Think of some of the objects you saw: family, friends, trees, maybe a pet, or the big blue sky and white moon in the dark of night. Maybe you saw a smile and objects moving, a car speeding by, or someone kicking a ball. Most of these objects are things you are used to. But when you were a baby they were very interesting! You were curious about everything because it was all new and fresh! As we get older many of these things to become familiar and perhaps not as interesting. Tonight we’re going to learn about Leonardo da Vinci, also known as one of the most curious and creative geniuses in recorded history. As we learn about him, think about how he saw the world differently and how you might see the world differently, too. 

When was Leonardo da Vinci born?

Leonardo was born on April 15th, 1452 in the country of Italy in a town called Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci means Leonardo of Vinci, the town where he was born.  He was born during a time that later became known as The Renaissance, which means “Rebirth” because the way people saw the world was changing dramatically during this time. The Medieval Times was over and people were beginning to see themselves as beings who had control over their life and the world and could think differently than those who came before them. 

Childhood & Early Education

Leonardo grew up with his father and spent much of his time exploring the land around their home. He loved to observe the birds and animals and get lost in the beautiful countryside. Around the age of 15, his father noticed he had an interest in and a gift for art. For this reason, his father had him become an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, Italy. An apprentice is a student to a master artist. And at this time Florence was known for its gifted artists and sculptors. In Verrocchio’s workshop, Leonardo learned from his master how to paint and sculpt. Sculptors used materials like clay or marble to make grand sculptures.   

Leonardo studied and helped with paintings and sculptures in Verrochio’s workshop until he was 20 years old. The next step in an artist’s life was to join a guide and Leonard did just that when he was accepted into the painters’ guild in Florence. A guild was a group of skilled artists who worked and met together. At this time he created many pen and pencil drawings and technical drawings of weapons and other mechanical devices. He was very interested in how things worked and in creating new devices. He loved inventing things! 

Milan and Duke Sforza

In 1482, when he was about 30 years old Leonardo moved to the city of Milan where he worked for the city’s duke, Ludovico Sforza. There he created paintings and worked on inventions for the Duke. The ability to create and improve technical devices is called engineering — and Leonardo was a very gifted engineer. He worked for Duke Sforza for many years. There he painted two of his best-known works The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper depicting Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. He also helped design buildings and gave the Duke engineering advice for his army. 

One of Leonardo’s other biggest projects was a huge, 24-foot bronze horse for Duke Sforza. He spent 12 years designing it out of clay, which would be a mold to be turned into bronze. Unfortunately, before they could pour the metal into the mold to finish the horse sculpture, the project was stopped, because a war started and the metal had to be used for cannons instead of the horse! In our day, someone decided to get together the money to finally build the horse Leonardo always wanted. If you ever visit Milan, Italy you can see it today!

After the war Duke Sforza was no longer Duke, so Leonardo stopped working for him. Leonardo continued working in his workshop in Milan and soon had his own students and apprentices.

Florence

In the 1500s a French army invaded and took over Milan, so Leonardo left and went to Florence, where he had been an apprentice as a young man. In Florence, he painted his most famous painting, The Mona Lisa. Leonardo was a gifted artist, but he wasn’t afraid to learn new topics and never stopped learning. He was infinitely curious! Leonardo began to study math and science. He studied the human body, which is called anatomy. He also observed the flight of birds and studied the flow of air and water. He looked at everyday objects through different eyes. He wondered how bodies worked, how birds flew, and what gave living things their motion. He didn’t take anything for granted and saw the miracle in everyday life and studied deeply to try and understand it. 

Eventually, Leonardo moved back to Milan and continued his scientific studies, writing and creating many sketchbooks to help others understand the human body and how it worked. He came to believe that all bodies and living things worked according to certain laws of nature, which was very ahead of his time. 

Rome

In 1513, around the age of 60, Leonardo again moved to Rome where he lived in the Vatican and worked for Giuliano de Medici. At this time many of the popular Renaissance artists were living and creating amazing works of art in Rome. The famous St. Peter’s Cathedral was being built at the time and Raphael was painting walls in the Pope’s new apartments. One of the most famous artists of all time, Michaelangelo, was also in Rome working on the Pope’s tomb. 

By the age of 65, Leonardo was asked by the King of France to move there, where he became his main painter, architect, and engineer, which was a great honor. There he continued his sketches and consulted other artists in their works. He also helped plan a palace and garden for the king. He spent a lot of time arranging his writings and sketches about nature in his many notebooks, which fortunately we have today! Leonardo passed away at an old age while living in France.

Leonardo’s Influences

Today we’re lucky to have many of Leonardo’s paintings and notebooks. Many of the ideas he had were for machines that wouldn’t be invented for hundreds of years. For example, in his study of birds and flight, he had the idea for an airplane, a helicopter, and a parachute, which he sketched in his notebooks. He also had the idea for many military machines, such as an armored car, a giant crossbow, and a three-barreled cannon. When you get the chance you can find a book about Leonardo’s inventions at the library or look at them online. They are amazing!

What can you learn from Leonardo?

One of the most interesting things about Leonardo was his ability to take his artistic talents and engineering skills and combine them. He became known as a Renaissance Man because of his curiosity and ability to combine many different skills to invent amazing things. He believed artists were the best qualified to achieve true knowledge, because of the unique way they were able to view the world. Think about that as you observe the miraculous world around you. Never take for granted the little things. Even the smallest living things like a flower or a bee are extraordinary as you look at them closely and learn more about them. Think about what you might do to learn more about the world around you like Leonardo. You could take the time to study a rock or a leaf and sketch it into a notebook as Leonardo did. This is the way he came to better understand the world, one simple object at a time. 

Listen to the audio

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Chances are you’ve heard of an iPhone before and probably an iPad. What about an iMac, an iPod, and a Macbook? These are all devices created by a company called Apple. Did you know last year they sold more than 40 million iPhones; and over 2 billion since they started creating them! That is a lot of phones! Did you know the very first Apple computer was created in a garage by two guys named Steve? And at one point it looked like Apple might fail. Pretty crazy, right? Well, tonight we’re going to learn about one of those Steves named Steve Jobs and how he came to create Apple and all of the billions of devices that came with it over the years.

Birth

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California to a woman named Joanne Carole Schieble. Steve’s father’s name was John Al Jandali and he was an immigrant from Syria, which is a country in the Middle East. He left Syria because it was dangerous at the time. But even before Steve was born, his mother decided it was best to give him up for adoption, because she and his father weren’t ready to have a family together.

Baby Steve’s new adoptive parents were named Paul and Clara Jobs. They weren’t able to have their own children, so they were very excited for Steve to join their family. Later in life, Steve said he was fortunate to have them as parents and they showed him lots of love. A couple of years after adopting Steve, Paul and Clara Jobs adopted a girl, giving Steve a sister. Not long after this, they moved to Mountain View, California, where Steve’s dad worked as a machinist. A machinist is someone who works in a shop building different types of machines. At home, his father had a shop in their garage and often he and Steven worked on their car and built things. Steve was impressed that his father could build so many things and it made him interested in doing the same. But mostly he just enjoyed spending time with his father.

School Years

Growing up Steve struggled in school. He liked to play pranks and often didn’t listen to his teachers. But he was a pretty smart kid, so his parents often thought it was because he was too bored with what was being taught and he needed more challenging problems to solve. In 4th Grade, Steve’s teacher was named “Teddy” Hill and she told him that if he’d complete his math workbook she’d give him 5 dollars. Steve jumped at the chance and quickly worked through all of the problems in the workbook. For the first time, he was excited about doing school work and realized if he put effort into learning it could actually be fun! Have you ever had a problem to solve and completed it and it felt good inside?

