That Orange Spikey Thing

 

*** Flash Back ***

I vividly remember making these in the first grade! At the time, we were living in Mt. Airy, NC; the town better known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show. I loved it there, the schools, the snow, my neighbors, our fabulous yard with the greatest climbing trees! 

I recall a perfect slope on one side of the lawn that was great for sledding. There was also a grand basement with the spookiest coal room loved by all smallish visitors! 
We seemed to have company all the time which meant, all the cousins and I got to sleep on pallets in the living room! Popcorn and flashlights for all!

Somehow, the smell of oranges and cloves always takes me back to those grand and lovely days from my childhood!

Today, we live far away from any possibility of snow, however, I want my Little Mister to grow up with wonderful memories of his childhood. And perhaps, one day when he is a Big Mister, the smell of tangy oranges will bring back a flood of sweet memories to him as well!

I can only pray!

A bit of information:
The first pomanders were made from gold or silver. They were shaped like balls and hung
by a cord from the waist. They were filled with sweet smelling herbs and spices, and used
as perfume worn from the Middle Ages onward. They were also thought to keep one from getting sick. Today, pomanders are made from fresh fruits and are hung
in a closet to scent clothes and keep moths away or simply decorations.

Paper Plate Angel Wall Display

I have a giant empty wall space that needed a Christmas lift! So Little Mister and I cut out some paper plate angels. He actually ended up playing with the scrap wedge pieces. He grabbed my hole punch and tried his best to punch holes in them. So, I swiftly seized this teachable moment and punched a different number of holes in each and had him counting while I made more angels!

We then stamped the line "Heaven and Angels Sing" from a wonderful Christmas Carol using letter blocks and ink. Finally, we hung them on the wall. I hot glued a bit of yarn on the back of the plates to use as a hook!

Lyrics
Angels we have heard on high
Singing sweetly o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo! Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be,
Which inspire your heavenly song?
Gloria, in excelsis Deo! Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo! Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

History
In A.D. 129, Telesphous, Bishop of Rome, ordained that, "In the Holy Night of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, all shall solemnly sing the 'Angel's Hymn.' " With that proclamation the 'Angels Hymn' became the first Christmas hymn of the Christian church. Its most common English version was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, and its most memorable feature is its chorus Gloria in Excelsis Deo!, which is Latin for Glory to God in the Highest.

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Native American Salt Sticks - Science Play

Native Americans collected salt on sticks and carried the salt to areas where it was not readily available. They would place the sticks in a shallow lagoon in an upright position. When the salty ocean water evaporated, the salt crystallized on the sticks. The salted sticks were wrapped into bundles to trade.
They followed trade routes to inland ares and traded for such items as obsidian, which they used to make arrow heads.

What we did:

1. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into a small mixing bowl.
2. Add 1/4 cup of table salt to the water and stir until dissolved.
3. Continue adding small amounts of salt until no more will dissolve.
4. Add bits of clay or wax to the bottom of a shallow bowl. Make sure it is thick enough to hold toothpicks in an upright position.
5. Add your toothpicks in the clay/wax.
6. Pour the saltwater solution over the toothpicks in the bowl.
7. Continue to add water to the bowl until your solution covers the toothpicks by at least a 1/5.
8. Set the bowl in a sunny window and check it each day.

Observe the day to day changes!

The Turkeys Three (and a little history)

Where has the time gone? There are just a few more days until Thanksgiving. 
I figured if we were gonna do some turkey crafts, it had to be now!

We had to get our hands and feet dirty to make a turkey!

Here we used cupcake liners to make colorful feathers for the Mr. and Mrs.

His feathers are a painted paper plate that has been cut into a wedge shape.

Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

There may be plenty of reasons why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving, but the fact remains that a roasted wild turkey makes for a wonderful delicacy with which to celebrate the festive season with the entire family! According to Benjamin Franklin, turkey is more respectable than the eagle and a true original native of North America. In fact, he wanted to establish turkey as the national bird of America instead of the bald eagle! We wouldn't be eating it today, had Ben Franklin's wish been carried out!

