Talking to Kids About Veterans Day: An Age-by-Age Guide for COS Families

Ages 3 to 5: Keep It Simple and Concrete

Preschoolers understand concrete things — people, jobs, feelings. Abstract concepts like war or military service are beyond their developmental reach, and that's fine. Here are some things that work well for this age:

"Veterans are people who had a special job helping to keep everyone safe." That's often enough. If your child asks follow-up questions, answer the actual question they asked — no more, no less.

At the parade, focus on the experience: flags, music, people waving. If a veteran is nearby, a simple "thank you for your service" modeled by a parent is more powerful than any explanation.

Ages 6 to 10: Introduce the Idea of Service

Elementary school kids can begin to understand what service means — choosing a job that's bigger than yourself, one that sometimes means being away from your family or going to dangerous places.

At this age, you can introduce the branches of the military. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force are real organizations with real jobs that many kids find fascinating. Fort Carson is Army. The Air Force Academy trains future Air Force and Space Force officers. These are real places your kids have likely driven past or heard about.

You can also talk about sacrifice in age-appropriate terms: "When someone is in the military, they might have to leave their family for a long time. That's one reason we say thank you." If your child has a classmate or neighbor with a parent who is deployed, this language can help make that experience feel more understandable.

Ages 11 and Up: Bring in the Nuance

Tweens and teenagers can handle more complexity — the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day, questions about why wars happen, what it means that some veterans come home with injuries you can't see, and what it means to live in one of the most heavily military-influenced cities in the United States.

Colorado Springs is an unusual place in this regard. The military population here is enormous and visible in daily life. Tweens old enough to notice this can begin to understand what that means — the families who relocate every few years, the parents who come home changed, the community organizations that exist specifically because of the military presence here.

If you have a teen who pushes back on what Veterans Day means or asks hard questions about war, those conversations are worth having. The fact that they're asking suggests they're thinking about it seriously — which is exactly what we want.

The Parade as a Living Classroom

Whatever age your kids are, Saturday's Veterans Day parade on Tejon Street is one of the most effective teaching tools in Colorado Springs. Real veterans. Real units. Real history moving through downtown. It's abstract no longer when a World War II veteran is rolling past in a vehicle decorated with his unit's insignia, or when a Fort Carson color guard is passing in full dress uniform.

Bring your kids, bring your gratitude, and let the parade do some of the explaining for you.