Steve’s next few years in school were tough. In Middle School, he was often bullied and didn’t have any close friends. It feels horrible to be bullied. Be sure to never treat others this way. Or if you’re being treated this way be sure to let someone like a caring parent or teacher know! Because of the bullying, Steve was transferred to a new school. It was expensive for his parents to move to a better neighborhood, but they loved Steve and wanted the best for him so they did it anyway. 

In his new school, Steve found more kids like himself and especially those who were interested in subjects like engineering — which is the science of building things. His other favorite subject in high school was literature, which means reading and studying good books. He especially loved books by the English writer William Shakespeare. 

Steve Wozniak

In high school, Steve became friends with another student named Steve Wozniak. Wozniak loved electronics, too, and after they graduated high school they worked together to build their first device called a “blue box,” which allowed someone to make long-distance calls for free. They thought it was pretty cool that they were able to create a device that did something so useful. They sold the blue boxes and it was at this time that Steve realized building devices could be fun — and make money! This was also a time when Steve wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life and just took college classes for fun. One of his favorite classes was about calligraphy, which means writing beautiful lettering with ink. 

Apple Computers

One of Steve’s first jobs was at a company called Atari, one of the very first video game companies. During this time he also traveled to India and learned about Buddhism and meditation, which he often used throughout his life. After returning home, Steve started tinkering with Steve Wozniak again, who was building a computer. At this time computers weren’t as common as they are now, most people did not have a computer in their home. Most people never imagined they’d own a computer. Steve Jobs thought they could sell their computers, so they spent time working on them in the Jobs family garage. To buy parts Jobs sold his car and Wozniak sold his favorite calculator. One day after spending the morning at an apple orchard, Steve Jobs told Wozniak he thought they should call the computer “Apple.” It was also his favorite fruit. “Apple” later became the name of their computer company.

The two Steves and the people they hired built more computers and sold them and later Steve found others to invest in Apple computers. Investment is when someone with extra money gives you their money to help your business grow. But you have to agree that when your business starts to make money you’ll give them that money (and hopefully more) back. This is how most companies grow today. 

At this time Steve started shaving his head like the Buddhist priests he admired and wearing a black turtleneck, which later became his signature outfit. 

Apple computers began to sell even more computers as they focused on selling computers for personal use. They wanted everyone to have a computer in their home and to be easy to use. Soon Apple was a very profitable company and by 1980 worth over 1 billion dollars! At this time Apple competed with IBM, which was the other very big computer company selling computers for home use. 

In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh computer, which did well but still couldn’t sell more than IBM. The new President of Apple and even friends like Steve Wozniak didn’t like the way things were being done at Apple and Wozniak left. The new President of the company decided that although Steve Jobs started Apple, he was also causing problems for the company.  Steve eventually left to start a new company. 

Pixar

This was a frustrating time for him as he struggled to start a new company, which ended up failing. You can imagine that many would stop trying when they failed, but Steve wasn’t the type to give up. He kept exploring different ideas and eventually became interested in computer graphics. At the time there were a group of graphics designers who were doing some pretty cool things with computer graphics. They were tinkering with 3D models and working to make graphics on the computer more realistic. If you’ve seen graphics from old computers they don’t look very real like the video games and animated movies you see today. Steve used some of his money from Apple to buy The Graphics Group and together under the direction of John Lassetter they created their first computer-animated movie called Toy Story! I’ll bet you’ve heard of Toy Story. This Graphics Group was renamed Pixar and later became part of Disney making such movies as Cars, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wall-E, Monsters Inc., Inside Out, Coco, and most recently Onward. Yes, Steve Jobs is one of the people to thank for the creation of Pixar and all of these amazing movies!

After starting Pixar, Apple computers asked Steve Jobs to return and run the company. There he oversaw the creation of the new iMac computers, which were powerful, efficient, and designed elegantly as Steve wanted. Steve loved designing beautiful devices and spent many, many hours thinking about how the devices looked and trying different designs until they were nearly perfect in his eyes. He believed that electronics needed to be powerful on the inside but also be enjoyable to look and feel a certain way that was pleasurable to the user. If you notice this is one way that Apple devices are different. 

iPods and iPhones

At Apple Steve also helped design the iPod, which played digital music. Later helped design one of the first smartphones, the iPhone, which wowed the world with its powerful computer on the inside, its beautiful design, its many features, and its app store. The iPhone was the device that really made Apple popular again. Before smartphones, computers and phones were separate devices. With inventions like the iPhone, they became one and the same. This was a revolutionary technology that even your parents didn’t grow up with. You’ve probably heard them say “I didn’t have a phone when I was your age.” Because it’s true, personal phones you could carry around weren’t invented yet! Early on most computers were so big they took up an entire room. Now they fit in the palm of your hand. We live in a pretty amazing time, right?  

In October 2003 Steve was diagnosed with cancer and tried to get rid of it in many different ways. Slowly others took over his positions at Apple until in 2011 he passed away.

Conclusion

Later Apple also created the iPad and many new iMac computers, iPhones, Macbooks, and many other original devices up until today. Apple soon grew to be one of the most profitable companies in the world and today Apple devices can be found everywhere. Over 47,000 people work for Apple in locations across the world. It’s incredible to think what has come from someone like Steve who worked very hard to build his company and create these devices. And remember, he didn’t do it alone! His friend Steve Wozniak helped him create the first computer, and over the years many people who work for Apple helped come up with the designs and parts that have made these devices so incredible. Do you think you’d like to work for a company like Apple someday? For fun, you’ll have to look into the type of jobs there. It might be design or coding. If you are interested, think about what you might do to start learning some of these basic skills. 

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Coronation

Imagine you are in a beautiful old church in England.  The year is 1827 and you are at the coronation, or royal crowning ceremony, of a new monarch.  All around you, rich people are dressed in beautiful clothing.  As the music starts, in enters the princess who is about to be crowned queen.  She is only 18 years old and as she enters the room, you can see that she is very short.  But she is poised and calm.  She has the confidence of someone who knew this is her path.  She is Queen Victoria.

Early Life

Queen Victoria was born in 1819 in London, England.  When she was born, her name was Alexandrina Victoria, but she was called “Victoria” as her nickname.  Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who was the sister of the King of Belgium, Leopold the First.  

Sadly, when Victoria was only eight months old her father died. After that, her mother became a domineering influence in her life. Domineering means bossy and controlling She was raised by her mother and her mother’s accountant, John Conroy.  Because her family was wealthy, Victoria had a very privileged childhood.  This means as a child, she had very nice things and lived in luxury. She had the best food, the nicest clothes, everything you’d imagine a princess to have. But Victoria was said to be kind, warm-hearted and lively. She loved dolls and had over 100 of them in her playroom!  

Despite all of her toys and nice things, Victoria was not allowed to play with other children in a normal way, so she had very few friends.  This made her sad.  But her best friend and constant companion was her nanny, Louise Lehzen. Victoria’s nanny taught her at the Royal Palace.  She learned all the subjects that a wealthy child who may one day become queen would need to learn, including languages and politics.  Victoria had a talent for drawing and painting, and Governess Louise encouraged her to pursue these hobbies.  Victoria also really enjoyed journal writing.  She started writing as a child and continued to write in her journal for the rest of her life.