Legend has it that the Colonists were in the search of a cheap and easily available option that would sufficiently satiate the hunger of a large company. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I was celebrating a harvest festival with peacock meat and wild boar, along with a baked goose. When she was informed that the Spanish Armada, on its way to attack England, had sunk, the Queen was so delighted that she ordered an additional roast goose. Thus, goose became the favorite bird at the harvest celebration in England. This custom was carried over to America by early settlers who replaced roasted goose with roasted turkey, as wild turkeys were more abundantly found (they are not migratory birds) than geese, which are difficult to rear. Thus, a new tradition of serving turkey at Thanksgiving celebrations was born. Some say that eating turkey in affluent families came into practice in England in the 15th century itself, when it was very expensive.

More scientifically speaking, since turkeys are born in the spring season and take about 9 months to mature, feeding on insects, worms, and acorns till maturity (giving the meat its taste), they are perfect for being feasted on in fall, by which time they weigh as much as ten pounds! That is a lot of turkey to make pies, lots of pies! Pies were a staple winter food for American homes and they made all sorts of them.

Another story behind eating turkey on Thanksgiving goes like this:
By 1540s, England had already adopted the turkey as a part of its Thanksgiving feast to celebrate the harvest. The tradition of turkey is rooted in the 'History of Plymouth Plantation', which was written by William Bradford, the Pilgrim Governor. The book states that when, in 1620, the Pilgrims arrived in America, sailing from Plymouth in England, they brought the practice of eating turkeys with them. In 1621, the first Thanksgiving harvest feast was cooked to praise the Lord. They were to dine with Wampanoag Indians, a Native American Indian tribe of hunters that gathered all types of meats, who took them for hunting wild birds (according to the letters of pilgrim Edward Winslow) as per their signed treaty for peaceful co-existence. On the behest of the Pilgrims, turkeys were hunted and served during the course of the feast. But the Governor's documents were lost, having been taken away by the British during the War of Independence.

Thanks to Charles Dickens, turkey for Thanksgiving was further popularized through his best-selling book A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, which describes the traditional English Christmas feast. Bob Cratchit's family is handed over a turkey from Scrooge (his first act of kindness) as a Christmas present to finish their meal. At the time this book was published, turkeys were easily available in grocery stores but could only be afforded by wealthy families.

Finger Dancing to the Blues

This year the tags for our cars changed here in Mississippi. Sadly, we left behind the Biloxi Lighthouse and have moved to the Blues. The new tag pays tribute to Mississippi's musical heritage and features an image of B. B. King's famed guitar Lucille. The slogan “Birthplace of America’s Music”, with the words “Celebrating Mississippi’s Creative Culture” surround the guitar.

Little Mister asked so many questions about it while he watched me change the tag. So, we came in and I pulled out some old CD's and we listened. He loves music and I enjoy watching him "dance"!

We then decided to let our fingers do some dancing all decked-out in blue!

~DANCING TO THE BLUES~

He really got into this... 

"Dance with me Mommy!"

Mayflower Math and More

 

 OK, I know the first thing you may be thinking... Since when were pirates on the Mayflower?! Answer: Since my Little Mister became obsessed! This was a fun project/activity and pretty easy!

 I had some thin strips of Balsam wood left over from one of my projects, so I just cut out a boat shape. I halved 2 craft sticks and hot glued them together and then along each side of my boat. Across the bottom, I glued 2 more sticks after trimming about 3/4 of an inch off. Then I glued the entire boat to a pre-painted paper plate. The thickness of the doubled craft sticks allows plenty of room to slide other sticks "in" the boat. We then painted masts and stamped some sails. Finally, we decorated some craft sticks as people!
Pilgrims and Pirates!

 You can play Mayflower Math many ways depending on your child's skill level. First I just asked him to put 2 pilgrams and 1 pirate in the boat. Then we counted 2+1. Or, 4 pirates were on the boat and one jumped overboard. How many were left, 4-1? You get the idea!

We also tried to play with a die. He rolled and added that number in the boat. Rolled again and took that many out.

Simple but very fun!

We also made a Mayflower handprint that I think turned out VERY cute!

Alright, not only an I a science geek, I am also a history hound! So here is some interesting information about the Mayflower and her famous voyage!

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6/16, 1620, with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members aboard the small 100-foot ship. During the first month of the voyage, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong North Atlantic winter gales, causing the ship to be badly shaken, with water leaking from structural damage. There were two deaths, but this was just a precursor of what happened after their arrival in Cape Cod, when almost half the company would die in the first winter.
On November 9/19, 1620, they sighted land, which was Cape Cod. After several days of trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.
The Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States.

