England Week - Stonehenge

Okay, so a lot of attention has been on that island “across the pond” recently what with the royal wedding and all. But if you can hang in there for just one more week, I’d like you to focus on jolly ole England a tad longer.

My inspiration for this week’s theme came from reading Sarum: The Novel of England. This saga starts back before there was even an English Channel in the days of prehistoric man, and doesn’t end until the 1970’s. Even at 900 pages, it’s a page turner. The author has an amazing talent for creating interesting, believable characters as the history of England unfolds. I was keen on how Mr. Rutherford introduced people with similar traits to those in the past. The short and stocky Stonehenge mason displayed the same characteristics and talents as the stone cutter working on Salisbury Cathedral centuries later. Anyone with an interest in history will get a lot out of this novel.

And while you’re reading Sarum, how about getting your kids hands on some great books about Stonehenge, Queen Elizabeth, Cathedrals, the Plague and the Industrial Revolution? Then you and your children can discuss these topics while your enjoying your afternoon crumpets and tea.

For starters, If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge, is a fabulous book published by none other than National Geographic. It follows an archeologist as he tries to understand what possessed ancient Brits to place massive stones in a circle. After studying a predecessors notes he decides to look at it with fresh eyes and invites a Madagascar archeologist, who is unfamiliar with the site, to Stonehenge. This is a must own book for any child interested in archeology. They will learn how people are able to make contrasting interruptions and see how the ground contains hints of the past, if only you’ll look properly. As the author himself states,  “This is a book about questioning what others believe to be true, not accepting ideas just because famous people say they are right.” You’ll have to read the book to see what secrets were unlocked :-)

Ages: 9-12
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Activity: Build your own Stonehenge. Here’s an idea using legos, and here’s a more ambitious backyard version.

Great Heights Week - A Giraffe Adventure

Eighty years before Columbus made his incredible journey, a giraffe sailed from his African home to China. It was there that he was named after a mythical Chinese creature that was thought to bring good luck. Chee-Lin: A Giraffe’s Journey is a jewel of a book with drop dead gorgeous illustrations. Children will find parts of it sad. Loosing one’s freedom is always sad. But they will delight in Chee-Lin’s special relationships and their imaginations will be sparked by far away cultures in a long ago time.

Ages 4-8
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Activity: Here is a pretty-nifty easy-to-access animal geography game. You know that giraffes come from Africa, but where do these other animals come from?

UNCHARTED TERRITORY WEEK: Dr. David Livingstone

TITLE: The Story of David Livingstone

AUTHOR: Vautier Golding

WHAT TERRITORY WAS EXPLORED AND WHEN? From the mid 1840’s until his death in 1873 David Livingstone explored the unmapped interior of Africa. He searched for the source of the Nile and Congo Rivers and was the first European to see Mosi-oa-Tunya Waterfall, which he renamed Victoria Falls.

WHO DID THE EXPLORING? David Livingstone was born to a struggling Scottish family and worked long hours in a cotton mill beginning at the age of ten. He was an avid reader with a deep interest in nature, science and theology. By sheer determination he was able to study medicine and partake in missionary training. He longed to be a missionary in China but because of a war there he was sent to South Africa instead. Upon finding South Africa humming with missionaries he decided to go into the untapped interior of Africa for potential converts. 

HOW WAS THE TRIP? He dealt with numerous encounters with wild animals, including attacks by a lion and a rhinoceros. Livingstone also endured drought, fever and transportation hardships. The deadly tsetse-fly feasted upon many of his beasts of burden, once killing his entire team of oxen within moments while they were pulling his wagon. Dehydration was a threat on a Kalahari Desert expedition while a leaky boat was a constant irritation on his Zamesi River expedition. He was witness to the evils of the slave trade with natives being bought or captured by the Portuguese and the Arabs. He would befriend a tribe of Africans and upon returning to their village years later find it decimated and empty, cleaned out and burned down by slavers. He once witnessed this very atrocity first hand.