While she was growing up, Victoria’s mother and John Conroy kept a very close eye on Victoria. They knew that she may one day become the queen of England, and they wanted to keep their influence over her to themselves.  Influence means to control and impact.  While she was a child, they never let Victoria be alone without one of them present.  Victoria slept in the same room as her mother until she was 18 so that she wasn’t on her own.  Her mother and John Conroy were worried that if Victoria was left alone, that other people might try to influence her and might turn her against them. 

Despite her mother’s influence, Victoria had a feisty temperament.  This means that she had high energy and was very independent in nature.  She had a big personality but physically Victoria was famously very short.  As an adult, she was only 4 feet 11 inches tall!

At the time of her birth, Victoria was fifth in line to the throne.  But over the course of her childhood and early teenage years, Victoria’s uncles, her father’s three brothers, all died without having living children.  This meant that when Victoria turned 18, in 1837, she knew she would become the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Queen of England

One of the first things that Queen Victoria did after becoming queen was to claim her own control and authority over her life and her rule.  She moved out of her mother’s bedroom into her own room.  She distanced herself from her mother and John Conroy, which means that she broke away from them and their constant advice and influence.  She had seen how much they were controlling her and trying to tell her what to do and she didn’t like it. 

Instead, the young Queen Victoria turned to her friend, the prime minister at the time, Lord Melbourne, to teach her about government and her role as a queen.  A Prime Minister is similar to a President in England.

Lord Melbourne was Queen Victoria’s first prime minister, who served for 7 years from 1834 to 1841. Lord Melbourne helped teach Queen Victoria about the details of being a queen and the role she plays in government at the time.  Lord Melbourne acted as the Queen’s advisor on politics and was the person she could speak to openly and get advice during the early years of her reign.

Marriage

In 1840, Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She met Albert when she was just 16.  Since Victoria was queen, Albert couldn’t propose to her. So she proposed to him on October 15, 1839!

At first, the British public didn’t like Prince Albert because he was not from the United Kingdom, but from Germany.  At first, he was not allowed to be involved in politics at all.  But eventually, people realized that he was a good person and Queen Victoria started to rely on his advice and he helped her to rule. 

During the early part of their marriage, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert fought quite a bit.  They both had strong personalities and didn’t like to be wrong.  However, they loved each other very much and were committed to being successful together. Over time they started to get along better and Prince Albert started to give Queen Victoria advice and helped her make difficult decisions during her reign. And together they had nine children!  Their palace was a busy and noisy place with so many kids. 

Prince Albert also brought a number of German traditions to the United Kingdom that became popular for the British people.  This included the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree at the holidays.  Prince Albert had put a Christmas tree up for a celebration at their royal home and a picture was taken of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children in front of the tree.  The picture was in a popular newspaper at the time and afterward many people in the UK and other parts of the British Empire started putting up Christmas trees. 

Victorian England

Life in Britain during the 19th century was known as Victorian England because of Victoria’s long reign and the stamp it and her personality placed on the country. 

During Queen Victoria’s reign, Great Britain grew its industry more than ever before.  They built railways, bridges, underground sewers and power or energy networks throughout much of the empire. This is also known as industrialization. 

During her reign, Britain also expanded the size of its territories, doubling in size and taking over Canada, Australia, India and a number of other places in Africa and the South Pacific. The Queen loved the British Empire and felt that it was for the good of the world that Britain grew to take over so much of it. Because Britain controlled so many different parts of the world during her reign, people started saying a famous expression: “The sun never sets on the British Empire.”

During Queen Victoria’s reign, she also supported scientists to do research and learn more about the world.  There were great advances in science as a result, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, the telegraph, and the popular press, or common newspapers. The main cities in England grew very large and more and more people learned to read. The “Victorian-era” was a great time of development for the British people. 

However, not everyone always liked the decisions that Queen Victoria made.  During her life, there were seven assassination attempts made on Victoria’s life.  This means that her enemies tried to kill her so that she would no longer be in charge. But they did not succeed in their attempts.

After several years of suffering from a sore stomach, Victoria’s beloved Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861 at the age of 42. Victoria was very sad.  She had a plaster cast made of his hand and she kept it by her side for the rest of her life.  She also went into a 25-year seclusion, which means hiding on her own.  For the rest of her reign, she wore black.

Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901.  When she died, she had been the longest-reigning woman monarch in the world.

Conclusion

While Queen Victoria was queen her country saw great cultural expansion, advances in industry, science, and communications, and the building of railways and the London Underground.  And the expansion of the British Empire during her reign continues to have a great impact on the world and the cultures of the various places that were British colonies under her rule. 

Can you imagine being born into a royal family and knowing that you will one day be queen or king?  This would be a great amount of pressure for a child.  Even though she had nice things and was very wealthy, she still cared about other people. She took great pride in her country and wanted to use your power to do good things. With all of her money, she could have just had a good time, but instead she rose to the challenge to be a great queen to her people.

If you were the king or queen of a country, what are some of the things that you would focus on?  Where you live, what are some of the things you would do to make it better?

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Early Days of Wangari Maathai

This is the world Wangari Maathai knew as a child. Born in the rainy season in the highlands of Kenya to a farming family, she spent a lot of time outdoors. She learned to observe the natural world: the rains, the rocks, the plants, and animals. She grew her own garden, diligently tending her crops. She fetched water from a spring where it bubbled up out of the ground and found hideaways behind forest plants. She learned how the rain fed her family’s crops, which fed her family and provided them with income when they sold the excess. She learned how that rain flowed down to rivers, providing clean drinking water for people and animals. 

She learned to respect nature because it could be dangerous. Animals hid in the forest – leopards and elephants. She learned to care for it because it could also be fragile. Human beings could easily throw things out of balance by taking more than they needed from them, or not protecting what they gave them.  

When she was eight, Wangari left her little farming village. Her mother took her and her older brothers to the nearby town of Nyeri so her brothers could go to school. In the 1940s, girls in Kenya rarely went to school. Wangari went along so that she could help her mother around the house with cooking and cleaning. But within weeks of their arrival, it became clear that this plan would never work. Wangari asked her older brothers about what they were learning each day when they got home from school. Soon, one of the brothers asked their mother why she couldn’t just go to school too.  Her mother decided this wasn’t a bad idea, and soon, Wangari was going off to school each day too.

Wangari loved school and did well. She especially loved learning about the living world, the plants, and the animals that had been her constant companions when she lived in her small farming village. She graduated high school in 1959 but didn’t want to stop. As unusual as it was for a girl to finish high school in Kenya at that time, it was almost unheard of for one to go on to college. But Wangari heard about a program that sent Kenyan students to the United States for college. She applied and got a scholarship! Wangari was off to study at Mount Saint Scholastica College in Kansas. 

Educational Adventures of Wangari Maathai

The 1960s were a time of big social changes in the United States. Women and African Americans were fighting for rights that they had been denied for a long time. They wanted equal opportunities to work and go to school, and they wanted unfair laws to be struck down. It was an exciting time, and Wangari embraced the ideals of equality and freedom. She went on to get a Master’s degree in biology at the University of Pittsburgh before returning to Kenya.

While she was gone, Kenya had gone through some big changes of its own. The country had been controlled by the British empire since the 1920s, but in 1963, it gained its independence. When Wangari returned, she came back to a country that was finally run by its own people. Wangari was excited to be a part of her country’s history. She hoped she could help it become a place where all people have equal rights and opportunities.

