What Exactly Have We Been Doing Lately?

Well, the girls and D went skiing and tubing in Vermont:

The girls have been working on an art project that seemed to take forever -- it is multimedia with watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil:



They have begun learning how to draw figures and I hope to post pictures soon.

They have been swimming (a lot). They both are swimming a national competition this weekend:





They have been researching HPV and making a video (the last 30 seconds of the video is cut off for some reason):


They have been researching Ruth Handler:

And, in their spare time they have both read about 5 books in the past 3 weeks.

So --- even though we haven't been posting, we have been busy. In addition to posting weekly challenges and solutions at Think! and teaching some seminars on Government and Women's History, I have been working as a volunteer for the Endangered Species Coalition, creating and compiling educational materials for Endangered Species Day. I have also been doing some book reviews for the Allied Cultures Against Discrimination. I plan to teach another seminar on technology in April. D has been working hard and when home, he has planted lots of things in our garden: lettuce, carrots, onions, blueberries, and tomatoes. We are planning a family reunion for the T family to coincide with the Relay for Life in May. We have 3 happy survivors to walk in the survivor lap! So, that's what we've been doing. Maybe we'll get back to posting more regularly in the next few months.

It's Womens History Month

Since I have been putting together materials for a homeschool seminar on Women's History, I thought I'd share some educational video clips with our blog readers as well.

This is a great video.


This is a great interactive.

A Black Womanhood

This is a great article about an art display with a unique approach to history.

Remembrance Day

Today is the 67th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which led to the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program hosts three distinguished writers to talk about their recent titles highlighting the Japanese American experience. The books they discuss are supposed to be excellent. You can read more about them here.

Other good teen reads on this topic include: Farewell To Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After World War II Internment and Weedflower.

What Slums Can Teach Us

Click above and read the article. Important food for thought.

More About the Obama Inauguration 2009

Obama is our country's first president whose ethnic identity is not only linked to Europe. All 43 men who have been president of the United States up to now were either British, Irish, Dutch, or German in ancestry. Most of them had colonial ancestors. Obama is an iconic symbol of America's melting pot. And, we were lucky enough to be there to watch him get sworn in as president.

The experience of inauguration day itself was amazing. We set our alarms for 4:00 AM and walked from our hotel to the metro. There were thousands boarding the metro along side us. Some were young. Some were old. There were blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and others. There were folks in wheelchairs and on crutches. Everyone walked briskly and orderly. Some stopped to take pictures of the glowing Capitol. We passed many many trucks and busses and policeman from Ohio, Maryland and DC. We passed National Guardsmen in full gear. We watched hundreds street vendors selling their Obama gear. And, we passed thousands of porta potties (reports were that there were 4,000 of them on the Mall)!





By 4:30 we were on the mall and had staked out a spot at the first nonticketed JumboTron. It was about 8 degrees outside. We set up our blankets in front of a family from Maryland who had spent the night in the gentleman's office in DC so that they could get a good seat on the Mall. Within minutes, people surrounded us. Parents brought children barely distinguishable under their extensive bundling; students who had stayed up all night brought CVS bags full of food, warming blankets, and hand warmers. A gentleman from Kenya wrapped himself in a Kenyan flag. There were elderly people who had been wheeled into the masses by their families and friends. Some people were in sleeping bags. Others huddled under blankets. Many wore Obama Inauguration hats purchased from street vendors. Despite the bitter cold, no one complained of exhaustion, crowds, dirty bathrooms, or biting wind. They only spoke of their excitement and optimism. We chatted with virtually everyone around us. We met people from Nigeria, Hawaii, California, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, DC, New York, and New Jersey. We borrowed toilet paper, snapped pictures for others, chatted about the election, and shared food and blankets. About two hours before the start time, they turned on the JumboTrons and replayed the Sunday's We Are One Concert. It was just as enjoyable the second time around as it had been on Sunday when we viewed it from a spot near the top of the reflecting pool (see our We Are One Concert slide show for pictures). Everyone sang together and waved their American flags that had been distributed by the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

After the hours of waiting, the moment President Obama began to give his speech, a hush fell over the whole crowd. It was truly awe-inspiring to witness a group of so many be completely silent and attentive. There was an overwhelming sense of unity and a feeling that Obama was everyone's leader. Everyone seemed to trust him. The woman behind us echoed his every word. The students around us clapped and cheered. Couples embraced and kissed. The great crowd of people of all ages, color, religious and political views, and nationalities believed that Barack Obama would help America fulfill its potential.

While many departed before the benediction, we waited until the last minute to leave. Then, with tens of thousands of others, we walked back to our hotel over the Memorial Bridge.



