Why are we ever surprised when the Lord swings a huge home run for our home learning? It happened in our house this week.

We have studied the states by playing 10 Days in the USA for the last couple of years. I have a School Library with several dry books waiting to be read. A DVD of the Story of US. We’ve done several disconnected history unit studies.

With all that is happening in our country though – I have felt the need to teach Government to the boys next year, instead of waiting until High School. I look at the dry dusty text books, and long for a better way. I have been debating on different History products – American, Biblical, World, Historical Fiction –  offered at Timberdoodle. But how to to learn together to get a feel for what we’ve really gone through as a Nation?

This past week – Timberdoodle sent out a call asking if anyone would want to review the “A Kid’s Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the United States of America” books.

Do you remember those Draw Write Now book series? These books are like those – for older kids!  Historical Stories, and then step by step instructions on how to recreate objects from that President’s life.

We read a story from the book – learning dates, facts.  I’ll be honest and share that none of us knew what number president we were on.  So today we learned that President Obama is #44. Jon asked how long it had been since George Washington was President – and he learned today that he became President in 1789 and went back to his home at Mt Vernon in 1797.  The words on the page are large font, easy to read, the photos are inviting. We talked about the wigs and the suits.

I am loving this year that the boys are able to read to each other – instead of me doing ALL of the reading! (Like our white board sign?)

Nathan started work on Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia overlooking the Potomac River.  It is now a museum, restored by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 1853.

He enjoyed it so much – that he decided to read and draw The Young Surveyor page. Did I just say that? He loved the history lesson so much that he did 2 of them on his own?  We read three of the stories after lunch, and then he did 2 more on his own. Yep. I said it!

AND THEN!!!!! As any of my Petra School Page, or Facebook Friends, or Timberdoodle Page followers know – Timberdoodle held a drawing last week to win a complete set – and I WON!!!!  Thank You Timberdoodle!!! (White board makes sense even more now right?)

I can’t say how thankful I am to have received this set.  Timberdoodle announced today that they are slashing I mean SLASHING the original $1,060.00 price tag and reducing their sets on hand to $195.00!

When you visit the site – you can read Timberdoodle’s Detailed Review of all of the nuts and bolts, watch a great You Tube Video with some fun music in the background – and see some sample pages in much better resolution than those in this review.

We are working to incorporate the Living Books – and Notebooking – into our day.  I know – I hear you – $195.00?  But seriously – and I don’t say this for many reviews – But I’m putting it out there – These Are Amazing.  Multiple ages of Children. Drawing. Notebooking.  We could go through a book a week – or pause to get indepth into a unit study about part of their life. Whatever sparks them in the story – we will investigate.

I purchased the American Presidents Notebooking Package today from NotebookingPages.com . The pages you see the boys using above are from those notebooking pages. I will be posting more American President Posts as we finish each book.

This is do-able folks. A few minutes after lunch? The kiddos could read the story while you get the sandwiches ready? How do I put into print how much I adore these books?

Disclaimer – I received the George Washington copy for free for the purpose of using the book and giving a review. Timberdoodle specifically wants to know what we didn’t like about it – and the only thing was that, at the time, I didn’t have the whole set.   I received the WHOLE SET free – as the winner chosen by Random.Org on their Facebook Page.

Go on – Go check it out. Ya know you wanna.