Jude reading!

Jude loves reading to me everyday, and he now reads all the Tintin and Asterix books and library books by himself which has given him a lot of confidence, his reading is coming along in strides!!

Some books we are enjoying

We really enjoy reading books as a family, and I only wish we had more free time to read even more, but these are a few we are enjoying together at the moment.

A friend had given me the idea to memorize a whole book. It is something I have thought about in the past too, but have never given it a go. I remembered a sermon by youth pastor, Rick Holland about how he and one of his young peoples groups memorized the book of James. He recommended memorizing the book of James because of the wonderful opportunity to have such a practical book stored in memory but also because it is one of the shorter ones, and so easier. We started memorizing it together, and the children picked it up faster than me, but I realized pretty quickly that some of it was just memorization with no understanding, and that kind of memorization was not likely to stick for very long, and so we embarked on studying the book of James together. I picked up this great children's commentary from Day One publications and I only wish they had this for every book of the Bible, the children are really enjoying it.
The next book purchase was inspired by a wonderful testimony we heard at our church a few months back. The book, The Case for Christ was brought up and highly recommended, so when I looked I was really surprised to see that the author had written a children's version too. It is basically apologetics for children, and the girls have already seen how beneficial it is. They do come up against friends who don't believe and have had a few arguments thrown their way, this book will help to equip them to deal with these situations better, and provide them with clearer answers, based on the Bible to help explain Christianity more clearly.
And we have just finished Corrie Ten Boom, Christian Heroes book. This has actually led us on to our next study - Holland. It could've led us on to WW2, but I think that would be more appropriate when they are older. We are really enthusiastic to learn about Holland, and if we are fortunate enough, we hope to take a short holiday there this year.

Under the sea, gluing and painting

We haven't really got the paint out since coming back from SA, so Ciara got right into it when we finally did. I love it when a certain piece of what would be recycling can give inspiration, and this was what happened when I saw the cover of a music package we received in the mail. It would make a perfect under water sea scene.

Ciara gluing on sand and seaweed.
The whole scene can open and close, this is it with all the underwater creatures on.

Learning about solutions, saturated solutions and growing crystals

Eden covered dissolving, solutions, solutes and saturated solutions in her science a couple of weeks ago, so it was a lovely coincidence that our friend Tracy handed over a big box of Copper Sulphate to us, perfect for experimenting in solutions and growing crystals.
Such a lovely colour.
Mixing until the solution becomes saturated, and experimenting with what makes a solute dissolve faster in a solvent.
Put some of the solution on a saucer to grow a seed.
Wrap the seed around a piece of nylon/thread, and place this back in the main solution.
We took Tracy's advice of growing a big crystal fast. Boil the solution every day and add more copper sulphate. The crystal grew big really fast, very satisfying for a child.


The final crystal, the beauty of it I couldn't really capture on camera.

Temperature experiments

It was great doing a few mini experiments this week, and the girls performed a few more at their Brownies meeting for the Science Investigator badge. It reminded me how much children love experiments, and I must really incorporate more in.

This was a bit of a "trick your body" experiment, but it also shows how the body's thermometer is more of a relative gauge of temperature, ie if you walked into a room from outside in the freezing cold it would feel warm, but if you came into the same room after having a warm shower the same room would feel cold.

Arrange three bowls of water, one with very warm water, one with very cold water and one with room temp water. Put one hand in the cold water and one hand in the warm water. Hold it there a minute. Put both hands in the room temp water, and your two hands will send you very mixed messages on the temperature.
Ciara getting in there too.
The next was creating a mini watercycle. Place room temp water in a jar, place cling film on the top and top of with ice(we used an icepack). Place water near a heat source(signifying the sun), which will cause the water to turn into water vapour. This water vapour will come into contact with the ice(cool air high in the sky) and turn to droplets(like the clouds), after a while the droplets become heavy enough to drop back down again like the rain.

Making Christmas Cards

Niamh starting her Christmas cards.
Painting a pattern for the camels.
Ciara wanted to join in too.
Eden putting some finishing touches on.
The finished card.
We chose a text from Old and New Testament this year, and it ties in nicely with the design.

Busy hands

Niamh is really chuffed to be making her sister's Christmas present this year, she is trying her hardest to keep it a surprise from her sister.
The whole family has gone paper aeroplane making mad, and Ciara has been watching everyone make them, and came up with her own version all by herself, she even decorated it.
Ciara was so chuffed that she got to make a Mr Men Birthday card for her friend (the party was a Mr Men party).
She is learning how to form the letters correctly now, still following dotted lines, but moving her pen in the right directions.