Jump! Mag

Art & History

Early English – The Latin Alphabet

In our last post, we discovered the runic alphabet and the Futhorc, and now we are going to look at what came next. The Latin alphabet.

The Futhorc was gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet. However, it seems that the Latin alphabet was not perfectly suited to represent English, which contained sounds that did not exist in Latin, and so people adapted it with the addition of a few runes: thorn to represent ‘th’ and wynn to represent ‘w’, as well as a few adaptations in usage of the already existing Latin letters in order to make them better suited to representing English sounds.

Events, Written By You

Homemade Mother Day Gifts – Written by You

Mother’s Day origins can be traced to the UK, when Mothering Sunday was celebrated long before it saw the light of day in the USA. Each year in the run up to Mother’s Day, lots of us are wondering ‘What can I get my mom’.

OK, so a bouquet of flowers is very original, but maybe a bit too obvious? A box of chocolates is a bit too common! But how about something that would last forever! Here are my favourite ideas for homemade Mother Day gifts:

Art & History, Science, Nature and Tech

So You Want to Be An… Archaeologist

Ruth is a professional archaeologist. She spends most of her time below ground, running archaeological excavations on busy construction sites. If you have ever wondered how to become an archaeologist, read on!

Art & History, Written By You

Gentry or Servant? Which Would You Choose To Be? – Written By You

You will all know what a ‘servant’ is, I am sure – Perhaps your Mum says that sometimes when you ask her to do too much for you ‘Do you think I am your servant?’ 🙂

Do you know we mean when we say ‘the gentry’? According to this website

The gentry were the people who were knights, squires, gentlemen and gentlewoman whose fortunes were great that they did not have to work with their hands for a living. Their numbers grew rapidly and became the most important class during Elizabethan time. They could start as a knight and through generations and marriages, they could gradually build a wealth and title. Most of the important people of this time came from this class.

Back in Tudor times (between 1485 and 1603), a person couldn’t choose to be born into the gentry. Today groups of people all over the world get together to reenact various periods of history, including the Tudor period.

Alison has been on both sides of the gentry/servant divide and tells us all about reenactments, making your own clothes and living like a Tudor girl, at least for a weekend.

Written By You

When I Met Mary Robinson – Written By You

Me and my mum went to hear this lady talk, her name is Mary Robinson, Mary was the President of Ireland, but she was not just any kind of President of Ireland,she was the first woman President of Ireland. She got a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2009. And was the first President of Ireland to visit the Queen.

Growing up

Mary grew up in a small town in Ireland, her mum and dad where doctors and her gran died when she was about 10 years old… When Mary was 17 she went to a finishing school in Paris while deciding if she wanted to become a nun… In that finishing school she was the only non-French speaking student there.

little light

Mary Robinson famously put a light in her kitchen window to guide the people that have left Ireland to live a country abroad back home.

my question

If you had a chance of asking Mary Robinson a question in front of 600 people, would you do it? I would, and I did. Here’s what I said and what Mary replied:

Afterwards Mary signed a copy of her book for me