Monday, February 18, 2008

happy president's day

While we don't take a day off school for President's Day, I did decide to change things up from our normal routine, and focus on 'presidential' topics. I must confess, I feel very lacking, personally, in the history department, and especially when it comes to politics. I'm not quite sure how that happened, as I spent grades 4-9 in a public school, and 9-12 in a good Christian school. Maybe I just didn't pay attention, I don't know. I have learned, in the course of home schooling my kids, that much of my education consisted of memorizing information to pass tests and get good grades, but apparently didn't truly learn as much, now, as an adult, as I would have liked.

All that is an aside. I thought I'd share what we are doing today to celebrate President's Day, and give you some great links if you have some kids of your own that you'd like to connect with a bit of the history and/or politics of our great country.

We started off the day taking a virtual tour of the White House. That was fun, and interesting. There is a 'kids' link to that has a really cute video of the Presidential Dog, Barney in his quest to become a Junior National Park Ranger.

This President's Day page has really great, and simple information and activities for kids of various ages. We really enjoyed reading about how Lincoln got his beard!

With all this presidential talk, it seemed like a great time to discuss the upcoming election and the candidates. It can be really tough explaining the issues to kids, so I'm still searching for a good website that would make things kind of easy and concise. If anyone knows of any good resources for this, I'd be really grateful for some help on this one!

And, in my quest to learn more about what is going on in the world of politics, so that I can be a better, more responsible citizen (AND so that I can have half-way intelligent discussions with my husband who loves to talk politics!!), I've been trying to keep up with this blog...and would recommend it to other moms who don't have time to watch the news, debates or read newspapers (or really anything else that wasn't written by Dr. Seuss!)! I've found it to be fairly quick to read, somewhat easy to understand, and non-biased. You should check it out (even if you're not a mom!) Just click below to visit.

PFM Side Button Round copy

Have a great holiday, for those of you who are off today. And take a moment to be thankful for great men such as Washington and Lincoln, whose convictions and resolve have resulted in many of the freedoms we enjoy in this country~not the least of which is the right to blog!! :)


1 comment:

Bets said...

Do I see a jean jumper in your closet??? You're so much better at this than I am.... by the way - we did take President's day off...but it had more to do with the puking toddler and the tired mommy than Washington or Lincoln. I so should put my kid in school.