Craft and Learn After Reading About Children Around the World
Private schools account for 25% of the nation’s schools and enroll 10% of all PK-12 students. Your children surely know that Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Antarctica, and North and South America exist through their schooling, but do they know anything about the cultures within these continents? Pick out some short children’s books at your local library that focus on particular countries and how children live and learn within them. Read through them with your children. Be sure to jot down some notes as you help your children understand the different cultures around the world.
Once your kids have a grasp on how children live in a few different countries, you can help your children create scenes from the books. Get out some colored paper, glue, markers, crayons, and colored pencils. Have your kids work on each scene separately or work on one at a time as a group. Your kids can draw the children in the books along with cultural outfits, foods, and items that each book highlighted for its appropriate country.
This educational craft will encourage your children to think about the differences among people all over the world. The children’s books will teach them that every person and country should be celebrated, that every country has a different culture, and that people look different across the world. As your children create scenes from the books they read, ask them engaging questions that get them thinking and talking about celebrating diversity.
Promote Differences Among People By Creating Vision Boards
Around 10% of the world’s population, some 650 million people, live with a disability. It’s a good idea to educate your kids about disabilities so they understand that every single person is different and that these differences should be celebrated.
A great craft to embark on that promotes differences among people is creating vision boards. Find a bunch of old magazines that present a range of topics, people, and cultures. Spread them out across a table alongside safety scissors, tape, glue, glitter, markers, and crayons. Give each of your children a large poster. Have them write or creatively design their name at the top along with the word “GOALS” or “INSPIRE.” Help your kids go through the magazines and find pictures of people, food, and objects that inspire or make them feel happy. You’d be surprised by what your children will pick out. Some pictures they find in magazines may remind them of movies, books, or people in their lives that inspire them.
This craft project gives your children the opportunity to explore a variety of people, objects, foods, and more that inspire them. Perhaps your five-year-old daughter loved the movie Mulan and picked out a picture of the movie from a kid’s magazine because Mulan inspired her to be brave. Perhaps your eleven-year-old son wants to be a chef someday and was inspired by pictures of foods from across the world in a travel magazine. Perhaps your seven-year-old son was inspired by Nemo’s lack of fin and seeks an adventure like his, causing him to pick out pictures of fish from a National Geographic magazine. Providing your children with the resources to learn about people — and animals! — that are different from them is a great way to promote both inclusion and diversity.
Learn About Winter Traditions Around the World
Currently, there are over 1.2 million registered snowmobiles in the US and over 600,000 registered snowmobiles in Canada. What does your family like to do for fun during the winter? It probably looks much different for children living in different countries across the world. There are several winter traditions, celebrations, and holidays celebrated during the winter. Teach your children about them with these simple crafts.
These crafts can be low-cost by simply providing your children with the necessary materials to create their own objects that represent different winter traditions and holidays, such as paper, safety scissors, markers, and crayons. Your children can hand-cut menorahs while you teach them about the traditions of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Your kids can draw and decorate Christmas trees while you discuss the Christmas story. Your kids can draw the seven candles used during Kwanzaa while you teach them about the seven values of African American family life. Your kids can draw the animal associated with the year they were born as you talk to them about the Chinese New Year.
This craft, accompanied by these educational lessons, are a great way to teach your children about the different cultures and holidays celebrated within the United States as well as around the world. Encourage your children to ask questions, too.
While these crafts are very simple, they serve a greater purpose. Teaching your children about diversity and inclusion at a young age is a great way to get them interested in learning as well as celebrating the differences among people all over the world. Utilizing simple crafts is an effective way to gain your kids’ interests in these topics and perhaps encourage them to learn more down the road.
This is going to be an incredible event. I am going to bring my camera to take pictures and blog about it afterward!