But, Wangari still wasn’t done learning. She began studying to become a veterinary doctor at the University of Nairobi. She became the first woman in East Africa to earn such an advanced degree! She began working as a professor at the university, teaching others about veterinary medicine. 

Working Towards Democracy

Even though she was busy working at her job and starting a family by this time, Wangari kept thinking about how she could help make her country reach the ideals of democracy and equality. She took time to notice the problems facing the people of Kenya. One thing she noticed was that the lush, green hillsides she had explored as a child, the forests that had first taught her about the natural world, had changed. So many trees had been cut down that the land looked bare. Under British rule, people had cut down huge swaths of forest to make way for crops that could be sold for lots of money overseas, like coffee and tea. For someone who loved nature, like Wangari, this was a sad thing, but she knew it wasn’t just a problem for the trees. This deforestation was a problem for people too. 

Trees help the land in many ways. They provide shade on hot days and grow fruit that people and animals eat. With their deep, spreading roots, they keep the soil on mountainsides from washing away in the rain. With so many trees gone, the rainy season no longer meant good crops and drinking water. Instead, the rain washed all the best soil down the hillsides, and into the rivers below. This made it harder to grow crops, so farmers couldn’t earn enough money to support themselves. It also made the rivers dirty, so the water wasn’t good to drink. With fewer trees, people had to walk farther to find firewood, which made it harder to cook meals.

These problems especially affected women, because they were the ones who went to fetch water and firewood. They had to walk further and further to find clean water and large trees. 

Wangari wanted to help return her country to the beautiful, green landscape she’d known as a child, and, at the same time, fix the problems that deforestation had caused. If she could help people plant trees, they would also be able to grow more crops, so they could earn enough money to live off of. They would be able to find clean water and firewood nearby. 

Wangari worked with a women’s group to pay women in rural areas of the country to plant trees. This helped with both deforestation and poverty since these women now earned a little bit of money to help their families. She taught women all over Kenya how to plant trees in nurseries, then transplant them into wild areas. At the same time, she taught them about how trees helped keep the land and their communities healthy. She called this project the Green Belt Movement because they planted trees in rows that would look like long, green belts across the land.

At first, the Kenyan government didn’t like Wangari’s movement. Didn’t like that a woman was taking charge, didn’t like that people planting trees weren’t professional foresters, and didn’t like that she helped poor people take control of their lives. Many in the government thought it would be better to make money for themselves by selling the deforested land to people who wanted to build on it. Wangari was attacked, beaten, and arrested.  But she never gave up. The Green Belt Movement planted millions of trees in Kenya. Hillsides became green again. Trees helped hold soil in place so it didn’t wash away into the rivers, making them mucky and brown. 

Wangari was even elected to Kenya’s parliament in 1997. She got 98% of the vote, which is very unusual for an election! Later, she was made minister of the environment. She helped make policies that would ensure long-lasting change and protection for the environment. Wangari felt that protecting the environment was a critical part of keeping people healthy and provided for. She had seen how the trees planted by the Green Belt Movement helped people out of poverty, cleaned up rivers, and made the soil healthy again. 

Over time, Wangari’s movement started to mean more than just trees. People started to see that it was about helping people who were suffering, and when you do that, you create a more peaceful society. When people have what they need, they can help others too. They also saw that the small act of tree-planting, when many people did it, had a huge impact. This is how democracy works too: when enough people vote or speak out, small acts can amount to big changes.  Kenya was working towards becoming a democracy during this time, so this was an important idea to spread. The trees planted by the Green Belt Movement became symbols, reminding people of how they could overcome their differences, make better decisions together as a country, and live in peace.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 2004, Wangari received a huge honor. She won the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Nobel Peace Prize recognizes someone who has done big things to support peace between countries or help people who were suffering. With her trees, Wangari had helped end suffering for people in Kenya and create a healthy environment where they could live peacefully for years to come. She did this even while she faced serious opposition from her own government. She worked not only to improve the natural environment but to guide her country towards democracy so that everyone could have a voice in how things were run. 

Wangari became ill and passed away in 2011, but the movement she started continues. They still plant trees in Kenya, but also partner with other groups around the world to plant trees and tackle other problems like climate change and inequality. Even though the world faces a lot of big problems, it’s important to remember that even small acts can lead to big change, if enough people do them. There are so many things you can do to help, too! Plant a tree, donate food to a food pantry, or just say a kind thing to someone.  If you do it, maybe someone else will too. All these little acts add up, bringing us closer, as Wangari put it, to “a time when we have shed our fear and give hope to each other.” 

Sources

https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/kenya

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/ 

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/lecture/

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1860/14.%20Kenya%20Country%20Profile.pdf

Crayton, Lisa A (2020). Wangari Maathai: Get to Know the Woman Who Planted Trees to Bring Change. Capstone, North Mankato, MN

Maathai, Wangari (2006) Unbowed. Random House, New York.

Swanson, Jennifer (2018) Environmental Activist Wangari Maathai. Lerner Publishing, Minneapolis.

The post History of Wangari Maathai for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Imagine the sky, stretching out clear and blue above you for what seems like forever. The desert landscape also seems to go on and on, with no houses or other buildings, not even a road as far as the eye can see, but hardly empty. You can see cactus plants, brush, and the dark figures of cattle moving on the plains, and a few distant mountains on the horizon. 

This is the kind of scene that Sandra Day O’Connor would have looked out on from her childhood home in Arizona, near the Gila River. It’s a quiet, remote place that holds both possibilities and danger. Sandra would learn early how to handle the dangers, but her life was also full of possibilities that, with a little hard work on her part, would take her to places far beyond that seemingly endless desert. Though her family had lived there for generations and she always considered Arizona home, Sandra would live and work in California, Germany, and Washington DC. She would become a lawyer, politician, and finally the first female justice, or judge, on the United States Supreme Court.

Sandra was the first of three children, and the oldest by far. The ranch where the family lived was called the Lazy B, and Sandra became a part of ranch life from the very start. She had to, because the Lazy B was pretty far from anywhere, and her parents and their ranch hands had a lot of work to do running a cattle ranch. Sometimes the cowboys who worked on the ranch would babysit Sandra. As soon as she could sit up as a baby, a ranch hand would balance Sandra in front of him on the saddle and take her for horseback rides around the Lazy B.

Sandra and her siblings had to learn to take care of themselves and help out on the ranch. There were many jobs to do on the ranch, and many dangers in the desert. You could fall from a horse, come face-to-face with a rattlesnake, or have a brush with a cactus. Plus, the Lazy B Ranch was far away from any towns. The nearest paved road was 9 miles away, and the nearest doctors were over 200 miles away. The family house didn’t have running water or electricity until Sandra was seven years old. 

There were no neighbors nearby, and therefore no other children to play with, for miles around. But Sandra liked to care for small and injured animals, like mice, crippled birds, and stray kittens. She also learned to love reading, and books kept company. On birthdays, their mother would make angel food cake, and the children would spend hours taking turns churning fresh cream into homemade ice cream. In this way. The children all learned to help each other and themselves. 

When it came time for Sandra to go to school, her parents thought she would get a better education in a bigger town. So Sandra went to live with her grandmother in El Paso. She loved her private girl’s school, and made many lifelong friends there, but she also missed the ranch and family dearly. She went back to live with her family for eighth grade, but the hours-long daily commute to get to the closest school was very difficult, so she went back to El Paso the next year. 

