I grew up with the vague idea that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were kind of the same thing.  Or at least I thought they were written at the same time.  Now that I know more, I want my children to know and understand better the background and history of each.  This way they can better appreciate what our Founders set up, why they did it, and at what cost.

This year I ran across the following quote, which sparked an even greater desire to learn and teach:

“If American freedom is lost, if America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers–normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free – Americans who have been lulled away into a false security... 

If America is to withstand these influences and trends, there must be a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers, an appreciation of the American way of life, a strengthening of muscle and sinew and the character of the nation. America needs guts as well as guns. National character is the core of national defense.” –Ezra Taft Benson

Hosea  4:6  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee... seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."   James Madison  Aug 4, 1822

The lesson is below this photo.

Of course, your family may only need some of these pieces, or something different, or a shorter version, or longer.  Pray to know what they need.  God cares about what we learn and teach!
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FHE lesson on The Declaration of Independence

Sing a song: God Bless America,  or My Country, 'Tis of Thee

Have an opening prayer

Introduce the topic:  Hand everyone something little like pennies (or pieces of cereal, or jelly beans).  Give them several, based on how much they helped today, or if they did all of their chores (so they feel ownership).  Tell them they are like the 13 Colonies, and you’ll be England.  Take some of the pennies back and give all of them to one person.  How do they feel? 
Explain that when a government takes money from you without you getting to have a say in where it's used, it's called "taxation without representation".   The colonists knew it wasn't right, England's own Constitution even guaranteed them a say in how tax money was spent.  (With older children, you can explain more about the Stamp Act of 1765, or the Boston Tea Party in 1773.)

Have someone read D&C 134:1-2, the LDS Statement of Belief on government:

We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.

 We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life.

Ask: What was wrong with how the colonies were treated?


The colonies had been fighting with England for a couple years already.  At first they were fighting for their right to be treated fairly, but by the summer of 1776 they decided that the only good solution was to become their own nation.

July 4th, when they finalized the Declaration of Independence, became the birthday for The United States of America.  It was the beginning of our nation but the bigger deal was how our leaders claimed that right- not from men, but from rights given to all mankind by God.

“The Declaration has three parts—the famous Preamble, a list of charges against King George III, and a conclusion. The Preamble summarizes the fundamental principles of American self-government. The list of charges against the king presents examples of the violation of those principles. The stirring conclusion calls for duty, action, and sacrifice.” ( -The Heritage Foundation- great article!!)

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Read The Declaration of Independence! (see a photo of the original here.)

Words you might need to explain or discuss:

self-evident -they prove themselves true

unalienable -cannot be given up or taken

pursuit of happiness- living to your full potential, bettering yourself and your situation

evinces -shows or proves

Despotism -(1828 Webster’s: ‘Absolute power; authority unlimited and uncontrolled by men, constitution or laws, and depending alone on the will of the prince)
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Encourage application:

Read or relate the following: John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife Abigail:

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

(Note: A rough draft of the Declaration of Independence was written in June 1776;  July 2nd  is the date the Continental Congress  unanimously voted for separation from Great Britain.  The Declaration was modified a little, then read and approved on July 4, 1776, though it may not have been signed until August.)

Have someone read 1Thessalonians 5:18  In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Ask: How can you show that you remember and are grateful for our nation and freedoms?  
Bear your testimony of the great blessings God has given us.

Closing song: America the Beautiful
Closing prayer
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Choose one or more activities (or do one of these each day for a week):

-Make paper pinwheels 

-Watch a Mormon Messages video: What Freedoms Are you Grateful For?

-Ring a “Liberty bell”-  Hang a bell from a rope.  Take turns telling each other some blessing that you’re grateful for; each person gets to toss a beanbag or ball at the bell for every blessing mentioned.

If you don’t have a bell, you can make one out of cardboard or cardstock, or punch two holes in the bottom of an empty soup can (run a piece of yarn, string, or  a twist tie through the two holes; you can hook onto something for a clapper at the same time), or  make a bell from a porcelain or glass cup.  One of my children drew a large bell,  taped it to a thread, which was tied onto the ceiling fan pull (I asked him to draw a bell and find some way to hang it someplace) ... the game was a big  hit with them!  (I did have to remind them the goal was to RING the bell, not DESTROY it.)

-Write a Family Creed

-Make and hang a sign saying "Remember" over the inside of your front door.

-Decorate your table, living room, or porch with flags and red, white, and blue.

-Eat red, white, and blue foods:

Blue and white tortilla chips with salsa (red!)

Today I read an article detailing Nestle's 'horrific' discovery that children are actually helping harvest the cacao in Ivory Coast.  They pledged to help end the practice, and bewailed the fact that the practice still exists despite industry's discouragement of it.  They mentioned in passing that the recent political and economic turmoil (civil war) in Ivory Coast has made it necessary for everyone, including children, to work, and that farmers had to work "excessively long hours".  The FLA (Fair Labor Association)'s brainy solution is to end child labor by... ending poverty.

I'm sorry, Nestle and others are misguided. 

