wood & Water Whiskers & Fur Practicing Shading with lines SCIENCE Reviewing about the greatest Star "The SUN". A few of our materials that we used this week for our Solar System reviews. The kids have always been interested in space so we've done many different activities on the solar system. Before bed they wanted to discuss more about the solar system and paint their version of the solar system. Their solar systems came out great. Gravity experiment with tissue paper and a coin NATURE WALK What better to explore nature then getting down and dirty with some mud. VIDEOS Kids watched StoryBots Super Songs (S1 E1) about the "Outer Space and the Body" and also watched the Magic School Bus (S1 E1) on "Gets Lost in Space". ACTIVITIES This week we celebrated Memorial Day and took the kids to the Airborne and Special Operations Museum to teach them why we celebrate this day. Walking around the museum observing and learning about how we got our freedom. We Can Do It! Wonderful experience for all. This week we learned about wigwam, tepee, different types of North American Indians, and our solar system. We also learned about Memorial day and the reason we celebrate it. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you. Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested. TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards. Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state. Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week. Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states. STUDENT NOTEBOOK In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there. In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website. Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips. EXTRAS We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more. Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section. On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books). SUPPLIES/SET-UP This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it. In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at. This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more. Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans. Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs. On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together. This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more. This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc.. This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf. On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister. Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade. UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention. Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf. All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf. Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work. The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time. I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes. PREVIOUS POST MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten) MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade) WEEKLY POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Conclusion

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 31 This week we will be learning about the pioneers on the plains, North Dakota, South Dakota, light, color, friction, and air. BOOK Some of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: . . . "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies . . ." ~John 11:25 ~John 3:16 ~John 6:57-58 ~John 8:12 ~John 12:24-26 ~Romans 6:1-14 ~Philippians 3:7-14 ~John 14:1-4 ~1 Corinthians 15:35-44 ~Revelation 21:1-4 READING "Barbie Let's Plant a Garden!" and "Horses to the Rescue" are a few of the books she read this week. LANGUAGE ARTS Going over her spelling words. MATH We played restaurant and Kanani was the waitress, she would take everyone's orders and add up their total. Great way for her to practice her addition and subtraction. U.S. NOTEBOOK Learned about North and South Dakota and Mount Rushmore. After talking about South Dakota, had get the coins and rub them to make a picture of Mount Rushmore. Since we were so close to finishing the school year we decided to go ahead and write a letter to President Trump. She was very excited to type him a letter. I want her to learn how to type and use the computer more. So proud of her determination to learn. TIMELINE None this week. ART To go with our memory verse the kids made resurrection tombs, showing how the tomb was empty. Got this cute idea from Happy Home Fairy website. Made a resurrection cross. Couldn't find the website I got this one from but found one similar to it at PreKinders cite. SCIENCE We made a ROCKET BALLOON and watched several videos on windmills. They always enjoy doing the "Rocket Balloon" experiment. Video is below. The look on his face is priceless. NATURE WALK Kids had fun at my grandparents playing outside in their pjs. VIDEOS Here is a video of the kids doing the "Rocket Balloon" experiment. ACTIVITIES This week we talked about Jesus the resurrection and the life, about pioneers on the plains, North Dakota, South Dakota, light, color, friction, and air. Lots of fun activities this week. Kanani also wrote a letter to the president, she was so excited to type President Donald Trump a letter and send out to him. Hope we hear back from him. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30

MFW: Adventures in U.S. History Week 23 This week we will learn about Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, and more about our human body and feeling that we go through. BOOKS One of the many books we used this week, we added feelings to go with our science this week. BIBLE Memory verse: And he is the head of the body, the church... ~Colossians 1:18 ~Romans 12:4-8 ~Ephesians 4:11-16 ~Ephesians 4:25-5:2 READING The Three Goats by Margaret Hillert, one of the books she has read before. We also continued reading "On the banks of Plum Creek" together. LANGUAGE ARTS Reading her spelling words and working on her workbooks MATH This week we continued on working on addition and subtraction of double to triple numbers. U.S. NOTEBOOK Learned about Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan this week. Placing the state stickers on her map. TIMELINE None for this week ART We built a sculpture of a butterfly, the only problem is there were a lot of pieces missing. But it was still fun to build it with the kids. After reading the book Ferdinand to the kids we did some crafts to go with the story and then watched the movie. SCIENCE Continued our lesson on our senses, this week we focused on the sense of taste and smell. Before they ate their breakfast and fruits I had them blindfolded to see if they could identify what they were eating by just using their sense of smell and taste. It was a really fun experiment and they did it through out the day whenever they ate. To go with our feeling theme (one I added to our lesson) the kids would make the faces of the cards they would pick up to show their feeling. We ended the lesson on our taste sense by making heart shaped cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles on top, they were so yummy. NATURE WALK Enjoyed our walk through the Museum of Life and Science in Durham Walked through the tree houses and then through one of the biggest butterfly gardens in the East Coast. They really wanted a butterfly to land on them, they waited so patiently but it didn't happen. Fossil Dig Kanani's favorite thing to do. Took a walk through the Dinosaur Trail, we all love dinosaurs. VIDEOS We actually watched several shows of the Magic School Bus on Netflix on the human body. ACTIVITIES This week we went to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham with our homeschool co-op group. One of our favorite museums, they have a lot of hands on activities for the kids. Fun with their grandparents They love to climb This week we learned about Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, and more information about our body and how it works. Also discussed how many feeling we can go through and ways to discuss how we feel. Until next week to see what adventures are in store for us. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you. Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested. TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards. Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state. Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week. Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states. STUDENT NOTEBOOK In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there. In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website. Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips. EXTRAS We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more. Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section. On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books). SUPPLIES/SET-UP This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it. In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at. This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more. Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans. Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs. On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together. This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more. This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc.. This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf. On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister. Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade. UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention. Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf. All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf. Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work. The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time. I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes. PREVIOUS POST MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten) MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade) WEEKLY POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Conclusion

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God...