We watched the parade from our hotel room as we tried to warm our toes under the covers. Apparently, Obama was sporting a bullet proof vest and rode in an amazingly technically equipped vehicle.

It was a beautiful day.


For more about Obama's limo, also known as The Beast, go here. If you want to see our slide show from Inauguration Day go here. For other photos by ordinary people, go here.

Side Note: We recently learned that Obama had a kata in his pocket when he sworn in. Pretty cool!

We Were There -- Inauguration 2009

I am still working on our photos but have a few ready for starters. These were taken on the Mall on Tuesday and then uploaded to Obamicon.me.







These are pictures from our small camera of those who were around us on the Mall. We were at the first nonticketed JumboTron on the left side of the Mall if you are facing the Capitol. To name a few, we had a Kenyan in front of us, lots of college students from Georgetown and Colorado State on either side, high school students from Texas who were there with their history teacher, a family from Maryland with a tween daughter, and a single woman from New Jersey.










These are pictures we took on our picture walks.











This was the view from our spot to the Capitol (for those of you who watched MSNBC, we were between their booth and the JumboTron).



This was a view from about 20 yards behind us looking toward the Washington Monument.



Look for a post on the weekend with more photos and our descriptions of what it was like to watch history unfold.

Gullah Traditions

(picture from flickr by designatednaphour)

Few know about it, but there is a culture on the sea coast islands that is struggling to survive -- the Gullah. The Gullahs who live on the islands (including some on Hilton Head) are descendants of West African slaves who worked the rice and cotton fields before they were freed and offered a chance to purchase their land. When whites deserted the coast, the Gullahs lived in isolation for generations, maintaining their African culture longer than other slave descendants in America. They speak a unique language, a blend of 17th and 18th century English and African dialects. They are known for their baskets and their fishing nets. Since the 1950s however, their farms, fishing holes and sea grass fields have disappeared as development has encroached. Cooking, medicines, storytelling and even magical hoodoo, are hard to find.

We visited St. Helens island a few years ago and highly recommend a visit there if you have a chance. We even slept at the Penn School.

If you want to watch a video about fishing nets, click here.

For a video about baskets, click here.

If you'd like to hear some Gullah, click here.

If you'd like to hear some songs and watch some storytelling, click here.

And, if you still want more information listen here or read this link and this link.

Posted by T and H

Timelines

We are still working on our American History Timeline. Here are some pics of what we have so far. Each year is represented by 1/2 inch. We have discovered that it is hard to choose what to include on the timeline to give a full and accurate view of American History (this of course led us to a discussion about who decides on what is history and how much history books are influenced by the views/background of the author(s)). When we are done, we will try to videotape it and upload it to youtube and put the link here. For some reason, we are having a hard time uploading video directly to the blog. We have information from the following categories and hope to have the timeline completed by the end of August: blacks in America, women in America, Asians in America, natives in America, Hispanics in America, music in America, art in America, culture in America, literature in America, and American environmental history.

Posted by C

American History

We don't get to play board games very often but we pulled the All American Trivia Board Game out of the closet this morning and had a nice review of some American History. I was pleased to see that the girls actually remembered things that they learned this year! If you want to check out the game, go here: www.outsedmedia.com/uswebpages/usgamespages/usaamericantrivia .

Here is our NHD video from this year

National History Day

We traveled to the Univesity of Maryland to participate in the National History Day competition. The girls collected pins from other participants, presented their documentary, and checked out the exhibits that were entered in the competition. They also found time to work out at the University of Maryland indoor 50 meter pool. We'll be posting a link to their final video entry soon. They hope to return to Nationals next year.

Rocky Shoals Spider Lillies

Today we travelled to South Carolina to Landsford Canal State Park which is on the Fall Line where the Appalachian Piedmont meets the coastal Atlantic plain. The Fall Line derives its name from the occurrence of waterfalls and rapids that are the inland barriers to navigation on all the region’s major rivers. Navigation was tough but water-power was great so it was a good place to unload your grain and set up a mill.

The warm water running over the southern rocky shoal stretches of the Fall Line are the perfect habitat for Hymenocallis coronaria, a rare and beautiful spider lily. In late May, this aquatic plant blooms in abundance. We saw it yesterday. It was absolutely gorgeous. Maybe next year we'll take a trip to canoe amongst them.
The rare rocky shoal spider lily emits a fragrance that also attracted naturalist William Bartram who was credited with first describing the rocky shoals spider lily in 1773. “After observing a population in the Savannah River near Augusta, he wrote, ‘Nothing in vegetable nature is more pleasing than the odoriferous Pancratium fluitans, which alone possesses the little rocky islets which just appear above the water.’”

