Monthly Archives: January 2016
HISTORIC WORTH-A-VISIT SHARE: AUSTRALIA’S STONEHENGE
Although I haven’t been to it, this place seems interesting. And it’s summer there, so the weather should be nice. http://wakeup-world.com/2014/02/25/australias-stonehenge-and-the-great-stone-complex/
IT’S FAMILY LITERACY WEEK
Even if you haven’t managed to turn your kids onto history-related books yet, Family Literacy Week is a great time to introduce them to family history, as in the books you liked a child. Among my favourites were: 3-7 range: Smoke & Fluff, by A.J. MacGregor, The Teddy Bear’s Party, by Enid Blyton, The Saggy Baggy […]
HISTORIC WORDS: “I SHALL RETURN”
Sometimes the things people say get repeated often enough to become famous. When Japanese forces compelled U.S. General Douglas MacArthur to flee the Philippines in March, 1942, MacArthur uttered the phrase, “I shall return”. And on October 20th, 1944, he did. Troops under his command landed on, and liberated, Leyte in the Philippine islands. Except […]
HISTORY SHARE: HISTORY OF BAGPIPES
Today is Robbie Burns Day, a time to think of all things Scottish. Like bagpipes. Even though they didn’t actually originate in Scotland, they’re definitely associated with it. Bagpipes were supposedly even played in ancient Egypt, and I certainly heard them in modern Egypt. (Well, relatively modern. I was there in 1979.) Descending some stairs […]
HISTORY TIDBIT: RUSSIA’S ‘BLOODY SUNDAY’
The Russian Revolution of 1917 wasn’t the Russian peasantry’s first attempt to get out from under the heel of the ruling class. An earlier revolution took place in 1905. On January 22nd of that year, a priest, Georgy Gapon, led a group of demonstrators on a march to the winter palace in St. Petersburg with […]
HISTORY TURN-OFF: DON’T GET TOO GRUESOME
Kids can often be attracted to history by stories about kids from history. But not always. Once, when doing an interactive history unit on Ancient Rome with a large group of kids aged six to twelve, I got the bright idea of having one of the local priests come in to talk about Christian persecution […]
HISTORY SHARE: HISTORIC FINDS: THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
History-wise, it oft appears as though nothing officially existed until Europeans discovered it. The Hawaiian Islands were ‘discovered’ by Captain James Cook on January 18th, 1778, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cook-discovers-hawaii