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 8 This week we will learn about Benjamin Franklin, Jesus being our ROCK, composition of the earth, and...

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you. Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested. TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards. Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state. Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week. Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states. STUDENT NOTEBOOK In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there. In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website. Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips. EXTRAS We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more. Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section. On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books). SUPPLIES/SET-UP This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it. In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at. This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more. Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans. Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs. On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together. This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more. This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc.. This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf. On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister. Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade. UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention. Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf. All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf. Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work. The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time. I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes. PREVIOUS POST MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten) MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade) WEEKLY POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Conclusion

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 33 This week we will learn about Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Thomas Edison, Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, moving through air, parachute, flying, and the Wright Brothers. BOOK Few of the books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ~John 1:1 ~Luke 8:4-15 ~Matthew 3:16-4:11 ~Matthew 28:18-20 ~1 Corinthians 14:9-11 READING Some of the books she has read this week, she picked these books out so she could read them to her brother. LANGUAGE ARTS Worked on spelling words and language workbooks. MATH Only math for this week was what she helped me with when we went shopping and she was adding things up. U.S. NOTEBOOK Wrote a letter to the president. She first told me what she wanted her letter to say, which I wrote down exactly, then she wanted to type it out herself. Learned about Utah (not pictured and really don't know why I didn't include....lol) Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. While reading about the Wrights Brothers the kids played with their mini versions of them. TIMELINE Added Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and New Heavens and Earth to our timeline. ART No art this week beside the coloring sheets for the states. SCIENCE Paper Puzzle and Pyramid Pointer Experiment Made a video, look below to watch our experiment. Instead of making a parachute we decided to use our Army parachute toys, video below, then we made paper airplanes. Made some airplanes and then built our own Glider Planeur we got from Dollar Tree. Building the plane so little man can pretend to be a pilot. Neat Styrofoam Airplane NATURE WALK Went outside to see some airplanes fly above our house, we live near a airport. VIDEOS Paper Puzzle, Pyramid Pointer, and Parachute Experiments. ACTIVITIES They are excited for the "Grey Seal Puppets" to begin at the library. These puppet shows were pretty funny. After the show was done Drew Allison explained to the kids how the puppet show is done. This week we learned about Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Thomas Edison, Wright Brothers, Henry Ford , and did several air experiments. We had the experience to go see Grey Seal Puppets at our local library, it was an awesome show that not only the kids enjoyed but the adults enjoyed as well. Been a great week of learning and fun. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 20 This week we will learn about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana, seeds, and lots of experiments. BOOKS Few of the books we used this week BIBLE Memory Verse: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." ~John 15:5 ` ~John 15:1-2 READING The Magic Beans by Margaret Hillert LANGUAGE ARTS Kanani has been doing her work while I work with her brother so I don't get much of a chance to take pictures like before. She worked on her spelling words and language workbooks. MATH Word problems and graphs U.S. NOTEBOOK Putting the state sticker on her map Looking at pictures of Louisiana while listening to some jazz. TIMELINE Adding the Louisiana Purchase to her timeline. ART Kids used their thumbprints to make grapes on the vine to go with their memory verse. SCIENCE Corn experiment (Dry and Wet) Wrapping 10 corn seeds in a napkin soaked in water and another 10 in a dry napkin. She would record each day for 5 days. Instead of putting the red beans in a jar we made our own solar greenhouse by placing the red bean in between two soaked cotton balls and putting them in a ziplock bag. Then we taped them to the window so the sun would help them grow. We've done this experiment several times and each time the kids get very excited when they see the seeds start to grow. One of the beans has grown beautifully. NATURE WALK Kids went and explored the woods and played in the playground after our meeting at our co-op. VIDEOS We watched some videos of seeds and the process of them growing on YouTube. ACTIVITIES Hairstyle Theme at the library She cut the hair on her toilet paper roll doll He cut the hair on his toilet paper roll doll and was so proud of his excellent cutting skills. It was pancake/pj day at our co-op Went to Defy Gravity for a friend's birthday party. Kids and I had so much fun. This week we learned about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana, seeds, and did lots of experiments. GOD BLESS!! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY CONCLUSION We finished our Adventures in U.S. History and have a better understanding of our history. Have enjoyed learning so much and have added many new places to our wish list of places we want to visit someday. Pray that one day we will be able to go on a road trip and visit these places we have studied instead of looking at YouTube videos and magazines of these places. FINISHED U.S. MAP Excited to have completed her map. MAGAZINES I ordered magazines from each state online, we got most of them. It helped look through them while studying each state. It nice to still see her look at them and be able to say what she learned from most of of them. Here's the website where I ordered the magazines from: Freebie-Depot. LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT She was super excited to write a letter to the president. First she told me what she wanted the letter to say, and I wrote it down for her then she wanted to type it on the computer. Hope we hear from him soon, she even drew him a picture of the White House and put it in the envelope. Beside sending out the letter to the president we also sent out letter to 32 embassies to prepare for our next adventures with My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures. MEMORY VERSE Our door looks great with all the memory verses on the door and some extra bible crafts. FIELD TRIP CELEBRATION We end the school year going to the airport to pick up my brother and nephews and then went to the Raleigh Museum of Natural Science, what better way to celebrate than at a museum with family. SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AT THE MUSEUM CONCLUSION We have been blessed with My Father's World Curriculum and have really loved everything about it. It's been such a perfect fit for out family. All of us have learned so much and continue to learn each day. Our homeschooling journey has been an awesome adventure with lots of up and few downs. Thank God for this opportunity to teach our kids and look forward to our next adventure. Pray that the kids continue to grow in their learning and their desire never fades away for learning. GOD BLESS!!!! ADVENTURES POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34

