Search Results for: blog talking about diversity in school and at home

Book Review: All About Adoption:How Families Are Made and How Kids Feel About It

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All About Adoption: How Families Are Made and How Kids Feel About It is a book from Magination Press, which specializes in titles helping children understand tough situations or deal with feelings. (Magination Press is also the publisher of Maybe Days, a Book about Foster Care.) All About Adoption authors Marc Nemiroff and Jane Annunziata are both clinical psychologists specializing in families and children. All About Adoption starts out by saying “there are lots of different ways to have a baby. ..some parents have one baby..and some parents have two or three babies all at once. “Babies grow inside a … Continue reading →

Children’s Books on Diversity and Feelings

My last blog and the one before that highlighted books showing diverse families such as adoptive, interracial, stepparent, single parent, multigenerational. This blog will spotlight books that: * look at diversity of abilities and disabilities as well as looks *help kids deal with diverse feelings I’ve recommended before—but can’t recommend highly enough—the Sesame Street book We’re Different, We’re the Same. Using Sesame’s Street’s trademark mixture of all kinds of people, animals, and friendly monsters, as well as kids’ favorite character Elmo as cameraman (camera-monster?), the book shows pictures of all different types of noses, eyes, skin color, body size and … Continue reading →

Activities Fostering an Appreciation of Other Cultures in Elementary and Middle-school Students

My last blog discussed activity ideas for helping young children become comfortable with racial diversity. Here are some ideas for teachers of elementary and middle school students: –Make sure they know the science of skin color. A good book is All the Colors We Are: The story of How We Get Our Skin Color. This is a bilingual (English/Spanish) book with photographs and simple explanations. –I like to follow or precede a discussion of the science of skin color with an artistic or aesthetic look at the beauty of different skin colors. I like All the Colors of the Earth, … Continue reading →

November in the Adoption Blog: Month in Review

I began the blog on All Saints Day with a tribute to certain “Saints” in U.S. Adoption and Pioneers in International Adoption. Then I wrote a tribute to the founder of my daughter’s Korean adoption agency, who has lived an exciting and multifaceted life and is remarkable for his humble concern for children. In honor of National Adoption Month, I wrote two blogs on Top Ten Myths about Adoption. For Part One, click here. For Part Two, click here. Then I wrote a blog about events on National Adoption Day, Saturday November 17. These events included finalizations of thousands of … Continue reading →

Adoption and Heritage Presentations at School

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In my last blog I wrote about questions from classmates that have been bothering Meg. I wrote about how I had worried that making a class presentation on adoption would just call extra attention to Meg and make adoption seem like a big deal. In my experience the only parents who came and made a presentation to the class about their child were parents whose child was newly diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. They came to explain to the other kids why their daughter was in the hospital and what she’d be able to eat when she returned. I don’t … Continue reading →

Talking About Diversity in School and at Home

I’ve always loved to learn about other cultures. My fondest memory of elementary school is a Mexican posada procession and fiesta. My favorite thing about my children’s preschool was that they celebrated Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Eid al-Fitr, Purim and more. As a preschool teacher myself, I was eager to expose my students to other holidays, cultures, etc. I posted pictures of people in different national costumes and different types of homes. Imagine my shock when I went to a to a teachers’ workshop on diversity and the speaker warned us against overemphasizing different and unusual things about countries and told … Continue reading →

Students Should Be In School Today. . .

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. All over the city, there are memorials, exhibitions, services, and speeches to honor Dr. King. Since kids have off from school, most are probably at home, playing video games, or hanging out. Maybe some more conscientious parents have taken some time to take their kids out to learn, but even as I write, I see kids hanging out on the streets. For them, it’s another day off of school and business as usual. Teachers Should Teach. . . The entirety of the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. I am sad to say … Continue reading →

Reasons I am glad we homeschool: Integration/ Segregation issues.

With the exception of learning about the history of segregation and integration in the United States, I feel there is no reason a child should have to deal with this issue. We live in the year 2006, and race is supposed to be the last thing on our children’s minds. Unfortunately, it is not the last thing on the mind of our nation’s educators. I am glad we homeschool because the segregation/integration issue is therefore nonexistent. While our homeschool is of course segregated by nature of our family being the same race, our homeschooling community is integrated. It not something … Continue reading →

Raising An Adopted Child: #3 Pre-School Years

Pre-school children have a vary limited understanding of what the word “Adoption” means. Most young pre-school children are unable to differentiate between being adopted and being born into a family. These little children have not developed the ability to think about themselves as both being born and then adopted. Children during this developmental stage enjoy hearing their adoption story told over and over again and will repeat it to anyone willing to listen. Adopted children at this age may think all children were adopted and that all moms and dads adopt children. Adoption themes may become a part of play … Continue reading →

Book Review: Families Are Different

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My last blog reviewed two books on families which showcase the diversity of families in gorgeous photographs of families, both doing everyday things and celebrating special events. Families Are Different was written and illustrated by Nina Pelligrini, a mother of two adopted daughters who said this book was inspired by feelings expressed by one of her daughters. The book’s characters are two daughters from Korea and their two white parents. With its simply-drawn illustrations and its matter-of-fact narration by one of children, the book is well-suited to younger children but makes a point that will be appreciated by older children … Continue reading →