Poll: Does/did your 3rd grader know all the U.S. presidents?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

What about all 50 states and their capitals?

[Pretty in Pink]

No.

[*********]

Nope. If some day he wants to, we'll memorize them. If not, well, I don't see what the importance of memorizing them would be.

[Parrothead]

No and no.

[Missouri Okie]

What about all 50 states and their capitals?

 

My first grader knows both. The Classical Conversation song did the trick for the Presidents and the State Sequence game by Jax made learning the states/capitals a breeze. It's a fun game for mom, too! I highly recommend it.

[PIE!]

don't have a 3rd grader yet - but we plan to learn these when we get there. I learned them through songs in the 5th grade. They're one of the few things I can remember from elementary school, and I've found the knowledge useful. I hope to find some great songs to help the memorization.

[Mabeline]

No and no.

 

:iagree:

[Tigger]

DS knows the states in alphabetical order (Fifty Nifty United States) and learned them a couple of years ago (car song) - we'll work on capitals in the future. We're learning the Presidents via a song I learned when I was in elementary school, so he almost knows them in order - he can sing from Washington through William McKinley (his luck spread thinly, shot by a mad man's gun!) at this point - beyond that, we're still memorizing, but he can do it with prompts or if someone is singing it with him.

[luvnlattes]

I answered no to both.

[eternalknot]

I'm a wee bit beyond 3rd grade, but even I would struggle to name all of the US Presidents. I know the "biggies" and any that have been in office since I moved here. I'd guess my kids (K & 5th) know the roughly the same. I'd guess my nephews (4th, 6th, 8th and public schooled) know about the same, too. Great; now I really want to know what we all know LOL. I'm tempted to throw a fill-in-the-blank presidential pop quiz in everyone's stocking :D

 

We do all know the 50 states, even my K student, but we have family in other states and we travel A LOT. They track where I fly, we take trips every month or so to other states, and ... in general our lifestyle lends relevancy to their knowing states' names, locations/shapes, landmarks, and big cities (served by major airports LOL). I bet they'd do well naming most capitals, but I'm sure they'd confuse a few major cities for capitals (Dallas v. Austin, NYC v. Albany, etc.)

[*Lulu*]

Yes and No. Even the 1st grader knows the Presidents we have covered, but we have not covered them all and my eldest is a 4th grader. Theroretically, since we do history on a 5 year spiral as a group, one of my younger children may have covered them all by the end of 3rd, but it isn't a goal for us. We are covering states and capitols for the first time, outside of playing games, this year and I DO expect all of the bigs to know them when we are done.

[mc26]

My 3rd grader does, but that is mainly because he is interested in those things. Stack the States and Presidents vs. Aliens on the iPad helped a bit :)

[twoxcell]

My third grader knows some of both. We are covering them, but not necessarily memorizing all of them.

[Violet Crown]

My 3rd grader sure doesn't know them, beyond the name of the current president and the capital of Texas (naturally). She's ahead of her sister, who in 3rd grade thought our country was ruled by King George VI. That's what her favorite book said, must be true.

[Woodhaven]

No. I haven't had my kids memorize the presidents. But they do know the states and their capitals.

[SKL]

My 4yo will probably know most or all of the states and presidents by then. Not sure about the state capitals. My 5yo will probably learn them when she absolutely has to in order to get a good grade.

[ErinE]

We're working on states and capitals right now. We'll do presidents next year.

[sassenach]

No, but not because we "haven't covered it yet," but because it it not a priority to us. My kids know many of the presidents and many of the capitals. I am not worried about them knowing all of them, ever.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Just for anyone's information:

 

Yo Sacremento

and

Yo Millard Fillmore

 

Most 3rd graders could learn within a week or two if not an hour or two. I had a 3rd grader over just last week who had a ball with the Presidents book.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I don't see what the importance of memorizing them would be.

 

Trivia at family gathering in November :)

or just to do so because it's silly but something most people can't?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

No, but not because we "haven't covered it yet," but because it it not a priority to us. My kids know many of the presidents and many of the capitals. I am not worried about them knowing all of them, ever.

 

I should have put that as an option. Sorry!

[DawnM]

My 45 year old husband doesn't know that and neither does my 7th grader.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

So good to know I'm not in the minority here. Someone accused me of being lax in my homeschooling because my 2nd and 3rd grader don't know all of the presidents (they can name Washington, Lincoln, Bush II and Obama, but that's it), nor do they know all the state capitals. I just said we haven't covered that yet, since they are ONLY in 2nd and 3rd grade and then passed the bean dip. But, it did get me wondering if this was something the average 3rd grader did know. I remember learning the states and capitals by myself from a book I got for Christmas one year. I didn't learn the whole list of presidents until high school.

[Beth S]

We've just memorized a song with the Presidents' last names.