Find Help on this Homeschool Journey; Freezer Recipes, Organization, & Encouragement

For more how we use our Second Grade Curriculum , see this post. See more organization tips in this post on how we set up our Homeschool Room. The biggest change from our first grade routine to second grade routine was the addition of work-boxes. Workboxes do not necessarily mean all the work is independent , just that the twins work at their own pace. The staggering of the subjects enables me to teach one-on-one subjects easily; I can work with one child on Math, while the other is independently reading or drawing. Calendar & Agenda Our Agenda & Information for calendar (box 1) is written on a Dry Erase board. Work-boxes The first boxes usually stay at the top for both boys, because they have some of our together time subjects (History and Bible). The other subjects move depending on how I need to stagger one-on-one subjects. We use a 10-Drawer Organizer Cart, and it works great. I try to fill the boxes for the following day at the end of each school morning, but sometimes I end up doing it the morning before school. The 5 extra minutes it takes to fill the boxes saves me priceless time and headaches later. Instead of moving numbers to show which box they have finished, the boys know what box they are on by just keeping their current drawer open. As you can see below, one boy is on box four, and the other on six. The organizers on top, from Dollar Tree, hold some of the materials they might need throughout the morning. The rest of their materials are in a pencil box at their seat (crayons, markers, pencils, etc). If any subject needs paper, I put it in the box. Box 1- Calendar The first box includes Calendar and Days in School pages inside of a plastic (for Dry Erase Markers), printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler.. Box 2- Bible The boys practice or copy their memory verse. If they have Awana work, they do it then. Again I used a plastic sheets to make the memory verse sheet in a dry erase page. The only downfall of these drawers is they can barely fit a small 1 inch binder. Box 3 History MFW Adventures in US History. We usually do our History together, reading about booked together on the couch before we start workboxes. If there is a student sheet for the day, I put it in the History working. The boys usually do Bible and Calendar at the same time/pace, so we do our student sheets together. Box 4 English. Language Lessons for Today, Grade 2. The twins use the same English book, so instead of putting the actual book in their box, I put a dry erase page that tells them what lesson to do, and if they need to do it with me. The boys retrieve their English book from the shelf next to the work-boxes, and work with me if indicated. I also include any materials they may need for that lesson. Box 5 Break and Snack Each boy can get a snack and then take a 10 minute break. If you are really goo, you can put a snack in this box. I just have them get one from designated snack cabinet. I love that they have to set their own timer, and get back to work when they are done. Box 6 Math We use Math-U-See DVD curriculum. Box 7 Spelling Spelling by Sound and Structure has a few days of independent work in their workbook, then a test at the end of the week. I included a blank piece of paper at the end of the week in their work box. Box 8 Reading Sometimes the boys must read from the book basket, sometimes it is free reading, and sometimes I put a book I want them to try in their box. Box 9 Activity This box can vary greatly from day to day. This particular day, one of the boys needed help with some drill practice on top of his regular math page. Recently we added free piano lessons with Hoffman Academy, so it has included a note that says "Piano Practice". Box 10 Art At the beginning of the year, we had did all the A-Z "I can Draw" activity pages recommended by My Father's World. Sometimes we use our 'Draw Write Now' Page for Art or Activity, depending on the amount of handwriting they have already done that day. Sometimes Art box is just a blank piece of paper and a note saying "Have fun!"

This is the download page for the FREE printable Bible verse copywork pages that supplement the My Father's World Adventures in U.S. History 2nd grade curriculum. Go to the corresponding MFW ADV Bible Verse Copywork

