Remember those who served. Ask your children to write a letter to their school’s principal suggesting that local veterans of different generations speak about their experiences at a school assembly. Your local chapters of the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars will be able to supply speakers for the assembly or to speak to different classes. A great idea for Veterans or Memorial Day.
Yes ,your kids can do it ! Find the Declaration at the website of the National Archives www.archives.gov. On that site you can look at the original, read a transcript, and download a copy of the original. Then have them add their John Hancock to America's birth certificate!
A book girls with love “Felicity: An American Girl” about a girl growing up during Colonial times which is part of the American Girl series. There is also a movie about “Felicity” that the whole family would enjoy. Buy "Felicity: An American Girl" at amazon.com.
A great government website that children will really enjoy: FBI For Kids www.fbi.gov/fbifk.htm. It includes games, stories, and tales of heroic bomb-sniffing dogs. Lots of fun!
Here’s another family debate that should get them talking and thinking. You can start things along by throwing out words that others have used to describe Americans ---some good and some not so good:
Freedom-loving Materialistic
Idealistic Arrogant
Hard-working Aggressive
Independent Unsophisticated
Traditional Rebellious
Which words do they think best describe us? If they could only describe America with three words, what would they be?
You can also ask them during this discussion:
• Do they think America is still a special place?
• Do immigrants have more or less opportunities than they once had?
Many of our enemies abroad say America is a force for evil in the world. And some here at home, seem to agree.
• But then why are millions of people still trying so hard to come here?
• Isn’t this a contradiction? What do they think?
Part of America’s story is the story of American ingenuity. Do you have a young inventor in the house? You can find out a lot about young inventors and how your own children can come up with an invention--and win prize money for doing it on www.bkfk.com
A history book that belongs in every family’s library is “A Patriot’s History of the United States” by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, both professors. Unlike many textbooks your kids may be reading, this book offer a thorough balanced look at out past, written with flair and a sense of humor. Have it on your shelf and consult it if you disagree with the views in your child’s history text book. Buy "A Patriot's History of the United States" at amazon.com.
Unfortunately, I only know the broad outlines of the story of my immigrant grandparents’ arrival in America. What I do know is that my father’s parents came from Hungary and arrived in this country at the end of the 19th Century. My grandfather became a pants-presser who worked very hard in a garment factory, six days a week. My grandmother raised four sons and one daughter. My father was the youngest.
They soon bought some land and had a small farm on Staten Island, which is still the most rural of New York’s five boroughs and then, truly, was the country. Living in Manhattan today with its skyscrapers and endless traffic, it’s hard for me to imagine that one set of my grandparents were farmers just a few miles from here.
My father started work when he was thirteen, just after finishing eighth grade. He worked for a fabric company and eventually, after saving enough money, started his own small business and became quite a successful businessman. He never complained about having to leave school early and he did go back and get his high school degree later. But, it was just expected that he would work and so he worked and worked hard.
My mother was born in England and came here as a young girl. Her father had come to America first, like many men did at the time and he later sent for my grandmother and their six children, four girls and two boys.
After high school, my mother worked as a secretary at the Boy Scouts Association and met my father on a New York subway. And he was so taken with my mom that he went home the night and told his mother that he was sure he had met the woman he was going to marry. In some ways, my family’s story, like so many others, is not very special. My grandparents came here and worked hard. My parents worked hard. They were always very grateful that they had the opportunity to work and achieve what they wanted----a home of their own, cars, the ability to put their children through college, a comfortable retirement.
In 1995, I was one of the delegates to the UN Conference on Women in Beijing. As I sat there surrounded by delegates from around the world, I thought of my immigrant grandparents, and my father who had gone to work so young. I knew how proud they would have been. I also knew that nowhere else but in the United States could I have had, in one generation, the opportunity to be the official representative of my country at a world conference of women.
On your child’s next birthday, commemorate that day in history by making a time capsule. Take a box or jar and put in some things that will be a record of the day --like the front page of a newspaper, a printout from a website, a photo of your family or an audio or video recording. Along with some “original documents” like a copy of his or her birth certificate. Include photos of what is important to him like a photo of your house, a favorite toy, the family pet. Ask him to include a letter to whomever finds it. Then seal it and put it away in the attic or even bury it in the yard so someone in the future will know what life was really like today.
Did your family’s ancestors come to America through Ellis Island? If they did, check out “The Ellis Island Experience” at www.historychannel.com.ellisisland where they can actually answer the immigrant questionnaire that decided whether immigrants would be allowed into America or sent home.
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