Independence Day and our 6-year old

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Wednesday July 04, 2012 · 2:46 PM PDT

2012/07/04 · 14:46

So, after taking our son to a very traditional Independence Day celebration thing with my sister's family (their neighborhood does the whole red, white & blue bicycle parade thing, ending at the beach of a nearby lake where they have the traditional hot dog BBQ, etc etc), we came back home this afternoon and chilled for awhile.

We sat him down and watched Bedknobs & Broomsticks, which I never saw as a kid myself, so I was surprised to learn that it culminates in Angela Lansbury battling Nazis while riding a broom.

Anyway, his first exposure to a World War II movie involving Allied Forces battling an invading Nazi contingent led to deciding to show him 3 classic Schoolhouse Rock videos about the founding of America: "No More Kings", "Fireworks" and "The Shot Heard 'Round the World":

Aside from the obvious, um, simplification of the story (hey, they have to cut a few corners to squeeze the entire American Revolution into 3 three-minute videos for children), it did remind me of one thing--and something which a LOT of Americans who tend to make fun of or belittle France should be reminded of:

They helped our asses out during the Revolutionary War.

Yes, we certainly returned the favor (bigtime) 160-odd years later during WWII, but it's entirely possible that we wouldn't have been around to do so without their assisting us in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Anyway, after that I actually read the Declaration of Independence to him (well, most of it; I didn't go into all of the grievances; it was pretty lengthy even without them) and tried to give a basic understanding of what it all meant.

Feeling pretty patriotic right now.

Off to eat some pizza, though.

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