Instilling American Pride in Your Kids Through Camp Week
Thanks to Barrack Obama, the most socialist and anti-American president in the history of our great nation, pride in our collective American heritage has been debased. Flags are being burned in the streets. The jugular of America is exposed to our biggest enemies while we shun longtime allies. The Supreme Court makes laws instead of enforcing them, desecrating the institution of marriage by incorporating gays and giving a stamp of approval on perversion. Gender neutrality is the latest movement to neuter society. The administration haughtily tramps on our constitutional freedoms while politicians are weak. Businesses are heavily taxed to crush the entrepreneurial spirit. Illegal immigrants (criminals) pour through our borders at an alarming rate to further burden our massive system of entitlement programs rather than working hard to become productive members of society. Racial tensions are at an all-time high, due to the administration’s divisive tactics to garner votes. Freedom of speech is granted to liberals, but not to conservatives who disagree with their progressive agenda. While the government attacks our second amendment right to keep and bear firearms, it forks over financial support to Planned Parenthood—the ultimate taker of life. Liberals eulogize Cecil the lion, but they don’t weep for the baby whose organs were harvested for financial gain. And what about our educational system? College professors tweet treasonous statements and remain employed, while conservative college students who speak out are suspended. Common Core continues to rear its mocking head, indoctrinating young minds on standards that are dumbed down, anti-American, socialist, and anti-family. Even now, proponents of revisionist history standards hope to place a negative light on early leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, who contributed the most to our culture and laid the framework for our exceptionalism. Revisionists would rather present early leaders as oppressors while exalting ideologies that are at war with the morals and values that made our nation strong. Obama sneers at the mention of American exceptionalism and does little to disguise his contempt for our nation. When people refer to Obama’s failed presidency, are they correct? Was it a failure? One could argue that Obama accomplished what he set out to do—light the fires that would help America destroy itself from within. If that was his goal, perhaps his presidency hasn’t been a failure after all.
What can we do? If you pine for your children or students to experience America in all her glory, bask in her exceptionalism, take pride in her leadership role around the globe, appreciate all the freedoms she bestows, achieve the American dream, and be one of the patriotic citizens who continue to make her stronger, give them the gift of knowledge. Teach them about out early beginnings. Read biographies about our early leaders, study the constitution and Bill of Rights, build their faith in God, infuse them with all the morals and values many in our culture reject today. Teach them not to be politically correct, but to always speak the truth, even when they are branded a bigot, homophobe, intolerant, or racist. Don’t let society condition your children to embrace moral relativism, but teach them the absolutes about God, family, and country.
There are many ways you can instill American pride in your kids, such as immersing them in baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Visit historical monuments and museums, go the July 4 fireworks, attend a parade, interview a veteran, send a care package to a deployed soldier, demonstrate how to fold a flag, teach them to sing The Star-Spangled Banner--there are countless ways to instill American pride!
Honor America by designing a special camp week with your children or your students to celebrate our national heritage. Here are some ideas to inspire you:
Day One
Start by reading The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh. Do you know that many young people enjoy July 4th cookouts, family reunions, and fireworks, but don’t know what the hoopla is really all about? Would you send your kids empty-handed to a birthday party, just so they could play games and eat cake without paying homage to the guest of honor? Teaching them about the birth of our nation is the cornerstone for the rest of our history.
Make a liberty bell craft. Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants therof. The scripture engraved on our liberty bell is part of the inherit, spiritual fabric comprising our nation. The attempts of politically corrupt buffoons to remove all signs of God from our nation today is in direction opposition to the ideals upon which our country was founded. Faith in God was a major thread that wound itself throughout our early government, home life, school life, and career life, and it’s that thread which made our country the most compassionate, blessed, and exemplary leader in the world. George Washington said it best: You can’t have national morality apart from religious principle. Today, conservatives are being targeted, issued gag orders, and bullied to silence the expression of their beliefs, and Christian genocide is happening all over the world while no one bats an eye. Yet, other religions which seek to undermine and destroy our nation and its ideals are handled with kid gloves. Society teaches us to be tolerant of others, but that same grace and mercy is withheld from conservatives. Proclaim liberty throughout all the land—it’s time for us to stand up and be counted rather than allow society to keep pushing us blindly to the slaughter. It all starts at home. If you don’t indoctrinate your children in the truth, the world lays in wait to teach them a lie.
