7 Books to Read with Children

 Whether your a mom or a dad, older sibling, babysitter or teacher, these books are great books to read with children. A great benefit of reading along with a child is the ability for discussing the book. You can answer questions, discuss decisions that a character made and whether or not you both think that it was a good idea and what you would have done differently.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Brian's parents are divorced. He goes to spend time with his father but tragedy strikes and Brian gets stuck alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a hatchet. Will he survive? 

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler  by E. L. Konigsburg

 A brother and sister decide that they are taken for granted so they run away from home and take up residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When a mysterious statue, possibly the work of Michelangelo, is sold to the museum for a few hundred dollars, the siblings can't rest until they get to the bottom of the mystery.  

Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Okay, the appeal of this book might just be the reenactor's dream that this could come true.)

 

Jessie is a normal 13 year old girl in 1840: she lives with her family, goes to school and has never been far from town. That is, until children start getting sick and her mother tells her a huge secret: the year is really 1996, they live in a historical museum and the owners are holding them hostage and denying them modern medicine. It's up to Jessie to sneak out and find help in a modern world that she knows nothing about.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne is a orphan with flaming red hair and a temper to match. She is mistakenly sent to a brother and sister looking for a boy to help them on their farm. Anne likes to daydream which gets her into trouble at the worst times possible. She doesn't mean to be a bother, but will the family keep her after all the trouble she causes?

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter is an orphan whose parents died in a horrible car accident. He is sent to live with his Aunt and Uncle who hate him until he receives a letter in the mail telling him that his is really a wizard. He finds out that his parents were really killed by an notoriously evil wizard and in the wizarding world, he is famous. He is sent to school where he struggles through schoolwork, makes friends and comes face to face with the wizard who killed his parents.

The Sign of the Beaver

Matt lives with his father on a homestead in the early days of American colonization. His father leaves him to watch over the house while he brings the rest of the family there from the east. Matt is alone and without food when he gets injured, when he is saved by a Native American doctor. A Native American boy, Attean helps Matt learn Native American survival methods in exchange for English lessons. The boys don't like each other but they soon learn to respect each other.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huck sets out on an adventure, rafting down the Mississippi with an escaped slave named Jim. There is some controversy over the word choice in this book. The book is a period book and clearly a product of its time. 

According to US News in 2007, 1 in 4 American adults had read 0 books in the previous 12 months. We need to raise children who become adults who love to read. Children who are read to, learn to love books. Many students' only experience with books is in the classroom where they can link books with negative experiences. Children should associate books with having fun and exploring worlds with the people they love.   

Godey's Lady's Book Recipes for July

 We have finally had some perfect weather days this summer. Most of the days this July have just been too hot to want to cook.  Godey's Lady's Book was one of the most popular ladies magazine in America during the Civil War. Below are some recipes taken from the 1864, July issue.  

SNOWBALLS.-- Place some rice in milk to well ; strain it off ; put the rice round apples pared and cored, with a bit of lemon-peel, a clove, and a piece of cinnamon in each ; tie in a cloth, and boil well. (81)

SCOLLOPED TOMATOES.--Take fine, large tomatoes, perfectly ripe. Scald them to loosen the skins, and then peal them. Cover the bottom of a deep dish thickly with grated bread-crumbs, adding a few bits of fresh butter. Then put in a layer of tomatoes, seasoned slightly with a little salt or cayenne, and some powdered mace or nutmeg. Cover them with another layer of bread-crumbs and butter. Then another layer of seasoned tomatoes ; and proceed thus till the dish is full, finishing at the top with bread crumbs. Set the dish into a moderate oven, and bake it near three hours. Tomatoes require long cooking, otherwise they will have a raw taste, that to most persons is unpleasant. (81-82)

YOUNG CORN OMELET.--To a dozen ears of fine young Indian corn allow five egg. Boil the corn a quarter of an hour ; and then, with a large grater, grate it down from the cob. Beat the eggs very light, and then stir gradually the grated corn into the pan of eggs. Add a small salt-spoon of salt, and a very little cayenne. Put into a hot frying-pan equal quantities of lard and fresh butter, and stir them well together, over the fire. When they boil, put in the mixture thick, and fry it ; afterwards browning the top with a red-hot shovel, or a salamander. Transfer it, when done, to a heated dish, but do not fold it over. It will be found excellent. This is a good way of using boiled corn that has been left from dinner the preceding day. (82)

* A salamander is an iron tool that is heated up and used to brown the top of dishes. When cooking over a fire, a small frying pan or coal shovel can be heated up and used like a salamander. 

*Indian corn  is not the ornamental "Indian corn of today." Indian corn was edible corn that could come in white, yellow, red or mixed.

