Osama bin Laden: 3/10/57 – 5/1/11

Well, no doubt, the subject of Osama bin Laden may come up today. While googling for some child friendly learning opportunities, I uncovered an interesting interview. In it, Omar bin Laden, tells what it was like to grow up with Osama bin Laden as his father. Your children will learn that life with you isn’t so bad after all!

It turns out, Omar, who was 20 on that fateful September day in 2001, has published a book along with his mother titled, Growing Up bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their World. Now I haven’t read that one, but I can vouch for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. This was a fascinating, well researched, trip through bin Laden's mind. I reviewed it here along with a children’s book about Al Qaeda.

A Dog’s Tale

An unstoppable magnetic force occurred when my daughter spied this book cover. And when she got past the cover she could NOT put Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle down. Then, when I read this story of a stray dog in Iraq connecting with an American soldier stationed there and of the great lengths they went to be together,  I confess, I cried.

Ages 4-12
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Activity: Here are three ways you can help dogs at your local shelter:

1. Go to the dogs

Besides walking and playing with the shelter dogs you could also help teach them to sit, stay, walk calmly on a leash or shake paws and they will be infinitely more adoptable. 

2. Get the word (and pictures) out

Take photos and write descriptions of the animals with staff assistance and keep the shelters’ online, newspaper and other postings current. Publicly showcasing the animals that are at the shelter dramatically increases adoptions.

3. Donate food and other items

When you're buying food for your pet, why not pick up some food for the shelter animals? Shelters also need other items like blankets and sheets. Call your local shelter to ask what is on their wish list.

Learning to Read While Learning History

This is what I was reading in 1st grade:

Given the choice, I would rather have been reading this:

Today we are bombarded with more choices than ever, whether we are in the shoe store, on the car lot or in the cereal aisle. In my day everyone was wearing saddle shoes, driving station wagons, eating Wheaties for breakfast and, of course, learning to read with Dick and Jane. Well, happily, that whole variety of options thing has carried over to beginning readers! Step Into Reading offers a batch of entertaining and educational titles on five levels. Step 1: ready to read (preschool to kindergarten), Step 2: reading with help (preschool to 1st grade), Step 3: reading on your own (1st to 3rd grade), Step 4: reading paragraphs (2nd to 3rd grade), Step 5: reading chapters (2nd to 4th grade).

Step 3 is a collection of over seventy books about nature, action heroes, princesses, witches, folk tales and familiar characters like Arthur. And I'm drooling over all the history titles available at this beginning reader level. Here they are:

• Abe Lincoln's Hat
• Babe Ruth Saves Baseball!
• Barack Obama: Out of Many, One
• The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (my review)
• Christopher Columbus
• Dinosaur Days
• Eat My Dust! Henry Ford's First Race
• The First Thanksgiving
• George Washington and the General's Dog (my review)
• The Great Tulip Trade
• Johnny Appleseed: My Story
• Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President
• Listen Up!: Alexander Graham Bell’s Talking Machine
• Man O'War: Best Racehorse Ever
• The True Story of Pocahontas
  
• Paul Revere's Ride
  
  

Remember the Ladies

Betsy Ross, Harriet Tubman and Annie Oakley are among the 100 American women highlighted in Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women. This attractive collection of movers and shakers of the female persuasion also contains unfamiliar names that Shannon and I would like to research further. Women like Sylvia Earle, who walked untethered on the ocean floor, further down than any other human at 1,250 feet! And Sybil Ludington, who at sixteen rode her horse through the night during the Revolutionary War to warn that the British were attacking Connecticut. “I had NO idea that women did that!” was Shannon’s reaction.

We enjoyed reading this, and together discovering just what women are capable of. The illustrations are wonderful. The chronological order is well handled, with each spread dedicated to a designated time period from the New World to Turn of the Millennium. I question some of the author's choices, like Martha Stewart, who, granted, built an empire, yet she excluded Mary Kay Ash, who built an empire that provided so many other women an opportunity to succeed.

Warning: In the sixties area of the book the birth control pill and abortion are brought up. My daughter is ten and at first I was a little uncomfortable discussing these topics with her. But it did lead us to a great mother/daughter talk on pro-life and pro-choice views.

Ages 9-12
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All About Al Queda

Osama bin Laden's head. That's where I have been for the last couple of weeks. I finally finished reading The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wow. The breadth of research and the understandable delivery are beyond impressive. Lawrence Wright apparently interviewed 1,000 people in the Muslim world and it shows. I now know how this terrorist group evolved, starting in Egypt after World War II. It is fascinating how the pieces fit together: the formation of Israel, the sudden vast wealth of Saudi Arabia, the Soviet/Afghan War and the communication breakdown between the FBI and the CIA. Even the influence of the Kinsey report, the Monica Lewinsky scandal...and so much more. I have a clearer understanding of why these Islamic extremists hate America. A highly recommended read for every American adult. "Know thy enemy," as they say.

I became curious about books available for children on this subject. A well written book by Philip Margulies is titled Al Qaeda: Osama Bin Laden's Army of Terrorists. I found it to be organized, with just the right amount of information. And the last chapter is thought provoking.

"One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. After all, the rebellious American colonists were once considered terrorists by the English government."

Margulies raises great discussion questions about the French Resistance in World War II, Hamas in Israel and how terrorists come to be.

Ages 9-12

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