It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

We just learned about the Christmas song O Come O Come Emmanuel.

Another famous Christmas song is It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

This song came from a poem written by a church leader named Edmund Sears in Massachusetts in 1850.
Sears asked his friend Richard Storrs to write the music for it, since he worked for the church writing hymns.

When Sears wrote this, there was a war going on between America and Mexico, and Sears was sad that people were fighting.
So he wrote this song hoping to get people to think about the message that the angels gave to the shepherds, about peace on the earth and goodwill to men.

Some of the verses are not very happy and talk about war or the pain or hard work, so some people skip those verses when they print out the songs, but the message of Sears was really for those people to hopefully stop fighting and being sad and think about good things like heaven and angels.

Lyrics:

It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth, To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heaven's all-gracious King."
The world in solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come, With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains, They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its babel sounds The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road, And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on, By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing.


(from: wikipedia - it came upon the midnight clear)


It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Remastered 1999) - Frank Sinatra


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Gutenberg Bible

Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - Separation of Light from Darkness

We just learned about the Michelangelo's Moses.

Another famous painting that Michelangelo did was the Sistine Chapel - Separation of Light from Darkness.

AFter Michelangelo had finished Moses, the next big project he did was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This project was huge, and he painted over 300 figures on an area over 5,000 square feet.

The paintings were all made in different groups.
One group was nine paintings telling stories from Genesis.

In the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Bible it says:
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
>God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Michelangelo made a painting of God with his arms up in the sky separating the light from the darkness.


(from: wikipedia - separation of light from darkness)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Dream Lady - Edward McCartan

Hindi - How are you?

We just learned some greetings in Hindi, like नमस्ते (namaste) and अलविदा (alavida) and शुभ प्रभात (shubh prabhaat), नमस्कार (namaskaar), सुसंध्या (susandhya), शुभ रात्रि (shubh raatri).

To say How are you? in Hindi you would say:

आप कैसे हैं? (aap kaise hain?) - sounds like ah-p kay-see hay-in 文A


To respond and say Very good thanks, you would say:

बहुत अच्छा धन्यवाद। (bahut achchha dhanyavaad) - sounds like bah-hut ah-chah dah-n-yay-vah-d 文A




(from: wikipedia - devanagari)

Swahili: Hujambo, Unakuwaje, Sijambo asante, Safi asante

Russian: Как дела? (kak dela), Спасибо Хорошо (Spasibo khorosho)

Norwegian: Hvordan har du det? Veldig bra takk.

Greek: Γειά σου (Geiá sou), Χαίρετε (Chairete), Αντίο (Antío), Καλημέρα (Kaliméra), Καλησπέρα (Kalispéra), Καληνυχτα - (Kalinychta)

ASL: How are you?

Italian: Come va? Molto bene, grazie.

German: Wie geht es Ihnen? Sehr gut, danke.

Spanish: ¿Cómo estás? Muy bien, gracias.

French: Comment allez-vous? Très bien, merci.

Computer Keyboard

We just learned about the Video Cable and the way a computer monitor works.

Another part of the computer is the Keyboard.

Before there were computers, people used to use typewriters to put letters on paper with ink.
When computers were made for people to put letters on the computer monitor, people made electronic keyboards that looked like the typewriters.
On a computer keyboard, when you press down on a key there it pushes down on a button that sends an electrical message to the computer telling you which key was pressed.
It's almost like your keyboard is made up of hundreds of little light switches and when you press one it turns a light on.

Most computers these days have letters in the "QWERTY" order, meaning that the letters are set up in the order where the letters are like:
1234567890
QWERTYUIOP
ASDFGHJKL
ZXCVBNM

The QWERTY keyboard style was invented back in 1874 when someone came up with the idea to put the letters in that order.
There are a lot of stories saying that it was to make sure typewriter machines didn't jam up, or to make people type faster, but nobody is really sure exactly why the computer keyboard doesn't go in alphabeitcal ABC order.

Other people have come up with keyboards that help people type faster, but because people had already learned how to type on QWERTY keyboards they have never changed.


(from: wikipedia - computer keyboard)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Firebox

Colombian Red Howler

We just learned about the Mantled Howler.

Another type of new world monkey is the Colombian Red Howler, also called the Venezuelan red howler or alouatta seniculus.

This type of monkey lives in South America, spending most of its life up in the trees.
They grow to be about 2 feet long, weigh about 20 pounds and have a long tail they use to climb around.
Just like their name says, they have red colored fur and they make really loud howling sounds that can be heard for miles.



(from: wikipedia - colombian red howler)



Red Howler Monkeys | Expedition Guyana | BBC Earth - BBC Earth


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Scottish Fold

Ear Ossicles

We just learned about the Middle Ear.

Part of the middle ear is called the Ossicles.

These are three bones in the ear that help take the sound coming from the outer ear and vibrate to help send the right sounds to the inner ear.


(from: wikipedia - ossicles)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: B Cells

Cuba

We just learned about the country of Honduras

Let's learn a little about the country of Cuba!

This is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, and borders the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It is about 42,000 square miles, and about 11 million people live there. In Cuba the people speak Spanish.


(from: wikipedia - cuba)

The flag of Cuba has a red triangle on the red, with a white star in it, and five sideways stripes of blue and white.
The red triangle is for liberty, equality and fraternity, courage and independence.
The blue stripes are for the three different parts of Cuba, and the white is for purity.


(from: wikipedia - flag of cuba)

To eat in Cuba you might have ropa vieja, which is a type of shredded steak stewed in a tomato sauce.
The name means "old clothes" and there is an old story of a poor man who was so hungrey that he tore up his clothes and put them in a pot to cook, and then prayed over them for food and it turned into this delicious meat stew.


(from: wikipedia - ropa vieja)

Visiting Cuba you might go to the Havana Cathedral, a church built in 1796.

(from: wikipedia - havana cathedral)

In the city of Camagüey, clay pots called tinajon are used a lot to help get rain water to be used later.
There is an old legend that if you drink water from one of these clay pots, you will fall in love with a girl from Camagüey and never leave the city.


(from: wikipedia - camagüey)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Albania