Can You Name Them All?

Kids love to memorize facts (at least, they used to love memorizing facts), so early elementary age was a great time for memorizing simple poems, history dates, basic science facts, the eight parts of speech, and so forth.

At least, that's how we did things during our home-schooling years.

One list of facts we memorized was all the U.S. presidents (in order), along with remembering three "facts" about them.

My rationale was this: if you're a U.S. citizen, you should know something about the history of the country in which you live, including the names of the leaders that helped shaped the nation.

Perhaps you'd like to challenge yourself on this President's Day.

Now maybe memorizing a list of each U.S. president (in order) is a tough job for today.

But how about looking up three U.S. presidents that are less familiar to you and learning three facts about each?

Here's a book we used (and it's still available) to help get you started!

Happy President's Day!

The Opportunity in Presidents' Day (Part 2)

Can you name half a dozen facts about James K. Polk? 

Millard Fillmore?

Warren G. Harding?

Today, Presidents' Day, is a great day to do a quick internet search on one president that's obscure to you. 

While presidents from the past seem like irrelevant, ancient history, each president had a role in shaping the United States into the shape it is today. Knowing how we got here is a good start to understanding where we're heading.

Last year on this day, I wrote a post called "The Opportunity in Presidents' Day."

This post gave an overview and rationale for each core branch of education (and we had more than the three Rs) that my children studied in our home-school.

The U.S. government was one, with a separate focus on all of the U. S. presidents. 

I handpicked the curriculum and added to it every year. Do you see the workbook below? This belongs to Timothy, who kept it all these years.

But it's blank, you may wonder.

Of course, it's blank. The workbooks were resources we used every year. The kids did their work on separate sheets of paper.

Now, this was just one of several books on U.S. presidents we used, depending on the age of the child.

Some of the early memorization work the kids did (first, second, third grades) was to name all U.S. presidents in order. If they can't still do that (although Christopher probably can), they will come rather close.

I shared a few pages from the book, so please scroll through and test your own knowledge today.

Or purchase your own copy of "The Complete Book of Presidents and States." The blurb on Thriftbooks said it's geared toward grades four to six, so you should be able to breeze right through it.

Happy Presidents' Day!

The Opportunity in Presidents' Day

My six children used to joke about all the subjects they studied during the twenty-four years we were a homeschooling family.

You see, every time I thought they should know more about a particular topic, I created a course.

We studied old math (and some really old math). We used Abeka and Ray's Arithmetic. We conducted timed math drills once a week and solved plenty of word problems daily.

Language Arts was broken into six separate subjects: Reading, literature, grammar, spelling, penmanship, and writing. Most (not all) of the materials came from Abeka.

We studied history (old world history, new world history, art history, music history), current events, and geography. We used Abeka for the first two and supplemental materials for the last two.  We used The Herald-News for current events and labeled LOTS of maps.

We studied science from textbooks and did LOTS of science experiments. We used  Abeka, Bob Jones, Backyard Scientist, and quite a few supplementary texts.

Drawing was its own separate class as was art and art appreciation. We had workbooks for these.

We studied the Bible, the saints, church history, catechism, and the church councils. We used children's Bibles, the One Year Bible (once the kids could read well, about third grade or so), several saint books, and a fairly comprehensive book on church history.

We listened to classical music nearly daily (on cassette tapes, mostly). 

My children knew all fifty states and capitals (Sarah and Christopher won a contest on WCSF 98.7 for their knowledge when they were kids).

And they could name all U.S. presidents.

In order.

And give a brief biography about each.

So maybe President's Day has a different meaning for us.

My rationale for all of this?

1) Math teaches indisputable facts and how to tackle problems.

2) All the different components of Language Arts helps children be fluent in their own language; every person should be able to communicate well in his or her own language. Anyone who can read can learn just about anything - and enjoy just about anything.

3) History teaches us where we've been; current events teaches us where we are. Geography orients us, in context, and helps us to understand the physical makeup of our planet.

4) Science helps us to understand the entire world in which we live (including the bodies we inhabit).

5) Drawing teaches hand/eye/mind coordination.

6) Art allows us to express our creativity.

7) Art appreciation allows us to appreciate the creativity of others - as does classical music.

8) Studying our faith helps to develop our souls, without which the rest has no meaning.

Now, I'd be surprised if any of the six could still name all the U.S. presidents in order (well, maybe Christopher can).

But they could brush up on it fairly quickly.

And talk about any one of them quite knowledgeably.

If this doesn't seem very important, watch this video.

The point is not to brag about what we did, but to make this point: the world is filled with so much knowledge just waiting to be explored.

A day like President's Day gives the opportunity to do just that in a very focused way.

Last night when I showed Timothy this blog, he immediately launched into the details of James A. Garfield's horrible death and the time Teddy Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech, complete with his famous quote.

There now. Aren't you curious to know more?

Pictured below is my son Joshua Paul in 1994.