Social Studies: The Presidents

My son loves using Crash Course to learn about history, but I was still searching for a more chronological source to fill in all the details. Then it dawned on me – the presidents served sequentially, so let’s look at history through each presidency. These are the main sources we’re using, along with healthy doses of Biography.com: Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times and The Presidents (DVD with short and interesting biographies).

Each president gets a page in a binder filled in with his picture and the following facts: years of term(s), age when he was sworn in, his political party, his Vice President, percentage of years his party controlled House, percentage of years his party controlled Senate, reason he left office, prior job(s), his nick name, the year he was born, the state he was from, and the year he died.

These are the questions for each president:

• Three defining features or legacies of this presidency
• Three interesting facts about this president
• Describe a scientific discovery, invention or engineering feat that happened during this presidency

We’re looking at how the economy, party politics and technology advancements impacted events. I’m curious to see what conclusions my son draws on his own.