Celebrating Presidents Day

In celebration of Presidents Day, we are reviewing many of the resources we've used in the past, as well as exploring some new activities we've found recently.  Over the past couple of weeks, we've  been memorizing the Presidents, and, along with the memorization of our timeline, it's been much more interesting and exciting now relating the Presidents to events in U.S. history as well.  I thought we'd just give a list of the activities we are incorporating into our week in honor of Presidents Day.

• Audio programs about Abraham Lincoln and his family provided by Homeschool Radio Shows:  The Man Who Taught Lincoln, The Story of Lincoln's Mother, and Out of the Wilderness
• Coloring book with Presidents through the 43rd President provided by TLS Books
• Reference booklet with facts about Presidents provided by Home of Heroes:  Home of Heroes Presidents e-book 
• Short biographical stories - great for narration provided by Homeschoolfreebieoftheday:  Childhood Stories of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln by Ann Tatum
• E-books and Narration Resources (Charlotte Mason Approach):  Presidents Day Holiday Helper by Living Books Curriculum
• Our previously created lapbook on Presidents Day at Homeschool Share: Presidents Day Lapbook
• New lapbook on all of the Presidents at Homeschool Share:  Presidents Lapbook (THIS IS FANTASTIC!)
• George Washington Lapbook AND File Folder Games provided by Lapbook Lessons.   As a side note, our kids LOVE the file folder games at this site!
• Our previously created lapbook on Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad (and how Lincoln was involved) at Homeschool Share.  We really loved doing this one, and it even has a file folder game to play with it!
• A selection of resources offered by ABC Teach, including notebooking and creative writing pages, fact pages, biographies (with reading comprehension), and a pdf of The Gettysburg Address 
• MATH:  Coin Themed Unit Study Worksheets at http://www.learningpage.com/ (You must register to have access to these, but they are FANTASTIC resources!)
• Some of the activities at http://www.lacellefamily.com/presidentsday.html
• And Whitehouse 101 at Whitehouse.gov

We are using the free resources listed above in conjunction with three that we've purchased at some point in the past:  Scholastic's Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times by David Rubel, The Presidents DVD set by The History Channel, and Oriental Trading Company's President Fact Border Trim Set, which is like having humongous flashcards for playing Presidents games.

Because we discussed money as part of our math lessons today (using the aforementioned learningpage.com resources), we also used the information provided at http://www.biography.com/presidents/pres_whos_on_money.jsp to help us prepare our weekly presentation on Presidents on coins and bills. 

Depending on how deep you want to get, you can also find quite a bit of information at the US Mint sites for kids and/or educators.  They even provide lessons on National Sites and U.S. History as part of the various coin programs that have been implemented.

Needless to say, I think we have enough resources to celebrate Presidents Day this year... and next year... and the year after that...