Noah and The Ark

Both Friday and today we discussed Noah and the Ark. We read a story and Bible verses telling why God decided to destroy the earth and only save Noah and his family. The Bible describes the number of each kind of animal they are to invite onto the ark. The legends story tells it that Noah was to take seven pairs of certain animals for food and sacrifice as well as one pair of every other animal. The way to decide which pair from each species to take was to watch their demeanor as they came to the ark. If they got to the ark and laid down then they were the two in that species to come aboard. If they stood they were left behind. That is how they were to be sorted. When the waters began to rain down and rise from below it took one full year before the whole flood was over. The kids and I discussed how it is often misinterpreted that it was 40 days and 40 nights, but the 40 days and 40 nights explain how long it actually rained. It took much longer than that for the waters to subside. According to the legends book they sent a raven out first to find dry land and he became occupied with eating and so they sent out the dove and the dove was to return with the olive leaf. It was an interesting story because it really brought home how very long they were on the ark with all of those animals.

Today we read the Bible verses for the construction of the Ark. When we were done reading about it we went to the ball field and measured it out using the measurement the Bible called for. God told Noah to make the ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits breadth and 30 cubits height. A cubit is about equal to 18in. So 150 yards is about how long the ark was. It looks huge when you are standing on one end and someone else is standing on another. But then you imagine it filled with the number of animals it had in it and suddenly it seems so small. It really made the ark seem real when we could see it's size.

Friday we did pictures of the Ark. This is mine.

Here is Joey's. He did a great job following my directions and example.

This is Eden's. She's an excellent artist! We also changed our nature table to reflect fall coming soon. The evenings are getting cooler and the days warm, but not blazing hot. It's obvious fall is around the corner.