Veterans Day 2014 should be treated as so much more than just another day off from school! As adults, on this day, we recognize and respect the men and women who have served in our U.S. military for the past 70 years. As parents, we can also help our children appreciate the sacrifices our soldiers have made, by creating new family traditions filled with special Veterans Day activities.
Sit down together and write a simple thank you letter to a vet. Drop it off at the Youth Services desk at the library. Donate to a veterans' organization like the American Legion's Operation Comfort Warriors.
Take your kids to an actual Veterans Day ceremony. This year "Celebrating Servicemen" will be presented at 11:00am at Prairie Lakes Theater.
Take a family field trip with the library's Museum Adventure Pass to the amazing First Division Museum at Cantigny Park. There are 16 real tanks from WWI-Desert Storm on the lawns waiting to be climbed upon. The museum contains exciting life-sized interactive displays of battlefields, trenches, and jungles from WWI to WWII to Vietnam to Desert Storm, plus actual uniforms, mementos, and weapons from each conflict.
On Veterans Day, Cantigny will be open until 9:00pm. At 6pm and 8pm living history reenactors will read "war Letters." Thousands of luminaria candles will light your way along the park roads to the exit.
When you return home, settle in with a short bedtime story about our American heroes, and the holiday that honors them.
