christingles and candle making

Yesterday was our first day back to homeschooling ...as iv said before there is probably not a day that goes by that isn't full of learning opportunities , but it was an official HE day .


I was woken at around 5am by Eva who then settled,sneaking out of my bed leaving behind her and Charlie gave  me time for a nice relaxing bath before anyone else woke .

looking at the space between these to bubbas, im not surprised i had little sleep!

 I was up and full of good intentions ......
But if I'm honest it wasn't a good day.

It was a shock to the system, for everyone after the lazy Christmas holidays.And i think perhaps i was expecting too much!

However we did achieve the basics of what i intended upon.

First of all we made some Christingles, these were supposed  to be one of our Advent activities but was one that we didn't get around to.

As the twelve days of Christmas are not quite over i thought there was no time like the present!

As the children made them we discussed the significance of the various parts of the christingle.

• The orange is round like the world.
• The candle stands tall and straight and gives light in the dark like the love of God.
• The red ribbon goes all around the 'world' and is a symbol of the blood Jesus shed when he died for us.
• The four sticks point in all directions and symbolise North, South, East and West - they also represent the four seasons.
• The fruit and nuts (or sometimes sweets!) represent the fruits of the earth, nurtured by the sunshine and the rain.

Here is charlie telling me what he remembers.......

And some photos too.

I had written  out a verse about King Winter upon the black board .



                                  Awake King Winter


                        Come and wake my Winter King.
                        Join the snow and ice and sing !

                        Blow onto trees your wintry frost
                        Walk with your sceptre, do not get lost!

                        Breath icicles on branches above
                        Pointy like the crown you love.
                        
                        Swirl and twirl snowdrifts delight!
                        Freeze and glow your magic tonight.


 Then the girls got on with some copy work , writing out the poem and using watercolours to decorate the page. 


Later i read a king winter story to Charlie .

Jasmine made a candle in a jar , using some delicious smelling candle sand that was a Christmas gift.

The white grains are white musk, the blue Ocean breeze and the green Dewberry...it smells gorgeous!

Gypsie has also been busy with a kit she was given, this kit uses gel wax and a glass  , you can pop in any inflammable object in to the glass before putting in a wick and filing with candle gel. She has used shells .The result is beautiful.

Thank you for stopping by my blog , wishing you a happy Wednesday!