Presidents' Day

Today is Presidents’ Day, in the honor of US Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays fall in the month of February. Consequently, schools and many offices have a holiday on the third Monday of February. A convenient practice in the US is to have all the holidays observed on Mondays so as to combine into a long weekend. For instance, Memorial day is on the last Monday of May, Labor day on the first Monday of September and so on. I wish we could do the same in India, but most holidays being associated with religious festivals, the stars are not so kind!:-)

Anyway, Abhay’s school was closed and so were the library and other recreation centers. So I had a hard time keeping him occupied at home! As usual, I had my best friends to keep him company – Books of course! In order to give him a little insight into the American history, I read a book titled ‘Presidents’ day’ by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by Mike Gordon. This is a Ready-to Read, Level 1 book that is best suited for early readers. On the eve of Presidents’ Day, the first graders are keen to understand the importance of this day and learn fun facts of all the earlier presidents, where they live and the name of the current President, all narrated in an age appropriate manner. The children even wonder why they don’t get to choose their school principal just as the people choose the President! A good book for a precocious kid interested in an early lesson on political history. As far as Abhay was concerned, I’m not sure how much of it sunk in. When I asked him later “Who lives in the White House"? to which my little dreamer replied “ME”!:-)