Sandra was a very good student–so good that she finished high school at 16 and enrolled at Stanford University in California. She would go on to complete law school there, graduating in just two years, instead of the usual three. Even though she finished fast, Sandra made the most of her years in law school. She was the editor of the school’s law review. She met and became friends with William Rehnquist, who would later serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court while she was on the court. She also met John Jay O’Connor, who would become her husband after her graduation. 

Unfortunately, Sandra had a hard time finding work after law school because of her gender. She was offered a job as a legal secretary, which didn’t really require the law degree she had worked so hard to earn. But at the time, many people wrongly thought that women just didn’t make good lawyers.

But at least that job was paid. Her other option was to work for free as an attorney for the county of San Mateo in California. Sandra decided it was more important to do the kind of work her education had prepared her for than to get paid. So she took the job with the county. After working for a few months in a small office that she shared with a secretary, the county realized she was actually good at her job and decided to give her a salary. This wasn’t fair at all of course–someone who has gone to one of the best law schools in the country and graduated early shouldn’t need any more proof they’re good enough to be paid as a lawyer. 

In the 1950s, John was drafted into the army. Sandra went with him to Germany where he served. For three years, she worked as an attorney for the army there. When they returned to the US, the O’Connors settled in Maricopa County, Arizona. They had three children, and Sandra took a break from practicing law. She did keep busy though: she volunteered in political organizations, did volunteer legal work, and worked on the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. 

In 1965, O’Connor went to work again, this time as an attorney for the state of Arizona. In 1969, she was appointed to the Arizona state senate when another senator resigned. O’Connor was re-elected twice after that, and became a leader in the Arizona state senate. As a politician, she supported issues that were important for both political parties– the Democrats and the Republicans. If she thought something was a good idea, it didn’t matter whether the person who had it was in her own party.  

O’Connor went on to serve as a judge in various Arizona state courts. Judges do a few different things depending on the type of court they work in. In trial courts, a jury of citizens decides whether a person accused of a crime is guilty, and the judge decides what the punishment, or sentence should be. In other courts, called appeals courts, judges decide whether cases from the trial courts were decided fairly. Sometimes, they will overturn another court’s decision, that is, say it wasn’t fair. O’Connor was a judge in both types of court.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States. During his campaign, he made a promise: If a Supreme Court justice left the court during his term in office, he would nominate the first female justice to the court as a replacement. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. It doesn’t decide whether individual people are guilty of wrongdoing. Instead, the justices on the Supreme Court decide whether laws are valid. To do this, they carefully look at whether a law conflicts with any part of the United States Constitution. If it does, then a law is not valid and cannot be enforced. The Constitution is the highest law in the country. No other laws can contradict it, or infringe on the rights it guarantees to people, such as freedom of speech, freedom to gather with others, and the right to have a trial with a jury. The president chooses a new Supreme Court justice whenever one leaves the court. Justices can serve on the court for as long as they want, including the rest of their life, so it’s a pretty important and powerful job. 

In 1981, Justice Potter Stewart resigned from the court, giving Reagan a chance to fulfill that promise. Who do you think he chose? Sandra Day O’Connor, of course! That may be obvious given that she’s the person we’ve been learning about today, but many of Reagan’s supporters didn’t approve of O’Connor and thought she would make decisions in the court that would go against their interests. But, the US senate, which must approve all Supreme Court Justices, approved O’Connor in a vote of 99-0. Of the 100 senators, only one did not vote for her, and that was only because he was out of town. This was a huge level of bipartisan support, meaning senators from Reagan’s own party, the Republicans, and the Democrats all thought she was a good choice for the job. 

During her time on the court, O’Connor helped decide all kinds of cases that would have a lasting impact on people and laws throughout the country. In the beginning, she usually voted with the conservative justices, who tended to agree with President Reagan and the Republican party, though not always. Remember, even when O’Connor served as a politician, she thought it was important to consider whether each idea was good or bad, not whether it came from someone on your side or the other side. As a judge, she believed she needed to be fair and impartial, and follow the law even if it might not make her popular. Eventually though she became the “swing” vote, meaning when the other eight justices were divided four-to-four on a case, her decision was usually the one to decide the case. This tie-breaker position made her very powerful! 

After 25 years on the Supreme Court, O’Connor retired in 2006 to take care of her husband, who was sick.  Since leaving the court, she has worked on getting children more involved and educated on government and civics. She started a website called iCivics, where kids can play games that help them learn about how our government works. You can see what it takes to immigrate to the United States from another country, run a law firm where you decide whether people’s constitutional rights have been violated, and even pretend to run for president! 

O’Connor believes it’s important for people, including kids, not only to learn about the ideals that the United States government is based on, but also see how that government actually works. It can be very complicated and messy at times! It’s not always easy to decide what’s fair or right in a certain situation, but as O’Connor has put it, “it’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.” It’s possible to be respectful towards one another, even if we don’t agree on something. Grown-ups don’t always agree on how our country should be run, but people like Sandra Day O’Connor remind us to look at different perspectives and keep a mind as clear and wide-open as the desert sky. 

Sources

O’Connor, Sandra Day and H. Alan Day. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Random House, 2002

https://www.oyez.org/justices/sandra_day_oconnor

https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/about-federal-judges

https://web.archive.org/web/20161230005439/http://www.azcourts.gov/coa1/Former-Judges/SANDRA-D-OCONNOR

https://web.archive.org/web/20160330065438/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/29/how-sandra-day-oconnor-became-the-most-powerful-woman-in-1980s-america/ 

https://web.archive.org/web/20161221031035/https://www.azsos.gov/sites/azsos.gov/files/canvass1974ge.pdf 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor

Quotes:

“It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.”

“As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself – and not just by voting.”

The post History of Sandra Day O’Connor for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Close your eyes and imagine you are in a beautiful, Japanese garden. You see a small stream leading to a calm pond covered in bright pink flowers and water lilies. The green grass around you is cut short and all of the plants and shrubbery are neatly trimmed. Flowering trees are above you. You see a wooden footbridge and cross the pond to an open area with a grand temple in the middle. It’s designed in Japanese fashion with a peaked roof. Surrounding the temple are men and women holding wooden swords. A teacher is showing them how to use the sword, swinging it upward and then down. They all follow his instructions at the same time in a coordinated dance. Then they kick and swing the swords again. Past them, in the temple, you see a group cross-legged and meditating. You suddenly realize you are observing a group of Japanese samurais in training.

Have you ever heard of a “samurai”? A samurai was an ancient warrior in the country of Japan. You could compare them to the knights of Medieval Times, because they were warriors who wore armor, fought in battles, and lived a code of honor. But they were also different from knights in other ways which we’ll talk about today.

If you saw a samurai today they’d be wearing armor, a helmet, and carrying a long sword called a “katana.” They were known for their great strength and skill and speed and their incredible use of the katana sword. The first Samurai fought on horseback. For a long time, the soldiers in Japan were peasants – simple people who farmed the land and weren’t trained to fight. So when they fought in a battle, they weren’t very effective because their job was normally farming not fighting. At the time in Japan, some of the wealthier citizens had horses and decided they might be better warriors than the peasants. Horses gave them an advantage and using a bow and arrow from the back of the horse, these wealthy Japanese became very dangerous fighters. Soon, instead of peasants fighting, more and more of the soldiers became Samurai, fighting with swords and bow and arrows from horseback.

