Columbus Day--What does it mean to you?

This Monday is a holiday in much of the United States. The second Monday of October is the day which we celebrate Columbus Day. It is to mark the day in which Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas on October 12, 1492. Now this holiday is celebrated in many of the "New World" countries, however it also has much controversy around it. And I will admit I believe in the controversy more than the holiday. However it will be nice to have my husband home on Monday with us.

I thought talking about this day, its history and the controversy would be a great way to celebrate Multicultural Monday as well as Columbus Day. So this day is to mark when Italian Christopher Columbus guided three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria to the "New World" backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He of course was looking for China and did not know the Pacific Ocean existed. It is said he was the first European since the Vikings (who came in the 10th century) to come to the New World. And thus "discovered" the Americas in 1492. 

Columbus first landed in the Bahamas. Later that month he spotted Cuba and thought it was China and later he claimed Hispaniola which he believed might be Japan. He established the first Spanish colony there with 39 of his men. He returned to Spain  in 1493 triumphant bringing gold, spices and "Indians". He traveled across the Atlantic several more times in his life. By his third journey he realized he had not found a new route to Asia, but that he "discovered" a new land that was unknown to Europeans. (Source)

Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was due to much lobbying by Knights of Columbus. The holiday was celebrated on October 12 until 1971 when it was moved to the second Monday in October to give people a three-day weekend. However Columbus Day had been celebrated in different parts of the United States. One source says it was first celebrated in New York City in 1792. (Source) I found another source that says it was first celebrated in San Francisco in 1869. The first state to celebrate it was Colorado in 1907. (Source)

Hazel's telescope we made from a cardboard roll from parchment paper, toilet paper roll, duct tape and yarn.

The controversy is that the settlement of Europeans lead to the death of many of the indigenous people in the Americas. There are some stories that say that Columbus and his men handed the native people blankets known to be carrying many deadly diseases like smallpox. As a result there are states, California, Nevada and Hawaii, that do not celebrate Columbus Day. Native American Day is celebrated in South Dakota and Indigenous People's Day is celebrated in Berkley, California. (Source) Opposition to Columbus Day began in the 19th century. Native Americans spoke the loudest about celebrating a day that lead to colonizing the Americas and thus killing so many of their people. Plus to celebrate a man who captured the native people and forced them into slavery is rather upsetting. There are also stories of his punishments being rather torturous when he was governor. (Source)

 

Hazel and Daddy's Ships including one drawn completely by Hazel.

 

However we look at the holiday, it is a day off. And Christopher Columbus landing in the Americas is part of my country's history. So if you are looking for some crafts to do with your children to teach them about the day, here are a few resources for you. All of the places we got the above projects are listed here.

• From Enchanted Learning: crafts, coloring pages, lessons, puzzles (including Native American crafts)
• Also from Enchanted Learning: Lessons on Christopher Columbus, the Explorer
• From Apple4the Teacher: Round up of many sources
• From Kaboose: Many activities, crafts and food
• From DLTK's Kids: Many activities, crafts, and everything you need to play the part of explorer
• From DLTK's Kids: Native American crafts
• From 123 Holiday: crafts
• From Kid Craft Zone: Games and Crafts
• From First School: Boat crafts
• From About.com: Crafts, games, activities including ocean crafts
• From Artist Helping Children: Many different crafts including Native American crafts.
• From A to Z Teacher Stuff: Activities, lessons, crafts (all with appropriate grade level)
• From All Kids Network: Boat craft for preschoolers with template
• From Bright Hub Education: Three Fun Activities to do with Preschoolers
• From Holly's Preschool Place: Lessons and Activities for Columbus Day for Preschoolers

Ok, that is enough to keep you busy! Happy Columbus Day or whatever you want to call it holiday! 

Nature Walk = Leaf Crafts Galore!

Sharing Saturday is still open! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities and to see this week's features or just to be inspired by all the amazing ideas already shared!!

The other day Hazel and I went on a short nature walk with the intention of collecting some autumn leaves for crafts. Since it has been raining so much, we observed many mushrooms. We have been trying to decide which ones would make the best fairy houses. What do you think? We also noticed these green seed pods on our neighbors trumpet bush. We thought they looked like green bananas and found them rather interesting.

While picking up leaves, Hazel noticed that the oak leaves have a soft and fuzzy back whereas the maple and a few others do not. I noticed that the oak leaves were mostly brown or green. Now only one neighbor has an oak tree and almost every neighbor has a maple so our choices for oak are limited. 

I recently read on Gingerbread Snowflakes that you can preserve the colors of leaves with Mod Podge. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Mod Podge? So that night while Hazel slept, I painted each one with Mod Podge and left them to dry overnight. The result is slightly shiny leaves (even though I used a matte finish) that still have all their beauty. Hazel was better this year at picking up prettier and not so dry leaves though a few dry ones made their way in our bag.

Today we had fun making some crafts. When we were picking up all the red, yellow and orange (though not too many orange ones around) leaves we thought how they reminded us of a fire, so we decided to make a leaf fire picture. I cut Hazel some brown strips and gave her some glue and a piece of black paper and she made a beautiful leaf fire.  She also used glue and made a leaf man who has berries for eyes and an acorn--not sure what it is for. Though I guess accurately it is a leaf woman since she was describing some parts of it as she made it. I also cut a paper plate in a spiral and had her glue on some leaves so we can hang it like a mobile and let it spin to look like falling leaves. She used a lot of glue so it will take awhile to dry. 

