MLK Day: The Best New Ideas To Celebrate With Kids

Chances are you’re wondering how to make MLK Day fun for kids. The good news is I have a bunch of cool ideas to keep your family from sitting around bored this Martin Luther King Jr. Day! If you’re one of those people that usually gets the day off and does nothing but you’re interested in switching things up this year, this is the post for you. It’s never too early to teach your child(ren) the significance of Black history and Dr. King is a great place to start.

Some important things to keep in mind:

• When is MLK Day 2022? Monday January 17, 2022.
• Is MLK Day a federal holiday? Yes. Legislation making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday was passed in 1983. (Depending on your line of work, hopefully this means you get the day off.)
• When was Martin Luther King’s actual birthday? January 15, 1929.

Fun Ways To Celebrate MLK Day 2022 For Kids

Read African American Books

Ciara L. Hill has a book called Shiloh and Dande the Lion and another called Soulful Holidays that are perfect for this holiday. Both are available on Amazon and prime eligible!

Opt for more lighthearted and highly illustrated books for small children, and work your way towards more in depth literature. You can maybe even supplement with speeches for illustration, which can easily be found on YouTube. Don’t limit yourself to Dr. King’s speeches either. Be sure to utilize other figures’ materials to show the diversity in ideals from that time period. Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, and John Lewis just to make,e a few. You can also utilize this as a time to teach kids about more recent activism by teaching them what Stacey Abrams and Black Lives Matter creators.

Coloring Books

Coloring books are a great activity especially for the younger kiddos. You can use the moment to talk about who you’re coloring or how to make them look diverse and why representation matters.

To go hand in hand with the books previously mentioned, Ciara L. Hill has a great collection of coloring pages to complement her books. They are free and just a page or two to give your kids a hands-on activity to complete. These are perfect for holidays like MLK Day, Juneteenth, and Kwanzaa.

In addition, I found this beautiful small business on Tiktok illustrated by Naomi Winston. Black Men Are The Future is perfect for MLK Day especially. This book is filled with affirmations that your little one will enjoy reading or being read to them.

MLK Day of service

Often, organization you’re already apart of will have a day of service for MLK Day. My college consistently had this day and it was the easiest (most consistent) way to get community service hours if for whatever reason you needed proof that you did something of service. Now apply that to your family, but instead you’re just doing it because it’s a good thing to do. You’re also teaching your kids the importance of helping others.

You face two interesting challenges: volunteering with a child and volunteering during COVID. But don’t stress, once you figure them out you can utilize the same activity for multiple holidays. For ideas on volunteer activities that are kid-friendly check out EventBrite. The great thing about this “post”-COVID world we’ve been living it is that there are more creative ways to give than ever before. This year my son and I will be preparing sack lunches for a local shelter. What will you do? Leave a comment.

Civil Rights Museums

If you’re lucky enough to have a civil rights or Black history museum in your state, go visit it this year! If you don’t have one in your home state, maybe this is cause for a family road trip? Ohio is blessed with 3 African American museums in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Wilberforce according to the BlackPast list.

BlackPast has an amazing list compiled of all the African American museums across the US.

Get Crafty

Pinterest is full of wonderful ideas for black history crafts. I’ve come across a few that are geared specifically at MLK Day. The I have a dream cloud is a great idea to kickoff the holiday. Kids write their dreams (or you discuss with them and write it for them) on a cloud cut-out and hang them.

It’s important to show your kids that MLK Day is about more than Martin Luther King himself. Show other important Black leaders and role models. Have them do crafts of Black inventors and figures. Search Black history month crafts on Pinterest and use them as a tool for opening the discussion of Black contributions.

Watch MLK Day Inspired Movies

One of my favorite MLK day traditions growing up was to watching Our Friend Martin which is fully available on YouTube. But that movie came out in 1999 so it was pretty just a couple years old when I was in Elementary school. If you’re looking for newer kid-friendly civil rights and black history movies try Hidden Figures for older kids. NY Metro Parents has a whole list of movie recommendations by age.

I use affiliate links in some blog posts. If you click through and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to yourself. All opinions are my own. Thank you for your support.

Getting out this MLK Day? Pack the perfect on the go bag with one of our diaper bags from The Mommy Pro Shop.