The third Monday of February is Presidents' Day in the United States. It is a day to honor all of the people who serve as the president of the United States. At one point Abraham Linclon's and George Washington's birthdays were each individually celebrated in February and then they got combined to be Presidents' Day. Now in New England, the schools usually close for the week of Presidents' Day.I believe it goes back to the days of one room schoolhouses and having to pay for heat. A week off in one of the coldest months saves money. As a former teacher I can also tell you often the illnesses were spreading and this week tended to help get the viruses out of the building.
I had big plans to have Hazel do some crafts for the day, but she was not in a crafting mood today. Instead I made some peg dolls of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The idea came from Every Day's a Holiday by Heidi Kenney. I saw the idea on How- Tuesday: Mini President Figurines and then saw it came from the book which I own.
To learn more about the holiday and the men, we went to the library. Some books that helped Hazel and were mostly at her level for Presidents' Day are Presidents' Day by Helen Frost and Presidents' Day by Robin Nelson.
Next we took some books out on George Washington. Now Hazel has some idea about Washington since she knows there is a state named after him and the capital of the United States is named for him (though she sometimes think they are the same thing). We took books out so she could learn more about the first president.
We also took books out to learn about Abraham Lincoln. With every book we learned that Lincoln became a lawyer and every time, Hazel asked me what a lawyer is. I must admit I found some of these books a bit hard to get through since she kept asking vocabulary questions, but I know this is how she will learn.
