Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, AL. Helen wasn’t actually born with disabilities, but when she was 19 months old she caught “brain fever” making her blind and deaf. Today it would be called scarlet fever or meningitis. She and her family had a hard time with her disabilities since no one knew what to do for her. When she was six years old she was wild, running around grabbing what ever smelled good to her and throwing tantrums. Then in 1887 she and her family met Alexander Graham Bell. He suggested they go to Perkins Institute for the Blind and Deaf where they recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher.
Visiting Helen Keller’s home in Tuscumbia, ALHelen’s childhood homeThe fountain where Anne helped Helen understand hand signing.
Anne went to live with Helen and her family in Alabama. When she tried to teach, Helen would throw horrendous tantrums. Anne thought it would be best to separate Helen from her family so she couldn’t easily get upset. Anne drove with Helen for two hours to confuse her, but they were actually living in a cottage on next door. Anne was having a hard time teaching Helen table manners, speaking, writing, and sign language. So Anne used finger spelling to say ‘water’ then ran water from a fountain over her hand. That’s were it all clicked. After many years Helen could communicate using finger spelling, lip reading, reading Braille, and writing. It took her 25 years to learn to speak.
Then in 1900, Anne stayed with Helen as she went to college. In 1904, she graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was the first blind-deaf person to graduate from college. After college and throughout her career she wrote 11 books about her experiences coping with her disabilities.
As she grew older Helen did a lot more with Anne at her side. They traveled to 35 countries where Helen made speeches advocating for people with disabilities. For example, she visited Australia, South America, Europe, and became very popular in Japan. She also met with 12 presidents and other famous people, such as Charlie Chaplin, Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain and more. She co-founded Helen Keller International to help those with blindness and malnutrition. Anne was 70 years old when she died on October 20, 1936 after spending her life beside Helen. Helen Keller died 32 years later on June 1, 1968 at age eighty-seven.
Helen’s handwritingPhotos from in side the Keller home.
We have all tasted ice cream but there was once a time when it was a rare treat. The first ice cream was thought to have originated in China. But instead of ice cream we know today, they had shaved ice covered with milk, fruits and spices so it was more of a sherbet than ice cream. Eventually Marco Polo took the recipe for the sherbet and brought it to Italy and then it spread to France, Rome, Greece, and England. When it was brought to England, Gerald Tissain, King Charles royal chef, made the modern ice cream we know and love today by adding frozen cream. When ice cream was brought to England only the wealthy could enjoy it because it required an expensive ice box to keep it from melting. In 1834 Jacob Perkins invented the refrigerator which inspired Jacob Fussel to bring ice cream to everyone by starting his own ice cream factory. Then everyone could enjoy ice cream and new flavors were on the rise.
People got very creative when inventing new ice cream flavors. The basic flavors like strawberry, vanilla and chocolate were followed by unique flavors like ube, coconut, lemon, avocado, caramel, cotton candy, bubble gum, mac n cheese, crab, and more! There are also savory flavors like parmesan, blue cheese, queso cheese, curry, and butter popcorn. The craziest flavors of ice cream are glow in the dark ice cream that glows under UV light. The glowing ice cream has a fluorescent protein that comes from jellyfish. Chameleon ice cream changes colors – from blue to pink then purple. There are carefully chosen natural colors that react to the acid found on your tongue so the colors change as you lick it. And last but not least non-melt ice cream has been invented. The ice cream is mixed with fruit fibers before freezing it so it stays frozen for 24 hours before melting. All these ice cream flavors can be found in different shops!
Scoop Deck’s menu
I have visited many great ice cream shops around the country. One of my favorite ice cream shops that I loved is Mayday. Mayday is located in St. Augustine where my mom and I got peppermint and the aviator (chocolate and Nutella ice cream blended with chunks of biscoff cookies and chopped hazelnuts). Another is Scoop Deck in Wells, Maine where they have over 50 flavors to choose from – I got cotton candy ice cream. A third favorite is Morgan’s ice cream in Fort Worth, TX where they had homemade cones and the “best strawberry ice cream you’ll ever have”. They were right!
If I invented my own flavor it would be called The Beagle and it would contain vanilla ice cream with caramel and Nutella swirls, mixed with chocolate chips and big marshmallows! What would you create?
Americans second favorite pet is the cat with 25% of house holds owning a cat. A cat can jump as much as 5ft. They always land on their feet because of their vestibular aparatus (in their brain) that lets them determine which way is up and down. A cat can also make 100 different sounds like meowing, purring, and hissing. Their purr can be more than happiness, it can help heal a cats bones, joints, tendons, and wounds. While the most poplar cat breeds are Persian, Maine coon, and the Ragdoll, there are actually 78 different types of cat breeds.
For a while people thought that the first pet cat was in Egypt over 4,000 years ago. But in 2004 a cat was found buried with a human in Cyprus and the grave was over 9,500 years old. Cyprus is an island with no wild or tamed cats so that cat must have been from somewhere else. DNA also shows that humans tamed cats over 12,000 years ago. When humans started settling from being nomads and hunters they became farmers. Mice would eat the stored grain so wild cats would come and catch the mice, but only the boldest cats would stick around. Eventually humans started to bond with cats and over a long period of time those cats became the loving cuties you love today.
