--- title: How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year description: Explain the holiday to your kids canonical: https://time.com/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/ author: Carey Wallace article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T21:49:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:10.042Z og:title: How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year og:description: Explain the holiday to your kids og:url: https://time.com/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fbdf189af43e0d4/698850fe524fc046bedf2bd1/150521_em_memorialdaynumbers_hotdogs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: 150521_EM_MemorialDayNumbers_HotDogs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year twitter:description: Explain the holiday to your kids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fbdf189af43e0d4/698850fe524fc046bedf2bd1/150521_em_memorialdaynumbers_hotdogs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year > 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 Jul 6, 2015 9:49 PM UTC  Greg Elms—Getty Images  by [Carey Wallace](https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/)  ## Carey Wallace Jul 6, 2015 9:49 PM UTC From the way the Fourth of July gets celebrated today, a visitor from space might think it’s mostly in praise of fireworks and barbecue. If your weekend left you feeling vaguely like your kids may have missed the point of the holiday, it’s not too late to catch them up. **_Elementary age kids_**, says Joanne Freeman, professor of History and American Studies at Yale, may be interested to think about how the Declaration of Independence was made. “People were thinking through a decision and then making a choice,” Freeman says. “They talked and listened to each other. That’s what’s supposed to be at the heart of the government.” Parents can get a conversation started by asking kids to think about what kind of problems they’d like to solve together—and what are the best ways to talk and listen to each other. **_Middle school kids_** may be interested to know that there were actually many declarations of independence. Freeman points to Pauline Maier’s work in American Scripture, which revealed that groups across the colonies were debating independence and issuing their own statements and resolutions long before the declaration of independence we know today. Why is that important? Because independence was a process, and happened in community, says Freeman. “I want to make sure that people get beyond the idea of 30 guys in a room,” she says. “This was a colony-wide debate. Everyone was thinking and talking about it.” Parents can start a conversation by asking kids what kinds of topics their friends are currently debating, and encouraging them to share their own thoughts. **_High school kids_**, Freeman says, can begin to think about how much work was left undone by the Declaration of Independence. It didn’t offer freedom to people living in slavery or to Native Americans. And in some states, women actually lost the right to vote as the Constitution was written. But, Freeman says, high school kids may also be inspired by the fact that “no one knew what was going on” during the Revolutionary period. Just like today, “they were scared about the outcome.” Knowing that can give kids hope that they’re capable of doing important things, despite the days when they feel uncertain about the future. Parents can open conversations by asking high school kids what changes they’d still like to see in the world, and what changes they might want to be a part of. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/"},"headline":"How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year","datePublished":"2015-07-06T21:49:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:10.042Z","description":"Explain the holiday to your kids","url":"https://time.com/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","Family","Holidays"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fbdf189af43e0d4/698850fe524fc046bedf2bd1/150521_em_memorialdaynumbers_hotdogs.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/blt9fbdf189af43e0d4/698850fe524fc046bedf2bd1/150521_em_memorialdaynumbers_hotdogs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"150521_EM_MemorialDayNumbers_HotDogs","caption":"hot dogs on plate","creditText":"Greg Elms—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/3945878/how-to-make-independence-day-more-meaningful-next-year/","name":"How to Make Independence Day More Meaningful Next Year"}}]}] ```