Fourth of July parade? Check. Fireworks at the park? Check. Historic significance of the holiday? Not so much, but our Independence Day experts have plenty of patriotic ideas for families determined to serve up a helping of history alongside the hot dogs at this year’s July Fourth cookout.
“What you don’t want to do is sit the family down at the kitchen table and say, ‘We’re going to discuss the meaning of the Fourth of July,’ because everyone will just groan in unison,” said Barbara Chester, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Instead, she suggests a Fourth of July trivia game at the family cookout. It’s easy: U.S. history questions are written on slips of paper and wrapped up in a guest’s napkin and silverware; answers are on the bottom of the paper plates.
Chester also recommends that children interview their grandparents about Fourth of July celebrations in days gone by: “A child’s great-grandmother, a senior citizen group or the local veterans association — with human interaction children can make a connection to history that we lose when they just use technology.”
“We ought to reflect more on the Fourth of July, but all the ballyhoo … can outstrip the real reason why we are celebrating,” said Jim Davis, executive director of the Lafayette, Colo.-based Social Science Education Consortium. “Kids don’t understand the major premise of the holiday: We gained our independence and decided we can govern ourselves. You need to ask your kids, ‘How are you free? And do you make your own decisions, or participate in group decision-making?'”
To be sure, Independence Day is always center stage at Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum.
“We try to stay away from having the kids who visit memorize dates, which is overwhelming and too much information,” said Jae Ann White, manager of group interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg. Instead, she says a pizza party analogy is a fine way to explain the House of Burgesses — North America’s first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists — to young visitors. “I tell them, ‘I want anchovies and pineapple on my pizza. What do you want?'” she said. “Then I ask them if they want to take a vote, and they start to understand that it’s going to be hard to decide on what kind of pizza to order when you have 90 people with different ideas.
“But if you put five people on a pizza committee, the smaller group will find it easier to make a decision, and now, they have something they can relate to.”
Historic (and fun)
Parents hoping to deliver an impromptu — and, yes, entertaining — history lesson this July Fourth can visit
colonialwilliamsburg.org
and
ouramericanrevolution.org
for some inspiration. Both sites have information and activities for all ages.
