Best Fourth of July Activities for Family Fun

July 4^th is the birthday of our country and the most important of all our national holidays. This holiday commemorates the adoption on July 4, 1776, of the final draft of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress to proclaim America's freedom from British rule. Every year Independence Day (July 4^th) is the legal holiday celebrated throughout the country with picnics, parades and firework displays after dark. Just as you celebrate birthdays of family members, use this day to have a birthday party for our country. Decorate the house, prepare festive foods, play Americana games; get the family involved in activities relating to this historic event. Here are some tips to make this a "sparkling" holiday.

For a patriotic atmosphere, decorate with lots of red, white and blue. Have the children write messages with markers onto balloons before they are inflated. Let them wish the USA a Happy Birthday with a cute saying written on each balloon. Inflate them and hang these around the house along with crepe paper streamers. Cut out silver stars from heavy gauge aluminum foil and attach these with a stapler to the streamers. Outdoors, invite the kids to thread red, white and blue streamers through a chain link fence to make a flag. While decorating sing this fun song to the tune of "Three Blind Mice."

Red, white, blue,

Red, white, blue.

Stars and stripes too,

Stars and stripes too.

We celebrate Independence Day

Each July 4^th, the American Way,

With red, white, blue.

A Flag of 13 Colonies: Did you know the stripes on our flag represent the 13 original colonies? Take a sheet of white construction paper. Invite the children to color in the red stripes, leaving a white space in between each stripe. With a black marker write in the 13 colonies (one per stripe). You will have to do this for very young children. In the upper left hand corner, glue a blue box (made from construction paper) and affix silver sticker stars (13). Display this flag in your home as a holiday decoration and a history lesson as well.

The colonies are listed below in the order in which they became states:

Delaware

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Georgia

Connecticut

Massachusetts

Maryland

South Carolina

New Hampshire

Virginia

New York

North Carolina

Rhode Island

Family Parade Ideas

What's the Fourth of July with a parade? Conduct your own family parade full of music, noisemakers and riding toy floats. Invite the neighborhood children to join you. Parading down the street with decorated riding toys is a good way to put spirit into a holiday celebration. Young children can gather their riding toys; a tricycle, wagon, little cars and such and prepare them by taping crepe paper streamers and ribbons to the body of the vehicle, as well as to the handlebars. Older kids may even weave these streamers into the spokes of their bicycles.

Independence Day is a noisy holiday. To make noisemakers, collect empty aluminum soda cans. After they are washed and dry, have the children put dried beans, small pebbles, or pennies inside. Tape the opening shut with duct tape. Proceed to cover the can with construction paper or aluminum foil. Let the kids decorate these noisemakers as they wish with crayons, markers, ribbons and stickers. "Shake, shake, shake" as they parade.

How about a "Revolutionary Hat" to wear? Cut a piece of construction paper into three 9" x 4" strips. Staple the short ends of the strips together to complete this three-cornered hat. Wear these hats in your parade like revolutionary soldiers. It would be quite patriotic to use one strip of each color (red, white and blue). Maybe add a feather if you're singing "Yankee Doodle".

Fireworks Fun

For some really loud fireworks fun, tape large sheets of bubble wrap to the floor in your home or outdoors on a concrete slab. Talk with the children about how fireworks are very, very loud and encourage them to walk and jump on this wrap for some "pop, pop, popping" fun!

As an art project, blow paint onto paper creating a burst of color. For each color, mix two parts paint with one part white school glue and a few drops of water in a paper cup. Instruct your children to put a spoonful of paint onto a sheet of black construction paper. Blow through a straw directly over the paint and watch it spread into a bursting firework design. While the paint is still wet, you may wish to sprinkle on glitter or a few sequins. Add other colors and create a large display in the night sky.

Celebrate July Fourth with these fun family activities. With any patriotic holiday make sure you bring out the red, white and blue and teach the kids to be proud of America's true colors!

Other holiday articles from this author:

Father's Day Activities

St. Patrick's Day

Birthdays

Easter Fun with Jellybeans

Mother's Day