Monthly Archives: January 2019
HISTORY TIDBIT: MOSCOW McDONALD’S
The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15th, 1955, and the franchise went on to become a family favourite in the U.S.A. The first Canadian one opened in 1967. By the 1970s, McDonald’s restaurants were popping up in Europe as well, but Russian kids didn’t get to go to one until […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: ENDURING CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME
Question: What is the longest running children’s TV programme in the world? Answer: England’s Blue Peter which first appeared on the BBC in October, 1958, with the name being derived from the nickname of the blue nautical signal flag with a white square in the centre that indicates a ship is ready to sail. I […]
HISTORY SHARE: HISTORIC TOYS
By the end of January, if not before, a lot of kids will already be bored with some of the stuff they got for Christmas, so here’s a decade-by-decade look at the toys their parents and grandparents favoured in their day. https://www.parent.com/the-toys-that-have-captured-kids-imaginations-for-decades/
HAPPY ROBBIE BURNS DAY
For some kid friendly Burns Night activities, visit: https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/burns-night
HISTORY TIDBIT: ROYAL TAKE-OVER
After a son was born to the (nominally) Protestant English king, James II, and his (far from nominally) Catholic queen, Mary of Modena, on June 10th, 1688, England could have been looking at a return to the Catholic/Protestant thing that had caused chaos throughout the land during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: FIRST CONCORDE FLIGHTS
Question: On January 21st, 1976, two Concordes supersonic jets carried out simultaneous take-offs from Heathrow Airport in England and Orly Airport in France, embarking on what was, for each, the first commercial flight with fare-paying passengers. Where were they going? Answer: The British Airways one was headed for Bahrain, the Air France one for Brazil, […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: THE WARS OF THE ROSES
Question: The royal houses of Lancaster and York fought for the crown of England in an ongoing dispute that took up much of the fifteenth century and was later known as the Wars of the Roses because of the rose emblems each side sported. A marriage between scions of the families represented by the Red […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: HISTORIC TAKE-OVER
Question: What reigning monarch was overthrown by American forces on January 17th, 1893? Answer; Queen Lydia Kamakaeha Liliuokalani, queen of the Hawaiian Islands, which would be officially annexed by the United States of America five years later. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3159
CRITTERS READERS POLL AWARD
Shield Of Beom placed fifth out of a list of twenty-five YA books published in 2018.
HISTORY SHARE: HEN GALAN – THE ‘REAL’ NEW YEAR
Happy New Year – if you live in Cwm Gwaun in Wales. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tiny-welsh-village-celebrates-new-14149569
Time Travelling With Kids 