Month of November in our family

I have not been able to blog for long time since I came to know the arrival of the new member into our family. We had All Saints Party with other homeschoolers in St Joseph .Everyone had a good time and Mundackal family was coordinating the program. There was  a guessing up time, bringing Saints Timeline, Scavenger hunt and finding the saints symbol ended up with snacks.It was a great time.

Since it was the month of Holy Souls, Candy box ideas  with some prayers were said many days over the month for the Holy Souls in purgatory, ideas were borrowed from Jessica's blog. The word Purgatory came from Latin word purgare which means 'to ceanse ' or 'to purify'. “It is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the Vision of God.” The idea of candy box was to say the prayer of 'St Gertrude' which Lord promised her in a vision, to release 1000 souls from purgatory every time you say the prayer with real heart. Once you said the prayer children can have a candy from the box or they can give up the candy. It was a hard time for many of our JY familes with the death of our good friend Brion.

Another very important thing in our family was Jobychayan's birthday on 27th November.Since I was in bed whole day feeling lazy,Annu and Munnu  made their own chocolate cake themselves for their dad.

All Saints Day/ All Hallows Eve

We celebrated our All Saints day last night,I never expected many of our friend's children 

were so excited and looking forward for the all saints party. It was an amazing time. Children 

dressed up themselves their costumes as I was busy after  our children's retreat in our 

diocese. I was so shocked to see all children reached home after 7pm dressed up so nicely 

and prepared with their stories.

Munnu dressed up as St Nicholas, Annu as St Philomena and Theresu as St Therese. 

Maria as Mother Mary, James as St Joseph, many little flowers were there.

 

Half term Holidays

This Autumn half term , Annu, Munnu and Theresu had a sleep over with their friends.Children had a good time, did knitting,played together, went out to our water park to feed birds, cycled to church and lot of many other things.

Children are making pizza for their lunch. Theresu is having fun rolling the dough.

Boys are making their own pizza.

Science festival

Manchester Science Festival is happening across MOSI, Manchester Museum and Bolton. Fablab Manchester is explaining 3D printing and designing miniature models. You can make your own 3D glasses.

Children are making 3D glasses  in MOSI, 1830 Warehouse.

We went to do a solar system craft in library and was good.

Coat Of Arms on Feast of JP2

Since it is the Feast of St John Paul 2, it was found to be a good idea to do his shield with children which was used for his pontificate.

The first thing I made a grid size of 9 and 7 1/2 inches for them, so that they could copy the coat of arms frame by frame. I copied the ideas from Catholic icing, Keepers of the keys and catholic missionary family with fantastic resources . When they finished  they rubbed some lines and colored it, it could have been better if they could make a border with black marker.

Kidoos have been gone through what it means to be coat of arms and the symbols inside which JP2 used. It was a great learning to me too.

Cross - It represents the mystery of redemption. The cross is shifted to the left.

Letter M - represents the presence of Mary at the foot of the cross and its participation in redemption. It is the first time a papal shield contains a letter.

Keys - They represent the keys of St. Peter.

     Golden Key - represents the spiritual power of the Church.

     Silver Key - represents its temporal power .

Lace - represents the link between the two power is.

Tiara - Composed by 3 crowns representing the authority of the pope as " Pastor "," Master "and" High Priest "of the Church .

Towards the end of the day, we baked a brownie and tried to decorate with a cross and a M, obviously it didn't come up very well, but the brownie was yummy.

St John Paul 2 Ora Pro Nobis

St Therese and St Michael's feast days

Children made some paper roses on the feast day of little flower and it is a very special day in our family as it is the name saint day of Theresu. Theresu had a card and sweet box from her godparents. Annu and Munnu made a nice blueberry sponge cake. Amazing resources here for children to do it on this feast day

It was St Michael's feast day yesterday along with other archangels, the end of harvesting came in September and coincided with tradition of Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael. People stopped eating blackberries from this day, so the days just before Michaelmas are your last chance for picking and bottling blackberries. There is a tradition of eating roasted goose stuffed with apple, we had chicken roast instead. A number of places in England still have 'goose fairs' at the end of September. It was Munnu's feast day as well, he received a packet of chocolates from another homeschooling friends.

On the feast of St Vincent De Paul & Fundraising

It was  a great feast day of St Vincent De Paul on September 27, patron saint of charities. Fundraising was planned for 'Aid to the church in need' to support the needs of church in Syria and Iraq . Children were very excited to do some baking for fundraising. They helped me in making flapjacks, chocolate cake and cupcakes. It was a great experience. Many of our JY friends from Manchester supported  by bringing some homemade cakes, cupcakes and supported generously.

ALTAR SERVING

Munnu could do his first altar serving on last Sunday alone with Fr Early. I think Lord has given him lot of confidence. Annu did hers a month before in St John church, Chorlton.

Yesterday was a great day for children, Munnu started his football training, had canoeing in our water park, annu was so confident and she didnt want to come out from water. and thereafter we went to see how children doing accordion,tin whistle etc.

Sunflower study

Children were learning about Sunflower,plucked a sunflower from our garden. Unit study on sunflower was done, parts of the flower, where  was it originated and kidoos wrote an acrostic poem on Sunflower. Munnu, Annu and Theresu drew sunflower and used magnifying glass to observe the parts. We got some interesting unit study on sunflower from curriclick

Nature Study 2

Charlotte Mason says that Nature Study done with children in the early years will be a “balm and a blessing” when they are grown.  They will have quiet places of repose in their soul to go to when life is busy or challenging as adults. It is also the best way to prepare your children for the study of science. 

It was my birthday yesterday , So went to Tatton park in Knutsford. Nature walk was amazing, we looked at the nature trail and passed near mansion, reached near stag and sheep which is an open stretch of grassland. Tatton park is famous for deer, often gather here in large numbers to graze, comprising red and fallow deer and this was the interesting thing to watch. Each spring antlers shed and new grow immediately. Munnu along with my hubby climbed some chopped branches, played football some time, had lunch. Numerous fir cones and various leaves were collected by children to study.

 

The day before yesterday was fabulous , as a family we went for cycling all the way from our waterpark close to sale waterpark. Aexandra and children joined with us, children and me gathered many leaves pines, maple leaves, beech, lime, oak leaves, hazel chestnut, cones and chestnut .

 

At home we were learning about various leaves, so pea leaves and many other leaves were observed, learned various things about evergreen leaves and deciduous leaves.

Various conkers, cones and leaves collected and the nature journal in the process.