Homeschool World Forum

just wondering if anyone is watching the "John Adams" miniseries on HBO,...I enjoyed it,..just another perspective on the founding of our country. Adams is a political figure that I haven't studied enough.

Unforunately, no. We do not have that channel. Sounds great, though.

I have the channel and actually work for a company that closely works with HBO, so I get free HBO (as well as other channels). While I did not see the episode, I am not impressed with Adams from my prior reading. Yes, he did a great job in negotiating treaties, some that probably saved America. Yet, he was a terrible Vice President and a little better but not great President. He truly sacrificed his family on the alter of his career. Two of his sons were wild and really had little contact with their Father. Quincy had more contact because he joined Adams in France... yet, even their relationship was mostly estranged. Quincy seemed to reject the political ideology of his father for more of a Jeffersonian approach.

Adams, though, was an avid saver of every possible dime. He also wrote more than any other President in history, making biographies of him easier than if there was little about him.

For me, he sacrificed too much of his personal life to the political. He was also a Unitarian.

It is a shame that a man would strive for one issue so much to totally neglect his own family.

FYI,..John Quincy Adams (son of John) spoke to the Supreme Court on behalf on the Amistad Africans, when he was 74 years old. And, of course, he became the 6th President of US. So, IMO, John Adams was an influential figure in his son's life.

Here are some of my favorite John Adams Quotes that you might find interesting:

"It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not." - Letter to Abigail Adams, referring to the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, July 3, 1776

"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations." - Letter to William Cushing, June 9, 1776

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - Address to the Military, October 11, 1798

"I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!" - Letter to Abigail Adams, referring to the White House, November 2, 1800

"National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman." - Letter to James Lloyd, January, 1815

Here is the site where I got these John Adams Quotes from, along with a lot more information about the Revolutionary War.

I also am a fan of US Presidents and recently taught my 10 year old how to memorize ALL 44 Presidents REALLY fast. I am the current and 2 time national memory champ.

So I used these skills to teach him. This is what we did.
1. We numbered 5 pieces of furniture in 8 rooms (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, patio, etc) Then I had him repeat these until he could say them forwards and backwards
2. We walked around the house and turned each presidents name into a picture (Washington = washing machine, Adamas = a dam, etc). As we walked around the house I asked him to create a story of each picture on each piece of furniture. For example he visualized a washing machine on his first piece of furniture and a dam on the second.

I literally walked around the house with him and it took us about 30-45 minutes. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and repeated all 44 from memory. This is a great way to memorize the presidents and it is a lot better than a song because with this I can ask him who was #30 and he can mentally go straight to it.

Just a technique to memorize the presidents