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by Susan C. Evans

Before we studied the presidents of the United States, we decided to go to Mount Rushmore. My sister’s daughter was getting married, and we needed to go on a long road trip anyway. When we arrived at Mount Rushmore, there it was, looming over our heads. In some ways, it was smaller than I envisioned. The children had colored a picture of Mount Rushmore, so they were looking forward to seeing the real thing. Also, before we left, I read a picture book about Mount Rushmore to the children. On the way back from Tennessee three weeks later, we visited Mount Rushmore again, but at night. It was all lit up, and it was magnificent. When the audience from the outdoor auditorium sang “The Star Spangled Banner,” I actually had a lump in my throat, and I was glad for the freedoms we have in our country. I wonder if my children felt that patriotism, too. The show lasted at least an hour. All veterans were asked to come down to the stage, so my husband, who used to be in the Air Force, went forward. It was a great evening.

Near Mount Rushmore was a Presidential Wax Museum. We saw each president of the United States, and most of the presidents had scenes of a significant event that occurred during their term in office. Betsy Ross was sewing the first American flag and showing it to Washington in one scene. Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence in another one. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were displayed in yet another scene. Astronauts were going to the moon during Nixon’s term of office, and Kennedy was at his desk with his son under the desk. Even the 9/11 scene was portrayed with rubble everywhere, and the story was on the news on a television above the scene. Each scene had telephones that we could pick up to listen to the description of the scene.

Eventually when we were back home and it was time to study the presidents, my children had a frame of reference so that the study wasn’t boring. We studied one president per day, and we memorized them as we went. Even my 3-year-old rattled them off perfectly, since she wanted her dollar. (I didn’t require her to, but she heard the list so many times that she was able to do it effortlessly.) I read one page from two books about the presidents of the United States. One was more cartoon-like, and the other had real portraits and photos of events that were happening during each term of office. We tried to dramatize the presidents with costumes for five minutes, if we could think of what they were most famous for.

We read a picture book about the White House, and the children made a model of it with Legos. As our grand finale day, we had the three boys dress up as three famous presidents. Another homeschool family came over to our house, and they had to interview the three presidents to find out if they could guess who they were. We chose Washington, Adams, and Lincoln. (We had watched lots of DVD’s about Adams, so he was easy to portray.) If we had teenagers, I would have chosen more obscure presidents, but this was my children’s first study of presidents, so I wanted them to know the basics. At the end of the study, I felt that my children had a stronger grasp of who the presidents were than I did when I went though the school system.

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