Fostering curiosity in kids (and their parents) since 2011

Posts by Shala Howell

“Why did California ban paper money in 1850?”

While researching the question of whether miners would have actually bought supplies with gold dust anywhere other than on a Hollywood movie set, I discovered a surprising fact. When California became a state in 1850, its first state constitution explicitly banned the use of paper money. Now, why would California do a thing like that?

“How did Yukon Gold potatoes get their name?”

This week I learned that miners during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-99 (aka the Yukon Gold Rush) valued potatoes so highly for their scurvy-fighting powers that they paid for them in gold. Naturally that little tidbit made me wonder if that was how the Yukon Gold potato got its name. Eh, not exactly. At least, not directly.

“Why didn’t miners during the California Gold Rush realize eating potatoes could prevent scurvy?”

As we learned last week, miners during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896-1899 valued the scurvy-fighting power of the humble potato so highly they were willing to pay $25 per bushel for them. When I told my husband about it, he calmly pointed out that the cure for scurvy would have been known for almost a century by that time. “Wouldn’t the folks in the California Gold Rush of 1848-55 also have known to eat potatoes to prevent it?”

What’s The Nine-Year-Old reading this week?

This week, the 9 year old flits from math to science fiction to wondering in her reading. Join us for her reviews of Math for Kids & Other People Too! by Theoni Pappas, The Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka, and The Big Book of Why by the Editors of Time for Kids Magazine.