As my children grow older, I strive to find more meaningful ways to celebrate holidays.
The 4th of July has always been a burst of red, white, & blue through our home, but I can’t say that we have ever spent time together discussing the importance of this day and getting to know the heroes behind what makes the 4th of July so special.
Today I want to share with you a fun way you can share about the 4th of July Heroes in your home and a fun way to incorporate their images in your home to make the day more meaningful and festive.
I partnered with Walmart on this project and all the materials you need for this can be found at their store.
To begin, you can select your 4th of July Heroes that you want to talk about.
I found this great list for kids that I used to select our heroes to focus upon.
I then headed to Wikipedia and found images of each of our heroes and converted them to black & white and saved them on my computer.
If you would like to use the same heroes as us, here are the heroes we selected for our project.
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
John Hancock
Crispus Attucks
John Adams
Abigail Adams
Once you have your heroes selected, head to the Walmart Photo Site and upload the images there.
In addition to having 1 of each image printed in 4×6, also add 1 set of wallets for each person.
If you send these to the one-hour lab, it will be less than $6 for all of them.
While you are there, you can also pick up a package of mini-clothespins, a set of notecards for your kids to write on, supplies for this easy flag bunting, and this burlap wreath to decorate with.
Since I already had these things in our home, it helps cut down on cost and storage for us this year.
Once you have your images, have kids select which person they are interested in discovering and have them find information about their 4th of July heroes.
I challenged my kids to find one or two facts about each hero.
We also read about the first 4th of July and how different is from how we celebrate today.
I am embarrassed to say that I was learning right along with my children and soaking it all in as much as they were.
Abigail Adams, for example, was one of our favorite people we learned about. Did you know that she had five kids that she cared for and homeschooled while her husband was away serving his country?
Not only was she passionate about women’s rights, but she was also passionate about equality for all people, whether they were black or white.
She helped care for the soldiers in her home (feeding them and treating their injuries), and she even learned how to make her own gunpowder.
Emily and I are big fans of Abigail Adams now and all she did for our country.
Likewise, my son loved John Adams and his fun fact was that he thought his teachers, “held him back.”
Despite being held back from his true potential in grade school, he passed his entrance exams to Harvard and his parents, who were farmers, gave up several acres of their own farm land to pay for John’s schooling.
And, boy, did that pay off!
John Adams strongly supported independence from Britain, signed the Declaration of Independence, and negotiated the treaty ending the Revolutionary War.
He later became the nation’s first vice president and second president.
This led to a great discussion about recognizing our true potential when sometimes others do not.
Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King referenced Crispus Attucks in one of his speeches?
He held him up as an example of black patriotism at the beginning of our nation’s history.
Yet, we never knew anything about what he did for our country. I’m so glad we know now.
If you have smaller kids, you can share simple facts and have them draw pictures.
Clearly, the fact that Abigail Adams rocked it as a mom and had five kids was worthy of a picture.
Make this time fun for your kids while acknowledging the sacrifices that so many gave up for our freedom.
Once we were done discussing our heroes, I incorporated these pictures into our holiday decor.
I pulled some of the flags off of our bunting and switched them with pictures of our heroes.
I took the items off of my burlap wreath and clipped the wallet images with mini clothespins on the wreath.
I hung this in the center of our mirror and added the flag & hero bunting around the frame of the mirror.
I love these touches to our 4th of July decorating, but I love even more that my kids know about these patriotic heroes.
I hope this idea inspires you to learn more about this holiday and the heroes who made this day possible for all of us.
Happy 4th of July, friends!
Look at these other great ideas from MomAdvice.com:
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