Have Fun with American Heroes is a must-have in your home or classroom library. It contains activities, projects, and fascinating facts about key characters in our nation’s history, spanning from Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Rosa Parks, Neil Armstrong, and more—44 people in all. You can start at the beginning of the book and work your way to the end over a period of time, or you can select chronological segments, depending on which time period you plan to cover. If you include this book during our celebration of Independence in the summer, it’s best to start at the beginning.
Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents. The book discusses his invention of the armonica using bowls of water in a contraption to produce musical notes. You can replicate this device with your children or students by making a glass harmonica with drinking glasses filled to various heights and tapping them with pencils to create the 8-note scale.
Benjamin Franklin loved word play, so he loved writing acrostic poems, using the first letter of each line to spell out a word into a simple phrase. Have you students write their first name vertically and create an acrostic poem of their own.
In addition to being a printer, author, public official, diplomat, and inventor, Benjamin Franklin was also a scientist. Teach your children about his scientific achievement through easy, hands-on experiments. The lemon battery experiment explains the concept of positive and negative charges. Shake up a lemon, make two slits (1/2” apart), and drop a clean penny and dime into each slit. Place your tongue on both coins and see if you feel a small current!
Another experiment teaching about the effect of positive and negative charges can be demonstrated in an electric spoon experiment. Simply mix salt and pepper on a plate, rub a plastic spoon vigorously on a wool sock or your hair, and hold the spoon over the plate. You’ll watch the pepper, which is lighter than salt, quickly jump up and cling to the spoon.
Similarly, static electricity can be displayed by balancing a popsicle stick on a spoon placed upside down on the counter. Rub a balloon in your hair and then quickly place over one end of the popsicle stick—you’ll be able to rotate the stick with the static electricity!
Day Two
Despite the past Obama administration’s flagrant disregard for our constitution, we do have one! To simplify teaching the constitution to young learners, read A More Perfect Union by Betsy and Giulio Maestro to them. This book is one of the most simplistic and best early introductions to our governing document. The end of the book also includes a summary of the constitutional articles and amendments along with a list of all the signers. When was the last time you read the Preamble to the Constitution? Maybe seventh grade history class?
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
During Obama’s time in office, domestic tranquility was destroyed, our military defenses were dangerously lowered, the general welfare was overtaken rather than overseen by the government, and our blessings of liberty were attacked at unprecedented levels. Yes, once we were a blessed nation because God was reverenced. The Bible was part of school curriculum, it was the blueprint for our governmental ideals, it was the prime reading material in the homes, and our nation was blessed! Our forefathers wanted these blessings to extend to their posterity—that’s us! All future generations fall under this umbrella. We have veered off course, but it’s not too late---yet. We can still get back on track. How? By electing politicians who obey the law of our land. By electing officials who aren’t afraid to make a stand for righteousness. By contacting our senators and congressmen when they make wrong choices to encourage them to stand for what is right. By confronting school boards that implement subversive curriculum. By teaching our children the importance of patriotism and working hard to achieve the American dream. By publicly reverencing our Creator instead of tearing Him out of our national fabric. By spending quality time with our families. What makes America exceptional? Love of God, love of family, and love of country. When you actively pursue those three facets in everyday living, it affects our culture and impacts the world in positive ways.
The American flag should not be viewed as a symbol of oppression, like some liberal whack-a-doodles advocate. Teach your children to appreciate what this national symbol represents—a symbol of freedom that has been paid for by the blood of brave men and women who fight to preserve our liberty. Make a pom-pom flag craft. To practice fine motor coordination, try grasping pom poms with clothes pins, dipping them in paint, and applying them in nice strokes to form a reasonable facsimile of our national emblem.
If you choose to utilize the Have Fun with American Heroes book, refer to the section devoted to George Washington. The portrait of George Washington bowed in prayer at Valley Forge provides a stark contrast to the hate-filled, racist, anti-Christian, anti-democracy influence that Trinity United Church of Christ had on Obama for 20 years under the “ministry” of Jeremiah Wright, Jr. George Washington loved God, family, and country. He had character. He was a leader, and America thrived as a result. The same cannot be said of Obama, and America has suffered.
