how every family should celebrate martin luther king, jr day

I love the idea of doing some sort of service project for the community to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.  Imagine how great the world would be if every family did something small for others to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

It would be amazing.

And the awesome thing is that there are dozens and dozens of fun ways that families can work together to give back and all year, but especially in January, when we mark , Dr. King’s birthday.

In 1957, Dr. King said, ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’

This year, my family will very easily be able to answer that question.

Will yours?

Here’s the skinny. . .

How Every Family Should Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:

Choose something. Anything. Just make sure it’s some way of serving others.

Some things that your family can do to give back:

• Visit allforgood.org to find TONS of ways to volunteer in your area (This is how we found our park clean-up that we’re doing!)
• Organize a Book & School Supply Drive, MLKday.gov
• Write letters and send care packages to troops, MLKday.gov
• Consider making small crafts to give to Meals on Wheels to brighten up people’s day.

building compassion with children through community service: Pink and Green Mama

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parenting with grateful hearts– gratitude garage sale: Educators’ Spin on It

Some cool crafts you can do together that will spark discussion:

• Student Art Contest for Martin Luther King Day, from Scholastic
• Diversity Dough, over at Spoonful
• Discuss: What is Diversity? from Kids Activities Blog
• Footprint pathway to change from A Year of Many Firsts
• Groovy Peace Signs from Inner Child Fun
• Martin Luther King, Jr. quote sheets: printing practice and cursive practice from 3 Boys and a Dog
• Handprint Craft or Dove Handprints from Handprint and Footprint Crafts
• Handprint Dream Catcher from Kids Creative Chaos

Read about MLK & learn about service:

• Lesson plans for grades 3-5 that include videos, interviews, and more
• Videos about service and Martin Luther King, Jr.
• tons of MLK resources, plans, and information, from Scholastic

What will you and your family do? How will you mark this day and carry on MLK’s legacy of service?

fyi: affiliate links are used in this post