RASPBERRY WINE.--Bruise the finest ripe raspberries with the back of a spoon ; strain them though a slannel bag into a stone jar ; allow one pound of fine powdered loaf sugar to one quart of juice ; stir these well together and cover the jar closely. Let stand for three days, stirring up the mixture everyday ; then pour off the clear liquid, and put two quarts of sherry to each quart of juice or liquid. Bottle it off, and it will be fit for use in a fortnight. By adding Cognac brandy, instead of sherry, the mixture will be raspberry brandy. (83)

SPRING ROLL.--Four eggs, one cup of sugar, one cup of flour, half a teaspoon of soda, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, add any flavor to suit the taste. Stir well, and spread thin on bread pans ; bake quickly, and when thoroughly baked turn it out on a cloth, and spread with jelly and roll it up.(83) 

 

*My grandmother used to eat a similar dish when she was a child. She made a plain eggs, spread jelly on them and rolled it up. It is a different taste than we are used to.

Recipes from: 

 Hale, Sarah Josepha. "Receipts, &c." Godey's Lady's Book. July 1864, 80-84.

Stealing History, Again!

Landau's Mugshot

I do many more posts on things like this than I would really like to. It's horrible, but yet another researcher has been stealing historical documents from a museum. Saturday, Baltimore Police arrested Barry Landau and accomplice, Jason Savedoff, for the theft of over 60 documents from the Maryland Historical Society. The documents included Lincoln memorabilia, notably a document signed by Lincoln. The current total for the known stolen material is over $900,000.

Landau, is a presidential historian who boasted of his Manhattan home artifact collection that topped a million pieces.  

The day of the heist, Landau brought cupcakes for the museum staff, who claimed that Landau and Savedoff had visited the museum previously and had odd behavior. Now the FBI has to discover the extent of the thefts and hopefully recover all stolen material. Landau, like Thomas P. Lowry who was charged for altering a Lincoln-signed document back in January, has a book in the works due for release in a few months.

It is frustrating for historians to not have access to documents because of stuff like this. It is even more frustrating to not be able to find a document because it has been stolen. Unfortunately, original sources have to be referable. It is amazing how easily mistakes can happen in a historical work which are then amplified in future historical works that never checked the original documents. Hopefully, the digitization of documents will help alleviate problems with theft.     

Watch a video from the Huffington Post.

Finished Project! Dark Mark Illusion Scarf!

The scarf at an angle.

I finally got my "Dark Mark Illusion Scarf" off of my needles! It has been one of those projects that was pushed to the bottom of the pile by more time-sensitive things. I still need to add fringe to it and block it. I was thinking about white fringe or red. If I put red fringe on it, I think the scarf will look a little too lizard-like which would look neat but wouldn't be as wearable. I think the white fringe would make it look less Halloween-y.

The scarf, looking straight-on.

The neat thing about this scarf is that when you look straight on it, you can not see the design. But if you are at an angle, such as walking up stairs, the design pops out. The design is from the Harry Potter Movies (which I don't like all that much) but the pattern was fun so I had to make one. I also try to knit a bit more in the summer because if I don't, nothing will be done in time to wear it when it is cold.  It is harder to knit in the summer because the wool on your lap does get very warm, in the winter, the extra heat is welcoming.

 

So, which fringe do you think would look better? I can do all green, all black, a mixture of green and black, red or white. What do you think would look best? If you want to make your own scarf, the pattern is now on Ravelry for free and only took two skeins of wool to make. I used alpaca so it's very toasty to wear. I can't wait for winter now.

 

Wild Berry Picking!

Today, I went berry picking with a few friends. The forecast called for severe thunderstorms but luckily, they held off. We plan to make jam, preserve them whole and make colonial wine. The majority of our haul was wine-berries (Rubus phoenicolasius) but we also found a few ripe blackberries. We saw unripe wild grapes, patches of unripe blackberries, tons of walnuts and hickory nuts and even some mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum.)

Wineberry is a species of raspberry which originated in Asia and has since become invasive. This particular type of raspberry was introduced into the U.S. in 1889 and now grows in practically every state in the eastern U.S. They were originally planted for their berries but were later valued for their ornamental use.

Once off the bush, the berries are indistinguishable from older strains of raspberry so we can use them for our colonial treats. In Colonial times, raspberries were used for wines, pies and deserts.
 
Sometimes the plants would be cultivated but frequently, many plants were propagated wildly by birds. The wild berries were harvested by locals, used in the home or taken to market for city dwellers who could not grow their own. 

In her 1837 book, The American Frugal Housewife, Lydia Marie Child recommends that children make themselves useful by picking wild berries for sale in town.

 








We gathered a lot of berries. It is definitely a task that is a lot easier with a lot of helping hands. The plants are prickly so you have to be careful not to get pricked.