We've been checking out lots of books about the US presidents.
I recommend these books: the Getting to Know the US Presidents series by Mike Venezia.
Also, we found a FUN iPad app called American Presidents by Disney Learning.
This app is educational and entertaining. It's beautifully designed. Very smooth.
When you start it up, you choose a president.
(note regarding the above picture: all of the presidents which have been "viewed" have a little white feather beside the photo. When I was taking the above screenshot to share here on the blog, I noticed that poor ol' Warren G Harding is the only one that my kids have not viewed. Last one picked for the kickball team; poor President Harding!)
When you choose a president, it takes you to an interactive scrapbook page focusing on that particular presidency.
Each scrapbook page has a little video summing up the key events of that administration & period of US History. If you love documentaries like me, you'll love these little videos. More importantly, your kids will love the videos, too. They're designed for children, but they're not pure fluff. They have some good content.
I would consider this app suitable for middle to upper elementary kids. We all know there are heavy topics when it comes to our nation's history (or any nation's history, for that matter.) Although these topics are addressed in an age appropriate way for elementary school kids, personally I wouldn't want my preschooler or kindergartner to have to grapple with some of these topics. Wait a few years.
Here's the scrapbook page for one of my favorite presidents. TJ is on my "imaginary dinner party" list. (i.e., name 10 people from any time and place to come to your dinner party.)
Here's another one of my favorite presidents. And to any of you out there who subscribe to Time magazine (or see it on the newsstands), did you notice the latest cover?? Quite remarkable. I definitely thought it was an image of the real Abraham Lincoln until I read the fine print. Which is kind of silly of me, since I don't think we have any images of Lincoln from that particular angle. Much more of a 2012 type of photo...wasn't really the way photos were taken in 1865. (Then again, maybe I'm wrong about that. Do we have dramatic profile photos like this of Lincoln?)
(Click here if you want to see what I'm talking about.)
So the question is: next Tuesday, are we going to re-elect President #44? Or are we going to elect President #45?
In terms of my big kids' interest in this election, this time is a world of difference from last time. Ages 4 and 6 last time. It all pretty much went over their heads. Ages 8 and 10 this time. They're fairly intrigued, and I think this is the first election they'll remember from their childhoods.
And a related question: I wonder....when are we actually going to know the results of the election? It might be a really close one! I would love to let the big kids stay up next Tuesday night & see the official announcement/speeches, but I wonder if that will actually happen on Tuesday night?
We shall see!