Landsford Canal State Park is also home to the best preserved of numerous 19th-century South Carolina river canals and it retains remnants of all its major structural features. It is the uppermost of four canals constructed on the Catawba-Wateree river system from 1820-1835. During this period, boats used the canals to bypass rapids while carrying goods to and from the coast. There are historic ruins of canal-culverts, stone bridges, locks, an historic mill site and a lockkeeper's house which contains interpretive exhibits about the canal system in South Carolina.
Land's Ford also is associated with the Revolutionary War. Thomas Sumter's troops crossed there on their way to the Battle of Hanging Rock. And the main British army under Lord Cornwallis crossed the Catawba there in October 1780 when it fell back from Charlotte after the Battle of Kings Mountain.

We also saw a heron, an eagle's nest and a blue-tailed skink.

All photos by T and H.

Obama

We went to see Obama speak on Friday. It was very powerful! We discussed speech, activism, and politics. It was a great experience. Yes We Can!

Slave Jugs

We are studying the 1800s in America. As part of our studies, we studied the slave jug. Although there is no written history of slave jugs, there is some oral history that explains their existence. Slaves were not allowed to have tombstones, so face jugs are believed to have served as their gravemarkers. It is believed that slaves placed personal items on their loved ones' graves along with face jugs. The ugly face on the jug is believed to be a combination of ancestor worship passed down from African ancestors, Carribean voodoo, and Christian belief in the devil. The ugly faces are thought to be an effort to ward off the devil so souls could go to heaven.

Governor Hunt

Yesterday, the girls interviewed Governor Hunt for their National History Day Project. He was very kind to give them 20 minutes of his time. Here is a pic.

Voter Registration

The girls had a bit of free time today, so they delivered 85 voter registration forms to people throughout our neighborhood. Hopefully, some of them will register.

Update: On May 6, the girls both volunteered in Obama's local office. They made phone calls, helped answer phones, and put labels on campaign materials.

National History Day

Click here soon to watch our NHD movie for this year. We won the Junior Group Documentary category with a project entitled "Warren County: Environmental Justice in the Hands of the Community." It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to the state competition later this month. H and T

History of Hilton Head Island

In 1663, William Hilton, an English sea captain sailing from Barbados looking for tropical lands on which to start plantations, landed on Hilton Head Island and claimed it for Britain. He called it Hilton's Headland. Today, Hilton Head is home to over 30,000 residents and it is visited by two million people each year.

Atlanta History Museum

At the Atlanta History Museum, we learned the story of desegregation of schools, we explored the history of the civil war, we toured an old Atlanta home, we learned about the 1996 Olympics and we watched a blacksmith make a hook. It was all pretty cool. Here's more on what we learned:

Swan House
Owned by a wealthy businessman, te Swan House is an example of how one prominent family lived during the 1920s and 1930s. Philip Trammel Shutze was the architect for Swan House and its gardens, as well as for many other important buildings in the city. We thought the most interesting rooms were the bathrooms and closets. They were amazingly nice!


The Civil War
The Civil War ravaged America between 1861 and 1865 and changed our country like no other event in history. Over 600,000 people were killed. During the first part of the 1800's the North and the South grew in different ways. In the North, cities were centers of wealth and manufacturing where there were many skilled workers. In the South there was not manufacturing or many skilled workers. Most of the people were farmers. Money came from plantation crops, like cotton, rice, sugar cane and tobacco. Slaves did most of the work on the plantations. Worried about being taken over by the North, some southern states decided to secede. South Carolina was the first to leave the Union and form a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Four months later, six other states seceded: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Later Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them. Jefferson Davis was elected as president of the Confederacy. In Charleston, South Carolina there was a Union fort called Fort Sumter. The Union soldiers refused to leave this fort, so the Confederates fired cannons at the fort on April 12, l861. This was the beginning of the Civil War. During the Civil War, Lincoln decided to write the Emancipation Proclamation in secret. He warned the confederate states that they should release their slaves but they did not . On New Years Day, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves. Later that year, on November 19, 1863, President Lincoln gave a speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where the Battle of Gettysburg took place. People had gathered at the battlefield to dedicate part of it to the men who had been killed in battle. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is remembered as one of the best speeches ever given. It was short and simple. The war didn't end though until Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

The Olympics
The 1996 Olympic Games changed Atlanta forever. For seventeen days, Atlanta was the focus of the entire world. Those seventeen days in 1996 represented a decade's worth of preparation in which Atlanta used no public money and incurred a total cost of $1.8 billion. They had to build roads, buildings, competition sites, and dorm rooms for the Olympics. There were 50,000 volunteers and there were 197 delegations that participated. 13,000 community heroes helped carry the torch to Atlanta. During that time, a bomb planted by Eric Rudolph under park benches exploded in Centennial park, killing 1 and injuring 111 others.