On President’s Day we celebrate the birthday of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that long weekends commemorate important individuals and their contributions to America’s history. Here are some ways you can supplement your child’s understanding of our many past presidents in an age appropriate way.
Educational videos– Learn about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington with Tim and Moby of BrainPop.com. This educational site has fantastic videos that are favorites of classroom teachers, homeschooling parents, and moms like me because of the way they present factual information in an interesting, yet informative, way. Many of BrainPop’s videos are free but in order to see all that they offer, you have to sign up for a free trial or subscribe ($80/year). Before you personally subscribe, check with your child’s school to see if they have BrainPop. If they do, they may have home use privileges that would allow you to access the site at home for free.
- Another great video is Scholastic Storybook Treasure’s So You Want to Be President
which is great for ages 3-8. Read my full review in my past post, Educating About All Things Presidential for Presidents’ Day.
Take a virtual field trip and learn through interactive websites that bring the experiences to you! Here are some of my favorites:
- John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum– Located just south of Boston offers online visitors the opportunity to learn about what a day in the life of President John F. Kennedy was like by paging through his White House Diary that includes “digital scans of his actual Appointment Diary for any given day as well as video, audio, and photos of the day’s events.” Click through to We Choose the Moon to follow the historic moon landing, photos, and footage that was the result of President Kennedy challenging Congress to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. This site recreates the historical Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 20, 1969. Or visit at your leisure through a virtual museum tour.
- Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello– While you may not be able to travel to Charlottesville to visit Monticello in person, the interactive Monticello Explorer provides a 3D tour of the house and more information can be found in my full review, Virtual Field Trip: Monticello. Also be sure to check out The Monticello Classroom!
- Other presidential libraries that have virtual tours include:
- Herbert Hoover
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Ronald Reagan Video Tour hosted by Gary Sinise
Read some books! Hit the library or build your at-home library with historical fiction, fiction, and nonfiction reads with the following great books:
- What to Do About Alice
by Barbara Kelly for ages 4-8, $11.55
- Meet the Obamas by Andrea Davis Pinkney for ages 6-8, $3.99
- A. Lincoln and Me by Louise Borden for ages 3-5, $6.99
- First Kids by Noah McCullough for ages 9-12, $7.99
- The Slightly Odd United States of America
by Klutz for ages 8+, $10.57
- The White House: An Illustrated History
by Catherine O’Neil Grace for ages 8+
- Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times
by Davide Rubel, $12.50
The Scholastic Store is currently offering free shipping and 20% off all purchases from their online store with the code PDS20. Ends 2/22
Test your knowledge about the presidents by taking this fun Brain Quest Challenge quiz.
Send president themed eCard free from BrainQuest! Gloat about your score using the “It’s O.K. to be presidential smart” eCard! Besides the 3 president themed eCards, BrainQuest also has 5 more for all occasions.
GIVEAWAY: Feeling like you should brush up on your presidential knowledge? Workman Publishing wants to give you a set of Brain Quest Presidents![]()
($10.95)! This fan deck provides fun facts about all of the presidents in a portable format. Geared towards ages 9-12, the reading level is perfect for younger fluent readers such as Little Miss Techie who loves soaking up facts by reading nonfiction text.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment about which of the presidents is your favorite and why! Winner will be selected in approximately 1 week from comments that include an email or Twitter handle.
Thanks to Workman Publishing for the BrainQuest Presidents to review and giveaway and to Scholastic for providing some of the books and videos mentioned in this post for review purposes. Monticello provided guest passes for me and my family to visit the new visitors center in 2009. BrainPop was always paid for by schools that I’ve taught in. No additional compensation was received and all opinions are my own. Affiliate links are included in this post.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
©2012
Personally, I like George Washington because he was our first President and kind of ‘set the bar’ for how things should be. Plus there’s some interesting tidbits about him jenefer376(at)gmail.com
President Clinton and President Obama are my two favorites.
Thank you for all of your links and ideas for celebrating next week.
I love president Obama he represents what I never thought I would see and a new day for all people of color in this great nation
sultansmom at gmail dot com
My favorite is Abraham Lincoln because he stood for equality. Thanks for the chance!
justicecw at hotmail dot com
@justicecw
Abraham Lincoln he was such a visionary! he was ahead of his time. suelee1998@ gmail.com
Clinton, because I had the pleasure of meeting him a while back and he’s such a nice guy!