The Story of the Fourth of July

Explaining America's holiday to young kids

ADDED June 29, 2009

The Fourth of July (coming to a town near you this Saturday) is a very special holiday -- and frankly, it's one of our favorites.  The United States is a great place, and we should all be grateful to live here.  And we should all celebrate America!

It's tricky to explain Fourth of July to young kids -- those who haven't yet reached the second or third grades.  But as always, we have some ideas.  Here's how we explain the significance of the Fourth of July to young children:

First, we say that the Fourth is the day, back in olden days, that America became its own country.

(We use "olden days" to convey any event in the distant past.  To a kid, this is pretty much anything that occurred before they were born.  We don't think young children can really distinguish between thirty years before they were born and three hundred years.  To them, it's all just long ago, or -- if you will -- "olden days.")

So, in olden days, America was owned by England.  The boss of England was King George the Third.  Because England owned America, King George the Third was also the boss of America.

King George and his helpers in England did not treat America well.  They wanted to take as much money as they could from the people in America, so they could spend that money themselves.

(I have a little activity to help the kids understood how the American colonists might have felt in the face of Britain's excessive taxation.  I give them five pennies -- usually I try to give them very shiny pennies, I think it helps.  I say, "These are your pennies.  Can you count them?"  When they're done, I say, "Okay, the King of England told me to take some of your pennies for him."  And then I take two away.  The first time I did that, my son was clearly unhappy and disappointed. He said, "Give those back!")

The people living in America did not like that King George and his helpers took their money.  The Americans also wanted to be in control of their own rules, instead of having England make them up.  So on July 4, 1776, a group of American leaders agreed that America should be its own country from then on.

That's why the Fourth of July is America's birthday.  That is why it's such a special day: because in olden days, the Fourth of July was the day Americans decided to be their own, separate country.

The story continues:

King George still wanted America to do what he commanded.  He sent a lot of his helpers over to America in boats.  These helpers were soldiers, and they were called the Red Coats because they wore . . . red coats.   The soldiers tried to make the American people do whatever King George the Third wanted them to do.  The Americans certainly didn't like this, and they fought the soldiers.

The Americans were very brave, because King George and the Red Coats were very powerful.  Many people did not think that the Americans could win against the Red Coats.

After a really long time -- six years, longer than many kids have been alive -- and with the help of some soldiers from France, the American people won.  They got to have their own country!

Of course, the King George the Third and the people from England were not happy about losing.  But . . . that was a long time ago, and now the United States and England are very, very good friends.  

We hope this version of America's beginning will make sense to your kids, and that it will give them an impression of why the Fourth of July is an important, special day.  Will this story make sense to your little ones?  

We might write a book about explaining history to very young kids, with pages like this.  What do you think?  Should we do it?

educational,

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