Happy Presidents Day everyone! Now to the average person this might just be a day without school and mail, but not here. I mean, I HAD to make it a pretty big celebration. We're spending all YEAR celebrating presidents. And today is like, THE DAY!
Everyone picked their favorite president so far and most their activities centered around that guy. Now, we're only 7 presidents birthdays in, so the boys don't have a ton of information to go off of , so I had to find ways to incorporate the presidents they already know. Calib refused to conform though, and insisted on learning about a new president. For the past couple days he's been studying up on the guy who was sandwiched by Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison.
You might have also heard we were playing True American, but I'll get to that.
First up we had some owl mail for the holiday. My favorite was the facebook page they filled out for their president and the 'Histogram' they drew. They also had various math and writing assignments in there too. They spent the morning on those, and then after lunch we were on to our February 'Who, What, Where, When, Why'.
You might recall, we have a 5 W's day scheduled for one day each month. Last month we did inventors. This month, they did their president. Now, why is Asa here today you ask? Well, at about 9:30 last night we all convinced him he couldn't miss Presidents Day and he HAD to stay home. He has a couple extra days to play around with since we won't be spending two weeks in Hawaii. Anyway, he had picked Millard Fillmore for his president, but I did all his crafts for him yesterday as samples, and thinking he wouldn't be here. His choice of president was Millard Fillmore, of course.
I folded the poster board in half for the boys and divided it up and they did the rest, they put a picture on the front, and wrote under the flap.
And ta da! Our who, what, where, when, why boards for the month. Hayden chose William McKinley.
Calib, as I said, studied up on Benjamin Harrison.
And Peyton couldn't pass up on Lincoln.
Next, we made 'hanger presidents'. We started out with some heads printed on card stock and hot glued them to some hangers.
Then we dressed them appropriately. William McKinley is sporting a handkerchief in his pocket in case Ida has a seizure, a carnation we made out of felt for good luck, and his campaign button we made on his birthday (since you may recall he was the first to use campaign buttons)
Calib used some felt, paper, and stuffing to give Benjamin Harrison his look.
And Peyton lent his Lincoln Shirt to Lincoln for Lincoln to wear.
We played some presidential brain quest and some name that president. They were awesome at Name that President today!
And then we sent them off so we could set up for True American. So, ok, this *may* be a drinking game. And I promise the only one who actually had alcohol was Asa. But, there's this episode of New Girl that we had watched where they play True American. Calib watches it, but we showed Peyton the clip, and they were like 'we have to play that!' (obviously minus the drinking part), and since then the wheels have been turning in my head on how to turn this into a family friendly, educational game. I had nothing to do with Asa making himself little Rum and Cokes. That was all his decision. That's just my disclaimer there. I ended up making it like a mash up between headbanz, 20 questions, and hot lava with some treats along the way.
So, the first thing I constructed was Washington D.C (I mean, that's pretty obvious with the Washington Monument up there, right?) . Everyone has their own root beer bottle, with their own label for their president.
Then, the next step down was presidential cookies (they really have presidents on them!), down another step is the patriotic jello you might remember we had during the State of the Union.
Then we had the Lincoln hats, and finally the coordinating pez president (I was so happy everyone picked a president I have a pez dispenser of!)
Then, I had to set up everyone's home base using their 5 W's board, and their presidential hanger.
Then I set up everyone's cards for the headbandz part of the game. Everyone had the same 5 categories. You started with President and ended with War (that's why the war prohibition mini cocktail of cherry juice and sprite has a cherry in it)
They also got their buzzers, so we'd know when they were placing an official guess. Well, that and they had to shout 'JFK! FDR!' before whatever they were guessing.
Now, you can't just walk on the floor to get from your station (chair) to D.C (the coffee table), because the floor is hot lava. (duh!) So you have to go from island to island.
Alright, so once we were set up, everyone came out of their rooms to see the madness that had become of the family room.
And, then they all got up on their chairs to start the game.
So, here's how it works. First you put one of the categories in your headband. Then, you get to ask three questions to try and figure out what your president, state, monument, document, or war is.
If you ask your three questions, and haven't figured it out, that's it for your turn and play moves to the left where the next person gets three questions, and wait until it comes back around to you, when you'll have three more questions to help narrow it down.
If you are ready to guess (and be careful! if you guess wrong, you'll fall in the hot lava below and lose a life-- you can give them as many lives as you want though), you simply hit your buzzer and shout "JFK! FDR!......LINCOLN MEMORIAL!", or whatever you are. If you're right you get that mini prohibition cocktail.
Then it's time to move towards D.C. using your islands. I had typed up 20 questions for each president. So, they could pick a number 1-20, and I would ask them the question. If they got it correct, they could take a step forward, and were asked another question.
Once you ate your treat from the middle, you went back to your station, and got a new category.
And repeat the process.
And oh my gosh, was this just the best. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. I swear not terrible that I turned a drinking game into a family friendly event. Because, you know, educational!
Asa made it to the middle first, and was rewarded with his Millard Fillmore rootbeer.
And then Peyton.
Calib made it next.
And Hayden got there eventually too.
It took about an hour to play, but it was hilarious, and everyone loved every minute of it. It was everyone's favorite part of the day at dinner, and the boys want to do it again soon. I said it was like Christmas, something we should reserve for one day a year (presidents day!). I mean, think how much they'll know when we do this next year (AND we can do presidents Guess Who too!). But, I did tell Asa if he really wanted, I would put it together again for his birthday. So, we'll see.
We had some special guests with us at dinner tonight too.
And cute food to boot.
I never knew this project would be so much fun. I am loving how much the boys are enjoying the birthdays, but today was just the icing on the cake. I hope you all had a fabulous presidents day. It's our weekend here, and except for some reading, flags, and Waterstraut Weekly, we're taking the next few days off to relax and regroup, so I'll see you in a couple days.
Next Up: Waterstraut Weekend!
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