As a homeschool family, we don't have scheduled school breaks, thus leaving me unaware of today's holiday (thanks, Facebook, for reminding me!). Fortunately, we happen to have several books on United States presidents and have been able to pull some interesting facts out of them.
For example:
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe all died on July 4th. Zachary Taylor died on July 9th, following a Fourth of July celebration.
Martin Van Buren grew up speaking Dutch, so he had to learn English later in life. He was the only president who had to do so.
Millard Fillmore's wife started the Presidential Library at the White House.
Ulysses S. Grant changed his name to avoid having initials that spelled HUG.
With those fun facts in mind, I've elected (ha, see what I did there?) to take a mental health day. By that I mean I sewed some sleep masks simply because I wanted to sew. Here's a picture for attention/some of these are book-relevant.
Now I'm going to go snuggle up in a few blankets, pretend it isn't snowing, and finish reading Fight Club so I can move on to Kristina Cook's second Undone by Love book, Unveiled.
What about you? Did you learn anything nifty on this holiday? If you have the day off, what are you doing?
8 comments:
I'm home. My husband is home. My kids are home. And it's snowing and freezing outside. I'm sick of February. I love your fun facts though. Gonna check Wikipedia about Martin Van Buren -- found that tidbit most interesting of all.
We had a snow day today, so my daughter joined me at home. I learned that while technology can be a bad thing when kids spend too much time using it, it's also great - she had a 'virtual' playdate with a friend via Facetime today. It saved my sanity, and it was great because they were actually making things together. So while she was technically using an electronic, I didn't mind because she was playing with toys, interacting with a friend, and being creative. Oh - and a sleep/eye mask was the best thing I ever bought for my daughter. It saves us during the summer when it's still light out at bedtime. The ones you made look so cute!
I gave a spin-off mini lesson on Dutch and immigration following that one ;)
Thanks! I'm hoping they work well for getting the kiddos to start by closing their eyes at bedtime ;) My daughter is notorious for staying up reading (but so am I) and my son has a hard time settling down to begin with.
My kiddos would love Facetime playdates! I should try that with some of their homeschool friends!
Some quotes from my daughter while reading aloud earlier about presidents (she just turned 8 last week):
Re: JFK- "He was the first cathaholic president."
My 6yo still swears she said "President Buttchin" when my daughter mispronounced Buchanan.
"Richard Nixon. Hey, isn't that from Futurama?" Yes, our kiddos are familiar with Futurama.
Wow, those are some cool tidbits! *cue NBC's "The More You Know" theme*
Also, love the sleep masks! Especially the Star Wars one ;-)
Love the sleep masks! It's not President's Day in the UK, but kids are on school holiday this week and I'm once again grateful to live in a neighborhood where the kids can play out unsupervised and come home when they're hungry. In theory, I should be getting some writing done with this unexpected free time, but, well, you see how that's going. :)
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