 
List of Mayflower Passengers
This is a list of the passengers on board the Mayflower during its trans-Atlantic voyage of September 6 - November 9, 1620, the majority of them becoming the settlers of Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. Of the passengers, 37 were members of the separatist Leiden congregation seeking freedom of worship in the New World. The Mayflower launched with 102 passengers, as well as at least two dogs, and a crew of 25-30 headed by Captain Christopher Jones. One baby was born during the trip and named Oceanus Hopkins. Another, Peregrine (meaning "wanderer") White, was born on the Mayflower in America on November 20, before the settlement at Plymouth. About half of these emigrants died in the first winter. Many Americans can trace their ancestry back to one or more of these individuals who, 'Saints' and 'Strangers' together, would become known as the Pilgrims.

Persons with an asterisk after their name are known to have died in the winter of 1620-1621

• Allerton, Isaac
  • Mary (Norris) Allerton*, wife 
  • Bartholomew Allerton, 7, son 
  • Remember Allerton, 5, daughter (Leiden, Netherlands)
  • Mary Allerton, 3, daughter (Leiden, Netherlands), the last survivor of the Mayflower company
• Bradford, William 
  • Dorothy (May) Bradford*, wife 
• Brewster, William 
  • Mary Brewster, wife
  • Love/Truelove Brewster, 9, son
  • Wrestling Brewster, 6, son
• Carver, John
  • Catherine (Leggett) (White) Carver, wife
• Chilton, James*
  • Mrs. Susanna Chilton*, wife
  • Mary Chilton, 13, daughter 
• Cooke, Francis
  • John Cooke, 13, son
• Cooper, Humility, 1,  baby daughter of Robert Cooper, in company of her aunt Ann Cooper Tilley
  • John Crackstone, son
• Cushman, Robert
• Fletcher, Moses*
• Fuller, Edward* 
  • Mrs. Edward Fuller*, wife
  • Samuel Fuller, 12, son
• Fuller, Samuel , (brother to Edward)
• Goodman, John*
• Minter, Desire
• Priest, Degory*
• Rogers, Thomas* 
  • Joseph Rogers, 17, son
• Samson, Henry, 16,  child in company of his uncle and aunt Edward and Ann Tilley
• Tilley, Edward*
  • Ann (Cooper) Tilley*  wife of Edward and aunt of Humilty Cooper and Henry Samson
• Tilley, John*
  • Joan (Hurst) (Rogers) Tilley*, wife
  • Elizabeth Tilley, 13, daughter
  • Turner, John*
    • boy Turner*, son, died in the winter of 1620.
    • boy Turner*, younger son. died in the winter of 1620.
  • Winslow, Edward 
    • Elizabeth (Barker) Winslow, wife
    • Mrs. Thomas Tinker*, wife
    • boy Tinker*, son, died in the winter of 1620.

Planters recruited by Thomas Weston, of London merchant adventurers

• Billington, John 
  • Eleanor Billington, wife
  • John Billington, 16, son
  • Francis Billington, 14, son
• Britteridge, Richard*
• Browne, Peter 
• Clarke, Richard*
• Eaton, Francis 
  • Sarah Eaton*, wife
  • Samuel Eaton, 1, son
• Gardiner, Richard 
• Hopkins, Stephen 
  • Elizabeth (Fisher) Hopkins, wife
  • Giles Hopkins, 12, son by first marriage 
  • Guild, John, (Essex)
  • Constance Hopkins, 14, daughter by first marriage
  • Damaris Hopkins, 1-2, daughter
  • Oceanus Hopkins, born en route
• Margesson, Edmund*
• Martin, Christopher* 
  • Mary (Prower) Martin*, wife
• Mullins, William* 
  • Alice Mullins*, wife
  • Priscilla Mullins, 18, daughter
  • Joseph Mullins*, 14, son
• Prower, Solomon*
• Rigsdale, John*
  • Alice Rigsdale*, wife
• Standish, Myles 
  • Rose Standish, wife
• Warren, Richard 
• Winslow, Gilbert , brother to "Pilgrim" Edward Winslow but not known to have lived in Leiden.
• White, William*
  • Susanna White, wife widowed February 21, 1621, subsequently married Edward Winslow - first Plymouth wedding 
  • Resolved White, 5, son, wife was Judith Vassal
  • Peregrine White', son (born aboard the Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor)