As the samurai trained harder and from a young age, they became known for their excellent skills with the katana sword. They disciplined themselves. Discipline means to have self-control. Daily they practiced riding horses, using the katana, and doing things that were very hard but made them stronger because they pushed their body and mind to their limits. They were similar to Spartan warriors in this way, too.

Some of the legendary samurai were women, too. Tomoe Gozen fought bravely during the clan wars. She was a skilled archer and swordsman, “a warrior worth a thousand” the legends say. She was a strong horseman and could ride down steep hills. In battle, she was sent out as a captain in the best armor and the best weapons to lead the other samurai – and “performed more deeds of valor than any of the other warriors.” 

Another well known general at this time was female samurai Hangaku Gozen. Female foot soldiers were also known to fight alongside the men during clan wars.

In the Pacific Ocean, Japan is an island located off the coast of China. At the time, a powerful people called the Mongols ruled China and wanted to rule Japan, too. In 1270 A.D. Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol army,  decided to attack Japan. He sent 40,000 soldiers and 90 ships to invade the island. But for many years, the Japanese Samurai had been preparing and training to defend their country. When the Mongols invaded, they were met by the fast and powerful Samurai who used their skills to defend Japan and stopped the invasion. 

For a time, Japan was also divided into power clans, or groups of people sort of like small cities or towns. The clans were ruled by a leader called a “daimyo” (dime-yo). The daimyo hired samurai to protect their clan. Often clans fought against each other for more land so many of the samurai battles over the years were between competing clans. Samurai became distinguished for their honor in battle. Honor meant their commitment to the samurai code or set of rules known as the “bushido.” They strictly followed the rules of a samurai or “bushido” which included courage, respect, self-control and righteousness, which means doing the right thing. In battle, the Samurai were taught to never surrender or back down, to continue fighting even when they were losing and to have courage even in the most fearful moments.

In 1582, a man named Oda Nobunaga was born to a powerful daim-yo in the Owari region. Growing up, Nobunaga was trained as other samurai to fight with the bow and arrow, sword, and learned to discipline himself after the “bushido,” the way of the samurai. After his father passed away, Nobunaga and his brothers fought to rule the clan and Nobunaga became the new leader. But he wasn’t content leading one clan, he wanted to grow the clan’s power and began conquering other clans nearby. He was a skilled military leader and organized his soldiers and samurai in a way that continued to win until he ruled many other clans. Nobunaga also made alliances with other powerful clans. An alliance is an agreement that they will work together. And eventually Nobunaga’s clans and alliances brought all of the clans together. Nobunaga eventually became the leader of half the clans in Japan, also called a “shogun.” He built a beautiful castle on a lake and lived there during his rule. From there he continued to organize and strengthen his armies and make laws that he believed were in Japan’s best interest. The rule of a powerful Japanese leader was called a “shogunate” and his rule was followed by powerful leaders such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa. Under Hideyoshi, all of Japan was united under a single leader or “shogunate.” This led the way for a unified Japan up until the single country it is today. 

Back to the samurai – with Japan united, the different clans and their dime-yo leaders no longer fought for control. Because there was peace between clans, the samurai weren’t needed for fighting. Also, gunpowder and guns were introduced to Japan, so the army became made up of regular soldiers and swords were replaced with guns. The samurai became workers for the new Japanese government. They still followed the code of the Samurai but weren’t needed for battle and taught others about the “bushido” code and how to have self-control and respect for others. 

Some of the samurai who didn’t want to become peaceful government workers and who no longer were needed by the clans became leaderless. These wandering samurai became known as “Ronin” (row-nin) who often became bandits or soldiers for hire. In one of the most famous Japanese stories, 47 of these Ronin lost their master after he was murdered. They band together and seek after his murderer until they get revenge. This legendary story was made into plays and later movies and comic books called “47 Ronin.” 

As we’ve mentioned before, the way of the samurai, the special code they followed that made them samurai was called “bushido.” Without bushido, they wouldn’t have had the discipline to train and act with courage during the toughest moments of battle. Even though you aren’t a samurai, you can take the best things from the bushido code and apply them to your own life. As we talk about the principles of bushido, think about how you might use them each day.

The first principle of bushido was rectitude or justice. This meant to act in a way that made sense, was rational, even when it was very hard to do so. Also, to treat others with fairness and honor.

The second principle was courage, which means acting on what is right even when it is hard. A samurai was determined to act even under difficult circumstances. If you’ve ever done something hard, when it wasn’t easy, you’ve demonstrated courage. And courage doesn’t always come easy, it takes practice! Next time something challenging comes your way say to yourself, “I can have courage, I can do it!” With each courageous step you take, it can become easier.

The third principle of bushido was mercy. This means showing love to others and being able to forgive.

Fourth, politeness. To treat others with respect, have good manners, and say kind things. 

Fifth, honesty. We all know what that means. Telling the truth even when it’s not easy.

Sixth, honor. This meant showing personal respect. Respecting yourself and having patience. This means taking a deep breath when you might get upset and finding ways to work through problems by keeping a cool head, rather than getting angry and losing ones temper. 

Seventh, loyalty. To the samurai this loyalty to their leaders, usually the daim-yo. For you, this might mean listening to your parents or sticking up for your family, siblings, and friends, and being there for them when they need your help.

Finally, eighth, self control. One of the most important because it helps with all of the other principles. This means being able to manage your wants. There might be something you really want, but you can ask yourself if you really need it. It’s important to be able to tell the difference between wants and needs. Needs are things you do need, like good food and sleeping each day. Wants might be a toy or watching a movie, which can be fun at times but aren’t really necessary all the time. Next time you want something, but don’t really need it, try saying “no.” And you’ll find each time you strengthen that part of your brain that has self-control. Also, eating healthy and getting good sleep help with self-control. 

Those are the principles of bushido, the way of the samurai. Like I said, think of ways you can incorporate these good teachings and others into your own life to have the strength of a samurai!

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Who was Siddhartha Gautama?

Imagine you’re a prince or a princess, living in a giant, luxurious palace. There your parents make sure that you have everything you could ever want or need: lots of toys, fine clothes, and the best education. You’re surrounded by beautiful gardens and expensive things. You have servants to clean up after you, bring your food, and help with everything. When you’re not learning from private tutors, you spend your days swimming, practicing archery and swordsmanship, and riding horses. The palace is so massive, it’s your entire world and you never even need to leave. 

Now imagine you decide to give that all up. You’re not happy with that life. You wonder if life has a greater meaning. You wonder if possessions can ever make people truly happy and content. This was the life Siddhartha Gautama found himself in. You might have heard of him: now, we call him Buddha. 

What was the Buddha’s real name?

The story of how Siddhartha became Buddha begins even before his birth. Siddhartha’s father was king of a small kingdom in northern India in the sixth century BCE over 2,500 years ago!  Several years before Siddhartha was born, the king was visited by sages, or wise men, who told him his son would be either a great king or a great holy man. Of course, Siddhartha’s father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and be a great king.  So when Siddhartha was born in 567 BCE, his father decided to shelter his son from the world, so he wouldn’t know about suffering and death. He thought that if Siddhartha never saw bad things in the world, he wouldn’t want to fix them, and so he wouldn’t want to become a holy man. 