Ask your students to design a medal for heroism. The first medal of heroism ever ordered by Congress was to honor George Washington for forcing the British to evacuate Boston in 1776. Using a circular piece of cardboard or card stock, your kids can design a medal, front and back, to honor a president, veteran, or other figure deserving of the tribute.
Turn your child’s selfie into a portrait of George Washington, and finish the writing prompt, If I were president…… Acceptable versions might include, If I were president, I would un-do all of Obama’s policies. Or maybe, If I were president, I would have Hillary Clinton criminally charged over her e-mail server crimes and involvement with Benghazi.
George Washington was a huge fan of ice cream. Over the course of one summer, Washington ran up a bill of several hundred dollars with a New York ice cream merchant! The book, Have Fun With American Heroes, includes a recipe for ice cream, attributed to Washington, for you to make with your students.
Day Three
The British are coming! The British are coming! Who could forget the midnight ride of Paul Revere? Have Fun with American Heroes dedicates a section to this intriguing character. To help young learners visualize his efforts towards our independence, find a short video to watch on Revere, and then read the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem that was written eighty years later—a poem that would cause Paul Revere’s contribution to mount to epic proportions.
During the American Revolution, spying was very common. Spies often communicated using secret codes. Have Fun with American Heroes includes a special code for students to decipher, but you could also find one of your own.
Do you want to incorporate a debate into your learning time? Research how in God we trust began being printed on our currency. This is a hot topic. Conservatives feel they are honoring God by incorporating him into the national treasury and recognizing all of our prosperity stems from Him. Liberals find the inscription outdated and offensive. Where do you stand? Talk about it. Teach kids how to think for themselves.
When you’re ready to wind down with a daily craft, try making fireworks with forks. Simply dip the tines of the fork in red, white, and blue paint (or any of your favorite colors), and stamp them in a circular pattern to resemble a sensational sky show!
Day Four
Patrick Henry’s bold statement, Give me liberty or give me death, is the ultimate voice of patriotism. He was a powerful speaker who could stun and persuade an audience. To help students remember this iconic statement, engage them in a copy work activity. Patrick Henry was a huge advocate for having the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution to protect the God-given rights of the people. Give your students poster board and ask them to write a Kids Bill of Rights. You might be surprised what they will include!
Make a quill pencil from a download that can be printed, colored, cut out, and wrapped around a pencil. Talk about how ink and real quill pens were made during this time period. It will make them appreciate the Bics they can easily snag off the rack from Walmart!
How was the bald eagle selected for our national emblem? The answer is easy to find. While you’re looking, find out who wanted the national bird to be a turkey!
To wrap things up, make a fun eagle hand print craft.
Day Five
Did Betsy Ross really design our first flag? Fun with American Heroes explores this question. Fun fact—did you know there is no portrait of Betsy Ross? Despite the pictures you’ve seen of her, they are all based on what other members of her family looked like! Practice coloring skills with a Betsy Ross coloring page.
If you could design a flag that represents you—your likes, interests, hobbies, ideology, etc.—what would it look like? Pass out the construction paper, markers, paints, and other craft supplies, and let your students tackle that project. If time permits, follow up with a hand print flag craft to pull it back to our own Old Glory!
Some schools refrain from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and this is a disgrace. Teach your kids the pledge. If people are offended by the Pledge, they are living in the wrong country, and they are welcome to move to another one.
To reward your children or students for their dedication to American Pride Camp, finish up with a tasty reward. Fruit pizza in the form of a flag! A quick google search will provide you with many recipes that use a cookie foundation, combined with strawberries and blueberries to make our stars and stripes. Yum!
Political Correctness Aside
Political correctness is a cancer in this nation, and it’s time to throw it out the window by speaking the truth concerning the love of God, love of family, and love of country that made us America! Patriots will cheer. Traitors will not. If your budget allows, buy a traitor a one-way ticket to any other country he or she thinks might give them a better life deal, and say good riddance to bad rubbish. Just like noise cancelling head phones, a shot of American pride into the lives of the next generation will help them tune out the crazy leftists whose progressive agendas are producing nothing but failure. They will be inspired to become rooted and grounded in patriotism, democracy, and American exceptionalism that has created this one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all!