Celebrating Dr. King

With the kiddos at home today, you might be wondering what to do with them so soon after holiday break. Sure, you could let them sit in their PJs and watch cartoons or play video games, but what’s the fun in that? Instead of another boring day off school, why not make it a fun day by celebrating the reason they’re off—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometimes it’s hard to celebrate people—it’s not exactly the same as celebrating a cartoon character or commercial holiday where plenty of activities and decorations are readily available. How can you make Dr. King and his message accessible to your kids? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Listen to a podcast of one of Dr. King’s amazing speeches. Learn Out Loud, for example, is hosting a free streaming of King’s sermon, “I am a Drum Major for Justice.”

Read books on Dr. King. Some great children’s books include A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin’s Big Words, and many more. Older children may wish to read Lies My Teacher Told Me, in which lots of Dr. King’s work that mainstream textbooks leave out is discussed.

Make a Dr. King craft. Mama Jenn’s website has some great ideas for making different colors of handprints and Dr. King cookies. View a photo of Dr. King online and have your children paint his portrait. Pick out a favorite quote of Dr. King’s and write it at the bottom of the portrait.

Do a Dr. King activity, such as a crossword, word search, coloring page, or word scramble. Teach spelling words like freedom, democracy, and equality. Be sure to discuss what they mean—both in a dictionary sense as well as what they mean to you rand your family. Analyze one of his famous quotes or speeches together and write about what it means. Challenge your children to write something similar based on modern day needs. Ask them to point out how racism, classism, sexism and other obstructions divide us today and how we can stop that from happening.

Find out how Dr. King’s work is continuing today. Talk about how “Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children can fly.” Ask your children what that means to them. Look up amazing stories of people working to continue his dream today, such as The Dream Reborn video contest.