I stumbled upon another great learning resource at Goodwill the other day. It's Smithsonian Institute's Make Your Own President book. The presidents up through George W. Bush are pictured in this spiral-bound book. Each picture is divided in five strips, so you can mix and match parts of pictures to make a crazy-face. Always fun. The back of each strip has a quote from that particular president.
Three strange things: The presidential portraits are not placed in historical order, not all presidents are included, and the book only goes up to George W. Bush because it was published in 2006. But all the presidents (up to President Bush) are included, in order, in a graph in the back.
Three great things: It's fun enough that Xander asked me on his own if he could read the book, he will get a chance to familiarize himself with portraits of 24 "favorite" presidents, and, along the way, he will be exposed to famous presidential quotes.
While I was rhapsodizing about this book, Nick asked for another book we've borrowed from the library that I like very much: The Usborne Introduction to Art: Internet-Linked. I had been reading a couple pages a day to Xander because I liked the way it explained groups of paintings in terms of what theme or time period or method they shared. I should mention at this time that the kids, especially Nick, have also been watching episodes of Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego?
Today, Nick said he wanted to look at the painting book. I figured he wanted to look at The Usborne Introduction to Art. He did, and he started paging through it. Then I heard him say, "Where is the one from Carmen Sandiego?"
I said, "You're looking for a painting that's in Carmen Sandiego? Okay, keep looking through, see if you find one."
Finally, he said, "Here it is!"
He was pointing to the Mona Lisa, which is indeed in an episode of Carmen Sandiego. He even knows its name. How cool is that?
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