Columbus and the Sea Monsters

     We use My Father's World curriculum in our schooling, and this year we are studying American history. It has been so interesting! Since Zeb joined us in September, we've been taking our history and science kind of slow. We started at the beginning of the year with the Vikings and just finished up the Revolutionary war and the colonies becoming states. Now we are about to do a brief study of each state covering a few each week. Key people will also continue pop up from time to time, and we will take time to study them.
      After a little bit of  Eric the Red, Leif Ericson, and the vikings, we studied Christopher Columbus. Toward the end of that unit, we did a little science experiment. We used aluminum foil and the boys had to figure out how to construct boats and which shapes and sizes held up best in the water. They made three boats and we labeled them The Nina, The Pinta, and Santa Maria. The instructions suggested using a pencil and some clay to make the mast, but we found that a straw and some hot glue worked much better. When we were finished, the boys decided to move them to the bathtub. This was a much better representation of the sea than the sink! Of course, what's a good dramatic reenactment without some sea monsters?

 

 

 

After a few minutes of leaning over the tub, they decided it would just be easier to dive in!