Buddha’s Early Life

So Siddhartha grew up surrounded by all the comforts and privileges money could buy. When he became a young man, he married a woman named Gopa. He seemed to have it all, but the plan Siddhartha’s father made for him to become a great king was about to fall apart. Instead of accepting the life of luxury that he was given, Siddhartha grew restless living in the palace. One day, he asked his father to let him go on a chariot ride to see the city around the palace. His father agreed but told the chariot driver to stay in the richer parts of the city, close to the palace, to avoid letting Siddhartha see people who were poor or suffering. 

Siddhartha set out in the chariot with his driver. Before long, they saw an old man, slowly hobbling along the road, looking as if he might fall over at any moment. Siddhartha had never seen such an old man, and he asked his driver what was wrong with him. 

His driver replied, “He is very old. His body has grown weak with age. You too will grow old someday. All people do.”

Siddhartha was disturbed but asked him to drive on. Later in the ride, they saw a sick man lying by the side of the road. He was groaning and looked very unhappy. Again, Siddhartha asked what was wrong with the man. 

His driver replied, “He is sick with a terrible disease. Everyone gets sick sometimes. Someday, you will get sick.”

Siddhartha felt terrible, seeing this man suffering, but they continued their ride through the city. 

On their way back to the palace, they came across a funeral procession. People were crying and moaning. For a third time, Siddhartha asked his chariot driver what was happening.

Again, his driver replied. “Someone has died, and these people are his friends and family. They are mourning for him.”  

When Siddhartha returned home, he could not stop thinking about the old man, the sick man, and the funeral. He thought about these things happening to his father and mother, to his wife, and to himself. He realized that all the treasure in the palace, all the servants waiting on him, and all the beautiful things surrounding him, could not prevent him or anyone else from the sad things he said. He realized that he wanted to find a way to help people overcome suffering. 

Siddartha’s Personal Journey

Once he realized these things, Siddhartha knew he could no longer live an easy life in the palace. So one day, he said goodbye to his family and set out to find the cause of suffering. He cut his hair and lived as an ascetic – someone who chooses to live in poverty and simplicity. He studied meditation with great holy men and discussed the problem of suffering with them, but after many years of living this way, he still didn’t know why it happened, or how he could prevent it.

Finally, he decided to sit and meditate under a bodhi tree. He vowed not to leave until he had the answer to the problem of human suffering.  Siddhartha sat meditating day and night, still and calm as a statue, for six days. On the sixth day, he opened his eyes and realized he understood the nature of suffering. He became enlightened and from then on was known as Buddha, which means awakened one. 

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths

For the rest of his life, Buddha traveled throughout India, teaching others about what he had discovered. He taught people the four noble truths he had realized about suffering.

The first truth is that everyone suffers and has hard things happen to them. It’s just part of life. 

The second truth is that we suffer because we are always wanting more, and trying to hold onto what we have. This might sound surprising. Didn’t he start his quest because he saw people who were suffering because they were old, sick, and dying? Buddha thought that the real reason we suffer is not that bad things happen to us, but because we allow negative feelings and desires to take over our thinking. If we’re sick, we lie around feeling sorry for ourselves and wishing we were well. But then when we’re healthy, we think of other things we want but don’t have, and we still suffer. 

Think about a time when you really wanted a new toy or game. It probably felt very unfair that you didn’t have it, and then, if you did get it, you might have been happy for a short time, but then you were just back to normal and wanted something new. We become attached to things, or even ideas of things, and those things are not permanent. This keeps us spending all our time wanting things we don’t have, and worrying we’ll lose what we do have. He taught that things like toys and games and other things we might buy don’t really make us happy deep down and any happiness we do feel doesn’t last.

The third truth is that we can overcome suffering. Once we overcome suffering, Buddha thought, we could reach a state of nirvana, or perfect peace and happiness, just as he did when he meditated under the bodhi tree. 

Finally, the fourth truth tells us how to overcome suffering. The way Buddha thought we overcome suffering is by following what he called the “eightfold path.” I won’t go over all eight parts of the path, but basically, to follow the eightfold path, we must always try to improve ourselves: this means being kind and honest; try not to harm anyone or anything; and acting with compassion. We must also learn to pay attention to our own thoughts. As we pay attention to our thoughts we can better understand the thoughts that make us feel sad. This helps us think in a new way. This paying attention to our thoughts is called meditation.

Karma

Buddha taught that following the eight-fold path creates good karma.  Karma is the idea that everything you do has a consequence, whether good or bad. Kind actions tend to have positive consequences, and unkind actions, have negative consequences. This isn’t a consequence like a reward or a punishment – it’s just a thing that happens as a result of an action. He taught that by building up a lot of good karma, you can reach nirvana, a state of true enlightenment. 

Buddha spent the rest of his life traveling around India, teaching what he had discovered to anyone who wanted to learn. He encouraged his followers to try out the practices he taught for themselves, to see how well they worked, and to gather in communities to learn and help each other. The community was important because Buddha knew that to be truly happy, people need to feel compassion and kindness for both themselves and others. This is called metta in Buddhism.

Buddhism

After its beginnings in India, Buddhism spread throughout South and East Asia and was practiced widely in Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand, China, and Japan, among others. Today, people around the world practice Buddhism in different forms. For some, it’s a religion, but for others, it’s simply a way of looking at life.

Meditation

As Buddha taught, you can take the time to meditate each day. Meditating is a good chance to breathe deeply and slow your thoughts. It can also help you look closely at your thoughts. Your thoughts often lead to how you’re feeling. So if you have lots of negative thoughts those may be causing negative feelings. Breathing deeply and clearing your mind can give you the positive energy you need to help yourself and help others. There are a lot of great ways to start meditating. You can find videos, podcasts, and apps, that can get you started. But the simplest way is to just set a timer and try and sit and relax during that time while breathing deeply. 

What can I learn from Buddha?

Also, like Buddha taught, remember that things that we buy won’t always make us happy. Toys eventually break, or they go out of fashion, and we’ll always want something new. Think about how you might turn your attention to more important things like spending time with your family and friends, learning something new, or doing good for others. These are things that last longer and will give you greater, deeper joy.   

I hope you enjoyed this episode about Buddha. Be sure to check in next Monday for a new episode!

Sources

Fields, Rick. “Who Is the Buddha?” in: Tricycle, Spring 1997. https://tricycle.org/magazine/who-was-buddha-2/

Meyers, Rachel. Curiosity Chronicles: Snapshots of Ancient History. Little Monster Schooling, 2017.

Nagaraja, Dharmachari. Buddha at Bedtime.Watkins, 2016.

The post Siddhartha Gautama Buddha For Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Close your eyes and imagine you are in the middle of a battle in the American wilderness. All around you, American soldiers dressed in stiff blue jackets load their guns and fire at the enemy. Running at them are Native American warriors dressed in loin cloths and leather. They are yelling and charging the soldiers with weapons raised. They clash in battle and fight ferociously. Around you echo the sounds of metal clashing on metal, gunfire, and people crying out. Then as you turn around, your eye catches a peaceful sight.  There in the middle of the fight scene sits a Native man with his legs crossed.  He peacefully packs a pipe full of tobacco and lights in on fire.  He sits silently and smokes while men fight all around him.  This man is one of the famous American Indians, Sitting Bull. 

Sitting Bull was born around 1831. He was one of the Hunkpapa people, a Lakota Sioux tribe that lived in the Great Plains area in what is now known as North and South Dakota. When he was born his family called him “Jumping Badger”.  

