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Women’s History Month

Mar1

March is Women’s History Month, and I think it might be a good time to celebrate some of the women I admire or who influenced history in some way. Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a feminist. However, the women I admire run the gamut from women who kept their homes and reared their children wisely to those who were involved in politics or business and, of course, women authors. While I tend to think focusing on people of certain race or ethnic group (Black History Month, Hispanic History Month) reinforces the very stereotypes that such a celebration is supposed to combat, a month to focus on the half of the human race that is female seems like a good thing. We are all either female or related to at least one woman.

More Women’s History Month resources.

So we’ll be reading books, talking about women’s roles and women’s work, and giving my girls and boys a chance to think about what makes men and women different and what characteristics and responsibilities they share. Here are some questions for Women’s History Month:

1. What three women, still living, do you most admire and why?

2. What three women in history do you most admire and why?

3. Who are your three favorite women authors? Why do you like them?

4. WHo are your three favorite women poets?

5. What three women in the Bible do you admire or like or identify with and why?

6. What are three books about women (with a woman or women as the protagonist or main characters) that you enjoy?

7. Aside from the obvious physical differences, what are three ways that you think women and men are different or see the world differently?

8. For the guys, what are three things you don’t understand about women?
For the ladies, what three things would you like to explain to men about women in general? Explain carefully please.

9. Do you have any suggestions for short, picture book length, books that my children (ages 11, 8, 7 and 4) and I could read together for Women’s History Month?

Answer any or all of the questions, here or there, wherever you want. Be sure to leave me a note and a link if you write about any of these questions at your blog. I’ll be interested to see what you all have to say about the women in your life and on your mind.

March Madness

Feb28

March 1: St. David’s Day, the celebration of the patron saint of Wales. St. David’s Day activities for kids.

March 2: Texas independence Day. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. They’re celebrating all week long out in Luckenbach. And in Austin.

March 2: Read Across America Day, celebrated on the birthday of Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

March 3: National Anthem Day. The bill designating The Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Hoover on this day in 1931. Read Peter Spier’s The Star Spangled Banner.

March 4: March is National Craft Month. You can check out the Craft and Hobby Association Teacher Place for lots of craft ideas for students. Maybe I can even find a craft idea for the craftily-challenged.

March 6: Alamo Day. Also in 1836, four days after the Texans declared their independence, the Alamo fell to the Mexican forces under the command of General Lopez de Santa Ana. William Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and 186 other brave men died at the Alamo defending the freedom of Texas.

March 7: Monopoly was invented on this day in 1933. Start a game. We never finish, do you?

March 11: According to William Shakespeare, this date is the anniversary of the ill-fated wedding of Romeo and Juliet. How many days did they survive their wedding?

March 13: Commonwealth Day is celebrated throughout the British commonwealth as a time to appreciate the diversity of the countries and peoples of the commonwealth.

March 14: Purim begins at sundown. Celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from the evil designs of Haman the Persian. Read the book of Esther in the Bible.

March 15: The ides of March. Beware! Especially, beware of anyone lurking in the background who has a “lean and hungry look.”

March 16: Goddard Day celebrates the first liquid fuel-powered rocket flight by Robert Goddard on this date in 1926 at Auburn, Massachusetts.

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day, the celebration of the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids.

March 18: National Quilting Day. Post a picture of your favorite quilt.

March 19: Today is the traditional day that the swallows return to the old Spanish mission of San Juan Capistrano in California.

March 20: National Agriculture Day. Here’s a suggested reading list from the Agriculture Council of America.

March 23: World Meteorological Day.

March 25: Pecan Day, the anniversary of the planting by George Washington of pecan trees at Mount Vernon. Semicolon’s Paean to the Pecan.

March 27: The first of the famous cherry trees that beautify Washington D.C. were planted on this date in 1912 by First Lady Helen Taft and the Japanese ambassador’s wife, Viscountess Chinda.

March 30: Doctor’s Day. On this date in 1842 Dr. Crawford Long became the first doctor to use ether as an anesthetic when he removed a tumor from a patient’s neck. Be thankful for anesthetics and for doctors.

More Additions to the List

Feb27

Courtesy of Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man:

The White Company by A. Conan Doyle. I’m not really a Sherlock Holmes fan, but this book about archers during the Middle Ages sounds like fun.

The Moonstone andThe Woman in White by WIlkie Collins. I read one of these, I think The Moonstone, a long time ago, but I don’t remember anything about it.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I also may have read part of this classic, but I don’t remember it either.

Bitter Bierce by C. Hartley Gratton. Mr. L’Amour recommends this biography of Ambrose Bierce.

