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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Our country has a lot of special holidays we celebrate throughout the year. But, Claudia Black of Pleasant Grove feels every day is important. When her children were small, she began a tradition of celebrating every day by making homemade giant calendars. Each day would feature an event that occurred in history. Let me give you a few examples.
Each year on September 22, Claudia and her children would eat ice cream, for it was the day the ice cream cone was invented in 1896. Today, December 17, they would make paper airplanes to commemorate the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. This is such a creative way to help children learn and have fun at the same time! I was impressed to find out that Claudia would do research at the library herself, trying to find historical facts and dates. This was before the convenience of the Internet, or course.
Now Claudia's children are grown up with children of their own. Claudia, her daughter Laurie, and Laurie's husband, Brent, have capitalized on this creative idea by mass-producing The Learning Calendar for other families to enjoy. The Learning Calendar is theme-oriented and multi-colored, including graphics, historical events and activity ideas. Laurie tells me the calendar awakens a desire to learn. Her children sometimes read the calendar, get interested in a particular event and proceed to spend two more hours researching that event on the Internet.
Claudia has spoken at BYU's Education Week and The Learning Calendar was rated as the number one kids calendar for 2003 from About.com. It also was rated as the most original home school product in 2003. In addition to being used by families, the calendar has also made its way onto the walls of many classrooms.
The Learning Calendar features a variety of historical events, but has two special focuses for 2004, the annexation of the 50 states and fun inventions. With this calendar hanging on your wall, your children will learn more about U. S. history!
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
