Skylar gave me the perfect intro to this family home evening last night. She said "Mom, what is Memorial Day? Why don't I have to go to school on Monday?" Well Skylar...I am glad you asked! :)
I think in our house we usually tend to skim over the real purpose of Memorial Day and just enjoy the day off work and school. We don't really have too many family members that have passed on with graves close by, so we don't usually visit a cemetary or do anything like that. I do, however, want my children to understand why we celebrate Memorial Day, and know that it is a day of remembrance, to remember all those we love that have passed on, and to remember veterans and to have gratitude for the freedoms they ensure for all of us and our country.
I found this great website HERE that has lots of info on teaching your kids the real meaning of Memorial Day. For our lesson we are just going to highlight some of the points made here. I also am going to throw in a little bit about the plan of salvation and how because of temple ordinances we can be with those that have passed on again one day forever.
Since we won't be visiting any cemeteries tomorrow I had a fun idea for a craft. We have made these handprint lillies before and I thought we could tie them into our lesson. We are going to talk about how you take flowers to the cemetary to show your loved ones that you remember them and are grateful for how they have blessed your life. Well, after we make these lillies we are going to write down something or someone that we are grateful for that we want to remember, perhaps like grandparents, freedoms of living in America, etc. Then we are going to attach each memory to one of the lillies and display them in our kitchen throughout the week. Hopefully this will remind our kids about the lesson and the real reason why we celebrate Memorial Day.
Finally...you know I love a good themed treat! I just got this Flag Jello Mold in the mail yesterday and think tomorrows fhe would be the perfect time to test it out :) HERE is where you can find directions to make this beauty, and if you don't have a mold I am sure a 9x13 pan would work just fine too!
I hope you all have a good Memorial Day tomorrow. I hope it is a day of peace, filled with remembrance and love for those that have gone on before us, and gratitude for all those that have in the past or are still protecting and serving our nation.
1 comments:
Thanks for the ideas! Another idea for you, is visit a cemetery and show your kids the graves of soldiers. I remember my parents doing that with us, and we'd find all the graves with flags by them.
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