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY It's been awhile since I've posted anything or even wrote on the blog. We finished with MFW: Learning God's Story and loved it very much. Excited to start our next adventures with U.S. History now. Always loved history and just reading through the teacher's manual and prepping for our adventure has got me even more excited. I've talked with Kanani about some of the lessons we will be discussing this school year and she quickly begged to start. Of course that made me even more excited to start but I really needed to prep and organize everything. Here is how I've organized everything for this school year, of course as time passes things will probably change to fit our everyday learning. Hope this will help you in some way to make things easier for you. Our books for this school year, we ordered the deluxe package. I've laminated the timeline pictures and the state cards. We ordered the suggested books: Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Language plus Singapore Math books 1B and 2A (which is not shown in the picture). Before ordering the math books I tested Kanani to make sure she was at this level just like MFW suggested. TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK In my notebook I've organized all the student sheets by week. In each folder are all the worksheets for the week, my plans for the week that I've written down by what we will do each day, and the spelling words flash cards for the week. Also have two zipper pouches: one has the timeline pictures in it and the other holds the state cards. Here are the two zipper pouches and the timeline. I've laminated everything to hold better or you can say for durability. Got the timeline worksheets from The Good the Bad and the Truth website. For now I printed 8 worksheets. Use velcro dots to put the pictures on the timeline so we can move them around if we need to. Behind the pictures for the timeline I wrote down what week they are for to make it easier for me to know which one we need for the week we are on. For the state cards I wrote the number of when they became a state. Here is a closer look of how I've planned our week. Wrote the order of the states out so it would make things easier for when when we start to study the states. STUDENT NOTEBOOK In her notebook we will put her completed worksheets, spelling words, her work she copied down, and book list of the books we read together. Also have her Science, Nature walk, and Field Trip worksheets in there. In her Science Journal section she will have her "Scientific Method" worksheets which I got from Google Document where she will document what she observes and does for her science experiments. Printed some "My Nature Walk" worksheets for our nature walks that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers website. Next I printed some Field Trip worksheets so we could write down what things we learned and enjoyed on our trip, got these on Kickin It In Kindergarten website. Here is an example of one of the worksheets we completed for two of our field trips. I place the worksheet in page protectors with some fliers we get on our trips. EXTRAS We will be practicing our cursive this year, love the way cursive looks and hope this will get her into writing more. Top left and Bottom Right are some state cards that a friend of mine gave me these awhile ago. I wrote on the back of the cards the name and number order from which it became state on the cards. Top right are state coloring books with facts about each state which we got at our local post office. Bottom right picture are some state cards I got from Target in the dollar section. On the wall next to our Cock-a-tiel cage is a board with the month and day, where we will have our state card, pledge of allegiance, bible pledge, and christian pledge. Also on the wall is the days of the week, the weather, numbers, alphabet, and some information with our address and phone numbers on it (which is covered by the picture of books). SUPPLIES/SET-UP This is the laminating machine and pouches I use for all of our laminating needs. Got it at Wal-Mart and have used it for a year and have loved it. In our hallway we have all of our maps on the wall, which we all love to look at. This is where all of our art, school, and office are, educational games, Geo-boards, small books and puzzles, matching, projects, ABC activities, and much more. Our living room is a family room and playroom. We have an indoor trampoline and a toy box full of different toys on one side and legos on the other. Have several baskets of different animals, cars, and blocks. In the plastic container next to the trampoline is our pretend foods items, with cups, plates, silver wear, and pots and pans. Another part of the living room we have a shelf with different Melissa and Doug items: fruit/vegetables baskets, puzzles, word puzzle and wooden blocks, our music items, globe, and more food items items like cake, pizza, sandwich, and cookie trays by Melissa and Doug. Next to that is our toy bins, and then a shelf with lots of books, and items for little man and his bucket of super heroes and bat caves. Also have a big bucket full of dinosaurs, kids love all things dinosaurs. On the other side of the chimney is our library book shelf and on the bottom of the shelf is our puzzles. Kids have their couches in front of the chimney which they move all over the living room. Also have a table which they usually eat their lunches on or do activities together. This bookshelf is located in our dinning room area, we do most of our school work on the dinning table. All of our school books are here with some games, encyclopedias, kinetic sand, lapbooks, and much more. This shelf is also located in the dinning room area, here is our Science stuff: microscope, materials for experiments, balance, and etc... Our big jugs of paint is here with a box of stickers, different types of scissors, containers with flash cards, moon dough, and tissue paper. There's also a tub full of materials we will need for the first 6 weeks of school, which I will fill again after the 6 weeks are up with materials for the next 6 weeks. Also have construction papers, and school supply materials like pencils, rulers, glue, etc.. This shelf is more like an educational shelf: manipulatives on the top shelf, educational games, life cycles, etc on the second shelf, and more manipulatives and puppet baskets on the bottom shelf. On top of the dog kennel (which is located next to the educational shelf is our book basket, and some write on books for little man to use while I'm teaching his sister. Well here is our setup so far, which is subject to change. I'm so ready to start the new year. Will be keeping track of all we do each week. I'll add a link to each week as we complete them on the bottom of the page. I've done the same with MFW: Kindergarten and First Grade. UPDATE ON A FEW CHANGES Moved the shelf with all the buckets to the living room so the kids could play with the items more. Noticed it being in the entry way it wasn't getting much attention. Moved some of the items (Melissa & Doug toys) from the shelf that was in the living room and put them on this shelf. All the containers are together in this area and some school supplies for the week are on the top shelf. Moved the 2 supply carts over to the dining room area since that is where we do most of our school work. The metal shelf got moved to the dining area next to the bird's cage and moved several games and toys that we don't use often to the garage. In the garage we have a shelf of toys that I rotate for the the kids so that way they don't get too bored playing with same toys all the time. I like the new set up now, things seem a lot more organized now. Before I had everything in different spots which was a hassle to find sometimes. PREVIOUS POST MFW: God's Creation from A to Z (Kindergarten) MFW: Learning God's Word (1st Grade) WEEKLY POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Conclusion