You cannot end poverty without the people improving their own situation- which can only be done by either consuming less than you earn, or earning more than you consume.  Where do the money and goods come from, without lots of individual effort? 

I grew up on a farm.  I wasn't happy with that fact until the year before I graduated, when I realized how much of a blessing that hard work had been.    I also saw my parents work harder than I had.  When it was hay-baling time, that hay had to be baled at exactly the right stage or it lost nutrition.  On top of that, we had to work around the weather.  If it rained, we had to either wait for the hay to dry out, or bale it quickly before the storm hit.  My dad worked 16-hour days during the summer to begin with, and that extended up to 24-30 hours straight during baling.  We older kids had to be out the door by 6 a.m. the whole summer to move sprinkler pipes: quarter-mile long systems made of forty-foot lengths of aluminum, each needing to be unhooked, carried forward 40 feet through tangles of knee-high alfalfa, hooked back together, and turned on.   I drove tractors, planted acres of grain, learned to shoot a rifle (at ground squirrels destroying our irrigating system), tossed heavy hay bales, bottle-fed calves in minus-30-degree weather, slogged through early-spring mud, lost boots and socks to mud holes in fields-- and learned to stop, think, notice, and appreciate better what was around me.  The summer of my junior year in high school, I saw that not only had the work helped shape my attitude and outlook, it also gave me a chance to work together with my family, strengthening ties and accomplishing mutual goals.

Too many times our good intentions, forced on others, lead to serious deterioration of a nation.  The extent to which our own nation has mandated child labor laws has resulted in a nation of young and middle-aged people with a serious entitlement mentality.  They don't understand that progress and prosperity have long, hard work at their core, and believe too often that someone else should provide for them.  Take the Occupy Wall Street group, for instance.  Or nearly any liberal/progressive.

I wish that my children had the opportunity  to spend long days harvesting cacao pods- or strawberries- or whatever else bureaucrats think is "too hard".   It's difficult for me, as a citydweller, to find enough work for them to keep their minds and bodies healthy.  They can't get official "jobs" until they're 14 or 16, by which time many of their lifetime habits have already been developed.  I've been surprised when my children think it's "too hard" learning to ride a bike, or to learn their math facts, or anything that has delayed gratification.   Hard work not only develops muscle and sinew but character and tenacity.

Justice William O. Douglas stated, “Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good from their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation."

Nations go through challenging times,  it's required of everyone to work or to stay in spiraling poverty.

Work is not a bad thing.  People emerge stronger. 
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More than 150 years ago, a French economist wrote about the same thing, declaring that only bad economists confine themeselves to the visible effect.  Here's an excerpt from Frederic Bastiat's "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen".  It's brilliant.  You can read the entire excerpt at http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/what-is-seen-and-what-is-not-seen-2/  or the whole essay at http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html

This excerpt is from the first chapter of Selected Essays on Political Economy, translated by Seymour Cain and edited by George B. de Huszar, published by the Foundation for Economic Education.

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.[1]

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.

The same thing, of course, is true of health and morals. Often, the sweeter the first fruit of a habit, the more bitter are its later fruits: for example, debauchery, sloth, prodigality. When a man is impressed by the effect that is seen and has not yet learned to discern the effects that are not seen, he indulges in deplorable habits, not only through natural inclination, but deliberately.

This explains man’s necessarily painful evolution. Ignorance surrounds him at his cradle; therefore, he regulates his acts according to their first consequences, the only ones that, in his infancy, he can see. It is only after a long time that he learns to take account of the others. Two very different masters teach him this lesson: experience and foresight. Experience teaches efficaciously but brutally. It instructs us in all the effects of an act by making us feel them, and we cannot fail to learn eventually, from having been burned ourselves, that fire burns. I should prefer, in so far as possible, to replace this rude teacher with one more gentle: foresight. For that reason I shall investigate the consequences of several economic phenomena, contrasting those that are seen with those that are not seen."


What's an example that you have seen of this principle?

Clean, tidy, with no crumbs or sticky spots...

This will be a no-brainer for some people, but it took me until about five years ago to figure this out.

To keep your kitchen (or any other area) clean, you don't have to take a whole day, or week, to do it.  That's hard to schedule anyway, and usually overwhelming.   Yet there are some deeper cleaning things that need done- like cleaning out kitchen (or bathroom) drawers, wiping the tops of the cabinet doors, or cleaning the nooks and crannies in them.  Here's what I do now:

Every now and then, when I open a drawer, I notice there are crumbs in the corner.  Or in one of the organizing baskets.  Or maybe there's some sticky line where a child spilled their juice down the front of the cabinet.  If it's a two-minute job or less, I clean it right then.  Most of these things are.  If it's done then,  it doesn't have to be added to my already-huge "To Do" list in the back of my head.   That takes a load off me.  Dumping out the whole drawer, wiping it out, and putting everything back will take only a couple minutes more.  If I happen to have extra time, I may go on to the next drawer. If I'm wiping a cabinet, I usually finish wiping all the cabinets on that side of the kitchen. 

It doesn't all have to be done at once.  Just clean little bits as you notice them.  2-5 minutes a day gets the job done in a hurry, without leaving you frazzled!