WHAT WAS GAINED? When back in England, Livingstone wrote and lectured on the horrors he witnessed in relation to slavery. He awakened in his countrymen and others around the world a desire to put an end to this wicked activity. He advocated trade of natural resources along Central Africa’s natural commercial highway, the Zamesi River, as a replacement to slavery. He helped countless natives with his medical skills and other know-how, teaching them how to irrigate for instance. He mapped central Africa and opened it up for settlement. But most of all he was a good and kind influence. He was not sent to Africa “to get ivory and gold and slaves but to give a good message of wisdom, and to set men free.” 

First published over a century ago, this books describes Livingstone as having a wonderful gift for finding his way into the hearts of men.

Ages 9-12
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Activity: I’ll bet Dr. Livingstone would rock at this game! Test your African geographic knowledge here.

Fruit of the Earth

They are of different genders, different continents and different centuries. So what do Johnny Chapman and Wangari Maathai have in common? Trees.

Johnny Chapman was popularly known as Johnny Appleseed and dozens of books have been written about him. Of those my favorite is Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend, mostly because I love the illustrations! They are the folksy and friendly creations of Will Moses who obviously inherited his talent from his famous great grandmother, Grandma Moses.

Johnny Appleseed spent his youth in Pennsylvania then migrated to the wild frontiers of Ohio and Indiana. At the time "a written law said every new homestead must plant fifty apple trees. An orchard showed a settler's intention to stay put and work the land. So Johnny figured, apple trees were just what the frontier needed and he'd supply them." Apples provided many uses: "dried apples, apple butter, applesauce, apple pie, apple cider, apple brandy, applejack, apple vinegar and best of all, apples, just tasted so good"

Johnny was commonly the first person a new settler met. If a family was too poor to buy his trees he gave them apple seedlings anyway. He also gave the shirt off his back and the shoes off his feet to those in need. Johnny Appleseed gained a reputation for being kind to all—people and animals. He was not only enterprising and generous but also quirky, lanky, spiritual, an avid reader and a mesmerizing storyteller. In his lifetime he planted thousands of apple trees. Will Moses' book is a great introduction to this good soul.

Ages 9-12

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Nearly a hundred years after Johnny Appleseed died, Wangari Maathai was born to a peasant farmer in the lush central highlands of Kenya. She eventually attended college in America, studying biology. When she returned to Kenya five years later she was aghast to find a nearly treeless landscape. By reading Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai children will learn how an ordinary person can make an extraordinary difference. Wangari inspired women, school children, prisoners and soldiers to plant seedlings. In thirty years thirty million trees were planted in Kenya and the planting continues to this day. The author, Claire A. Nivola, is also the creator of the charming illustrations of this very inspiring book.

Ages 9-12

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Activity: Grow and plant your own tree.

Fish Stories

If you have a young fisherman in the family, he or she is sure to enjoy one or both of these titles.

Abe's Fish: A Boyhood Tale of Abraham Lincoln is a picture book based on Abraham Lincoln's only memory of the war of 1812. In his biography his secretaries published in 1890 he is quoted to have said, "I had been fishing one day and caught a little fish which I was taking home. I met a soldier in the road, and, having been always told at home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him my fish." The author, Jen Bryant, dexterously weaves this little bit of information with a sense of Lincoln's childhood family dynamics, their hardscrabble cabin living, his love for words and his reflective nature. The illustrations complement the story perfectly, resulting in a pleasant read that children will be drawn to.

Ages 5-10
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Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth is a well told account of the happenstance discovery of an ancient and long thought to be extinct fish. Sally M. Walker does a remarkable job of recounting the initial discovery in 1938 by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a museum director, and all subsequent research up to 2001. The author has a gift for turning comprehensive information into a fascinating easy to digest story. Great photos complement the text. Don't miss this true history of scientific inquiry.

Ages 10 to young adult
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