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 1 This week we will start learning some spelling words, learn about meaning of names, Vikings, pledge of allegiance, look at the U.S. map, and practice reading plus much more. BOOKS Some of the books we used this week This was our first day back to starting school after taking a month off. We do year round schooling but always take the month of April off since we celebrate all of our birthdays that month. She was very excited to start school and learn about Vikings hence the reason why she is wearing her Viking helmet. BIBLE Observing and discussing the value of the Bible. READING "Dear Dragon goes to the hospital" by Margaret Hillert. "Play, Play, Play, Dear Dragon" by Margaret Hillert "Barbie School Days" by Apple Jordan "My New Town" by Kirsten Hall "My New School" by Kirsten Hall LANGUAGE ARTS Reading her spelling words which I wrote on some index cards and completing the first part of her worksheet. Observing the picture and then answering some questions about the picture. Completing the second page of her Spelling worksheet and some handwriting practice by copying a few sentences from a poem. Had her spell out the spelling words using our banagram tiles then she closed her eyes and spelled out the words. This is the first time we are actually doing spelling words. She really enjoyed this activity. Some handwriting practice Practicing writing the letters A and B in cursive Working on the other half of our spelling word Doing all the spelling words and then spelling all of them while she kept her eyes closed. MATH Comparing different items and pictures Greater than and Less than practice Counting the difference between the pictures Working on fewer than problems U.S. WORK Saying the pledge of allegiance and learning more in detail as to what the pledge means. Made this several years ago when I was first teaching her "Where we live". Found this on 123 Homeschool 4 Me blog. Learning about the compass rose and locating where we live on the map. Playing with a magnetic USA Map at our local library Reviewed our maps, we have always talked about our planet, where we live, and the continents. It was nice to see how she hasn't forgotten what we have discussed. Looked through several books of Vikings to better understand the way they lived. Wrote in her worksheet "Leif Ericsson was a brave Viking sailor". TIMELINE We added the baby Jesus and Leif Ericsson to our timeline this week. Not in the picture but we also added the "2017" at the end of our timeline. Use velcro dots to keep the pictures on the timeline. ART Learning to draw straight lines Completing some pictures with lines and trying to draw a copy of the picture. Working on drawing a worm and its reflection or double Drawing railroad tracks and picket fences SCIENCE Learning about "What is a science?". After learning about "What is a Scientist?" we did the egg experiment mentioned in the book: First Encyclopedia of Science p.7. We completed our science worksheet, I wrote down all she said. I'll be writing things down for now but as we continue through the school year she will be doing all the writing. NATURE WALK Went to one of our local park for our nature walk. Kids went exploring one of the many streams in the park They had lots of fun exploring Looked in the water to find different creatures in it and then they built a bridge out of bricks. Completed our Nature Walk worksheet once we got home from the park. VIDEOS Watched the movies "How to train your dragon 1 & 2" and "Lyle the Kindly Viking" to go with our Viking theme of the week. Also watched "Shows and Tells" from the Magic School Bus (S3 E6) about archaeology to go with our science theme "What is a Scientist". ACTIVITIES Made a viking boat for the kids to play with. They had two vikings from their Tangled collection which went great for this week. Little man has a pirate ship which the kids said goes great for this week, they pretended the pirate ship was actually a viking ship. Pretending to be a very cute Viking. After writing a note to Kanani as to why we chose her name we discussed in detail the meaning of her name. She was touched by the words in the letter and was very happy to know the true meaning of her name, "PRINCESS FROM HEAVEN, BEAUTIFUL ONE". Spelled out her whole name using wooden alphabet beads I got from Wal-mart. Hid some letter puzzle pieces in rainbow pasta for the kids to search for and place in the correct spots. They really loved this activity and wanted me to hide more items in the rice for them to find. Went to the library for story time and this week the theme was Mothers For craft the kids made "Mother's Day" cards and decorated a water bottle with some stickers to place their flowers in, while the moms got to sit down and enjoy a delicious Red Velvet cupcake with some water. This was such a sweet surprise and it was great watching the kids work so hard on their crafts. This week for our co-op we had a end of the school year party at the skating ring and enjoyed some pizza and cupcakes too. Our first week back to school and we have enjoyed every bit of it and learning lots of new things. We all enjoyed learning about Vikings and the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, what our names mean and practicing our spelling words. Looking forward to what next week holds for us. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST MFW: Adventures in U.S. (How I organize for the school year)

