Happy President's Day: Holiday Unit Study Freebies

How can you use America's holidays to inexpensively teach history to your children? Your only essential expenses will be a yearly calendar and a libray card. You can also find free resources on the internet. Check out the link, or search http://www.yahoo.com , or your favorite search engine. Try keywords such as "Christian holiday homeschool President's Day."

Here's a brief summary for home learning on a shoestring through holidays, listing samples of historical figures and dates for further research:

September: Labor Day honors the value of hard work, rewarded by rest and play. Peter J. McGuire, the founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, first suggested a national holiday to honor working people. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day an official national holiday. As a sideline, you and your children may wih to study the history of labor, unions, and what the Bible has to say about work and industry.

October: Every school child knows "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." To really understand America, we must understand Columbus and his times. His own diary, in his own words, is one of the most revealing ways to research him.

November is replete with learning opportunities. Election Day is usually meaningless to children. But this need not be so. The most obvious way to study Election Day is not to read about it, but to bring children with you when you vote. You may wish to show your youngsters articles in the paper before and after the election, and discuss your views at the dinner table. Books on the political parties, the Constitution, and the branches of government may help answer their questions.

Veteran's Day: How many children really relate this holiday to their personal experience? In fact, how many even know what it means to be a veteran? On Veteran's Day, we honor the sacrifices made for freedom, and if we want to remain free, we must pass these ideals to our children. We are entering the second "me" generation, which appears to worship moral relatviity. It is becomeig difficult to explain why a person would be willing to die for abstract concepts like freedom and country. Thankfully, veterans still abound, and many will gladly talk about their experiences and patriotism, if approached respectfully. You may wish your child to film, record, or write a report on the volunteer.

Is Thanksgiving a holiday honoring turkeys? We may appreciate our turkey, but what use is a thankful heart, when we can't say "thank you," to someone? Certainly the turkey can't appreciate it, or say, "You're welcome." When the Pilgrims and Native Americans clebrated the first American Thanksgiving in 1621, no one wondered who deserved the praise. George Washington, in 1789, issued a general proclamation for a day of thanks. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the famous "Godey's Lady's Book," vigorously promoted a national Thanksgiving holiday. Finally, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed a national "Day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father."

December: Most churches distribute Advent studies, available inexpensively or for free. With a story and a moral for each day, they may be read to the family before supper or bedtime, by a parent or an older child. Christmas, Advent, and Hanukkah traditions abound, and are too numerous to mention here. Ceremonies may prove powerful teaching tools, illustrating abstract concepts through concrete items such as candles and figures. The trick is to carefuly explain the true meaning to each succeeding generation. Otherwise, tradition becomes rote, eventurally losing all meaning.

January: New Year's Day-a day of new beginnings, and resolutions. Perhaps a time to review family and national history, and set new goals for study and work.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, although a relatively recent holiday, celebrates more than the life of one man. Martin Luther King's "dream" can become reality in our own children, as we emphasize the value of each individual human life, created in the image of God.

February: A nation with a holiday like Valentine's Day must revere true love, right? No, not the kind we see most often in modern media entertainment. St. Valentine, an early Christian martyr, gave his life for the love of his Savior and Creator. Even young children enjoy sounds and language, and will enjoy studying the various ancient Greek words for love. True "agape" love (in Greek) is a sacrificial love. "Greater love has no one than this..."(John 15:13)

President's Day commemorates more than Lincoln and Washington, and we can study, and honor all of our founders and leaders, past and present.

March: You may wish to research the exciting life of St. Patrick; there's more to March 17 than leprechauns, and shamrocks contain a deeper truth. Also, palm branches are still used by many churches for praise and worship on Palm Sunday. This is a great opportunity for a study on other cultural traditions.

April: We can read all about Passover, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, in the Old and New Testaments. Again, it is easy to get so steeped in our tradions of egg hunts and family dinners, that we assume our children understand the meaning of holidays.

May: Is Memorial Day just an excuse to open the swimming pools and start vacation season? One may think so. Still, we can carry on a tradition of honoring and remembering our ancestors. We can even use this holiday to visit graves and pull out the photo albums, geneology records, and videos. History starts with your family, and as a wise person once said, "If you go back far enough, everyone is related to everyone else." Another "M" holiday, is for moms. She deserves a break any day you want to celebrate.

June: Bring back the "F" holidays: Flag Day and Father's Day. We can bring honor for both, not just one day out of the year. Kids need fathers, every day! Fathers need and deserve respect, even more than they need ties. How about just for one day, dad gets to do what he wants to do?

July: Do our kids know what those fireworks on July 4th symbolize? It's a great time to read the Declaration of Independence, and the original writings of its signers.

August: In August our country is too busy traveling about the country to celebrate holidays. But you can make up your own, by recording and writing about your vacations, past and present. Celebrate growth, learning and life!

Please don't feel slighted if I left out your favorite holiday. Many calendars record our country's reverance for prayer (National Day of Prayer), humor (April Fools Day) the Bible (Bible Sunday), Children's Day (but every day is Children's Day!) , and even bosses and secretaries. Yes, and our society also glorifies Halloween--but miss the day after, All Saints Day. Originally Halloween was called All Hallows Eve. The traditinal holiday honors saints and martyrs from history. And of course there are hundreds of other holidays, many of which your family may wish to investigate. Federal, state and local governments constantly declare this day or that day.

Pick your favorite holiday. Students of all ages can work simultaneously on holiday projects, at their own level. Write a report, draw a picture, do a historical time line, compose or sing a song, give a play. You may even be able to use math: Is there something about the holiday to measure or count? How old is the holiday?

Often it is a bit difficult to get past modern hype and commercialism. The best place to find the real, uncensored meaning of any holiday is in the actual documents, sometimes difficult to find at any price. If you are researching a historical figure, and you can't find his original writings (search on the internet), have you tried asking your librarian to check their inter-libary loan system? Also, used bookstores will often perform a search for a particular book. Be sure to inquire about any search fees upfront.

Don't give up on holidays! You and your children can discover a world of true-life heroes, excitement, bravery, and achievement. The Santa Claus down at the mall may wear a fake beard and pillow under his jolly red suit, but St. Nicholas (Sinter Klaas in Dutch)really lived in the middle ages, and fought to pass laws protecting the sanctity of human life. St. Patrick actually used a shamrock to teach the Itish about the trinity. Holidays are about real people, and we can use thier lives as examples of vaues which we revere.

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." (Ecclesiasiases 3:1)