Friday’s Factoid 26 (by Titus)

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When a star explodes it is called a supernova. Supernovas leave behind nebulae. A nebula is gas and dust floating in space. It is like a foot print left by the exploded star. Almost 1000 years ago some Chinese astronomers recorded a supernova that was so bright it could be seen in the day. Then when there were telescopes they used the charts from the Chinese astronomers and found the Crab Nebula left by the exploded star (Titus, 9).
The Crab Nebula
The Crab Nebula

Teacher’s Two-Cents (by Mom)
I’m super excited about our topic of study for the next few weeks. Introduced in our text (Apologia’s “Exploring Creation with Astronomy,” lesson 13), and beautifully illustrated in one of our favorite books, “Adam and His Kin” by Ruth Beechick, I’ve spent the year digging deeper into the subject of the Gospel in the Stars. The 3 texts I’ve been studying are Joseph Seiss’s “The Gospel in the Stars,” E.W. Bullinger’s “The Witness of the Stars,” and thanks to a great recommendation from a blog reader, Ken Fleming’s “God’s Voice in the Stars.” All of these sources explore the constellations of the Zodiac as the ancient Hebrews would have viewed them before their meanings became corrupted by pagan astrology. Next week we will dive right into the first 4 signs and the theme of Christ as “Suffering Savior delivering man from the penalty of sin.” The next week we will see Christ as the “Glorified Blesser delivering man from the power of sin” and finally onto Christ as “Reigning Judge delivering man from the presence of sin (Fleming, 27).”

V is for…

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This Week’s Memory Verse: V is for…
“Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior…For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” -Isaiah 45:15-18

That's us. A pale blue dot caught in a ray of sunshine.
That’s us. A pale blue dot caught in a ray of sunshine.

Last week we learned that of all the types of galaxies the only kind that could be host to any kind of life is a spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way. And life could not just exist any where in this kind of galaxy. It has to be in an outer arm, like where our own solar system lies. The week before we learned that of all the different kinds of stars in the universe only a non-binary, non-variable, medium-temperature star like our own sun is safe to orbit for a life-bearing planet like our own. And earlier in the year we learned that planet has to be just the right distance from that just-right star located on an outer arm of that just-right galaxy. Oh yeah, and make sure the planet has the perfect mass, perfect rotation, perfect atmosphere, perfect tilt, perfect magnetosphere, a perfectly placed moon to keep the oceans from stagnating, and other planets placed just-so to keep it from being bombarded by asteroids. Yes, God indeed formed the Earth, not in vain, but especially to be inhabited. He is the Lord, and there is none else!

Hymn of the Week: “Unto the Hills” (Campbell/Purday)

Unto the hills around do I lift up my longing eyes;
O whence for me shall my salvation come, from whence arise?
From God the Lord doth come my certain aid,
From God the Lord who heaven and earth hath made.

He will not suffer that thy foot be moved: safe shalt thou be.
No careless slumber shall His eyelids close, who keepeth thee.
Behold our God the Lord, He slumbereth ne’er,
Who keepeth Israel in His holy care.

Jehovah is Himself thy keeper true, thy changeless shade;
Jehovah thy defense on thy right hand Himself hath made.
And thee no sun by day shall ever smite;
No moon shall harm thee in the silent night.

From every evil shall He keep thy soul, from every sin;
Jehovah shall preserve thy going out, thy coming in.
Above thee watching, He whom we adore
Shall keep thee hence-forth, yea, forevermore.

Friday’s Factoid 25 (by Titus, Joel and Nate)

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This week we learned about galaxies like the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. Only spiral galaxies can support life and only on the outer arms. That is where our solar system is (Titus, 9 1/4).

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We learned about the different shapes of galaxies. We made our own galaxies with glitter and glue. Mine was a spiral galaxy and so was Ti’s. Nate’s was a barred spiral galaxy and Sam’s was an irregular galaxy. There are also elliptical galaxies but nobody made one of those (Joel, 7 1/20.
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We made Sombrero Galaxies out of tortillas and beans and sour cream and cheese. Our friend Sei made one, too. Then we rolled them into burritos and ate them (Nate, almost 6!).

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Teacher’s Two-Cents (by Mom)
Great place for a messy project.
Great place for a messy project.

With a house full of boys I don’t have a whole lot of glitter in my life. So when I planned this galaxy project I thought we were safe doing it outside on the picnic table. All of you glitter veterans out there are probably laughing at my ignorance. That stuff is a true scientific wonder. The makers of germ warfare should use it as a model. I’ve never seen anything spread so quickly or so thoroughly onto and into every square inch of our persons and household. And showering doesn’t help either. It even showed up on the Sombrero Galaxies we made later. One of our neighbors joined us for that project. The boys taught their friend, Sei, all about galaxies and Sei’s mom gave them their Japanese lesson in return. A great trade off, I think. I started out teaching the boys German with plans to move onto Latin, because that’s what I knew. But the Lord moved us all onto an island in the middle of the Pacific and now they are learning Hawaiian and Japanese instead, two languages I know nothing about. I have no idea how God is planning on using these languages in their future but I’m sure He has something in mind! Oh, and by the time Sei and his mom left they had glitter on them, too.