It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we created a Hand and Heart Sign to celebrate this great man.

This MLK Day craft also gave Mila and me the time to sit and talk about the importance of MLK’s mission. We’re always in the lookout to talk about diversity, antiracism, and love.

With my parenting, I make it a point to talk about big issues with Mila. Civil rights for everyone no matter their race, gender, or socioeconomic standing is something I believe Mila should grow up understanding. Making sure I keep the conversation age appropriate is just as important too.

To begin our conversation this year about MLK, I had her watch MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. She loved watching him talk and it gave her a sense of knowing him.

Then she did a MLK coloring page from The Letter Vee. She had a picture of him up while she colored it in.

Also pictured is our MLK artwork from last year. It’s one of my favorite canvases she’s done.

Then, we talked about what word describes MLK’s message and overall feeling. Mila said, “LOVE!” I’m so glad she picked up on that while listening and talking about him.

“If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love.”

MLK

This year, I wanted to combine aspects from last years artwork and the word love. Here’s what we used to create this adorable piece.

• Heart sign (from the dollar store!)
• Skin toned paints
• Yarn
• Hot glue

With Mila’s help, I painted her hand with the skin toned paint and had her put her hand wherever she wanted to on the sign. We let the paint dry in between colors so it didn’t get muddled.

After it was all dry, I wrote ‘love’ in the middle. Next, I used my hot glue gun to trace the word and around the heart. Carefully, I tapped the yarn on the glue so it’d stick.

For the bow on top, I took different colored yarn and tied it on the top.

I actually love how it turned out. To me it says, we need everyone to work together and create love for humans to move forward.

It’s also one of those crafts that can stay in your house way beyond MLK Day too.

Again, I forgot to take pictures during the making of this piece, but I did video. I promise I’ll start doing better with this! The videos are cute, but I feel like pictures work better on here.

I hope you enjoyed Mila’s creation for MLK Day. I’d totally recommend showing your child some speeches by him or even talking about MLK. There’s so many beautiful quotes that are so meaningful too.

Here’s some other ways Mila and I have talked about MLK and antiracism.

• MLK Day Artwork
• M&M’s and Diversity
• Rainbow Heart Match

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How do you talk to your kids about MLK? Do you do any fun crafts or read specific books? Let me know in the comments.