I have made the formal household declaration that all screen time will be matched, hour-for-hour with project time. Yesterday we cleaned the 1st floor, mopped and everything. Today we went grocery shopping, made lunch, and then started on homework time.
To say that I am unpopular here, would be an understatement.
But both of our kids will benefit from some extra assignements. Our education system is super lax, and a bit of supplimental assignment seems like a good idea. Today’s topic:
Memeorial Day: A History
Both kids had to read a couple of sources ( wikipedia and history.com ) and present a brief report to me. Poppy got a lot of help from a neighborhood girl who is a older, and Oliver eneded up getting help from me. They will have to present to Anita when she gets off work tonight.
In super-short summary:
Before the US civil war, decorating graves was a normal practice. It developed into a more formal custom during the civil war, and was officialized as “Decoration Day” by state after state through the 1800s. Even back then, it was both a time to cemmemorate fallen soldiers and also a time to reconnect with family and community. The day started being called “Memorial Day” (unofficially) and while it started out being specific to civil war veterans, once the US joined WWI Memorial Day became a time to celerbrate all of our soldiers who died in any war. In 1966 president Lyndon B. Johnson and congress made Memorial Day a national holiday that always happend on the last Monday in May. They wanted to make sure it was always a 3 day weekend, and still a time for picnics and family reunions.
Memorial Day is a day where we honor the people who cared enough to sacrifice their lives for our way of life. It is a day to say thank you.
–Oliver Blount
More links for kids for Memorial Day: - scavenger hunt (quick assignment) - Commemorating Memorial Day with Kids - The Meaning of Memorial Day
Alan’s Homework: Hugo
I’ve been talking for at least 2 years about switching to a static site generator. Well, I guess it was finally time. I’ve considered several options, but I’m pretty happy with the ease-of-use of hugo and it was very easy to migrate from wordpress.
In between complaining children, proofreading, researching, and listening to the aforementioned projects, I was able to make this convertion… I’m pretty happy, and hope that I can shore up the edges.
You can see the underlying code on github but it’s really not that exciting.