Saint Valentine’s Day started in ancient Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. The Emperor wanted soldiers but the men in his kingdom wouldn’t enlist. The emperor gave the matter some thought and came to the conclusion that they didn’t want to leave their families so the emperor decreed that no one could get married. Many people thought that was a bad law, one of them was a priest named Valentine. Valentine ignored the law and went on marrying people in secret. Eventually Valentine was discovered and was sentenced to death. Until the day appointed for his execution he was kept in a jail cell. While there he made friends with the jailor’s daughter. On the day of his execution Valentine left a note for the jailor’s daughter signed “From Your Valentine”. The very first valentine! Now it is a tradition to send valentines on February 14th, the day of priest Valentines execution.
The first commercial valentines made in the USA were by Miss Esther Howland who made a few samples and gave them to her brother who was a salesman. She was hoping he might sell up to $200 worth but he came back with more than $5000 in advance sales. The business was soon selling $100,000 a year. The valentines made by her company are still identifiable by the quality of workmanship and are sought after by collectors.
Pioneer Pastimes sells a really cute wooden heart teether/rattle that would be a perfect gift for your babies first Valentine.
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My six year old son loves to make paper airplanes. He will come into the home office early every morning and one of the first things he will say is, “Dad, help me make a paper airplane”. He has been into this for literally years and it is still one of his favorite activities. We have tried all kinds of airplanes and will write articles about several of the neatest kinds we have built. For this article we are going to talk about some really fun planes that look very realistic and are a ton of fun to fly. Finding 3D Model airplane plansThe first step is to get the plans. There are several ways to do this, some free, others that cost a little. My favorite is a site called Fly’N Things they have a bunch of WWII planes that look very realistic and fly very well tethered or just thrown. Another source that my son has built a ton of fun and excellent flying paper planes from, is the book Aviation Legends Paper Airplane Book Another site is Fiddlers Green they have a ton of very realistic paper models that are a lot of fun to build but a little on the complicated side for young children. This is a great site for any airplane buff. For each of the plans they sell they also give a very complete history of that airplane and a lot of good pictures. The one feature I always look for is the picture of the plane wrecked at the bottom of the page.Most of their plans are under $5 and you can just download and print on your printer. I just went over to their site and they have 3 free models to download for just signing up. I’m sure that a little searching could bring up some other great sources. So if you have a favorite book or website I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment. Next post we will walk step by step through building one with plenty of tips and tricks for the first time builder. Now that you have found the perfect plane to build, whether it is a P40 from Fly’N Things or the space shuttle from Aviation Legends Paper Airplane Book The first thing you will need to do is print out all the sheets for your plane. I use a little bit heavier (24#) paper, it makes the folds and forming easier and the planes fly better when done. I’m going to give some tips that help me, if you are experienced at all you will be thinking “I’m not stupid” but these are all things that I’ve learned to do while helping my son. Tips
One last tip, don’t stress it, I have yet to make one with my boy that was perfect, but everyone has been fun and we enjoy doing the project, it’s a great opportunity to spend some quality time with your kids doing something fun and educational. Because of what I do for a living I have been following the sharp increase in legislation and regulation that is intended to protect children from everything that might be encountered in the real world. We have to have warning labels on everything from cigarettes to toys warning of every possible thing that could go wrong and injure us. We even put choking labels on hot dogs. We don’t let our children out of our sight for fear of them being kidnapped. We send them to schools where no child is left behind but how many do we let get ahead? As a child I had free range of the neighborhood, my parents just required that I show up at mealtime. I was free to explore and try things, we would hike up to the water reservoir above the city and explore the woods and play, imagine and dream. As a young teenager, I and some friends would go on hikes into the mountain for days at a time with no adult supervision. When was the last time you sent your kids out to explore a body of water several miles from home with no supervision? You would be looked on as a totally irresponsible parent and would probably be talking to some social worker if it happened too often. Another place you see this cultural shift is in the Boy Scouts. If you read the older scout manuals, patrols were encouraged to plan and go on hikes and overnight camping trips with no adult supervision. The boys would be given the books and be trained in the weekly meetings of the troop and then they would plan and execute a very dangerous, for today’s standards, activity. Today you would always have two adults and a stack of paper work for such an activity and most of the planning, organizing and leadership is transferred to the adults. If a child, or an adult for that matter, is never allowed to try in a situation where failure, and its consequences, is a possibility, they will also never learn the skills and attitudes needed to really succeed. How can one learn the skills needed to invent something new with out trying something new, failing, modifying, and trying again,…think of Thomas Edison. If a child is insulated from any real chance or consequence of failure until they exit college in their 20s what is the chance they will have the courage and skill needed to try something hard, and full of risk, when the time comes. We must let our children out of the bubble. We have to train them from the very start to risk and fail and try again and let them know it is OK when they fail. I am not advocating taking a totally untrained and unprepared child and dropping them into the middle of the wilderness. I am suggesting though, that we should let our children jump into a project or activity and let them try their best and fail and fail until they succeed, only putting the brakes on when they are about to seriously injure themselves, others, or property. If we want the leaders of tomorrow to have the strength to deal with the challenges that they will inevitably encounter they must have the chance to learn the joy of failing…and succeeding today. I often get asked about how to care for a natural wooden toy, especially a toy that a baby is likely to place in their mouth. Though our toys look beautiful out of the package after a little while a toddler banging, pounding, chewing and slobbering on their favorite toy it just doesn’t look quit as nice as it did when new. We use beeswax on all of the toys that a baby is likely to put in its mouth . It is applied using a process that would not be easy to reproduce at home but luckily there are other easy to apply, baby safe finishs that you almost everyone has the ingredients for in their own kitchen. My favorite is to wipe the toy clean with a damp(not wet) cloth and then apply a little olive oil or other cooking oil to a paper towel and give the toy a light coat and then wiping off any excess after a letting the toy sit for a few minutes. We also use food grade mineral oil on many of the toys for older children which has the advantage of not going rancid like olive oil will. Mineral oil is the main ingredient in most butcher block treatments that you can buy at the store. It is also the main ingredient in most of lip gloss I find my kids slathering all over their lips. You can treat your toys with mineral oil in the same manner as the olive oil. while everything will show wear after being loved by a active one or two year old, with a little care you can keep one of Pioneer Pastimes heirloom quality toys looking beautiful for the next generation to play with. Some of the members of our family have trouble with gluten so Miss Roo will show you how to make gluten free cookies that are quick, easy, and delicious. Enjoy the Video. This is another great activity you can have fun doing with with your child ages 3-18. It’s easy to learn, you see results quickly and you have something beautiful and functional when you are done. Enjoy the video Once a Chinese emperor in the tang dynasty dreamed about a palace that was surrounded by a beautiful dancing fairies in colorful flowing dresses. when the Emperor woke up he wanted to see it again So a dance was choreographed where the dancers had a very long sleeves. Later they put them on sticks as ribbons.
Sometimes they choreographed dances out of gratitude. Once a man tried to kill the emperor with a sword but a courtesan stopped him with his long sleeve. The emperor was very grateful so he commanded that a dance be choreographed about the incident. The Dancers used short ribbons that would look like a long sleeve. Chinese ribbons have been used since 8th century,when the dance was reserved for the royal court. Only later was it performed and enjoyed by everyone Traditionally the ribbons were made of silk. Some ribbons are 12 feet long, others can be as short as 5 feet, |
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by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers. Most of these are a little bit simpler to build than the Fly’N Things plans so you will spend less time helping the younger kids with their projects. There are two ready to make copies of each plane. This book also gives an excellent short history of aviation and also one or two pages of information on each of the planes.