A few days ago my son asked, “What day do we do fireworks?” My husband replied, “July 4th.” My son then looked on the calendar, he’s obsessed with calendars, and remarked, “That’s Independence Day.”
My immediate thought was of course July 4th is Independence Day. Then I realized that he did not know what Independence Day meant and why we celebrated it. To him July 4th was a day where dad stayed home from work; we ate good food, and watched fireworks. I know that last year I explained that July 4th was America’s birthday, but obviously he had forgotten.
Here was a great chance to teach my son why our country is so great and why July 4th is a holiday worth celebrating. I explained that many years ago people living in our country were tired of having a king tell them what to do and taking more and more of their money for taxes. They wanted to be free to make their own decisions and choices. They wanted a country were every person was free. So a group of men got together and asked Thomas Jefferson to write a document that would tell the King of England that they wanted to be free. On July 4th 1776, the group of men decided to use “The Declaration of Independence” that Thomas Jefferson had written. Because of this we went to war with England and won our independence. Now we celebrate July 4th because it is like our country’s birthday. We always want to remember and honor those men who helped make our country free.
Discuss with your children how and why our country’s national anthem was written (make sure you mention that your stand when singing it). Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner” while watching Ft. Henry being bombarded by the British during the war of 1812. During the night he could see the American flag flying through the glare of the battle. But as the battled ceased he watched anxiously to see if the flag was still there. When he saw the flag still waving over the fort he wrote the famous anthem. We light fireworks on the 4th of July in memory of the bombs that exploded in the air and in celebration of the freedoms we have.
You might also want to talk about the flag and the respect that it deserves. We should stand, remove any hats, and place our hands over our hearts. The thirteen stripes represent the thirteen original colonies. There is one star for each of the fifty states that make up The United States of America.
The 4th of July is also a great time to remind children to honor the men and women serving in our armed forces today. They are currently fighting to help preserve our freedoms and insure the freedoms of others all over the world. You might want to draw pictures or write a letter to a service man or women and thank them for fighting for your freedom. Since you can’t send mail directly anymore you can find sites where you can send letters here.
Unless we teach our children the meaning of the 4th of July and begin to instill in them a love and respect of this great nation the 4th of July will become a meaningless holiday.