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 1 This week we will start learning some spelling words, learn about meaning of names, Vikings, pledge of allegiance, look at the U.S. map, and practice reading plus much more. BOOKS Some of the books we used this week This was our first day back to starting school after taking a month off. We do year round schooling but always take the month of April off since we celebrate all of our birthdays that month. She was very excited to start school and learn about Vikings hence the reason why she is wearing her Viking helmet. BIBLE Observing and discussing the value of the Bible. READING "Dear Dragon goes to the hospital" by Margaret Hillert. "Play, Play, Play, Dear Dragon" by Margaret Hillert "Barbie School Days" by Apple Jordan "My New Town" by Kirsten Hall "My New School" by Kirsten Hall LANGUAGE ARTS Reading her spelling words which I wrote on some index cards and completing the first part of her worksheet. Observing the picture and then answering some questions about the picture. Completing the second page of her Spelling worksheet and some handwriting practice by copying a few sentences from a poem. Had her spell out the spelling words using our banagram tiles then she closed her eyes and spelled out the words. This is the first time we are actually doing spelling words. She really enjoyed this activity. Some handwriting practice Practicing writing the letters A and B in cursive Working on the other half of our spelling word Doing all the spelling words and then spelling all of them while she kept her eyes closed. MATH Comparing different items and pictures Greater than and Less than practice Counting the difference between the pictures Working on fewer than problems U.S. WORK Saying the pledge of allegiance and learning more in detail as to what the pledge means. Made this several years ago when I was first teaching her "Where we live". Found this on 123 Homeschool 4 Me blog. Learning about the compass rose and locating where we live on the map. Playing with a magnetic USA Map at our local library Reviewed our maps, we have always talked about our planet, where we live, and the continents. It was nice to see how she hasn't forgotten what we have discussed. Looked through several books of Vikings to better understand the way they lived. Wrote in her worksheet "Leif Ericsson was a brave Viking sailor". TIMELINE We added the baby Jesus and Leif Ericsson to our timeline this week. Not in the picture but we also added the "2017" at the end of our timeline. Use velcro dots to keep the pictures on the timeline. ART Learning to draw straight lines Completing some pictures with lines and trying to draw a copy of the picture. Working on drawing a worm and its reflection or double Drawing railroad tracks and picket fences SCIENCE Learning about "What is a science?". After learning about "What is a Scientist?" we did the egg experiment mentioned in the book: First Encyclopedia of Science p.7. We completed our science worksheet, I wrote down all she said. I'll be writing things down for now but as we continue through the school year she will be doing all the writing. NATURE WALK Went to one of our local park for our nature walk. Kids went exploring one of the many streams in the park They had lots of fun exploring Looked in the water to find different creatures in it and then they built a bridge out of bricks. Completed our Nature Walk worksheet once we got home from the park. VIDEOS Watched the movies "How to train your dragon 1 & 2" and "Lyle the Kindly Viking" to go with our Viking theme of the week. Also watched "Shows and Tells" from the Magic School Bus (S3 E6) about archaeology to go with our science theme "What is a Scientist". ACTIVITIES Made a viking boat for the kids to play with. They had two vikings from their Tangled collection which went great for this week. Little man has a pirate ship which the kids said goes great for this week, they pretended the pirate ship was actually a viking ship. Pretending to be a very cute Viking. After writing a note to Kanani as to why we chose her name we discussed in detail the meaning of her name. She was touched by the words in the letter and was very happy to know the true meaning of her name, "PRINCESS FROM HEAVEN, BEAUTIFUL ONE". Spelled out her whole name using wooden alphabet beads I got from Wal-mart. Hid some letter puzzle pieces in rainbow pasta for the kids to search for and place in the correct spots. They really loved this activity and wanted me to hide more items in the rice for them to find. Went to the library for story time and this week the theme was Mothers For craft the kids made "Mother's Day" cards and decorated a water bottle with some stickers to place their flowers in, while the moms got to sit down and enjoy a delicious Red Velvet cupcake with some water. This was such a sweet surprise and it was great watching the kids work so hard on their crafts. This week for our co-op we had a end of the school year party at the skating ring and enjoyed some pizza and cupcakes too. Our first week back to school and we have enjoyed every bit of it and learning lots of new things. We all enjoyed learning about Vikings and the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, what our names mean and practicing our spelling words. Looking forward to what next week holds for us. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST MFW: Adventures in U.S. (How I organize for the school year)

MFW: ADVENTURES IN U.S. HISTORY WEEK 34 This week we will be learning about Jesus the Alpha and Omega, Alaska, Hawaii, will review electricity, computers, and learn about President Donald Trump. BOOK Few books we used this week. BIBLE Memory verse: ". . . I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End . . ." ~Revelation 21:6 ~Revelation 22:13 ~Genesis 1:1 ~John 1:1-3 ~Colossians 1:15-20 ~Revelation 21:1-4 ~Revelation 22:1-5; 12-21 Memory Verse READING Finished "Grandma's Attic", it was an awesome book and glad we got to enjoy it together. LANGUAGE ARTS Finished our spelling book and language arts book today, bitter-sweet moment. MATH Only math we did was what we used in our science experiments through measurements. U.S. NOTEBOOK Completed our map today!!! Can't believe how fast second grade has gone, excited to mail out the president's letter. Last year she made a presentation of Hawaii at our homeschool co-op, she picked Hawaii because her name is Hawaiian and her dad was born on the island of Oahu. We took a tray of Hawaiian Bread Rolls because it comes from Hawaii. She was excited to share with everyone her knowledge of Hawaii and show all the items we have of Hawaii. TIMELINE Added the last two, Hawaii and White House, to out timeline. ART Completed the state worksheet and did some free hand coloring. SCIENCE Learned about Rocks and Minerals today at the NASA Geology class at the library. They really enjoyed learning about the rock life cycle. Lots of hands on learning. Everything was so neat to see. Static Electricity: Rubbed the balloon on top of her head and it got stuck on her face. They pretended they were doing magic to get it to stay on the wall. NATURE WALK We went to the park and the kids got some professional pictures taken and then had fun running around the park. VIDEOS Static Electricity Experiment ACTIVITIES This week at the library we celebrate St. Patrick's Day Love all her stories and activities she provides weekly for the kids. My little lephron, Kanani couldn't join us this but Mrs. Debbie sent her lots of goodies so she wouldn't miss out. She was home with the flu :( This week we talked about Jesus the Alpha and Omega, Alaska, Hawaii, electricity, and computers. We also went to a NASA Geology class at our local library and learned a lot of the rock life cycle. GOD BLESS! PREVIOUS POST Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33

I spent forty minutes in the Beautiful Feet Books booth at our convention last year. Everything about their books and curriculum called out to me. I love reading, its my absolute favorite thing eve…

Sail into a fun history lesson about the vikings for kids with this explorer lesson with a DIY Viking boat, activites, & free printables.

Thinking of using My Father's World curriculum for your homeschool? Read this first!

