President's Day or Month!

I laughingly call my oldest son Tom our unit study leader because of his yearly intense focus on various subjects. Last year it was the solar system and the year before that it was something else (which I can't currently remember). Right now his focus is money and presidents, specifically Abraham Lincoln!

I believe he became interested in the presidents through observing the coins that he has been earning in his household chores by commission. And since pennies are a bit more common to see he took up an interest in Abe Lincoln. Imagine his joy then when upon looking at the February calender he realized that not only would we be observing Lincoln's birthday but that of George Washington's too. And since we had just finished reading the D'Aulaire book about George Washington and had read the D'Aulaire book about Abraham Lincoln last summer, things began to click.

So we have been riding the adventure that Tom's studies takes us on. Tomorrow we will do a few activities such as drawing a log cabin and rubbing a quarter and a penny but mostly we have been reading "living" history books about both men. I was blessed to find a book about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln that was published by Random House back in the 1950's at a local used bookstore and then have added several books from the library. And for Ali I brought home "Welcome to Kirsten's World" which is during the Lincoln years and "Welcome to Felicity's World" from the Washington years.

I have also picked up several books about presidents in general so that the kids could explore other presidents as well. I plan on pursuing this adventure as long as the interest and curiosity is alive in Tom's heart:)

All the kids enjoyed the short videos that we found at the History Channel about various presidents as well. Tom's only complaint is that we can't go to youtube or something to see "real" videos of Abraham Lincoln!

The blessing for us has been that because of Charlotte Mason's advocacy of "short lessons" we have plenty of time to engage in and learn about other interests!