Hey, everyone!

I hope everyone is staying at home and healthy.

I wanted to share some exciting news! Instead of canceling the Sounds of the Mountains Storytelling Festival this year, the organizers and storytellers have opted to offer it virtually, free, and forever!!

In fact, I am listening to a great story as I write this blog!

Please check it out. There is little in life that can beat a great storyteller.

www.SoundsoftheMountains.org

Dolly Parton has also joined the ranks of those offering activities for children during our time of shelter in place. She is reading stories on Thursday evenings for 10 weeks, beginning April 2 (The first story, “The Little Engine That Could” is still available, of course.) Here is the youtube link for Dolly’s ‘Goodnight With Dolly‘ storytime:
https://imaginationlibrary.com/goodnight-with-dolly/

Art teacher Angela D. Faidley has picked up the gauntlet, and started offering daily art classes for children on youtube. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZvXtw25SPH-LfRYFCyw0Jg

If you have robots, Ozobots, Spheros, Sparkis, MakeBlocks, etc, check the companys’ websites for activities to do with your robots while you’re at home.  Build yourself an obstacle course for your robots.  I built a 3D roller coaster for my Ozobots one day with cardboard.  I bet you can, too.

 

I found this interview on youtube.  It is an interview of a woman who survived the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

It was recorded by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Mrs. Boone, 100 year-old resident of Mobile, tells how her family was the only family in a small rural Alabama area that did not contract the flu during the 1918 flu outbreak. Mrs. Boone’s family all became responders in her community. Her parents become instant nurses and she delivered soup to the door of ill families. Ann Brantley, R.N., of the Alabama Department of Public Health conducted the interview on January 28, 2008, and it was recorded by the Video Communications Division of the ADPH.

 

Although I was not alive in 1918, my grandparents were, as well as my great aunts and uncles.  One of my great aunts and uncles raised all the children in their town in Mississippi who were orphaned during that pandemic.  Their family got so large that after the illness passed and the county decided to build a school, it was built next to their farm.  By the time their last child grew up and left home, they had raised over 30 children.

 

More very soon!