Parable of the Sower

We just learned about the wise man who built his house on the rock.

Sometimes when Jesus talked to his followers, he would try to explain things by telling stories called parables. They are stories that help teach lessons.

Once when Jesus was talking to some farmers he told a parable about someone who was planting seeds. This is sometimes called sowing, so we call it the parable of the sower.

He said that as a farmer was throwing seeds to the ground, some of it fell along the hard flat path. When that happened the birds came along and ate the seed right up!

Some of the seeds fell into some rocks, where it didn't have very good dirt to grow in. It grew quickly because the dirt was not deep, but because they couldn't put down deep roots they burned up in the sun.

Some seeds fell near some thorns, and when the plants grew they were choked by the thorns.

The last bunch of seeds fell into good soil, grew very well and made very good food.

Jesus explained what his parable meant:

The seeds are like the word of God and the message of his kingdom in heaven.

The seed on the path is when someone bad stops us from believing.

The seed on the rocks is someone who believes the word for a little while, but stops believing later.

The seed in the thorns is someone who worries too much about life and about money and things they want, and can't live for God.

The seed in the good dirt is someone who believes the word, understands it and spreads the word on to other people.


(from: wikipedia - parable of the sower)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Other Prophets

Mercury - Mariner 10, Messenger

We just learned about the space travel to Venus on the space crafts Venera 7-16, Mariner 10, Pioneer Venus

We have sent space crafts to study Mercury through the years, but it's difficult because it is closer to the sun.

The first space craft that was sent up was Mariner 10 on November 2nd, 1973.
It was sent mostly just to fly by Mercury and study the sky and look at the land.

The next space craft was called Messenger, launched August 3rd, 2004.
The letters in the name stand for: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, Ranging.

It took almost 7 years for it to get to Mercury, and it orbited the planet for 2 years taking pictures.
It took close to 100,000 pictures of the whole planet!

(from: wikipedia - messenger)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Yellow Dwarf

Spanish - Counting to thirty nine

We just learned how to count to 29 in Spanish, let's keep going!

31 treinta y uno - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee oo-n-oh /?/
32 treinta y dos - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee doh-ss /?/
33 treinta y tres - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee t-day-ss /?/
34 treinta y cuatro - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee koo-ah-t-doh /?/
35 treinta y cinco - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee see-n-koh /?/
36 treinta y seis - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee say-ss /?/
37 treinta y siete - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee see-ay-tay /?/
38 treinta y ocho - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee oh-choh /?/
39 treinta y nueve - sounds like t-day-n-tah ee noo-ay-vay /?/


(from: wikipedia - Association of Spanish Language Academies)

Do you remember how to say it in French?
French - trente et un, trente-deux, trente-trois, trente-quatre, trente-cinq, trente-six, trente-sept, trente-huit, trente-neuf

Calcium

We just learned about the element of Magnesium.

Another chemical element is Calcium, called "Ca" for short on the Periodic Table.

When you drink milk, did you know that you're also drinking some metal?
Calcium is a healthy ingredient found in milk, that helps us have strong bones and teeth.
You can't tell that it's metal because there's only a tiny bit of calcium in there, so little you can't even see it.

Calcium all by itself is a shiny gray colored metal.

(from: wikipedia - calcium)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Doping Semiconductors

Koala

The Koala bear is a fuzzy little animal from Australia, that is not actually a bear.
It is from a family of animals known as marsupials like the kangaroo.

Just like the kangaroo, koalas carry their babies in pouches on their bellies until they are older.

Koalas mostly only eat eucalyptus leaves, and they don't eat very much or drink very much.
Because they don't get much energy, they sleep about 20 hours a day, and are only active and moving around for about 4 minutes a day!


(from: wikipedia - koala)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Squirrel

Jejunum

After the food goes through the duodenum, it continues down into the jejunum.

It is a very long twisting and turning tube that your food slowly goes through over several hours, and your body soaks up good things from your food while it is going through your jejunum.

(from: wikipedia - jejunum)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rectus Abdominis

Mali

We just learned about the country of Niger.

Mali is a country in the north west part of Africa.


(from: wikipedia - mali)

The flag of Mali is green, gold and red.
The green is for the plants growing in the country.
The gold is for purity and the precious metals in the ground like gold.
The red is for the blood of the Mali people who fought for freedom.


(from: wikipedia - flag of mali)

To eat in Mali you might have millet, which is a type of grain.

(from: wikipedia - millet)

The city of Timbuktu is in the country of Mali.
Since it has a silly sounding name, and was part of many stories written by a famous person named Leo Africanus, many people thought it was just a made up name and not a real place!

(from: wikipedia - timbuktu)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Netherlands