Just in case you've been under a rock, we're in the middle of one of those quadrennial circuses that will result in a presidential election in November. Remember? They're even getting into it at my kid's school, what with the 4th graders running a shadow election, polling everyone else in the school. The other night, my kid was thrilled to announce that her homework was to Watch Television! This made her day. School sanctioned late night TV trumped the fact that she had to answer questions about the event, like "what were you wondering about when you listened to the debates?"
If you can't read it, her answer was:
I don't know how Mitt Romney thinks we need to drill the oil in Alaska. That will kill animals and create pollution.
No matter what side of the race you fall on, if you have kids, you probably want them to be versed in American history, and to know something about the presidents we've had, from Washington to Obama. And hey, there's an app for that. Basher Presidents isn't much more than a set of virtual baseball cards with a fact or two about each president, and a little game where you have to plop them into chronological order.
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It's fun, and probably worth the $1.99, if only so that your kid can tell you from the back seat that George W. Bush "nearly choked to death on a pretzel while watching football on TV".
Disclosure: I got a free copy of Basher Presidents, but my opinion is my own.
3 comments:
I remember when I was in elementary school we did a mock election during the election year. The ballot boxes were staffed by older kids, who threatened the younger kids that they had to vote for Specific Candidate, or else. They were checking each vote before it went into the box, to make sure. What a great lesson in the political process, teachers!
Ha! Best GWB factoid ever.
I learned that William Howard Taft got stuck in the White House bathtub from a placemat.
Your girl's election HW seems a step up from how CG's class treated it, via a Scholastic mini-zine that gave some biographical and apolitical info about both candidates. She had to make a venn diagram about the two of them, illustrating such crucial differences as "has grandchildren/ has no grandchildren" and crucial similarities as "wants to be president" and "has children."
Although, Andrew Sullivan seems to think that Obama doesn't want to be president anymore. Not sure there is room for debate on that score, but still....
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