WISDOM OF DANIEL

My name is Daniel and I am 6. I have a big sister called Joanna, and you can read her things here.  But this is my page, and it’s where I put:

• My latest news
• My ‘maths with sweeties’ worksheets
• My stories and poems
• My ‘Wisdom of Daniel’ questions, thoughts and ideas
  (the newest ones are at the top, but they go back all the way to when I was three!)

Latest News: It’s just been my birthday so now I am six!  My favourite birthday present was a plasma ball, and a set of walkie-talkies, and a ‘secret savings’ box which uses mirrors to hide my money.

Maths with sweeties: You can download three worksheets all about how to do interesting maths using sweeties:
I can do maths with sweeties.
I can do more maths with sweeties.
I can do so much more maths with sweeties.

Stories and Poems:
This is Daniel’s story called Meteorite emergency.
Here is Meteorite emergency with Daniel’s pictures
Here are his three ‘Weather Poems‘.
A Haiku:
Look how the ants climb
all over the apple core
kids on the playfort

And a picture of a laptop showing a pirate treasure map:

THE WISDOM OF DANIEL
Thoughts, questions, ideas and more!

AGE 6

It turns out that I like Lebanese food.
Even though I didn’t even know the word ‘Lebanese’.
It was cheese-bread and hummus, and I don’t like chick peas on their own but I do like them when they’re hummus.

AGE 5

I think there should be women bishops. And if they do vote for it to happen, then the people who lost shouldn’t have anything special, just a “well done for trying”.

I don’t want to be Archbishop of Canterbury, because I wouldn’t be able to do what I want to do.

I have been thinking about abstract nouns. I’ve got a good one: Knowledge.

It’s important that we call God ‘Our Father’ not ‘My Father’ because we are all God’s children together.

I love you so much that I think I might cry. It’s because I’m so full of love that some of it spills out. It looks like tears but it’s actually love.

I find it hard to fall asleep because if I stop thinking I don’t feel right. Because thinking is just me, it’s what I do.

Angels are awake all night so that they can stay up and pray for us while we are asleep.

Heaven isn’t up in space, it’s everywhere, but differently real. It’s full of people and hugs and love, but mostly love.

When I ask God things I wish he would just tell me the answer, but maybe he wants me to work some things out for myself.”

It’s all grey and rainy today, but these flowers look like sunshines to remind us that Jesus is really alive again, because Jesus’ light is like the sun. And then I looked up in the sky and it looked really beautiful suddenly and I thought “He’s alive, he’s alive!”

We have hollow chocolate eggs at Easter because they’re like God’s coffin. When we eat them it lets God out to be alive again.

If one person dies and then their best friend dies too, they can hug in heaven and be happy again.

Why do we even have the word ‘nothing’? Because there’s never actually really nothing, is there?  There’s always something. I’ve been wondering that for a long time.

When you talk to God you shouldn’t really do it all publicly, you should just talk to God in your brain, so only he can hear you.  We learnt that at school.

Daniel: Can you use a black hole to travel to another galaxy?
Mummy: Probably not, but you’d be too squashed by all the gravity before you found out for certain.
Daniel: That would be bad.  But when there’s no gravity on a space ship you have to poo into a bag so your poo doesn’t float everywhere.
Mummy: Um, yeah. I think.

Daniel: Why is Good Friday called ‘good’?
Mummy: Because when Jesus died on Good Friday, and that showed us how much God loves us, and love is good.
Daniel: Yes, because people do sometimes give their lives away so that the people they love most can carry on being alive. God gave his life away for us, and he gives us lots and lots of life all the time.

My tummy hurts just a bit. Maybe I should generally wait a little bit longer between biscuits?

When I look at the cross on my wall it helps me to focus on God.

Daniel: What’s an electro-magnet?
Mummy: It’s a magnet that runs on electricity so you can switch it on and off.
Daniel: Oh, so they probably use it for space-boots. It would be useful in space.

Did God actually save the queen?

Mummy, my off switch is in my head, that’s why you can’t reach it.  I just switched Daddy to ‘demo’ but it’s bedtime so I’m switching you to ‘shout’.

What makes the yoyo go up again?  Is it like light waves, or does the bounce come in packets like photons?

Daniel: Mummy, can we keep this bit of my toenail, and stick it to some card?
Mummy: Why?
Daniel: I want to bury it in the garden (but not in the hole with the dead pigeon in it, we’ll have to dig a new hole) as a time capsule.
Mummy: Why do you want to put your toenail in a time capsule?
Daniel: Because it’s got me in it.  It’s for remembering me, and who I am.
Mummy: We could put other things in with it, too, like a picture you’ve drawn.
Daniel: But definitely the toenail.
The toenail is now taped to a piece of card and in the back pocket of my diary. It has yet to be buried.

Daniel: Why is St Nicholas a saint?
Mummy: Um, because he did really good things and loved God, I suppose.
Daniel: But that means I’m a saint too.  Are we all saints?

I think God is sort of outside time so that he can see the whole world and everything, he could even see it backwards if he wanted to.

Daniel: What colour do I use for Mary?
Mummy: Mary usually wears blue.
Daniel: I bet she didn’t really wear blue. I bet they all wore brown.

Mummy, don’t forget to tell everyone at the Christingle service that God made the world out of love.

Daniel: I hate my medicine. It’s yuck.
Mummy: Yeah, I know, it’s the horriblest thing in the world.
Daniel:  No, the horriblest thing in the world is dying without having been loved.
Mummy: Um, who said that to you?
Daniel:  I worked it out myself.

AGE 4

Daniel:  Mummy, can we pray to God about my eczema?
Mummy: Of course we can. What do you want to say to God?
Daniel: I want to say, Please God, can you take away my Eczema?
Mummy: We can definitely pray that.
Daniel: And then, if God doesn’t take it way, I’m going to pray for it to be less itchy.
Mummy: That’s a good idea.
Daniel: And if it can’t be less itchy, I can pray that God will help me not to scratch it.
Mummy: That’s a really good prayer, Daniel.
Daniel: And then is it OK to say to God that we’re really not joking?  ‘Cause we’re not, are we?

Here’s a strawberry. I picked it and thought of you, so it’s got my love in it.  Eat it, Mummy. Can you taste the love?

Mummy: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Daniel: I want to be King of Mars.

Daniel: You know, Mummy, God can hear everything I’m saying.
Mummy: Um, yes he can.
Daniel:But when God talks to me he doesn’t use a mouth, he puts thoughts straight into my brain.
Mummy: Yes, that can happen.
Daniel: But how do I know if they’re God’s thoughts or my thoughts?
Mummy: Wow, Daniel, that’s a big question!
Daniel:  Shall I ask Daddy then?

Mummy, you can’t just find smiles. You have to make them out of your own happiness.

Daniel: Mummy, did you know God is invisible? That means we can’t see him.
Mummy: That’s right.
Daniel: And did you also know that when we become invisible we’ll be able to see God then?

Age 3

This was when we were on holiday in East Sussex, and had spent the day visiting the site of the Battle of Hastings. Later, we walked round the town of Battle.

Daniel: What’s this town called?
Daddy: It’s called ‘Battle’.
Daniel: Oh.  So what was it called before the Battle?