Here are some interesting things about military kids:

• There are over 1.5 million children who have a military-affiliation.
• Most military children will move more than 5 times during childhood! I moved 10 times before I was 18 AND I went to 18 different schools!
• Most people don’t realize that less than 10% of military kids attend a Dept. of Defense School! The majority of military kids are at public schools, and some are at private schools, as well! We can’t forget our homeschool families that make up a small percentage too!
• Children who grow up in the military world are more likely to join the military one day! You could even say…it runs in the family! Both my husband’s father and my father served. My husband serves and so does my brother .
• With so many unknowns in their world, military children tend to carry levels of anxiety and depression. This is something to monitor for sure, and make sure to reach out to the many resources that are available to the military families for this!
• With all of the moving and having to make new friends, many military kids tend to be very outgoing!
• One of the big challenges in their world is that most military children will experience one, or even both parents, being deployed at some point. There are some who will experience this many times too.

So let us celebrate our little troops, because they are truly amazing and resilient individuals! So, Purple Up all month long!

Find Out More with MyMilitarySavings.com and Military Life & Family!

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress met and declared their independence from England, signing the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. It was ratified and adopted by the original 13 colonies on July 4, 1776. 

A Few Fun Facts About Independence Day:

• Very few colonists wanted independence from Britain when the hostilities first broke out. These colonists were considered radicals in the beginning. Later, many of these radicals became our founding fathers. 
• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense helped to spread the fervor for independence from Britain. 
• A five-man committee was formed to draft a declaration for independence. These men were: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert R. Livingston. Although they worked as a committee, Thomas Jefferson wrote the bulk of the Declaration of Independence. 
• 50 years after the passing of the Declaration of Independence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, founding fathers and Presidents of the United States, died within a few hours of each other.
• Adams and Jefferson were friends who had a feud that lasted for many years. In the last few years of their lives, they patched their friendship and kept in touch until the end. 

John Adams wrote to his wife that Independence day “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.”

As we celebrate this independence day, we remember the original meaning of this day that brings this fabulous holiday about and the men and women who have gone on to serve our great nation through the Armed Forces.

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

~Elmer Davis~

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness.

~Louis D. Brandeis~

America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination.

~Harry S. Truman~