For our last exploration this year of the Middle East, we decided to look at some of the stories of The Arabian Nights. While reading about Middle Eastern mathematicians and scientists I found a comment about how the Iraqi scholar Abu 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abdus al-Jashyari translated Persian, Indian, Iranian, Turkish and Chinese stories into Arabic. He changed the names to the exotic Arabic names we know today like Aladdin, Ali Baba, Scheherazade and Sinbad. He also changed the locations of some of the adventures. After al-Jashyari's death other Muslim scholars added to his collection until it contained the full 1001 stories that the title suggests. (Source: Steffens, Bradley, Ibn al-Haytham, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Greensboro, NC 2007, page 17) This fascinated me.
There has been a lot of talk about gender labeling lately. The big move by Target to get rid of their signs labeling toys as boys or girls seems to really have upset some people. I do not understand why. I grew up a girly girl who also loved to play with her construction trucks. My father was a construction worker so I always wanted to play construction and pretend to be at work with him. But I also had many dolls and loved to play with them. As I became an adult I noticed there was definitely a shift in our society as to what is for boys and what is for girls. My sister did not want to find out the gender of her baby, but they did have the tech write it down and seal in an envelope. My mother drove her crazy until she looked. Why? Well she wanted to knit either blue or pink things for her first grandchild and because it is really hard to find gender neutral clothes and baby items these days. Our cousin did not find out and it was hard to buy gifts for the baby shower. Everything seems to be made pink or blue with a very few things in the neutral range. When did it matter what color a baby wears? Well with a little research I discovered that it was after World War II that pink became a girl color and blue a boy color. In the early 1900s it was actually the opposite. (Source) As a society we have bought into what retailers want us to believe. They are the ones who decided it was necessary for there to be boy colors and girl colors.
This summer we have gone to visit my parents several times for various reasons. In June we met Jill of Just Jill Today there. She is a photographer and sells some of her amazing photographs in various products. She also has a campaign with Leonard the Lobster, one of her photographed models.
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many great ideas shared!! I was blown away. For features this week we have Lessons, Education, and Crafts and More. Please remember this is just a sampling of last week's ideas, so make sure you check all of them out!
Disclosure:Tuttle Publishing
gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review
are
my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my
reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. I am a Little Passport and a Gymboree Affiliate. If you purchase from the Gymboree or Little Passports links provided I will earn a small commission. Are your kids back to school yet? Here in Massachusetts we have between one to two weeks more to go in general, but there is a lot of buzz about the start of school. I also know my Facebook news feed is full of those first day picture from friends across the country. Well I know as a mother there are two things on our minds besides those school supply lists we all get from the teachers--school lunch ideas and new school clothes. I remember as a child going back to school shopping. I always looked forward to it. Since Hazel wears a uniform to school we do not worry so much about back to school clothes as we do just new fall clothes. This summer she definitely grew in fact many people have commented on how much taller she seems as the summer winds down, so she has changed sizes again. This meant a few trips to Gymboree for new fall clothes. But first lets talk about those lunches.
