Archive | 12/7/2009

Do You Know What Today Is?

Every year on this date, my mom would ask me, “Do you know what today is?”

“Christmas? Almost Christmas? The beginning of Christmas?”



I eventually learned that December 7th has nothing to do with Christmas. Go here for an article by Maggie Hogan on commemorating this “date which will live in infamy” in your homeschool.

The book Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg is one of the Dear America series from Scholastic. Go here for more information on the book and some activities to accompany it.

Other books for children and young adults:
Air Raid–Pearl Harbor!: The Story of December 7, 1941 by Theodore Taylor.

A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer. Interview at Cynsations with author Harry Mazer.

Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salibury. A Japanese-American boy in Hawaii, Eddy Okubo, experiences the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, lies about his age, and joins the Army. Because of his ethnic background, Eddy is given a special assignment that tests his commitment, patriotism, and endurance.

World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk.

Clouds Over Mountains by Matt Joseph. Reviewed by The Sleepy Reader.

Naval History and Heritage Command website on the story of Pearl Harbor.

Christmas in North Platte, Nebraska, 1941

“The whole effort started by mistake. Several days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, people in North Platte, Nebraska heard that their own Company D of the Nebraska National Guard would be passing through town on its way from an Arkansas training camp to the West Coast. A crowd gathered at the Union Pacific train station to greet the boys with cookies, candy, and small gifts. When the train arrived, it turned out it was transporting a Company D from Kansas, not Nebraska. After a moment of disappointment, someone in the crowd asked, ‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ And they began handing their gifts to the war-bound soldiers.
The next day Miss Rae Wilson wrote the North Platte Daily Bulletin to suggest that the town open a canteen to greet all troop trains stopping there. ‘Let’s do something and do it in a hurry!’ she wrote.
Beginning on Christmas Day 1941 and continuing through World War II, the town offered itself as the North Platte Canteen. For 365 days a year volunteers from the remote community of 12,000 and surrounding hamlets provided hot coffee, doughnuts, sandwiches, and encouragement for young soldiers passing through. Hundreds of families, churches, schools, businesses, and clubs pitched in to help raise money, buy supplies, and make food. They greeted every soldier on every train with gifts and good wishes. By April 1, 194 its last day, the North Platte Canteen had served more than 6 million GI’s.”
Taken from The American Patriot’s Almanac, compiled by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb. Semicolon review here.

What small act of kindness or charity is God asking you to do today? Do it. Don’t delay or find excuses; just do it. Who knows how God may multiply your small effort?

Giving Books from All Around the Blogosphere

Twas about two weeks before Christmas and all through the blogosphere, bloggers were recommending books for holiday gifts:
Semicolon Suggested Audiobooks for Kids.
For Tween Adventure Seekers
For Tween Romantics
For Tween Dystopian Fiction Readers
For Tween Mythology BuffsTween Fiction/Nonfiction Pairs
For Tween Sports Fanatics
Nine series for nine year old boys.
Books for wannabe architects, engineers, veterinarians, doctors, dancers, artists, writers and entrepreneurs.
Tween Graphic Novels
For Tween Baseball fans.
Mother Reader’s 105 Ways to Give a Book.
Semicolon’s Addendum to the Mother Reader list.
Books for eight and twelve year old girls.
Survival stories for adults and teens.
Ten Books on Scientific subjects for the scientist in our midst.
Picture Books for little boys.
More picture books for little boys.
Poetic Gift Giving.
For Teenage Drama Queens.
For Young Musicians.
Books for Boys, old and young
More books for Twilight fans
Children’s books paired with movies.
Nonfiction picture books.
For spirited and precocious kindergartners.
Classic books and movies for boys.
Books for teenaged girls.
Books for people with pets.
For little dancers.
Cool cookbooks for kids.
Horrible horror books.
For Christian readers
Buying poems for the holidays.
Crime fiction.
Books about books for booklovers.
Bookish gifts from Etsy.
Semicolon’s 100 68 Best Fiction Books of all Time.