Comments on: 14 Ways to Incorporate Birth Culture into Your Children’s Lives

By: Honoring Your Adopted Child’s Heritage and Culture – New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, Inc

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 02:04:44 +0000

[…] 14 Ways to Incorporate Birth Culture into Your Children’s Lives […]

By: Importance of Educating about Birth Culture and Language – Nadav Zeimer's Blog

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 16:15:47 +0000

[…] Books, food, language, cultural events and organizations, and experiences will all play a role in our journey – the more we do this with the support of others the easier it gets, except for when these “foreign” people and ideas make it harder. It is at those moments we must find our way to keep moving forward as an example to our children of their great potential in the face of life circumstances: if we can just notice our attitude first, without having to fix or change it, we can continue moving forward in any journey filled with future joy and celebration even when the present work feels far from there. When we can be honest about our experience, when we can talk about it without shame, we can find humor in our very human sense of defeat. That’s what provides the strength to continue, and continued action is all it takes to achieve greatness. […]

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:10:05 +0000

Really glad to see that hosting an exchange student is listed on this great story! As an International Community Coordinator who places exchange students with families – I have many times placed students for the general cultural expecience for adoptive families, and even to help the children to learn their native language while helping the exchange student to improve their English – a ‘win-win’ experience! Just this weekend my group of PAX Student Ambassadors and Friends was able to share a cultural festival with one of our host families with an adopted child! We had a great time, and were able to share the traditions, costumes, food, and music with her!

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:38:20 +0000

In reply to Morgan. This is fantastic! I am going to do it with my sons from ET and China too!:)

By: Morgan

Morgan — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:15:40 +0000

My son is not yet 3. I’ve found it a really easy way to incorporate videos and music from Ethiopia when we are online. He loves music so we might watch Teddy Afro video. He shares a name with an Ethiopian runner so we watch races on youtube. ET TV has tons of really fun dancing videos that we shoulder shake to. And this morning we watched 10 minutes of a youtube video of a man walking down the street in Addis. This gave us lots of things to talk about from the taxis and blue donkeys to burros and gabis and banana vendors. Anything to contextualize and normalize our talks about Ethiopia.

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:59:21 +0000

In reply to Deanna Willett. Deanna- I am really interested in finding mentors for my 2 sons. What age do you think we should start? They are 4 and 7 now... I love the cultural fair! I did an international Week this year at school and it was phenomenal! I can't wait to improve it for next year:).

By: Deanna Willett

Deanna Willett — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:54:24 +0000

We also contacted a local Hispanic organization who helped us locate a mentor from Guatemala for our son. It has totally changed his attitude about being Guatemalan. He is now proud of his birth country. We also serve on a cultural diversity group at our children’s school and they had their first cultural fair a few weeks ago. The kids were so interested in seeing the money, animals, etc from Guatemala & Colombia.

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:46:11 +0000

In reply to Richard P.. I need to sit down and watch Kiki's Delivery Service with them- we have rented it from the library and my kids have watched it, but I have never seen it:).

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:45:20 +0000

In reply to Richard P.. I love it- we do black beans and rice once a week in my house, as it is now their favorite! I think the more exposure to different tastes textures, the more open they are to trying new ones (and they' much easier to travel with)!

By: Richard P.

Richard P. — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:51:23 +0000

Your food idea is right on! I take my two Chinese girls to Indian, Vietnamize, Chinese (obviously), Mexican, Puerto Rican, Spanish and ggood old “American”. They love them all and we try to cook at home. I do need to find Ethiopian in my area. Oddly enought their favorite food is Puerto Rican style rice and beans.

By: Richard P.

Richard P. — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:43:31 +0000

Great movie choices, I will need to get them. I would like to recommend all the animated movies by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Gibli. For young girls Kiki’s Delivery Service is wonderful. We have the entire collection and my 8 and 14 year olds love them all. Some are a bit much for the younger kids but watchable. All his movies have strong female characters something I feel is very important. Kids need to know that there is life beyond Disney!

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:28:17 +0000

In reply to Judi. I bet my kids would love that movie- we are huuuuuuuge animal lovers. I love movies that show positive relationships too- we will have to check it out on netflix or the library:).

By: kidworldcitizen

kidworldcitizen — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:27:18 +0000

In reply to Judi Lundberg. Thank you for sharing- we are always on the lookout for good books!!

By: Judi

Judi — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:13:02 +0000

Good movie my boys like is “Duma”, which takes place in S. Africa and is about a boy taking a cheetah he rescued as a baby back to the wild.It is a fun action adventure movie with some good relationships that develop between black and white characters.

By: Judi Lundberg

Judi Lundberg — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:09:08 +0000

I just read “Spotty” by Margret Rey (wife and co-author of Curious George books), about a spotted rabbit born to a family of white rabbits, to my Ethiopian born son Mesfin. He enjoyed it and raised lots of important questions about why the different rabbits made some of the choices they did. Led to a good discussion of differences.