Later, his parents changed his name.  He was quiet and deliberate and they didn’t think “Jumping Badger” fit him.  Deliberate means careful and cautious.  His parents gave him the nickname “Slow” instead and he was called this as a child. 

Slow’s father was the chief, which meant someday he would be the chief of his people. When he turned 10, “Slow” killed his first buffalo. Hunting buffalo was very dangerous, but the tribe depended on buffalo for their meat for survival. They ate their meat and used their skins for clothes and shelter. Slow’s family was proud of his first buffalo kill and celebrated to honor him. When he was 14, “Slow” and others from his tribe snuck into an enemy tribe’s village and stole food and other items. This is called a “raid” and was common for tribes in the Great Plains to fight and steal things from each other for survival. Because of “Slow’s” bravery during the raid, his father gave up his own name and gave it to his son.  From then on, “Slow” became known as Tatanka-Iyotanka, or “Sitting Bull.” 

Around this time, the government of the United States wanted settlers to move into the western states even though Sitting Bull’s people already lived there. To settle means to make a permanent home. This meant that Sioux Lakota tribes would have to leave and find a new place to live even though they had lived on these lands for man years.

But Sitting Bull and his family refused to leave and fought against the U.S. government and the people who tried to take over their land. The government sent the army to fight Sitting Bull and his people.  As a young man, Sitting Bull became famous for his fighting skills and people all over the United States heard about him and became afraid of the stories about him. 

In 1872 the Northern Pacific Railroad was trying to build a railroad across the United States. It ran through Sitting Bulls land, so he and the Sioux people were determined to block it. When they did, the U.S. Army was called in to try to remove them and the conflict quickly turned into a battle.  During the battle, Sitting Bull, who was now a middle-aged chief, walked out into the middle of the field where they were fighting and sat down in front of the U.S. soldiers. He invited several other tribesmen to join him.  Sitting Bull and his friends sat in the field and had a long, slow smoke from his tobacco pipe while watching people battling all around him. Legend says that after finishing his pipe, Sitting Bull carefully cleaned it and then walked off, without showing any fear. He was very brave!

During the 1860s, Sitting Bull continued to fight against settlers encroaching on Sioux land.  He and his tribesmen attacked white military outposts and stole livestock, or farm animals, or attacked the soldiers living there. Sitting Bull’s group of men was brave, but he knew that it wouldn’t be enough to keep back the U.S army. So he went and spoke to leaders of other tribes nearby and together, they worked as one group, the Lakota Sioux. They decided to just have one leader and in 1869, Sitting Bull became their new leader.  The group continued to grow and by the mid 1870s, the group also included warriors from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. 

Even though Sitting Bull is mostly remembered as a warrier, he was also a type of holy man.  He was believed to have the gift of prophecy, or the ability to see the future. Sitting Bull once had a vision or dream that the Sioux people were soon going to have a great victory in battle.  Shortly after that, the prophecy came true. 

In 1876, a Lieutenant Colonel by the name of George A. Custer’s and his soldiers rode out against the Sioux to battle. They were known as the Seventh Cavalry. They attacked Sitting Bull and his warriors, but they were inspired by Sitting Bull’s vision and even though they were outnumbered by Custer’s army, the Sioux people won the battle against over 200 soldiers. This became known as the Battle of Little Bighorn. 

Sitting Bull’s nephew, White Bull, and another warrior named Crazy Horse fought bravely at the Battle of Little Bighorn and became famous for their victory against Custer and the Seventh Cavalry.

But of course, the U.S. Army was not happy about losing the battle. Instead of backing down, they sent an army of twice as many soldiers to fight Sitting Bull. They wanted to push the Native (or First Nations) people off of the land and force them onto reservations. Reservations were an area of land set aside for them to live on instead of the land the settlers wanted. 

Sitting Bull refused to leave his own land and move to the reservations.  Instead, in May 1877, he led a group of his people to Canada where he spent four years hiding out.  Sadly though, the buffalo in the area disappeared. Because buffalo are what his people needed to survive they almost starved.  Sitting Bull and his people left their camp in Canada and moved back to the United States.  A few years later their camp was attacked and Sitting Bull and his followers surrendered to the U.S. army in North Dakota. 

By this time, Sitting Bull was now an older man.  He spent two years in prison and later was sent to live on a reservation at Standing Rock. He lived on that reservation for the rest of his life. 

Sitting Bull was famous when he got out of prison.  Many people heard stories about his fighting skills and admired him for his bravery.  When they met him they were willing to pay $2 just for his autograph.  He got permission to leave the reservation to go on tour as his own exhibition, or entertainment show.

When Sitting Bull was at a stopover in Minnesota, he saw a show starring Annie Oakley, the famous sharp shooter. Sitting Bull was very impressed with her gun shooting skills. He introduced himself and he and Annie Oakley became friends.  He gave her the nickname “Little Sure Shot” and called her his daughter.  Rumour has it that Sitting Bull gave Annie Oakley the pair of moccasins he had worn during the Battle of the Little Bighorn as a gift.

In June 1885, the showman William “Buffalo Bill” Cody hired Sitting Bull to perform in his famous “Wild West” show. Sitting Bull was paid $50 a week to wear his full chief’s war attire and ride a horse during the show’s opening scene. Sitting Bull considered the job an easy way to earn money and help audiences learn about his people and how difficult their lives had become.  But some audience members didn’t like Sitting Bull because they knew he had killed white soldiers during battle. Sometimes, audiences cruelly boo-ed Sitting Bull and threw things at him. 

Sitting Bull soon got tired of traveling and some of the mean crowds.  And he missed his family.  So he left the tour for good after its final show in October.

Beginning in 1889, many Native American (or First Nations) people started talking about a religion called the “Ghost Dance”.  These people believed that a spirit was going to come to earth and remove white people from the area where they lived, allowing the Indians to return to their old ways. U.S. Authorities started to worry that Sitting Bull was going to use the Ghost Dance movement to lead a group of Indian people to war against the white people.  They always knew that Sitting Bull resisted, or refused to follow, white traditions.  So they believed he was likely to get involved and lead this movement against white people.  

On December 15, 1890, police were sent to arrest Sitting Bull and bring him in for questioning.  Sitting Bull, who was 59 at the time, refused to go with them.  So the policemen dragged him from his cabin.  The noise and commotion caused a large group of Sitting Bull’s followers to come to see what was going on.  One of them fired a shot at the policemen, setting off a brief gun battle. In the confusion that followed, more than a dozen people were killed including Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull had many hard experiences in his life and there is a lot that we can learn from him.  He showed great bravery from a young age while hunting and in battle. He was also able to stay very calm under stress and pressure. Have you ever practiced trying to stay calm when you feel afraid or angry?  What works well for you?  I know it helps me to take deep breaths and try and clear my thoughts. Sometimes if I go outside or take a walk that helps, too. Reacting to stress that way is much better than yelling or calling names or other things we later regret. It’s completely normal to feel upset. I do all the time. The question is how we will deal with those feelings. Sitting Bull showed us that even in intense situations, we can be calm. 

Sitting Bull also fought for what he believed in and stayed close to his family and his tribe. Even when they were threatened and told to leave their lands, he refused. He put himself in great danger to try and save his people. Sticking up for yourself and your family is a very noble thing to do. Think of what you can do to take care of your family and the community in which you live. Like Sitting Bull, we can all be leaders in our communities and families if we stick up for what we believe and for our loved ones. 

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