What better day than President’s Day to start planning a family outing to one of a dozen Presidential Libraries and Museums.  From Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton, the libraries offer fascinating history lessons about the men who became president of the United States, their policies, their families and their leadership.

You can board the actual Air Force One that flew seven presidents and see the Oval Office re-decorated by its various occupants; study a section of the Berlin Wall and relive John Kennedy’s "Ich bin ein Berliner” speech; eyeball Harry Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here” sign and listen to the Nixon-Kennedy debates, news conferences and Oval Office addresses to the nation.

Children can learn about Bill Clinton’s work toward Middle East Peace, about what Ronald Reagan meant when he said “Trust, but Verify” during nuclear arms talks and learn of George H. W. Bush’s diplomacy in the post-Cold War era and of the events leading up to the Gulf War.

Two libraries, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum are celebrating special anniversaries this year: the 50th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Inauguration and the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth.  The Reagan library has been renovated with special attention to interactive, state-of-the-art digital exhibits.  You can, for example, act in a movie with the onetime Hollywood actor or set the table for a State Dinner.  And today, you can watch a live webcast of “The Presidency of JFK: A 50-Year Retrospective.” The library also has unveiled the nation’s largest online digitalized presidential archive.

Whether you stop off during a weekend outing or plan a tour that takes in three or four of the libraries, these reservoirs provide a teachable moment about the challenges and opportunities of another time. The Gerald R. Ford Museum, for example, has a “Constitution in Crisis” exhibit which documents the Watergate years.

Throughout the year and on special days like President’s Day, some libraries have additional exhibits or programs.  Through Feb. 27, the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum is featuring a traveling Smithsonian Exhibit, “The Working White House: Two Centuries of Traditions and Memories.”

The National Archives and Records Administration, which administers the libraries, provides information on its website. And coming in 2013, the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.