FESTIVAL SEASON - THE PERFECT TIME TO INTRODUCE DIFFERENT CELEBRATIONS
At the end of the year, there are many different celebrations all around the world. This is a perfect time to introduce different cultures and religions to your child in a gentle and non-intrusive way.
It's a good way to help your child understand that not everybody follows your family's choice of religion or method of celebrating. And, it can help your child to share their excitement about the holidays with friends who come from different cultural backgrounds.
Start with Your Own
An easy way to start this is to talk about your own religion or own celebrations and then compare them to how they are celebrated around the world. For example, if you are a Christian and you celebrate Christmas, look at how Christmas is celebrated in other countries.
In France, the 24th is an important day for celebration with a big meal and presents being opened after church service. In the UK the 25th is usually when gifts are exchanged and Christmas dinner is eaten. Some countries also celebrate the 26th with Boxing day as part of the Christmas celebrations. In Japan, they eat KFC as their Christmas meal and in Australia, they often have a BBQ.
Not only are celebrations different around the world, but even closer to home, families celebrate in different ways. Often each family will have their own fun traditions or way of doing things.
Use the printable available from the library, linked below with question prompts and ask friends, family and neighbours if they are willing to be interviewed.
This can be a quick chat or you could make it into a more in-depth project if you wanted to include it in your curriculum.
It’s important that kids learn that no one is doing it wrong, just because it is different to the way your family does it.
Explore Other Religions and Celebrations
It is fun to learn about other religions too, in the interviews you might come across different celebrations such as Hanukkah, St Lucia Day, Krampusnacht, Las Posadas, Kwanzaa, Saphala Ekadashi etc.
You can keep it as simple as learning the name and when it happens and what happens on that day or go into it with more depth and learn about the history of the day and make a full project of it.
As this tends to be a busy time of year for parents, it’s OK to slow down and learn about something like the Hanukkah dreidel over a hot cup of cocoa. It’s more about having conversations and opening your child's mind to all the different ways people celebrate than having to do a full and comprehensive unit study. Of course, that is fine too if you have the time to incorporate it.
It’s also ok if you don’t know all the answers. Your child might want to know why people celebrate in a certain way. It’s lucky that we have Google to help us out. And this is also an important lesson for our kids to learn.
That as parents and teachers, we don’t know everything but we do know that we can ask questions, look in books, and turn to Google if we want to find the answer.
If your child asks something you don’t know the answer to, be honest, and invite them to help you find the answer.
Questions for you to ask...
How is __________________ (fill in the celebration you are talking about) different to what we celebrate?
Would you like to try traditional _________________ food?
Which part of the _______________ do you think sounds like the most fun?
What surprised you about ___________________?
Free printable available here www.jojoebi.com/library/
Jo
ABOUT JO from 193 LITTLE ADVENTURES
I'm Jo Ebisujima, a best-selling Montessori author and multi-passionate entrepreneur. I run The Wonder Mom Success Club - a membership for entrepreneur moms to get support while building their businesses.
And also 193 Little Adventures Club - where families can take an adventure to a different country every month using a printable pack of Montessori-inspired materials and activities. I built my business around my family, living & homeschooling in Japan. I use “Follow The Child” in every aspect of my parenting journey. I created 193 Little Adventures because I truly believe that if children learn about different cultures and ways of being from an early age, there would be less hatred and more compassion and understanding in the world. ❤️
