Kid’s Craic: Fall Back … One Last Time?
By Megan Lardie
One of my favorite weekends in the fall is the one that we turn the clock back one hour. It is only an extra sixty minutes, but sometimes it feels like much longer.
When we move the clocks forward in March, we are actually moving one hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. This is called Daylight Savings Time. In some parts of the world, they call it Summer Time.
In November, when we turn the clocks back an hour, we return to Standard Time. Also, depending on where you live, you are in that time zone. If you live in Brooklyn, New York, you are in Eastern time zone. If you live in San Diego, California, you are in Pacific time zone. There is also Central time zone and Mountain time zone. Confused?
It is simple, really. In New York, the time is Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Daylight Savings Time and for California, the time is Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Savings Time. There is also Central time and Mountain time.
Daylight Savings Time
Why did we start doing all this time changing? The idea was first suggested by Ben Franklin, way back in 1784. The idea was to make better use of the longer sunlight hours of the summer. Daylight Savings Time was used in the United States during World War I and World War II for a couple of reasons.
First, it was used to take advantage of the extra hours of light. Secondly, it was used to save energy that was needed in factories to make supplies during the wars. After World War II, individual states and cities decided whether they wanted to keep using Daylight Savings Time. This created lots of confusion. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act which then standardized the length of Daylight Savings Time for the entire country.
Now that you understand all this, a bill, named The Sunshine Protection Act, has been introduced in Congress to stop changing the clocks twice a year and just stay on Daylight Savings Time. It has passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Now it needs President Biden to sign it before it can become a law.
It would take effect in March of 2023, so we would “spring” forward and then never change the clocks again. There would be many benefits if this bill passes. Besides more hours of sunshine, some other benefits would include more time to enjoy the outdoors safely, less seasonal depression (winter blues), lower energy costs, and less traffic accidents. Can you think of any other benefits of having more hours of daylight?
Kids in the Kitchen
Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
- 5 cups of peeled and sliced apples (Best apples for baking – Granny Smith, Jonagold, Braeburn, Honeycrisp and Cortland)
Batter:
- 1/2 cup of light brown sugar (can use dark brown)
- 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp. of water
Crumb Topping
- 1/2 cup oats – Old Fashioned (can substitute quick oats)
- 1/2 cup all- purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Put the sliced apples into a 9×9 baking dish
- In a small bowl, mix the batter, and pour over apples
- In a small bowl, combine the crumb topping – spread over apples
- Bake for 1 hour
Delicious when served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!
Literature Corner
The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Juster
Milo thinks his life is so boring, until a tollbooth appears mysteriously in his room. Of course, he drives through it because he has nothing better to do. On the other side, things are very different. He discovers that he is on the Island of Conclusions, which you get to by jumping!
Milo learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even goes on a journey to rescue Rhyme and Reason. He soon realizes that his life is far from boring. For ages 8-12, 286 pages.
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked
By Lauren Thompson
This a heartwarming story of how apple pie comes to be, using a simple poetic language, and includes a quick introduction of the whole ecological web of life. For ages 5-8, 32 pages.
Lardie’s Laughs
- Why was the lunch clock always late?
- It went back four seconds!
- What did Tick ask the clock?
- What are you Tocking about???
Gab in Gaelic
It is time to get up = Tá sé in am éirí (pron:taw shay in amm eye-ree)
