What To Teach Your Kids This January 2020
Each month at RiiRoo, we focus on different engaging topics to teach your kids in addition to what they would usually learn at school.
If you missed our previous article - What To Teach Your Kids This November 2019, then you can read it here.
In our previous article, we looked at the world's first TV service, Guy Fawkes, The Largest Passenger Liner retires, Charles Darwin, Band-Aid.
This Month
This month we’re going to look at World Braille Day, National Bird Day, Amelia Earhart Completes Solo Flight, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, The First English Parliament.
4th January - World Braille Day
I’m sure you can guess what World Braille Day is and the reason why we celebrate it. For those that don’t know, we celebrate World Braille Day each year because it’s Louis Braille’s birthday (the person that invented braille).
He was born in 1809 in France and became blind after a childhood accident. However, he quickly adjusted to this new normal of being blind and by the age of 15 created a revolutionary new reading and writing system based on Charles Barbier’s night writing system.
Resources:
https://brailleworks.com/what-is-world-braille-day/
https://www.un.org/en/observances/braille-day
https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-braille-day-2019/
5th January - National Bird Day
Even though we see thousands of birds everywhere, did you know that they are an animal group that is under threat?
Birds are amazing creatures that we need to care for and look after. Not just now, but for generations to come. That’s why we celebrate them by holding a National Day called “National Bird Day.”
Birds are the official barometers of our planet’s environmental health. Even though the term “canary in the coal mine” literally, it can also be used generally since when populations of a particular species decrease, it is usually an indicator of more significant problems with the environment.
Resources:
https://nationaltoday.com/national-bird-day/
http://www.avianwelfare.org/nationalbirdday/
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-bird-day-january-5/
11th January - Amelia Earhart Solo Flight
On 11-12th January 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Astonishingly, this was a dangerous 2,408-mile flight that had already claimed countless lives of those that had previously tried this feat.
The nearly 10-hour flight across the Pacific took her 600 miles over water. A total of ten people had tried to journey before her and died. Later that year, the pioneering pilot would make record flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City and from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey.
Resources:
https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/amelia-earhart-solos-atlantic
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earhart-completes-transatlantic-flight
15 January - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Birthday
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15th January 1929, best known for his known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Mahatma Gandhi and also his Christian beliefs.
African Americans achieved more progress in the 13 years of Dr. King’s leadership than the previous 350 years. People around the world celebrate his birth (not just Americans) and appreciate the enormous contribution he made to so many lives and families. He was not only campaigning for equal rights but also against poverty and international conflict.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Day
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-martin-luther-king-jr-s-birthday-became-a-holiday-3
https://nationaltoday.com/martin-luther-kings-birthday/
20th January - England’s First Parliament Meets
Most people think the English parliament has been around forever. However, the first English parliament met on 20th January 1265. It wasn’t called by the then King Henry III – but by the rebellious magnate Simon de Montfort. Meetings had been held before in Westminster, but, what made this different was that its members included representatives of the shires and boroughs, not just the clerical and aristocratic elite.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_England
https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/british-parliament
So that’s it for another month. If you would like more exciting information like this, please sign up for the RiiRoo newsletter.
See you next month.
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