Thursday 2 April 2015

Easter Eggs and Dark Chocolate

We don't always do much for Easter.  The last time we did anything for it was two years ago, so it's time to decorate the eggs again!


We tried a few different methods of dyeing our eggs, with mixed results:
  1. direct painting with food colouring - didn't work too well
  2. direct painting with coloured pastes made of food colouring and bicarbonate of soda - didn't work either
  3. marbling with nail polish - worked ok but very messy
  4. marbling with ink - worked ok but the marbling ink stinks
  5. soaking cracked eggs in coloured water - worked!


Needless to say, we were slightly disappointed to get little success compared to the amount of effort we had to put in to get a few half decent-looking eggs!  However, since I had the marbling ink out, Tiger then went on to do some 'proper' marbling on watercolour paper.


Tiger found the texture of the ink and the semi-random (one can manipuate the patterns made by the ink to some extent) patterns that it makes fascinating.  We both found the smell too strong and unpleasant though, so the pieces of marbled paper were left to dry outside for a few hours to get rid of the smell.


Since our dyed eggs haven't turned out too well, we thought we might have better results drawing them.


While we were drawing, Tiger wondered what the connection is between the chocolate eggs and Jesus.  We had talked about this before but he obviously needed some reminder, so I pointed him to the videos that we had watched two years ago.

As we watched the video about how the festival of Easter has evolved from the fertility goddess of ancient Mesopotamia through to the Anglo Saxon times, Tiger was intrigued by a piece of obscure information about an ancient manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus


He then took it upon himself to look through the ancient Greek text on the British Library website, and spent the next hour and a half attempting to translate it from ancient Greek to modern English.  I did suggest to Tiger that he has a better chance of success at translating ancient Chinese texts since I can give him a hand at that but I can't help with ancient Greek.  Despite my offer, Tiger decided to have a go at translating the Codex anyway, and he got as far as translating the first stanza in 1.5 hours.  It was a slow, long-drawn process by the looks of it, but I think he's off to a good start.  In the process, Tiger taught himself much about ancient Christian history and theology, translation techniques, texts comparisons, and language rules (grammar, syntax, sentence structure).  It is all quite fascinating to watch.

Once he has had enough of translating, we resumed our happy research on Easter chocolate eggs and how they are made in the factory:


From the consumer perspective where we see chocolate eggs stacked along the shelves of supermarkets, we then moved slowly along the supply chain and traced the source of the main ingredient, cocoa beans.  What we found is not a happy situation at all:


Tiger was slightly upset -- as any naturally uncorrupted human being would be -- by what he saw in the documentary above, but I think it is important for him to start becoming aware that our relatively safe, first-world existence is not to be taken for granted, and that many people suffer injustice and exploitation every day.  Although we may not be able to offer a solution, at the very least we should not become part of the problem by sheltering ourselves in apathy and igorance.

12 comments:

  1. The marbling is beautiful. We have tried marbling using cheap shaving foam and food colouring. We put paper in this and then scraped off the foam and left to dry. It is important to scrape off most of the foam or there will be a soggy mess.
    Sadly, I couldn't see your videos-not sure whether it is the link or my computer.

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    1. Thanks for the tip about marbling with shaving foam and food colouring, Sarah! We'll have to try it next time. :-) Our marbilng ink really stinks so I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had known about its smell.

      I've added the links to the videos in the post above. Hope they work now.

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  2. We do very little at Easter even though it signifies the biggest and most important event of the Christian year. I really need to get a bit more organised. If they would only stop changing the dates each year....I do get very confused!

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    1. LOL! I only know when Easter is because the supermarkets have their banners up weeks in advance! Happy Easter to you and your family, Claire!

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  3. Hwee, your blog is evolving into an ever-more inspiring unschooling resource! I love how you share Tiger's learning trails with us. I'm very impressed with his ancient Greek translation. Do let me know if he ever decides to take ancient Greek further. I started learning a while back but then shelved it in favour of German simply because there were more online resources available for a popular modern language.

    I hope you all have a lovely Easter. :-)

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    1. Thank you for your very kind words, Lucinda! I keep wanting to get back to being more structured and "classical" in our approach but we seem to be quite stuck in our unschooly ways. :-) It's not bad, really. I still find Tiger's way of learning (which is very different from my own school-acquired learning experience) to be very fascinating, hence the record that you see here. I am trying to understand his process, so by sharing my observations, my hope is that they be encouraging or reassuring to others who might be on the same path.

      Thanks also for offering to help with ancient Greek. :-) It is much appreciated. Right now, the mystery associated with the untranslated parts of the Codex is enough to sustain Tiger's interest. I will be sure to let you know if this initial interest turns into anything more substantial in the longer term.

      Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

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  4. It's been ages since we've colored eggs! I love the cracked shells and dyed ones! And using the paint to make marbled paper is AWESOME! Isn't it interesting how doing a simple activity can lead to such great learning and creativity??

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    1. It is! I'm still amazed at how many different rabbit trails we can follow once we start looking into any one thing, therefore I'm so glad that homeschooling allows for such exploration. You won't find that happening in schools where schedules and test requirements have to be strictly followed! :-)

      Have a happy Easter, Jessy!

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  5. Wow! I am impressed by your rabbit trails! Reading this has been very inspiring.

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    1. Thank you for your kind comment, min. :-) I'm very glad that you find encouragement and inspiration from reading my post. Have a good Easter weekend!

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  6. I think your eggs are beautiful! This is the first year that we haven't dyed eggs...I'm not sure why...just busy I guess (hosting a big egg hunt tomorrow at our house)...but it's such a great tradition to dye eggs, and I love the different ways you tried it. (We've only done the dipping in food coloring type, sometimes with rubber bands tied around to make stripes). The 'dark side of chocolate' is appalling. Yes, definitely something kids should be aware of. I found http://equalexchange.coop/ for fair trade chocolate (and coffee/tea, other stuff). Pricy, but delicious...Don't know if they'd ship to where you are though...I think it's amazing that your son spent so long translating from Ancient Greek!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, E! :-) We don't dye the eggs every year so it has been fun to do it again this year. I hope you have had a fun egg hunt over the weekend! And thanks for the link to the Fairtrade chocolates. It's good to be able to support ethical businesses.

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