We are on our third year of using My Father's World. We still love it just as much as when I first chose it over Sonlight. You may also be interested in: Second Grade Work boxes/ Using Work boxes with Adventures in U.S History Organizing our Second Grade Homeschool Room/MFW Adventures in U.S History Second Grade Curriculum (included in MFW Packages) I can not say enough how much we love Adventures in U.S History by My Father's World. History, Science-My Father's World Adventures in U.S History Deluxe package Language Arts- Language Lessons for Today, Second grade (MFW Recommended) Spelling- Spelling by Sound and Structure (MFW Recommended) Reading- Book Basket from teacher's manual, personal home library 2nd Grade Supplements (Not included in MFW packages) Math- Math U See, Alpha MFW recommends Singapore Math. While Singapore is a great system, it just didn't work for my hands-on learners. As a teacher, I also appreciate the DVD curriclum, and the mastery approach (as opposed to spiral approach). Art- Draw, Write, Now Books We did some of the beginning pages from the I can Draw book recommended by My Father's World, but just didn't get into the painting and marker pages.. The boys have several opportunities to paint at co-op and during their free time at home. The Draw Write Now books are a great independent Drawing program that can easily be used when utilizing Homeschool Work boxes. You can find our DRAW WRITE NOW schedule that I used to line this art up with our History Subjects in Adventures. Liberty Kids- Historical Video Series We began watching these in week we started learning about Benjamin Franklin. They are so well done, that I ended up watching most of them with the kids. This video series was especially helpful when we had to do homeschool at my in-laws a few hours away during Deer Hunting Season! Music-Free Piano Lessons from Hoffman Academy We love the music lesson provided in Adventures, especially the Nutcracker study. On top of those lessons, we pooled our gift cards from Christmas and bought a small beginner keyboard. Piano lessons with a teacher are just not in our budget, and the free lessons from Hoffman Academy have been a huge blessing to our family. At this age, the parent will have to sit with them during each lesson and practice, but we all look forward to watching the lesson video each week. I am amazed at how much the boys have learned through these lessons in just a short time. We spent the $20 on unit printable materials, and it was well worth it. Bible- Awana Club We usually do the Bible lessons in the manual, but if I miss one, I know my kids are having a great time and learning a ton in Awana. The teachers are wonderful volunteers. The boys get spiritual education, time with friends, and gym time at the end of each meeting. The bonus for me is I get an hour and half free every week to have coffee with my husband, go to the grocery store by myself, or just sit and read a book in quiet! Find a local club near you. Bible Character Costume at our Awana's Fall Festival...the twins were dressed as Armor of God! HAVE FUN IN SECOND GRADE!

Thinking of using My Father's World curriculum for your homeschool? Read this first!

So now that we've finished the year "What do I think?"...... I think it was pretty amazing. I loved having a flexible, Christ-centered outline to guide me through our first year of home schooling. Every program is going to have its pluses and minuses and this had more pluses, IMO. So, here is my pros and cons list for your perusals.... Pros Christ centered and biblically focused without feeling like your having a daily sermon. Bible never felt forced or disconnected from the rest of the program Flexible- nothing was locked stepped and very open to supplementation. We had a very fluid schedule this year and this program worked very well for us. Some weeks we did history all in one day because we had other stuff going on, some weeks we had gap days. We even skipped a week that felt like overkill. Any moving around we did, did not adversely affect other portions of the curriculum. When we felt areas were too light or the girls had more interest it was easy to pause, add extras and then pick back up Literature based- I am lucky. I have great readers, who love to read. They loved the book basket, once Mom got over her need for them to finish a book. I will testify that if you fill up the basket with appealing material, you'll be amazed at what they learn when you're not hovering. Easy to read and follow Teacher's Manual. Great mix of book and hands-on A whole lot of great family time. Cons While it's presented as a complete curriculum, I feel it required quite a bit of supplementation to add enough rigor. If one solely went with the check box approach, this would be a very "lite" 3rd grade. The Science portion- the science portion was very light and chaotic. While I originally thought my kids would like the variety in the science curriculum, it turned out to be very annoying to them to never get in depth about anything. They did like the hand on experiments to an extent, but many took longer to set up then do. We ended up chucking it and going with a focused co-op class. Primary Language lesson- Ummmm... we lasted 3 weeks... just was not for us. I can see the value of it, it just wasn't the right fit for me as the teacher, or them after 2 years of other instruction. Things I had a Love/Hate relationship with- The Book list- I know no list can be comprehensive and classics are just that classics, but the book list is very dated. Many titles were simply unappealing to my kids. And frankly due to age unavailable, even through a truly AWESOME library system like ours. It was a great jumping off point, but by no means would I want to just use the list. The TM---- the grids are awesome. The notes? Great in the first half, but as the weeks go on there is very little The state sheets--- after 50 I won't say hate but glad they are done. By the end the birds and flowers were colored well. The states were taking a beating. The facts are fun to read but honestly I feel very little was retained. I think I would have preferred less information, but then again on some states it was the ONLY information. The cooking projects- Depending on where you are from these are great, or just not interesting. I found most of the cooking projects to be "country/southern" cooking..lol.. Well since we are both, they were nothing new to my kids. They liked doing them but saw nothing special..lol The Read- Alouds- Stretched wayyyyyyyyyy out and some just plain dated and boring. We skipped some, read others at triple speed. My kids could handle this and we just supplemented a lot. The bible lessons-- When there were lessons, they were good. But they weren't daily, and often bible only consisted of memory verse work. While this helped it not feel "preachy" it also left you feeling a little empty some days. We supplemented a lot. Who this curriculum is NOT for....... Those looking for their kids to be very independent. My kids are mature, very advance in reading, and could do a lot independently, but much of this is based on parent-child-literature interaction. Those who want to just check boxes off... Those who don't enjoy reading and learning through literature. If you are looking for just the facts and nothing but the facts (as in a strictly classical approach) this is not your curriculum. Those with small space and no great library. This curriculum thrives on lots and lots of books. I was lucky enough to be able to have 20+ books per subject with 2 kids doing Adventures. Most were needed for 1-2 weeks. I would not have been able to do this, nor do I think we would have enjoyed this curriculum if we had to buy these books and store them. Books I would add to the Book list: Most of these are secular in nature. While not Christian-based, I found nothing objectionable or derogatory is the ones we read unless noted.... United Tweets of America : 50 State Birds, Their Stories, Their Glories by Hudson Talbott. Great illustrations that have catchy themes for each state. Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbone -READ ALOUD-( for mature kids)- 2 kinds of Christians and missionaries are depicted in the novel. One has a true desire to spread Christ's love to the "savages" and others who are very hypocritical. We used this as a great discussion starting point about how it's not what you call yourself or what church you go to, but real Christians are recognized by how they live in the small moments and treat other people. No Man's Land by Susan Bartoletti- READ ALOUD- Because he had been unable to fight off the gator which injured his father, 14-year-old Thrasher joins the Confederate Army hoping to prove his manhood. Great depiction of what the war looked like from an uneducated southern view point. Gone with the wind its not...lol..*** Note- some depiction of the graphic events of war (injuries,amputations, minor swearing." The Disgusting History Series:- Colonial America, American frontier,Civil War, Age of Pirates... Wanna know what the colonists did for toilet paper...lol The Who Was... Biographies: we read Ben Franklin, and Harriet Tubman. You Wouldn't want to be series- A Viking, An American Colonist, at The Boston Tea Party... Similar to the Disgusting History Series, but more cartoony in look and feel. The I Survived Series- Many of the events chronicles here are much more modern history but my kids still loved them. Gettysburg, San Fran earthquake, Pearl Harbor, 9/11, etc... Magic Tree House Fact Trackers- American Revolution, Twisters, Pilgrims, & Abraham Lincoln You Choose: History- These are "chose your adventure books" that look at different point is history from two or 3 points of view. Great for teaching that events in history have relativity based on what side your on. We have only read a few of these so far. My father, a Vietnam era vet, did not like one view point of the the Vietnam era book. One of the three lines follows protesters of the war. Honestly, I like that multiple viewpoint are shown because I want my kids to understand that history is not just 2 dimensional. That being said, You choose. The Graphic History collection- too many to list.. great graphic novel presentations of history that are still full of great facts. These were actually the easiest books for my girls to research from for note-booking/ writing assignments because the facts were not buried in other words, and the pictures were great visual clues without looking babyish.

