MOON CHART MISSION

The other night we were driving home and our son asked us a question about the moon. He wanted to know why the moon looked so big sometimes and then, at other times, why it looked so small. We explained to him how the sun shines its light constantly on half of the moon. As the moon orbits around the Earth, we see different portions of that illuminated area. We explained that this process is called waxing and waning. When the moon waxes, it appears to grow in size. When the moon wanes, it appears to decrease in size. Did you know that each month the moon goes through eight phases of waxing and waning? You can learn more about their phases here at KidsAstronomy.com.

So, starting today, on the first day of December, we are going to keep a "MOON CHART".  We will observe what the moon looks like each night and then draw its shape in the square for that day. At the end of the month the kids will visibly see how the moon's shape appeared to change throughout the month! 

Won't you join us? We would love to see your "Moon Chart". You can post them on our Facebook Page or send them to nightlightstories@gmail.com.

As always we look forward to the many moon phases we can share together. 

Creating a Winter Wonderland!

"We need to make a Christmas scene for our wall." This quote from our son prompted the project we did today! It was a lot of fun, a little bit educational, and used some of our million craft materials that we have in our box!  So, what did we do?  We decorated the wall, of course!

First, we measured the wall to find out how much paper we needed. We decided to use pillows to measure rather than a ruler.  It was good practice using non-standard forms of measurement. 

We found the wall was four pillows long. We laid the pillows out on the butcher paper so we could cut the right amount to fit on the wall.

Of course, then he had to see how many pillows he was. He was two and three quarter pillows long!

We cut the butcher paper together to practice scissor skills and then we hung it up on the wall.

We decided to add a white hillside.

Then we decorated the mural with pictures we cut out from old Christmas cards we had saved, Styrofoam stickers, paper snowmen, google eyes, and any other treasures we could find in our craft box!

We colored, glued, and decorated!

My favorite thing that our five year old created on the mural was a reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. Notice Santa riding in the pink sleigh!

Our finished product was colorful 

and had a touch of all of us on it. 

Most of all, it was great teamwork!

We would love to see your holiday creations that you make as a family!  Send them to nightlightstories@gmail.com or post them on our Facebook Fan Page!

As always, we look forward to the many family projects we can share together!