Men hired to stay one year

• Alden, John - considered a ship's crewman (he was the ship's cooper) but joined settlers
• Allerton, John*, was listed as a hired man but was apparently related to one of the Pilgrim families on board, Isaac Allerton's, who all came from Leiden. He sailed in order to settle in North America, and was to return to England to help the rest of the group immigrate, but died during the first winter of the Pilgrims' settlement. He may have been a relative of the "Pilgrim" Allerton family^.
• Ely, Richard, hired as seaman, returned to England after term was up but later returned to New England and died there. He is mentioned briefly as a sailor by name of Ely in "Of Plymouth Plantation."
• English, Thomas*, hired to master a shallop but died in the winter
• Trevore, William, hired as seaman, returned to England after term was up

Servants

Thirteen of the eighteen persons in this category were attached to Pilgrim families, the other five were with non-Pilgrim families. Four of those listed here were small children, given over by Samuel More to Thomas Weston and then to agents John Carver and Robert Cushman, who assigned them to senior Mayflower Pilgrims to be classed as indentured servants. This was all due to scandal involving the children’s mother and her husband Samuel’s effort to dispose of the children by sending them away to Virginia as indentured servants. Long ago, Richard More and his siblings were even thought to have even been parentless London street waifs, but in 1959 a 1622 document revealed their being the product of an adulterous relationship as the reason why the children were sent abroad on the Mayflower.

• Butten, William*, age: "a youth", servant of Samuel Fuller, died during the voyage
• Carter, Robert*, teenager, servant or apprentice to William Mullins, shoemaker.
• --?--, Dorothy, teenager, maidservant of John Carver.
• Doty, Edward, age probably about 21, servant to Stephen Hopkins
• Holbeck, William*, age likely under 21, servant to William White
• Hooke, John*, age 13, apprenticed to Isaac Allerton, died during the first winter
• Howland, John , age about 21, manservant for Governor John Carver
• Langmore, John* , age under 21, servant to the Christopher Martin
• Latham, William, age 11, servant/apprentice to the John Carver family
• Leister, Edward also spelled Leitster. , aged over 21, servant to Stephen Hopkins 
• More, Ellen (Elinor)*,  Elinor (Ellen) More, age 8, assigned as a servant of Edward Winslow. She died in November 1620 soon after the arrival of the Mayflower at Cape Cod Harbor.
• More, Jasper*,  brother, age 7, indentured to John Carver. He died onboard Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor December 6, 1620. He was buried ashore in the Provincetown area.
• More, Richard,  brother, age 6, indentured to William Brewster. Richard More is buried in what was known as the Charter Street Burial Ground but is now the Burying Point/Charter Street Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. He is the only Mayflower passenger to have his gravestone still where it was originally placed sometime in the mid-1690s. Also buried nearby in the same cemetery were his two wives, Christian Hunter More and Jane (Crumpton) More." 
• More, Mary*,  sister, age 6, assigned as a servant of William Brewster. She died sometime in the winter of 1620/1621. Her burial place is unknown, but may been on Cole's Hill in Plymouth in an unmarked grave as with so many others buried there that winter. As with her sister Ellen, she is recognized on the Pilgrim Memorial Tomb in Plymouth, misidentified after her sister's name as "and a brother (children)" - the statement of calling her "a brother" mistakenly coming from William Bradford's failing memory years after the event of her death.
• Soule, George, 21-25, servant or employee of Edward Winslow
• Story, Elias*, age under 21, in the care of Edward Winslow
• Thompson/Thomson, Edward*, age under 21, in the care of the William White family, first passenger to die after the Mayflower reached Cape Cod.
• Wilder, Roger*, age under 21, servant in the John Carver family
• Williams, Thomas*

In all, there were 102 passengers on the Mayflower - 74 males and 28 females

Carpenters

• Kerr, George

Animals

At least two dogs are known to have participated in the settling of Plymouth. In Mourt's Relation Edward Winslow writes that a female mastiff and a small springer spaniel came ashore on the first explorations of what is now Provincetown. There may have been other animals on the Mayflower, but only these two dogs had been mentioned.


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All Aboard!