 

It was in the Weaver Curriculum (now sold by Alpha Omega). We've had to add ". . . Bush & Obama".

 

Ray Charles also penned a song "50 Nifty United States"--all in alphabetical order.

 

It helps to understand history better, because you know that (for example) Tyler came before Lincoln.

 

But I would recoil at having the kids sing it in front of the grandparents!

[Kalypso]

We don't memorize the presidents, but we do the states and capitals.

[nukeswife]

I voted No and No, neither do the older two kids, and dh and I don't know all of them either. It wasn't something we felt important. They are easy enough to look up if needed.

[Mommy22alyns]

No presidents, but most of the states/capitals.

[Ailaena]

DD knew the states and capitals by 2nd grade thanks to the Animaniacs song:tongue_smilie:

 

On the advice of my father, when we began homeschooling I made her slowly memorize the names and some notable accomplishments of presidents (and other historical world political figures). It has proven to be an extremely helpful method of connecting events during history studies (and invaluable during AP tests).

 

I dont think it is totally necessary to memorize presidents, but definitely familiarizing oneself with them is not the worst thing one could do.

[K&Rs Mom]

I'm planning to cover this next summer, after one complete trip through the history cycle before starting cycle two. I don't think I'll require total memorization, though. Here the public schools do states/capitols in 5th, presidents not at all (just discuss the ones that come up in Am History classes).

[annandatje]

The curriculum we used required memorization of states and their capitals in the 5th grade. I am drawing a blank if/when it required memorizing presidents.

[tomandlorih]

Mine is technically second grade age and states and capitals are done thanks to Audio Memory's States and Capitals songs. No plans to memorize the Presidents next year but maybe we would if I had a song that worked.. like the one from CC that a PP mentioned.

[TravelingChris]

Although I memorized Presidents and state capitols, I did it for fun, not a school requirement. All my kids are way past 3rd grade and I never required them to memorize either. They did learn the states but as to when they knew them, I can't really remember other than it was in the elementary years.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

DD knew the states and capitals by 2nd grade thanks to the Animaniacs song:tongue_smilie:

 

 

 

I used to love the Animaniacs! I'll have to check into that song.

[Shawneinfl]

Yes, thanks to Classical Conversations.

[MIch elle]

Most adults, never mind kids, don't know all the presidents. I do because I practice it often so I don't forget! My kids DID know in middle school all the presidents but because they don't practice they forgot them.

[MathGirl]

No to the presidents, yes to the states but another no to the capitals.

[higginszoo]

Two of my three who have completed third grade knew states, capitals and Presidents. One didn't, doesn't have a mind for that sort of thing (gets lost trying to get to her friend's house 1/2 mile away). My youngest just started on third grade materials ... she knows most of the states, and probably 1/3 of the capitals and about 1/3-1/4 of the Presidents.

Edited December 23, 2011 by higginszoo

[happypamama]

My fourth grader knows most/all of the Presidents and probably most/all of the capitals and has for a while.

 

However, it's only because of the Animaniacs songs that she knows them. :) (That's how *I* know the order of the Presidents myself!)

[ZooRho]

voted no on both,

didn't worry about making them memorize that stuff.

 

now my oldest may know some of them, but he was an auditory learner and I think in a coop we did they sang a song about the states.

[Colleen]

voted no on both,

didn't worry about making them memorize that stuff.

 

Same here. And hi, Rho.:)

[jennynd]

DS used to by playing the puzzles. He forgot them all. (it was good 5/6 yrs ago) He know "some" president. He is playing stack the states and president v.s. aliens now and I think he is picking up again.

Edited December 23, 2011 by jennynd

[ZooRho]

Same here. And hi, Rho.:)

 

hey lady.

 

guess the other place is quiet huh?

;)

[Laura in STL]

My dc know both presidents and states/capitals orally, but don't have the spellings memorized. Ds is in sixth and I'm having him work on the spellings this year. He is pretty close at this point.

[6packofun]

No, but not because we "haven't covered it yet," but because it it not a priority to us. My kids know many of the presidents and many of the capitals. I am not worried about them knowing all of them, ever.

 

Exactly. :)

[FriedClams]

Messed up the poll!

 

Yes on states/capitals/locations.

 

No on presidents - but we will know them by the end of the year.

[EmilyinND]

My 3rd grade dd is in ps, but no she doesn't know all the presidents, but she is a little obsessed with Abraham Lincoln!:001_smile:

[Bang!Zoom!]

Nope.

[Penelope]

As a third grader, no. We are learning them this year in fourth.

[nono]

I must be a victim of my classical education...because I don't know them either.

 

But, I know where to get the information.

[Chris in VA]

No and no. But I want dd to know the presidents because it helps with the order of historical events, and we will be working on the states/capitals because I want her to be very familiar with geography. We'll be memorizing most of the world countries and their capitals, actually. With the way the world is "shrinking," I want her to know where things are.