Dan. 3 57-88 The Song of the Three Jews

 Reading today in my Psalter (which happens to be Catholic), I found this passage that I have never read in my Protestant Bible.... a beautiful song of praise.  I said to myself, I have never read this in 40 years of reading the Bible.  Why is that?  Is it Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical?

It turns out that yes, it is.   There are three sections of Daniel left out of Protestant Bibles.  I wondered why.... 

I guess in an argument around Purgatory, Luther claimed Maccabees 2 was non canonical.  From what I read he was going with Jerome on this who was skeptical of certain books of Scripture because they were not included in the MT-The Hebrew Masoretic Text. 

However, they were included in the Greek Septuagint, the version of the Apostles, and the version based on a lost older copy of the Hebrew Bible.  

Jerome didn't know there were other copies of the Hebrew Bible circulating in the old days, so he based his conclusions on the one he felt was most reliable when he created the Latin Vulgate. 

The MT is a complete Hebrew text, whereas, the Septuagint is a Greek version of an older (than MT) Hebrew text.  Which was is more accurate has been the question.  

That being said, now I know why I never heard the "Song of the Three Jews," but it's quite beautiful and it reminds me of St. Patrick's Lorica especially when it says:

 "all winds, bless the Lord.  

Fire and heat, bless the Lord; 

chill and cold, bless the Lord.  

Dews and rains, bless the Lord; 

ice and frost, bless the Lord...

Ice and snow, bless the Lord;" 

--It would have made a nice addition to my Field Study classes' nature journals last year.  

Homeschool highlights February 2018

We have been tunneled in because of the cold and snow, but these changing seasons open up new possibilities and inspirations.  We get crafty, we want to bake and to explore in books.  We have been fascinated with the winter skies this year since our beginning serious nature study.  For want of plant life we looked up and have been amazed.

 

We have been studying Constable's paintings, the marvelous sky painter.  He was the first to study meteorology and paint skies as they actually were, not copies of Italian skies, or simple backdrops for subjects but the sky in its natural awe inspiring state.  We are using it as a unit study to explore painting clouds in perspective, how light affects the color of blue in the sky, storm predicting etc... I teach Nature Study at Chicago Charlotte Mason Scholars, our co op.  I love learning with my kids and have been so into the science and art of the skies.

 

Bethan and I have finally launched a successful microscope study.   It has only taken me 10 years to figure out how to do this with my kids.   But I collected the supplies--thanks to Amazon Prime and Bethan's urge to check Craigslist and finding the perfect scope! We are using Richard Headstrom's "Adventures with a Microscope" which is old but simple and easy to use.  Each exploration is 2-3 pages.  She journals her findings and usually wants to keep going when her time is up!

 Dad rescued this old toy from the attic amid dirt and squirrel poo.  It still works and Z scored 100% on the countries of Europe.  Old toys like this keep kids from accidently clicking on crap when using computers, provides 3D learning--a nice change from pen and paper, and contains buttons--what kid hates buttons?  So thankful.

The awesome designer at work in nature. Math & Science & Bible & Literature---interrelate and blow our brains!

This is a great book to get from the library before going to the Museum of Science and Industry's new "Numbers in Nature" exhibit.  I was amazed at this book because I am one of those non-Math types who love to find an inspiring historical personal divine connection in Mathematics.   This was what was missing from my public school education.  So anyhoo--you can read Blockhead   and discover how the great designer, the God of Heaven and Earth has left his (mathematical) fingerprint on all nature.   The exhibit really shows the breadth of it...how the spiral (Fibonacci's sequence) and the golden rectangle can be found in the solar system, in humans and in plants and animals... its so amazing to see art, math, and design all coming together and revealing the glory of God.  I wish they would have had worship music at MSI, but I was praising!!
Fibonacci sequenceand then my face in the fibonacci sequence...if i put my eye in the littlest square, my chin perfectly touched the bottom of the spiral...

On Safari

Aziza and I read Water Hole Waiting 



today... a story of an African water hole and all the animals that visited there.  They referenced a live safari webcam where we hope to spot an Elephant!!

Remaking Science for girls...

 I am totally brainstorming here people...I don't have this all worked out in my mind but am working it out....

Nutrition, Health, Gardening... Biology and Chem as it relates to those subjects...focusing on preparing girls to raise healthy children and care for their husbands as it relates to their diet. 
 
A woman who has "brought up" (teknotropheo: Teknon 'child" and trehpo "to cherish, to nourish, to give food to")  her children--feeds them well (1 Tim 5:10).  It seems to follow that studies of nutrition would be helpful for feeding the family but also for medicinal purposes as well.  What herbs, vitamins, minerals are healing to the body?  What diets heal various ailments? (This study wd prepare the girls to help their husbands by saving the family money regarding health issues, also.)   I used to think that was some ancient medieval wisdom now defunct, but the older I get the more I see alternative medicine works.  Like when Chad went on a veggie, brown rice, seeds and nuts diet and his gigantic planters wart collection fell off.  Also, seeing the effects of juicing, eating vegetarian, reducing sugar, taking vitamins etc. has on our families ability to fight colds.

Also...Health is a good practical subject to teach girls to wonder at their bodies and care for them... not only theirs but their future families..  how excellent to have wisdom regarding sexuality, maintaining energy, heart health, exercise, first aid & CPR, applying biology to have an abundant life. 

Gardening as it relates to the family but also as it related to God who nurtures us (like the vineyard keeper), God the creator extraordinare, God's infinite goodness and creativity in his creation.  I am so bad at gardening but I keep at it--  Last year I discovered KALE.  It was actually Chad's project, but w/ a few dollars investment we reaped year round, heavy vitamin packed veggies.  Gardening teaches so many things like patience.... 

Astronomy as it boggles our mind at the infinity of God as it caused us to walk more humbly and more awed at him.

I think boys would have overlap here but I would focus on some other subjects more and these a little less....for example....science as it relates to woodworking, plumbing, electrical work, computer science ....along those lines.

I'm reading...

  "Pagoo" by Holling to the girls. I was intrigued by the goosehead barnacles Hollings mentions because their heads look like geese...and found this picture of a load washed up on the beach in Wales. Aren't they incredible?

Gooseneck Barnacles

 

Loving learning science through narrative...

Charlotte Mason fanatics love this book because children learn all about animals and their habitats from an engaging narrative. I would love to own the original old copy. Here's a snippet: Jenny Wren cocked her pert little head on one side, and her sharp little eyes snapped. "Why don't you learn to swim, Peter, like your cousin down in the Sunny South?" she demanded. "If he had been in your place, he would simply have plunged into the Smiling Pool and laughed at Reddy Fox." Peter sat bolt upright with his eyes very wide open. In them was a funny look of surprise as he stared up at Jenny Wren. "What are you talking about, Jenny Wren?" he demanded. "Don't you know that none of the Rabbit family swim unless it is to cross the Laughing Brook when there is no other way of getting to the other side, or when actually driven into the water by an enemy from whom there is no other escape? I can swim a little if I have to, but you don't catch me in the water when I can stay on land. What is more, you won't find any other members of my family doing such a thing." Link to FREE AUDIO: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23708/m4b/23708-02.m4b