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The National World War II Museum was founded in 2000 as The National D-Day Museum and is still growing. The museum has become a top tourist attraction, many of its visitors coming from outside of New Orleans. In 2009, the Solomon Victory Theater complex opened, featuring the exclusive 4-D film, "Beyond All Boundaries," which is produced and narrated by Tom Hanks. In 2013, the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center opened with eye level views of WWII-era aircraft.

The museum's newest pavilion, The Campaigns of Courage Pavilion: The Road to Berlin, will open on the weekend of December 11; the Liberation Pavilion is scheduled to open in 2016 and will explore the post-war era and the war's continuing influence in our society and world.

Currently housed in three buildings, museum exhibits are arranged around central themes of the war and offer visitors an opportunity to experience the war through the eyes of the men and women who lived it with personal vignettes and interactive elements throughout. Still, this is the kind of museum you need to explain to your kids as you go along -- why we fought this war, how young the soldiers were and what sacrifices were made at home.

There are oral history stations where visitors can stop to listen to a soldier's account of D Day. "If we stood there, we were going to die. ... We just had to get to the bottom of the cliffs," said Lt. Col Bill Friedman. You can listen to more stories in the museum's digital collection before you visit.

Show the kids what soldiers carried in their backpacks -- a towel, a spoon, toilet paper, first-aid packet and pictures from home. See what it was like for the nearly 120,000 Japanese-American families who were forced from their homes into internment camps in the exhibit "From Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII." Despite this treatment, Some 33,000 Japanese-Americans served their country during World War II.

The Education Department offers family workshops throughout the year to encourage kids and their families to explore the life and lessons of WWII with hands-on exploration of artifacts and activities.

There are also activities to do at home -- like Kitchen Memories where kids are encouraged to talk to elderly relatives and friends about their memories about food during World War II.

"We are talking about normal people living through extraordinary circumstances," said Collin Makamson, who oversees the family programs.

Heroes all.

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(c) 2014 DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.