Our final craft was a wreath. I used a straw wreath I bought ages ago and wrapped it with some ribbon I got a the dollar store. Then I stuck some of the leaves in the ribbon and I topped it with Hazel's craft from Lakeshore Learning the other week. It is an Indian corn welcome sign. They had the corn, husks and signs cut and she glued on pieces of tissue paper to be the kernels and then we decorated the welcome part. It is now on our door. Above is a close up of it.

I will save the rest of our crafts from today for another day. What nature crafts have you been up to? I know I'm finally getting in the fall mood here! And if you want more leaf craft ideas check out these posts (mostly from last autumn)!

Sharing Saturday #40

Once again, I'm blown away with last week's amazing ideas shared. If you have not visited all 60 of them, please do so. There are so many wonderful things shared!! Here are a few of my favorites.

Click on the picture of Most Clicked to get to the post!

This week I thought I would choose a feature a little differently. Keitha from Keitha's Chaos always shares her week of themed lunches with the books they go with. I always love reading these posts and have found some great books to read to Hazel through them. So today I'm going to feature her Themed Lunches and since there was another themed lunch shared last week, I'm featuring it as well.

1) From Keitha's Chaos: Lunches (So many great books and lunch ideas!! I love it!)
2) From JDaniel4's Mom: Apple Lunch (In honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday last week! I love it!)

Some of My Favorites

1) From One Artsy Mama: Halloween Ornaments (Oh, how I love Mod Podge!!)
2) From The Pleasantest Thing: Preschool Chess Club (Oh, I have to share this with Steve so he can start teaching Hazel!)
3) From Semi-crunchy Mami: Gnome Factory (I love that she made them from pictures her children designed for them!)
4) From Life with Moore Babies: Fire Breathing Dragons (I had to share this in honor of Michaelmas last week!)
5) From Momma's Fun World: Monster Dice (A great Halloween game to get your kids moving more!) 

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: Leaf Crafts and an Autumn Leaf Short Story

 

Now for This Week's Party   

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Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

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All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Leaves--Crafts & a Story

Today we worked on changing Hazel's seasonal tree to be autumn. We started to hang our salt dough ornaments and I made her a leaf garland. All I did was use thread and a needle to sew some fabric leaves that I bought at the dollar store. Very easy to do and it added much to her tree. It could also be used to decorate a mailbox, mantle, or staircase.

I used those same leaves on a candle I bought at Rite Aid. I took the sticker off and used Mod Podge to stick them on and seal them on. I actually tried with some pressed leaves that I had, but I think they had gotten too dry and pressed because they would not stick well. I love what the leaves add to the candle. Did I mention the fall candles are 50% off this week?

Finally here is another story about Sister Autumn and her leaf fairies. Click on the picture to get the pdf of it.

Happy Autumn!! Enjoy!!

Tough Week at School

So my happy go lucky daughter who has loved school got sick two weeks ago. She had a very bad cold that kept moving around her body (first throat, nose, voice and ears) and it made her very lethargic. She missed three days of school as a result. Well one of those days I believed my mother-in-law that Hazel was back to her healthy self after spending a day with Nonni so the next morning when she was full of energy I took her to school and I got a call about an hour after I left to come get my sick child. Apparently her energy fizzled out pretty fast. The next school day was class picture day and I brought her in just for the class picture, but otherwise she was stuck at home for a week and a half. Now we are sending Hazel to a Waldorf School and are trying to follow the no media rule at the school (for a great video on why no media is important for young children go here--thanks to Donni, at The Magic Onions for sharing it).

Day 2 of her bad cold she literally just laid on the couch the entire day, so I caved and let her watch television. I picked shows like Caillou and Curious George. (One of the other parents mentioned a study to me that showed shows that went at a slower pace like Caillou showed almost the same brain activity as a child who didn't watch any versus shows like Sponge Bob which showed major brain activity to the point of often becoming ADD.) We also pulled out some of the Disney movies. Hazel is very into the princesses right now and had never seen any of the movies. I pulled out Cinderella since I knew it was not too scary. We also watched Pocahontas. The other ones I thought might scare her, so I kept them put away. 

Now after being home for a week and a half and getting to watch some television, she no longer wants to go to school. On Tuesday morning she woke up at 5:30. She listened to her stories on CD until 6:30 and then came into bed with me crying that she didn't want to go because she would miss me too much. She cried the entire time we were home and then cried more when we got to school. I left her there with the teacher (who was already dealing with a boy who always cries and has been a bit aggressive with some of the students) and figured she would stop once I left. She didn't. From what I understand she whimpered most of the time at school. I had even tried bribing her, but apparently that didn't work either.  I keep hoping it will just go away.

Unfortunately, this morning she crawled into bed with me at 6:30 again crying about not wanting to go to school. It breaks my heart to hear her cry so much. My daughter hardly ever cries unless she is really hurt or overtired, so this is not like her at all. I know she will grow out of this, but I just want my happy child back--the one who loves school.

Any advice is welcome!! Oh, and I'll share some crafts later.