--- title: How Parents Can Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids description: It only needs to take a minute canonical: https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/ author: Carey Wallace article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-27T12:30:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:42.044Z og:title: How to Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids og:description: It's not just about parades and no school og:url: https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99619e756f1bb67/6988942be20a875b29a90ef2/gettyimages-535792179.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Boy scout places US Flags at 2014 Memorial Day Event, Los Angeles National Cemetery, California og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids twitter:description: It's not just about parades and no school twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99619e756f1bb67/6988942be20a875b29a90ef2/gettyimages-535792179.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Carey Wallace](https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/)  ## Carey Wallace May 27, 2016 12:30 PM UTC  Boy scout places US Flags at 2014 Memorial Day Event, Los Angeles National Cemetery, California. (Photo By: Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images) Boy scout places US Flags at 2014 Memorial Day Event, Los Angeles National Cemetery, California. (Photo By: Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images) Education Images—UIG via Getty Images  by [Carey Wallace](https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/)  ## Carey Wallace May 27, 2016 12:30 PM UTC Memorial Day is the gateway to summer. And it’s a great holiday: no presents to buy or turkey to bake, just family, food, and parades. But it also has a serious purpose: to honor all those who have given their lives in military service. So how can parents help kids understand what the holiday is about, even as they enjoy it? With **_elementary age kids_**_,_ says Julie Marie Rahm, author of _Military Kids Speak,_ parents can begin by talking about what soldiers fight to protect: “notice what children in other countries are not able to do that we are able to do,” Rahm suggests, whether that’s going to school, or going to church, demonstrating to support our beliefs, or speaking out against the government. One important way kids can honor fallen heroes, Rahm says, is by doing their part to keep the freedoms soldiers fought for in place. **_Middle school kids_**, says Rahm, can begin to think more deeply about the meaning of specific freedoms—and their limits. Kids this age love to claim their freedom of speech, Rahm says. But she also reminds them “that freedom really starts with self-control.” It’s a good time, according to Rahm, to start conversations with kids about how their rights relate to their responsibilities—and about the fact that other people have rights, too. [Read More: How to Teach Your Kids to Embrace the Suck](http://time.com/4339506/4-ways-to-help-your-kids-learn-to-suck-it-up/) **_High school kids_** are old enough to start thinking about what freedom means to them personally, says Rahm. Often, as they’re on the cusp of adulthood, freedom is already on their mind: why they can’t do everything they want, or their family has rules that are different from another family’s. It’s a good time for parents to start conversations about what kind of freedoms kids wish they had—but also to remind them that all freedom comes with cost, and to encourage them to think about what the price of the personal freedoms they think they want might be. Families with kids at any age, Rahm suggests, can benefit from taking a moment of silence during the holiday to honor fallen heroes. But to keep kids from just looking at their shoes and letting their minds wander, Rahm encourages parents to have a conversation beforehand, so the moment really is meaningful. Different families might have different ideas about how that moment is spent: remembering friends or family members who have served, thinking about the history of the country, offering a prayer, contemplating freedom, remembering the victims of war who were not combatants. But that short conversation before a moment of silence, Rahm says, can help any family “talk about their family values, and center them up for the whole day ahead.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/"},"headline":"How to Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids","datePublished":"2016-05-27T12:30:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:42.044Z","description":"It only needs to take a minute","url":"https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","kids","conversation","Holidays","freedom","Memorial Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99619e756f1bb67/6988942be20a875b29a90ef2/gettyimages-535792179.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Carey Wallace","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99619e756f1bb67/6988942be20a875b29a90ef2/gettyimages-535792179.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Boy scout places US Flags at 2014 Memorial Day Event, Los Angeles National Cemetery, California","caption":"Boy scout places US Flags at 2014 Memorial Day Event, Los Angeles National Cemetery, California","creditText":"Education Images—UIG via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4350165/how-to-make-memorial-day-meaningful-to-kids/","name":"How to Make Memorial Day Meaningful to Kids"}}]}] ```