Of Time and the River by Thomas Wolfe. Mr. L’Amour says the story isn’t great, but the poetry of the language is. I’ve never read anything by Thomas Wolfe..

Then, I want to read some books by Louis L’Amour: The Walking Drum, Hondo, and Sackett’s Land are the ones I’ve chosen, almost at random. L’Amour fans: are there others that I should read instead?

To this Great Stage of Fools: Born February 27th

Feb26


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, b. 1807 (only five years after Victor Hugo).

The Arrow and the Song:
“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where.”

The Children’s Hour:
“Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.”
*Why is it that the Children’s Hour lasts all evening at my house?

Excelsior:
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere:
“So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, —
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!”

What The Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist:
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
and things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art; to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”

A little Monday inspiration from from Mr. Longfellow on his 199th birthday.

Picture Book Preschool Book of the Week (9)

Feb26

Madame Bodot, who lives in a little French town, has a rather unusual pet, sent to her by her son from Africa in an O-shaped box. She names her pet Crictor which of course rhymes with ____________. Crictor is a very friendly and helpful snake, and Madame Bodot does all sorts of kind things to make Crictor happy in her home in France. However, the climax of the story is when Crictor frees Madame Bodot from the clutches of an evil robber!

Crictor joins Curious George and Carl the Dog as a pet who is more than just a pet; he’s a helper, a companion and a friend. French-Alsatian author and illustrator Tomi Ungerer tells Crictor’s story simply with cartoon-like illustration that remind me somewhat of James Thurber’s drawings.

Susan Hirschman, the founder and former publisher of Greenwillow Books, once said: “Crictor by Tomi Ungerer is perfect, in my opinion, because of what it leaves out of the words and puts into the pictures. You have to read the book several times before you see all the details that could so easily have been in the text but are not-because they are in the pictures.”

Biography of Tomi Ungerer.
A tribute to Tomie Ungerer by Peter Sis.

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Feb25

This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous. For twenty years I had been perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I had had the window boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the awnings put up, and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many summers I had said good-bye to my friends, and, after watching the perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in town, where the mail comes three times a day and the water supply does not depend on a tank on the roof.
And then the madness seized me.

Isn’t that a delicious beginning for a murder mystery? I don’t know why it’s so appealing, but the thought of a middle-aged spinster gone mad, her madness taking the form of renting a house in the country, is amusing and inviting. And of course, such a lapse in sanity can only lead to crime, murder, and mayhem.

Unfortunately, the rest of this 1907 mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart does not move along quite so swimmingly. I liked the narrator, Miss Innes, and her companion, Liddy, but the rest of the characters were rather flat and one-dimensional. The plot is involved, with more than one villain, and more than one sub-plot, combining together to keep the reader guessing. But I found that three-fourths of the way through the book I didn’t really care whodunnit.

The writing is fun and feels more like the 1920’s than 1907. Rich people near the East Coast drive cars and have telephones and hire servants and hang out at The Club. I sometimes felt as if I were reading an early Americanized Agatha Christie, but where were the quirky characters with such strong motivations to crime? The novel ambles along, people die, but no one in the police department insists on answers to basic questions. The suspects (because they’re rich?) are free to refuse to tell the police detective whatever information they feel disinclined to share—with impunity. Maybe the police were more patient early last century than they are now.

As an historical exhibit in the history of the detective novel, I can see that The Circular Staircase would be of interest to those studying the genre. As amusement for a rainy day, it falls short. But there is that wonderful opening paragraph . . .

An interesting incident of true crime in the life of Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Mrs. Rinehart’s tombstone at Arlington Cemetery and a brief biography
First Lines, Anyone?: A Semicolon flashback

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

Feb24

What fun! Norma at Collecting My Thoughts links to this “childhood in a jar” garage sale find. Now, this project is about at the level of my crafting abilities—which are zero to nonexistent. Even I could collect some stuff in a jar!

Fa-so-la-la at The Beehive shares a jarful of her life, telling the top ten or so things she’s learned in the past year. I’d say she’s learned a few valuable lessons.

Poppins on medieval marriage and romance. You might be surprised at her conclusion.

Jen Robinson has the scoop on two bookish celebrations coming up soon: Read Across America Day, March 2, and National D.E.A.R. Day on April 12th. I’m sure we’ll be celebrating here at Semicolon since each holidays is tied to an author’s birthday. Can you guess which children’s author was born on March 2nd and what other children’s author was born on April 12th? No peeking until you’ve guessed. Hint: The spokesperson for D.E.A.R. used to love Sustained Silent Reading time in her elementary school classroom.