I Have a Dream

The children and I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum today for a MLK celebration. It was a wonderful day of arts, learning, laughing, and being both grateful and inspired by everything around us.
Civil rights, and the history of our country is something that we talk openly and frequently about with our children. I think that children's books are a great way to open up conversation about difficult- yet important topics to young minds. Here are a couple book selections for children, that we have in our home library:

The first is called Let Freedom Sing- and is written by Vanessa Newton. The text of this book is interspersed with the words from The song This Little Light of Mine, and stories of various civil rights activists. A quick example of the impact of these stories- we were talking as a family about Martin Luther King Day (last week), and little Moses (nearly 3!) got very excited- he started talking in rapid speed about "Dr. Martin Luther King, and, and, the marching, and Washington CD, Washington CD!!!"- so cool.

And one of Moses' favorites- it's called Ron's Big Mission, written by Corinne Naden, this book is about Ron McNair (a scientist and United States astronaut who died in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle)- it is a story from his childhood- growing up in South Carolina in the 1950's, and his fight for equal rights. I cannot get through this book without choking up- it's that moving. I highly recommend both books!

The look on my little angels faces when we sat today, at the museum with a group of other families watching the I Have a Dream speech in one of the art galleries was so moving to me as a mother. They were both so excited, and attentive, and really listening to his words. His amazingly powerful words.
Today, I hope we all can take value in the life and freedoms that we have, and have hope that the freedoms that some of us are still fighting to acheive, will someday be a reality.

Thank you for reading!