End of July 10:30 p.m.
Last week I looked northwest out the window at an amazing
sunset at 10:30 (my bedtime). This week
I’ve noticed that it’s getting a little dark before I’m ready for bed. I’m turning on the lamp to finish those last
pages in the book or the last rows of knitting.
The sky and light patterns are beginning to rapidly change. There will be darkness tonight and in the
early morning. The sky never darkened
for two months (end of May to end of July).
On June 21st the sun rose around 2:15 and set around 23:00
but for those two months the dusk turned into dawn before the sky had a chance
to get dark. I look forward to seeing
the stars again but I’ve really enjoyed the many hours of sunshine extending
our outside time after dinner. Last week
we were out picking blueberries in the forest for the next morning’s blueberry
pancakes.
Living so far north has been an interesting experience for
us all. I occasionally hear Amelia up
from bed peaking behind the blinds at a lit sky before she finally lays down
for sleep.
This past winter in January of February Amelia asked one
day, “Why are there days?” Sometimes I
give her fairy tale answers and sometimes I get scientific. I must have been feeling scientific that
day. We sat on the coach and I talked to
her like a sixth grader. I found a
speckled ball. I told her the ball was
the Earth and a white spot on the ball was Sweden where we lived. I continued by getting out the
flashlight. I turned it on. It was the sun. I showed her that the Earth, the ball, rotated/spun. The time it took to fully rotate was one
day. When Sweden first began to face the
sunshine it was morning and as it spun away from the sun it became night. I guess I couldn’t help myself, I
continued. I explained that the Earth
also rotated *around* the sun and that took an entire year. I demonstrated and even showed her pictures
on the internet. I found some great
sites on a NASA webpage, probably most appropriate for older kids. Once again I continued. I wanted to explain seasons so I told her
that the Earth was tilted. I got out the
ball and the flashlight again. I once
again showed her where Sweden
was, way up north. In the winter it’s
tilted away from the sun so it doesn’t see the sun for very long each day. In the summer Sweden is tilted towards the sun so
the day has lots of sun time.
Too much information??
At dinner the light was on over the table. Amelia says, “The light is the sun. My face is Sweden. She begins to rotate in her chair. When her face is facing the sun she says, “It
is day time.” She continues to rotate
and is no longer facing the light above the kitchen table. “Now it is night.” She got it!
For several weeks she would pretend she would be falling and
she would say, “The Earth is tilting!”
We’d say, “The Earth is so big you can’t feel the tilt.” But she still likes to pretend to fall and
say, “The Earth is tilting!”
She still occasionally comments on the Earth tilting and the
sunshine during the day. During the two
summer months Amelia went to bed when the sun was still shining and woke up to
a brightly shining sky. Fairly soon the
she’ll be going to bed with the sunset.