 What little boy doesn't like trains? Mine is currently in Love.

Everyday we pass this old (recently restored) historic train depot. I finally took the time to stop and visit.  Inside were some old photographs and a few other odds and ends that little hands should not touch. The outside was its redeeming quality. It is beautiful. I believe Little Mister enjoyed going up and down the stairs more than anything else. We played until the mowers showed up... this was our cue to scram!

(He is a little scared of LOUD noises.)

 These were some really neat old pictures of the depot. In the top picture it is on the right. In the lower picture it is far back and on the left.

Of course our activities for the day had to be ALL about trains!

We practiced spelling his name on a Name Train.

I fired up the Photoshop and made a quick Train Trace Pre-Writing practice sheet.

 

Have you tried this with your kiddos? I actually still have one from my childhood.

Pennies on the Rail Road tracks.

Before and After

 

Stumbling upon a P.O.W. Camp

O.K., I was truly shocked by the sign on the side of the road in the middle of Nowhere, MS! 
Who knew? I sure didn't.

This is rather lengthy but I found it very interesting stuff. 

My geekiness shines through!

Four major POW camps in Mississippi were established at Camp Clinton near Jackson, Camp McCain near Grenada, Camp Como in the northern Delta, and Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg. The four base camps were large compounds designed to house large numbers of POWs. Camp McCain housed 7,700, Camp Clinton 3,400, and Camp Shelby housed 5,300. Camp Como originally held 3,800 Italian soldiers, but the Italians were soon moved out of Mississippi and replaced by a smaller number of Germans.
 
In 1944, the four base camps — Camp McCain, Camp Como, Camp Clinton, and Camp Shelby — developed fifteen branch camps. Ten of these camps were in the Delta. They were located at Greenville, Belzoni, Leland, Indianola, Clarksdale, Drew, Greenwood, Lake Washington, Merigold, and Rosedale. These camps furnished POWs to work in the cotton fields where in the spring under a hot sun, they chopped the weeds away from the young cotton plants with a hoe. In the fall they picked the cotton — a job they disliked. Mechanical cotton pickers had not yet been perfected, so cotton had to be picked by hand. The prisoners dragged heavy canvas bags, and as they filled the bag with cotton, the sack became heavier. As they pulled the cotton from the bolls, the pointed bolls scratched and punctured their hands.
The other five branch camps were located in south Mississippi in the pine lands. They were at Brookhaven, Picayune, Richton, Saucier, and Gulfport. Much of the POW's work was in forestry. They planted seedlings, cut timber and pulpwood, and cleared lands for various purposes. They worked to complete Lake Shelby, a small lake a few miles from Camp Shelby.
Perhaps the most intricate and useful work that was done by German POWs in Mississippi was the Mississippi River Basin Model. The U.S. Corps of Engineers was in charge of major waterways, and they had long wanted to build a one-square-mile model of the entire Mississippi River basin. Such a model could be of great value in predicting floods and in assessing the water flow of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.


The war in Europe ended in May 1945, but the POWs remained in the compounds and continued to work — some for almost a year after the war ended. American soldiers were mustered out of the military quickly and efficiently, but President Harry Truman decided that a labor shortage existed in the United States and that the POWs should remain in this country until the labor shortage was over. Some POWs did not get home to Germany until mid-1946. They had been in the Mississippi camps almost three years.
Over the years since 1946, German veterans have come back to Mississippi to see the camps that they lived in as young men. They are sad to learn that the camps were torn down after the war. The German POWs in Mississippi were probably aged 18 to 20 when they were captured in North Africa in 1943. The survivors of the Mississippi prisoner-of-war camps are now very old. But many of those who are alive still come back to Mississippi to remember their experience. In a strange way the camps saved their lives. Unlike many other German soldiers who were killed in the war, these POWs survived. When they entered the Mississippi camps, their war was over.

Helicopters and Trains

Today we saw a few more Bare Necessities for little boys,  

helicopters at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby and a 

train on our way home. All-in-all, I believe Little Mister is ending the day satisfied.  

And this Mommy got to learn a few new things today as well. I love museums and hope to pass this interest to my son. I would definitely recommend this museum, it flows great and has wonderful displays inside and out and it is free!

Soldiers of WW1 created trench art between actions

Woman Welder Champion at Ingall's Shipyard