The Moon

As we discussed astronauts walking on the moon, we decided to look up what the Bible says about the moon. From Genesis 1, we read:

 

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

So, I ask the kids questions to get the conversation going:

• What is the lesser light? They answer, "the moon." 
• And what is the purpose of the moon? God gave us the moon to govern the night, but also it is a part of marking time.
• How does the moon mark time?  

This led to a whole discussion of orbits of the moon, of the earth, and rotation of the earth and how this marks days, months, seasons and years.  I had the kids walk around each other, one pretending to be the sun, one the moon, one the earth.  They marked days, months, seasons and years.

At other times we have actually charted the moon on a calendar with our observations.  We could see how the moon cycle marks a month, although it doesn't specifically line up with the Roman calendar we use.  We talked about how the people of Israel measured time with a lunar calendar and how the various Jewish feasts correspond in the lunar calendar.

You can also make a display of the phases of the moon using oreos.

Another fun idea for the moon is to read the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson entitiled "The Moon."  We memorized this poem as a family and my daughter even made up a song for it.