For more how we use our Second Grade Curriculum , see this post. See more organization tips in this post on how we set up our Homeschool Room. The biggest change from our first grade routine to second grade routine was the addition of work-boxes. Workboxes do not necessarily mean all the work is independent , just that the twins work at their own pace. The staggering of the subjects enables me to teach one-on-one subjects easily; I can work with one child on Math, while the other is independently reading or drawing. Calendar & Agenda Our Agenda & Information for calendar (box 1) is written on a Dry Erase board. Work-boxes The first boxes usually stay at the top for both boys, because they have some of our together time subjects (History and Bible). The other subjects move depending on how I need to stagger one-on-one subjects. We use a 10-Drawer Organizer Cart, and it works great. I try to fill the boxes for the following day at the end of each school morning, but sometimes I end up doing it the morning before school. The 5 extra minutes it takes to fill the boxes saves me priceless time and headaches later. Instead of moving numbers to show which box they have finished, the boys know what box they are on by just keeping their current drawer open. As you can see below, one boy is on box four, and the other on six. The organizers on top, from Dollar Tree, hold some of the materials they might need throughout the morning. The rest of their materials are in a pencil box at their seat (crayons, markers, pencils, etc). If any subject needs paper, I put it in the box. Box 1- Calendar The first box includes Calendar and Days in School pages inside of a plastic (for Dry Erase Markers), printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler.. Box 2- Bible The boys practice or copy their memory verse. If they have Awana work, they do it then. Again I used a plastic sheets to make the memory verse sheet in a dry erase page. The only downfall of these drawers is they can barely fit a small 1 inch binder. Box 3 History MFW Adventures in US History. We usually do our History together, reading about booked together on the couch before we start workboxes. If there is a student sheet for the day, I put it in the History working. The boys usually do Bible and Calendar at the same time/pace, so we do our student sheets together. Box 4 English. Language Lessons for Today, Grade 2. The twins use the same English book, so instead of putting the actual book in their box, I put a dry erase page that tells them what lesson to do, and if they need to do it with me. The boys retrieve their English book from the shelf next to the work-boxes, and work with me if indicated. I also include any materials they may need for that lesson. Box 5 Break and Snack Each boy can get a snack and then take a 10 minute break. If you are really goo, you can put a snack in this box. I just have them get one from designated snack cabinet. I love that they have to set their own timer, and get back to work when they are done. Box 6 Math We use Math-U-See DVD curriculum. Box 7 Spelling Spelling by Sound and Structure has a few days of independent work in their workbook, then a test at the end of the week. I included a blank piece of paper at the end of the week in their work box. Box 8 Reading Sometimes the boys must read from the book basket, sometimes it is free reading, and sometimes I put a book I want them to try in their box. Box 9 Activity This box can vary greatly from day to day. This particular day, one of the boys needed help with some drill practice on top of his regular math page. Recently we added free piano lessons with Hoffman Academy, so it has included a note that says "Piano Practice". Box 10 Art At the beginning of the year, we had did all the A-Z "I can Draw" activity pages recommended by My Father's World. Sometimes we use our 'Draw Write Now' Page for Art or Activity, depending on the amount of handwriting they have already done that day. Sometimes Art box is just a blank piece of paper and a note saying "Have fun!"