How are Holiday Dates Determined?

MuffinBoy #2 here with a quick mini-muffin!

When we celebrated Father's Day recently, I got to wondering, "How are the dates of holidays decided?"  I already knew that some holidays are religious and based on ancient calendars, but what about more modern-day holidays like Father's Day or Mother's Day?

I went to the library and picked up a short book called, Holiday!  Celebrations Around the World.  It was a DK (Dorling-Kindersley) book, which are always awesome and full of great pictures.  This one was an easy reader, so there wasn't a whole lot of information, but it did answer my question.

I discovered that Father's Day originated when Louise Dodd's mother died, leaving her dad to raise a family of six children on his own.  She started the holiday in his honor.

About 100 years ago on the second Sunday in May, Anne Jarvis asked her friends to think of her dead mother and wear white carnations to church, which was the first celebration of Mother's Day.

Reading about these holidays and learning about their beginnings answered my question, but left me wondering how these holidays spread in popularity.  I suspect that the original families told other people, who told other people, etc. until Mother's Day and Father's Day became the widely celebrated holidays they are today.

Do you have any special family traditions you think should become national holidays??  Tell us about it!

Where did Ball Games Come From?

MuffinBoy #2 here!  When I was playing football with my friends,  I started thinking about where ball games came from.  How did they evolve?  Have people always played games?  They Played What?!? by Richard Platt was an especially helpful book I found at the library when answering these questions.

I learned that many of the games we play today evolved from ancient games that disappeared over the years and reappeared with new names and more modern playing rules.  Basketball, for example, is based on a Mayan game called Pok-A-Tok.  Soccer came from a mob game played in Italy called Calcio Storico, which had just one rule:  no killing.  Lots of games we know today used to be much more violent.  In the early 1900s, 18 people died in one football season!

Did you know that you can make up your own game?  This is what you'll need to decide:

• How many people can play - are they individuals or do they play on teams?
• What equipment you need - balls, sticks, a goal area, flags, etc.
• What you have to do to win the game.
• How to play fairly - come up with a set of basic rules that make it equally difficult for either person (or team) to win.

You can even make up a game using household objects like bags, paper, tiny balls, tissue paper boxes, string, spoons...  your imagination is the only limit!  I made up my own game that I call Yo-Stick!  Here's what you do to play:

1. Find a stick that is longer than your arm - a tree branch works well if you take off all the leaves, or a length of PVC pipe, or a karate stick.
2. Attach a yo-yo to one end of the stick by tying the string around the stick.
3. Let go of the yo-yo and use the stick to bring it back up.
4. Count how many times the yo-yo comes all the way up to the stick (you'll hear it hit the stick).
5. Take turns with your opponents - whoever hits the stick the most is the winner!  Or compete against yourself.  How many times in a row can you hit the stick??

This is what the game looks like:

How to play Yo-Stick!

Have you ever made up your own game???

How do we Measure Time?

Hey everyone, it's MuffinBoy #1 here with today's answermuffin.  I got started on this topic because I was curious about how ancient civilizations developed their ideas about time and how they first learned to measure it.  I went to the library and checked out an amazing non-fiction book titled The Time Book:  A Brief History from Lunar Calendars to Atomic Clocks, by Martin Jenkins.

It was brief, as the title suggested, but it was filled with interesting facts.  I learned all about the methods of keeping time used by the Mayans, Egyptians, Europeans,  and other civilizations.  I couldn't stop reading it, it was so good.  It was hard to believe it wasn't just a really fascinating novel.  For me, some of the topics covered were more interesting than others.  All in all, I gave this book:      

4.5 out of 5 muffins – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

When I read the book, I learned about the Egyptian hourglass, and it gave me the idea to make my own!  Here's how:

Making an Hourglass

During this project, I learned to appreciate the long process of the Scientific Method. I discovered that the path to success can be paved with many failures,  but you can reach that golden moment of glory by learning from the failures,  rethinking your hypotheses and drawing new conclusions.

Have you ever made an hourglass or some other method of measuring time?

Why Do Cats Purr?

MuffinBoy #2 here:

The other day, my pet cat sat on my lap and purred.  I wondered,  "Why is she purring?"  I went to one of our local libraries and looked up books about cats.  I am learning how to find books by their call numbers.  We found quite a few interesting books, and they all had great pictures!

The book I found most helpful was called The Cat Manual. In this book, it said that nobody is sure why cats purr!  It is believed to be linked to happiness, or maybe other strong emotions, since cats also can purr when they are hurt or ill.  After reading about pet cats, I wondered if big cats like lions and tigers and jaguars purr, too.  They do!

Since I like to draw, I learned how to draw a cat.  Here's how:

How to Draw a Cat

Have you ever drawn a picture of a cat?