Teach Them Tuesday: The 4th of July!

I’m starting a new series today called “Teach Them Tuesday”. As a homeschooling mom and Bible class teacher, I’ve always benefited from the recommendations other moms and teachers have offered on books, curricula, and other resources for teaching our children. This series is nothing more that: endorsements for anything I’ve used and found beneficial. I do not claim to be any kind of expert! These recommendations are just from the humble heart of a mom!

With the 4th of July this week, I thought I’d share a couple of books that we’ve read in the past that have helped frame our minds for this historic occasion. Since July 4th falls during the summer break, children sometimes miss the benefit of learning as much about it as if they would if it fell during our school year when we’re geared up for making a lesson out of every holiday.

We all enjoy celebrating on the 4th with barbeque, icecream, and fireworks! Our family loves these things about the 4th. Hey, Crazy Joel puts on quite a fireworks display at the end of our driveway each year and it’s definitely the highlight of the day for us. But along with that, we really need to be teaching our children the history of this date and what it means to us as American citizens! Admittedly, I have not accomplished this every year. However, the years I did take the time to teach it, there were two little books that were helpful and I’ve decided to dust them off and bring them out this year for my son to learn from.

The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh is a great summery of how our country began, starting with the colonies, and it’s journey in liberating itself from England. After reading this story, I gave my son the assignment of choosing a character from the book and writing a journal entry as if he were that person. The three choices I gave him were: George Washington (as he was fighting the War of Independence), Thomas Jefferson (as he was writing the Declaration of Independence), and a horseback messenger (as he was delivering the Declaration to the colonies). He chose Thomas Jefferson. Another day this week I’m going to print copies of the Declaration of Independence, put them in a backpack, and have him ride his horse (bike) around to each colony (neighbors) to deliver the news. He loves to role-play like this! This book is on Amazon Prime so if you order today, you’d have it by the 4th. (I’m not an affiliate so I’m not pushing anything.)

Red, White, and Blue: The Story of the American Flag by John Herman tells the history of our nation’s great flag, it’s many original designs, and how the final design was decided on. Since it includes the legend of Betsy Ross’s one-cut star, a great follow-up activity for this book is to show the kids how to make a folded and one-cut star. Click the link and try it; it really works! I did this when my girls were younger and will do it with my son after he reads the book this week.

There are so many more great books and resources for this historic holiday, but these are just two quick ideas. I’m happy to loan these out to anyone living near me! Happy Independence Day!!