Cats in some cultures have been thought of as gods. In ancient Egypt people associated cats with the goddess Bastet who gave protection, fertility, and motherhood, and their presence was believed to bring good luck and to ward off bad spirits. In Islam cats are respected for their independence and cleanliness. In hinduism the goddess Durga is often drawn riding a tiger or a lion which both mean power and victory. Lots of cultures have folktales with cats either using their powers for good or evil. Some people also associated cats being witches in disguise and others think that cats have the ability to see ghosts, see the future, and be able to control the weather. There are also superstitions, like in Japan, if a cat is washing its face it means a visitor will arrive or in China that means it will rain. Others belief that if you bring a cat onboard a ship it will bring good luck but if you throw a cat overboard it will end in storms and rough seas.
Overall, cats have a long history of being loved and respected around the world. There is even a holiday to honor cats in Japan – Cat Day is on February 22, the day for appreciating cats, sharing photos and stories, and getting them gifts. One day when I have a cat, every day will be Cat Day!
A unique and fun experience is seeing the manatees in Florida. Manatees come to the springs in Florida during the winter, and they spend the summers along the Gulf of Mexico shorelines. They eat eel grass and when they eat it all they have to move to get more. They are commonly known as sea cows but they aren’t actually fat, even though they look like it. They are actually big boned and have big organs. That’s also why they can’t live in cold water. Interesting fact – manatees are related to elephants and they’re smaller trunks work in a similar way to grab food. They have bad eyesight and they have hairs all over their body that can sense their surroundings. Manatees amygdala (aggression part of their brain) is underdeveloped, so they have no aggression and are very gentle.
Since they’re so gentle we can actually swim with them, which is what we did! We joined a tour to swim the wild manatees in King’s Bay, Florida. We got on a boat had to search for the the manatees. The captain used a drone to see flat water “pancakes” (flat water means that a manatee is swimming underneath). And the guide had to go to the front of the boat to see if she could see any and a few times she had to swim to see if they were there. Finally we got to swim with one. Everybody quickly but calmly got in the water. We had to be calm because the manatee could panic since it could sense our heart beats from 8 feet away. The water was freezing and when we got to the manatee it was huge! It was as big as a baby elephant. When I looked down I was scared a little, but manatees are gentle. We got back on the boat. Everyone was shivering. We searched for more manatees, but no luck. But we did get to see dolphins hunting! On the boat the guide gave us hot cocoa or tea. In the end, I am so glad we did it.
Doing the tour made me care much more for manatees and make sure they stay safe. The Florida manatees are threatened – one step below endangered – because of habitat loss, illegal hunting, getting caught in fishing gear, and getting hit by boats. They also die because of cold water. Some eat plastic that sits in their stomach, which is really bad for them. But there are several ways to help them:
Pick up trash you see, as well as fishing gear
When boating, go slow and watch for flat “pancakes” on the water, which means a manatee is underneath the water
Conserve water and don’t use fertilizer. The fertilizer seeps into the ground and goes into the lakes and springs
When swimming, don’t poke, touch, pursue, corner, or dive on a manatee.
Don’t disturb a resting or feeding manatee
You can also donate money to a wildlife refuge
Report an injured or tangled manatee
Florida manatees used to be endangered but Florida conservationists worked hard to rebuild their habitat.
Ethiopian food has many unique flavors and dishes. Beef, chicken, lamb, raw meat, and lamb stomach are common, as well as vegetables. Doro wot is a very popular chicken stew in Ethiopia. Orthodox Christians don’t eat meat several times each year so there are many vegan dishes. The spice commonly used in dishes is Berbere, which is also known as the king of spices. It is actually a mix of different spices mixed together, and it’s a little different depending on where you go. The usually ingredients are cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fundergreek seeds, black peppercorns, allspice berries, seeds of green cardamom pods, cloves, dried red chillies, sweet paprika, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and tumeric.
If you ever go to an Ethiopian restaurant, it will be helpful to know that “tibs” means fried, and “wat” means either saucy or stewed. We had many ‘wat’ dishes when we tried Ethiopian food. I went to an Ethiopian restaurant with my mom and Nana. We sat down and our waiter gave us towels to wipe our hands on because we were going to eat with our hands! Fun fact – in Ethiopia people eat with their right hand because they use their left hand to with in the bathroom! Ethiopians do wash their hands, it’s just tradition. Our waiter served us our drinks – I got a mango juice. It was thick and sweet and tasted like mangoes. When our food came, we had scoops of food on a large skinny bread that had many tiny holes, like a sponge. The bread is called injera. We had stewed chickpeas, red lentils, potato and cabbage, collard greens, and green beans. I also had sambusas, which are minced meat rolled into a flaky dough. The food was very fragrant. Finally, our sweet or spicy food went together well with the sour injera bread. We left full and happy.
The world would never know coffee if it weren’t for a herd of goats. A goat herder in Ethiopia found that his goats were getting hyper, and he wanted to know why. He found that his goats were eating red berries, which were making them hyper. These red beans were coffee beans! That was the glorious beginning of coffee. Ethiopia’s coffee beans are smaller than beans in other countries. Adults and kids drink small amounts of coffee.
Hello! I’m Amy. This is my little spot on the internet where I share about travel, homeschooling, getting creative, food and healthy living. By day I’m a homeschooling mom and Certified Nutritionist..by night I’m a knitter, collage artist, and herbal remedy maker. Thanks for being here!
