Wednesday 28 January 2009

Faith, Snails and Guinea Pigs!

An unlikely combination in some ways, but they've all been discussed this week in our house.

I don't really discuss religion as a rule - or blog about it - I always feel it's a thing personal to myself. I was bought up within the Church Of England as a child and my faith is my own. I don't call my dh an atheist as I don't care much for the word, so I usually say, on the rare occasion someone asks, that he has no religion. A general discussion between us some years ago led to us to agree we would bring the children up and allow them to decide which religion, if any, they wished to follow. Not all of you may agree with that, however that is the mutual decision we came to.
Now, both children have been given the same answers to questions, information and so on, but Hettie, it has become apparent, believes passionately in evolution, and Issy believes just as passionately in the Creation. So we have somewhat of a split in belief around here. Further discussion between dh and myself. Decision remained the same really, but we've had a long chat with the girls about understanding and tolerating the beliefs of others. So Hettie has continued her study of Charles Darwin and Issy & I - well we snuggled in bed and read the Bible. We re-read about the creation and her comments were 'that's much better' and 'I think God probably should have had 3 weeks rest, he was probably really tired, the earths pretty big' Oh and obviously 'Did God create Guinea Pigs?'
And so onto snails, more precisely our Giant Land Snails. Created or evolved, they sure are rapidly increasing in size:

A little bit of science - Hettie built a model of DNA and amazed me by pretty much remembering the parts of a cell.

And Issy made a sheep that grows crystal wool, its not working that well so far!!

And lastly we come to the guinea pigs. We let them out in the indoor run and I'm not sure whether it was the sudden freedom and space but it became quickly apparent that at least one baby was a boy - if you see what I mean ;o) Dh woke me with a cuppa at 6.30am and the phrase 'Your guinea pigs are at it' OK time for action! All babies are boys and so they have been separated from their mummies. This in turn led to mummies standing on their houses and squeaking loudly - into the early hours of the morning! This morning dh woke me by saying 'Your guinea pigs sound like they're going to explode' He was right - the mummies were making the strangest noise like a phone ringing, which got louder and louder. They really did sound like they might pop!
All seems quiet this evening at last, children, snails and guinea pigs. Peace at last.

9 comments:

dawn klinge said...

That's so interesting about the mommy guinea pigs and their reaction to be separated from their babies.
I also liked reading about your girls different beliefs and the way you handle that....I think you're doing a great job!

Admin said...

We took the same decision regarding the childrens faith and both have lent towards a creationist point of view too.
Love the science models -did you buy a kit for them?
And did you figure out a solution regarding paper?

Lisa said...

Thanks Dawn :o)

Carol, we bought the kit from the Science Museum, I'll pm you a link! Didn't really solve the paper, unless I crop A4 :O

Lisa x

Ruth said...

Hows this for convoluted. D firmly believes in God but B thinks the big bang was done by God. Talk about hedging your bets.I love you dna kit. B would love one of them.

Shirl said...

My approach to my belief system has gone through a lot of changes recently. Neither dh or Dee are particularly religious. We let the children make up their own minds about faith too.

Your snails are looking great and guinea pigs just have to look at each other and they're pregnant!

Well done to Hettie for remembering all about cells ... :0)

Always Learning said...

My husband and I are of the same faith, our children are brought up in that faith,that said we teach our children about other other beliefs and cultures. They are not christened, as they can not make choices as babies, therefore we hope they will choose to get baptised, but that will be their chioce.

So regarding science, we come from a creator point of view, which these days seems to be in a minority, as evolution is tacught as fact, when actually it's still only theory, that's why it was so nice to get a science program like Apologia, at least the stuff by Dr Wile.

We teach the creation account, not as in 7 literal days as we are not creationists, but that the word day represents different units of time in the bible, for instance it talks about a thousand years as being as a day to God.

Sorry am I waffling? :-/

Got me on a pet subject..lol

As for the whole 3 ring binder issue along with the paper, as I mentioned I emailed Jamie at conquest books,but unfortunately non of his suppliers do 3 ring binders, he is looking to source them as he is often asked about them.

I feel I we could set up in business, if we could get a supplier to ship over! I'm sure we would have a demand for them.

CJ x

Lisa said...

Thanks Shirl

Never waffle CJ ;o) I'm looking at Apologia for Issy! Be back to you about which level.

We certainly could set up LOL

Admin said...

Well if you did CJ I would buy them :o)

Admin said...

This company sell
3 ring binders:
http://www.cleansweepsupply.com/pages/subsection0006.html/sp+3+ring+binders
and Paper
http://www.cleansweepsupply.com/pages/subsection1472.html

and ship to the UK, though no price is given.