Martinmas

Today was the great feast of Autumn saint; St Martin of Tours. It is also known to be St Martin's late summer. Many traditions says that the end of autumn season and to winter. Wine is produced and animals are slaughtered in preparation of winter.

As a part of jy , children were encouraged to go and visit war memorials and planned to do Martinmas bonfire. Some of them were there and marshmallows were roasted after rosary and prayer. Infact today was a great day to do some sort  of charity like St Martin who was very compassionate and merciful to everyone. Jesus appeared in his dreams carrying the cloak which he cut and gave to a beggar. So seeing Christ in others ....


                         St Martin of Tours pray for us.

Drawing with Grid

Using grids to draw needs a longer concentration. Firstly children all were instructed to make a grid with 6 one inch lengthwise and 5 blocks height wise. Then using the marked grid, children drew the picture of horse. It is said to be that you can draw any picture using grid.

All Hallows Eve / All Saints day Eve

It is the time again for All saints and had the opportunity to have an All Hallows eve party along with Thomas family this year instead of our regular homeschoolers group and from Manchester JY groups.

 Children even did some pumpkin lanterns with some christian symbols.

This was so great and I thank God as it was my dream to sew some saints costumes with our sewing machine and come true with the help my beloved Jobychayan. We started the day with some costumes, food and some games. Children looked so lovely in their saints costumes and so happy to see it.

              Theresu as  St Joan of Arc

                     Munnu as St Patrick


                  St Therese and St Faustina

St George

               Samuel as St George

                    Vidya as St Theresa of Calcutta

Video of All saints eve here

As a family we went to some of the houses in Worcester as children would love to meet some people and have trick/ treat sweets too. ,


Theresu and Benny along with big children singing '' We are marching saints....I wanna be in that number...''

Reached home and had scavenger hunt, guess saints and everyone did brief introduction of their saints and was great

          Heart behind the costumes

                                                All Saints pray for us

Trampolining with a Twist

Oxygen free trampolining is something new that came across in Manchester and we took all our children. All of them had a fabulous time, coaches were brilliant too. Munnu is trying to develop his skills and working up to some pretty impressive tricks along with expert guidance. There are of course several trampolines just to let loose and play on, plus designated zones for volleyball and dodge ball.


It is great activity that pleases all of them including little Geo and Johny

Vidhya and vibha too joined in the trampoling

Autumn

Its Autumn is here, days are getting shorter and time is exciting with vivid array of colours. Maple leaves changing to red and orange, birch leaves started fading to brown. So we were out with children collecting autumn leaves, conkers and acorns. Colours are so bright and it is hard to believe that it leads us into starkness which is winter.The joy of this season can pass by very easily, whether we enjoy or not.
I really love this season of the year where the nature make many provisions in adapting to approaching winter , the beautiful nature always points me to the God who created everything in order. I really like the different colours of autumn, trees, harvest and lots of berries to be picked erly autumn and the apples in the orchard. Many things that the children can do along with autumn.

We may  stuck with many loss and the leaves falling. However the truth is that everything comes to an end. Since winter can become spring and our darkest moments also pass.


'Autumn is a second spring every leaf is a flower'

This time of the year we are thinking to do so many things like researching about autumn saints, harvest, fruits and vegetables, why leaves changing colors, hibernation, migration, festivals, arts and so on..

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Children were doing autumn craft with leaves collected, by dipping it in paraffin wax especially Theresu liked it.

Both Mundackal and Joby families are doing autumn season and children brought wonderful visual aids to show each other what they have learnt about this wonderful season. Some of them did fox masks, badger, autumn saints,harvest, trees, migration, hibernation, squirels, autumn poems including acrostic poems and so on. Some of the autumn leaves, conkers and cones were displayed. One of tthe story children were reading this season was ' Danny the Champion' by Roald Dahl, as part of his 100th Centennary which falls on 13th Sept.

Theresu's autumn tree with falling leaves.

Her autumn saints were her own name saint St Therese and St Francis of Assisi.

Annu's lapbook

                       Some of our autumn books from library

Benny's badger 

Along with Thomas family, we went for a nature walk and bike riding, collected some autumn leaves and so great to c all the apples hanging in the cemetry.