Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Studying light

We've made several fun projects during the first two weeks of our Konos study of light and authority.

We made a lighthouse.
We talked about how God gives us authorities (governments, teachers, parents, etc) to help guide us from danger. We affirmed God's Word as the one immovable, totally trustworthy "lighthouse" in our lives.:





(I googled "building a model lighthouse" and you would not BELIEVE the crazy instructions I found. Who needs to build a two story lighthouse in your backyard? Are you deterring ships?)

We built a lantern and walked around in the dark. We talked about how God's Word sheds light on our immediate path and we need to trust that He will give us the light we need, when we need it. Looking too far ahead can cause fear, we need to simply trust and walk in the light He gives us now.



And finally, we made our own candles and enjoyed a candlelight supper. Philip said this was wicked messy and asked for Konos' address so he could send them a "thank you for giving my wife messy ideas" card.

First, I chopped up a block of paraffin:



Then we broke up crayons and added them for color:



We melted the crayons and paraffin over a double boiler (note, if you desire trying this: do not use the pan you plan on using for supper that night.) We also added some peppermint essential oil.:



We took empty one quart milk cartons and placed wicks in the center. We added ice cubes and some random other broken crayons (the kids wanted polka dots in their candles):



We poured in the wax. This was very messy. A funnel would have helped. A lot.



When they were solid, we peeled off the cartons:



Then we enjoyed our candles at dinner. It was neat when they burned low, as the light flickered through the holes created by the ice cubes.



Now we are moving on to our study of horses. Lots o' fun! More projects to come in the future!

2 comments:

Heather said...

I'm SO doing the candles this week with the girls! Thanks for the tips!!

Jean said...

That is a great project (worth the mess) and they had to have loved seeing the light flicker in their candles.