Anyone have a child friendly explanation - for the 4th of July?

kit_kats_mom wrote: this is an excerpt from my journal entry for tonight. As you can see, I need a good child friendly way to explain the 4th of july to Katherine. Anyone? I looked online and didn't find anything that was suitable yet.

Tonight I was putting Katherine to bed. Trying to distract her from the monsters by talking about all of the nice things she can dream about and telling Teddy and Lion to keep the bad dreams away. She was almost asleep when she heard the “pop! Pop! Pop!” if nearby fireworks going off. Of course she woke up and this is the conversation we had.
K: “what was that knock knock sound?”
Me: “it was fireworks”
K: “why are there fireworks?”
Me: “because it’s almost Americas birthday and people shoot off fireworks to celebrate it. Our neighborhood is just starting the party a few days early”
K: “America? I don’t know her”
Me: “America, the United States, Where we live”
K: (I could see her trying to process this) “our house has a birthday? Nooooo. That’s silly! I never heard of a house having a birthday”
Me: “No honey. Our country. We live in a house, in Tampa, in Florida, in the United States”
K: “is our country a dog?”
Me: “uh. No”
K: “do we get to do fireworks too?”
Me: “do you want to do fireworks?”
K: (nodding excitedly) “Yes. Is it a rule (pronounced whul) that we do fireworks?”
Me: “not a rule but we can. I’ll get on the internet tonight and find a good explanation about the 4th of July and why we celebrate it and we can learn all about it tomorrow ok?”
K: “ok.”

How does that brain work?

My3LilMonkeys replied: Well history was never my strong subject but I think I've got this right. A brief explanation that I think would work for kids.

A long time ago our country was ruled by England. The Queen of England told us what to do all the time, and made us pay them lots of taxes. We didn't like that, so a bunch of Americans got together and decided that we would be our own country. They wrote a document called the Declaration of Independence and voted on it. They day they all agreed was July 4, 1776, so it became known as Independance day and we all celebrate the birth of our country that day.

Just me, but I'd skip the whole war part of it at this age.

MomToJade&Jordan replied:

Is our country a dog?

Okay I'm over here trying not to wake the kids up with the laughing. Man she is funny.

redchief replied:
King George III was a queen?

Anyhow, that is a tough one. My kids never really asked until they were older. It doesn't make it any easier that Great Britain is now our greatest ally. It also doesn't help that it happened 240 years ago. I think little kids would have a hard time with that. Kids Katherine's age live in the here and now. Concepts like long ago and the future sound like fairy tale stories to them. Hard as I'm trying, I can't come up with a story that she will be able to grasp.

My3LilMonkeys replied:
See, like I said...history is definately not my thing.

luvmykids replied: I explained that just like the bathroom is a little part of our house, our house/city/state are a small part of our country which is America and that America used to be part of another country but got to be on it's own and thats what we celebrate.

MyBrownEyedBoy replied:
230 years ago, Ed. I was born in the bicentenial year and I am not 40.

jcc64 replied: I think the reason she won't really be able to "get it", is b/c she probably can't even understand the concept of what a country is. I remember going through this with Noah- he couldn't differentiate between town, state, country, etc.. until he was much older than K.
I would just tell her it's a special day near the beginning of summer where everyone gets together to celebrate and have a good time, and the fireworks are just part of it. Trust me, once she's in school, she'll be indoctrinated.

MommyToAshley replied: Haha! Pretty funny converstaion.

I agree with Jeanne on the explanation.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Not long ago we did a United States unit with my preschool class. It's actually amazing what kinds of things they can pick up at an early age. Most of my 4 year olds can now pick out 1/4 of the states on a map...quite impressive I must say.

I would show her a map. Show her where you live, maybe show her a globe. Then just explain that we are celebrating the b-day of the United States, just like we celebrate her b-day. You can use it as an educational experience by telling her what countries are, what states are, etc. Use a globe for a visual so she understands better. Kids are smart. They are sponges and it's amazing what they can learn at such a young age.

redchief replied:
Heheh... touche on my typo Kelly.

redchief replied:
That's what I was trying to say, but I had the stupid half of my brain engaged.