Lifestyle (kidstuff) - Living Earth

CEBU, Philippines -  We have a lot to thank for about magma. If it weren't for magma, the Earth's plates would have sunk long ago. That means it would be impossible for the formation of islands. It could have been total water world.

And because the Earth is seen as a living, breathing organism, we are to understand how it behaves as it regulates temperature, burns energy, continually renews its skin, and experiences changes to its face as it ages with time.

• Amazing Earth" facts provide that:

• Under the oceans, there are the earth's largest mountain ranges that circle the planet like the stitching on a baseball.

• More than 80 percent of the Earth's surface is volcanic.

• The theory of Pangaea states that all of Earth's current continents were originally a single supercontinent that existed some 200 million years ago during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. The northern part of the supercontinent, North America and Eurasia, was called Laurasia - and Gondwana, the southern part, was made up of Australia, South America, Africa, Antarctica, and India. The latter later broke away and moved north to join Asia.

• Pangaea was not the beginning position of the land on Earth, but one of as many as six lost worlds that have come and gone. Pangaea was preceded by Pannotia about 550-650 million years ago and by Rhodinia around 1.8 billion years ago. Before then, at intervals of roughly 500 million years, Nuna, Kenorland, and Ur existed and then broke up!

• Pangaea broke up starting along the line that would become the mid-Atlantic ridge when the existing fracture at the southern end of South America/Africa widened and opened the rift like a zipper. As these new continents moved apart, they pushed and folded up the Earth's crust and created great mountain ranges.

• The Earth's plates move just a few inches a year - about as fast as a person's fingernails grow. This continental pattern predicts that 250 million years from now, a new supercontinent will be born!

• Earth's greatest source of heat, besides the sun, is its interior, which conducts a hundred billion calories of energy to the surface each year - or 1.5 microcalories per .155 square inch of the earth's surface each second. So much energy radiates from inside the Earth that it could satisfy all human energy needs three times over.

• As the earth cooled after it had finished growing, the lithosphere - the hard, outermost layer between the mantle and the Earth's crust - cracked like an eggshell and split into seven large and 12 small floating islands with jagged edges. These islands are the tectonic plates that move continuously over the viscous mantle, rubbing, pushing and trying to mount one over the other.

• Earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains are all formed by the Earth's moving plates.

• Plate tectonics contributed to making Earth habitable by creating volcanoes, as well. The water vapor and other gases emitted by volcanoes during Earth's early years helped to create Earth's oceans and atmosphere.

• When a tectonic plate lingers over a hot spot for a while and then moves on, a volcanic island is formed.

• The Himalayas are examples of the movement of tectonic plates against each other.

Why am I sharing these facts? It's because the Earth has all the while behaved according to how it was designed. What made effects of earth movements monstrous were man's silly ideas that challenged nature.

We are the ones misbehaving, not the good old Earth!

Make Your Kids Read(and have fun too!)

Ever since the first family computer was invented and televisions became pervasive, it’s getting harder and harder to get kids reading nowadays. While there has been a vast improvement in the past years, given the onslaught of fantasy books like Harry Potter and Twilight, you still find a vast majority of kids who would rather play with game consoles than pick up a book.

Here are a few simple tips to develop a love of reading in children:

Start early, really early. Google any study on reading during the pregnancy stage and you’ll see that statistics show that mothers who read to their womb are more likely to give birth to kids who will be voracious readers later on.

Make reading time a fun time. Liven up the seemingly “boring” reading time with pre and post reading activities like picture crossword puzzles, art projects and audio-visual support. Kids these days need all the stimulation they can get.

Choose a school that values reading. Sadly, not all schools give priority to their reading program. Look carefully at their curriculum to see if they can help in developing in your child a love for the written word.

Lead by example. How can your kids give importance to books when they see that you yourself rarely pick up one?

As kids get older, find new genres. Picture books will not work well with older kids, while wordy books might be beyond their reach for now. Discover new styles that can pique their interest.

One such genre that can work for them is the “illustra-novella”. These are books that combine both traditional text and art. Leading the way in this genre is The Dopple Ganger Chronicles by G.P Taylor, author of Shadowmancer and Wormwood. Famed explorer and former thief Eric Morrisey Ganger and his mischievous sidekicks, twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple discover a world of madmen, wild dogs, treasure seekers, and an otherworldly visitor with a secret message. This book series will definitely capture kids’ (and adults as well) imaginations and sense of adventure.

There is a whole new creative book world out there and you just have to find the key to attracting your child’s interest and transforming them into the next generation of book lovers.

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The Dopple Ganger Chronicles Vol 1 The First Escape is available at all OMF Lit Bookshops, Philippine Christian Bookstores, National Bookstores, Powerbooks and other bookstores nationwide for only P395.

For more information on this book, as well as other titles, call OMF LITERATURE at 531.6635 I 531.0141 or email [email protected]. Visit OMFLit.com for news, events and online book shopping.

OMF LITERATURE is the country’s leading publisher of inspirational Christian books. OMF LITERATURE celebrates more than 50 years of publishing life-changing LITERATURE, including bestsellers The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren, I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris, This is My Story, a collection of testimonies by Donita Rose, Gary Valenciano, and more.

SUMMER IS COMIN’

Summer is oh comin’ in,

At the beach cool waves splash in,

Breezy winds whip back your hair,

As you enjoy the annual fair,

Kites oh flying round and round,

Children running on the ground,

Then comes night, under the stars,

Use a telescope to see Mars.

The next morning is another day

Of summer fun, hooray, hooray!!

Amira Axelle Arellano Miel, Age 9 (FREEMAN)