PART 3: Where we started with kids education and exposure to different cultures
Our quick-start guide and personal cheat sheet for raising culturally curious kiddos:
In the modern parenting era, we have so many resources and ways that it can be overwhelming and we don’t know where to start or what to select! Try what you want and observe what works for you and your family. Get creative with arts & crafts, books, activities, foods, online tools, traditions, holidays, you name it! And leverage insights and experiences from friends and family from around the world.
Reading
- Reading books is a great way to transport kids to another world, another culture. Choose books that reflect the cultures, languages, and identities of the children to help them develop their identity and sense of belonging. Examples include: Board books for infants and toddlers with characters and scenes that show lives like theirs. Dive into diverse stories that reflect your child’s world, from board books for toddlers to chapter books for tweens. Let characters from different backgrounds become their friends and guides. Tip: These make great gift ideas for others to help buy! Every time a friend or relative asks what Luka would like, we offer the idea of contributing to this library and giving a book from that person’s culture, country, or language. Luka loves learning about the special characters that are local to each culture, whether it be Lars, der kleine Eisbär, from Germany or Curious George, the sweet African monkey who can’t help but run into trouble, whom we grew up reading about in the US.
- Depending on your kid’s age, you can bring them to museums and libraries. A weekend ritual for us is to bring Luka to the local library for story and song time. We also check out books that we think will be educational and inspirational to him. There are many authors and stories coming from different cultural backgrounds that we like to expose him to.
Music
- Letting music be the soundtrack to your cultural journey is a great approach. We have created multiple playlists on Spotify that include songs in different languages, and even the same song in different languages (such as “Happy Birthday”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”… yes, there are different language versions of them all on Spotify and Youtube!)
- Listening to songs in different languages has been a game changer for us in raising Luka. Try listening to the same song in different languages – like “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. We did this with Luka and he loved hearing the different lyrics in the same tune. We even taught him how to sing Happy Birthday in all three languages and he enjoys singing it whenever it’s someone’s birthday.
Food
- Find a cultural recipe and cook a dish together with your family. Eat at a local ethnic restaurant. Try different cuisines and eat meals that your child will recognize and remember. Like dumplings and noodles at a Chinese restaurant, egg rolls and pho at a Vietnamese restaurant, Swiss fondue and raclette, samosas from an Indian restaurant, empanadas from an Argentinian restaurant, and the list goes on! Try new recipes and cook up a cultural delicacy or dish that you want your kids to try. We often make Japanese ramen for dinner at home with sides such as Chinese dumplings and sauteed bok choy, or we’ll make pizza together as a family for dinner and start the meal with a nice warm Asian soup (usually chicken, fish, lotus root, or winter melon soup – especially yummy in the colder climates!).
Games
- Play games and music often. Discover traditional games from around the world and see what kind of games children from other parts of the world or community are playing. Have daily dance parties to the stories and songs you play!
Language
- Have your child learn how to say ‘thank you’, ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’, and count ‘1-10’ in multiple languages for fun.
- We also recommend having your child call his/her grandparents and relatives in different ways, whether it be language specific or regionally relevant. Use meaningful nicknames and monikers. For example, instead of having your child call both grandmothers “Grandma”, try calling one “Grandma” in the local language such as “Abuelita” or “Oma”, which is what Luka calls his Swiss grandmother. He also calls his aunt on my side “Auntie” in Chinese, whereas he calls his aunt on my husband’s side “Auntie” in German.
Events
- Celebrate and elevate cultural findings! Celebrate holidays, traditions, rituals, and current events from around the world that you personally enjoy and appreciate. We love starting the new year with both the NYE traditions in the US and Switzerland, and then following up with Chinese New Year and Serbian New Year. Life is short, so why not find reasons to celebrate in a positive way all year round?
- Bring your family to attend local community events or cultural festivals. Every community and county hosts its own events. When we’re in Switzerland, we always attend the Fasnacht and when we’re in the US, we will attend the Thanksgiving parade. Similarly, we always make sure to attend the different versions of Easter egg hunts in each country so we understand and appreciate the differences.
Travel
- Travel and ‘live like a local’ whenever possible. Find ways to get your kids out of their comfort zones and into diverse environments, whether it be somewhere nearby home or some place that requires a long flight or drive. Most recently, we showed Luka videos on going camping in both Chinese and German, and then we took him for his camping trip. He loved identifying things like the tent, sleeping bag, and s’mores from the videos. It’s personally quite inspirational when your child knows how to say “marshmallow” in more languages than we can!
Screen time and other visuals
- I know there are parents against screen time. We do limit screen time for Luka, but the times we make exceptions, he watches educational videos about other cultures and in other languages. (luckily, there is a “Miss Rachel” version in all of our countries, so while we keep Miss Rachel’s videos in our library, we also are able to find educational videos – approved by speech pathologists and learning experts – in German and Mandarin as well. Our favorites are Mama Laoshi for Mandarin and Miss Josie for German!)
- We try to find screen-free, interactive experiences for our son that can expose him to different languages. A staple in our house is the Toniebox, which is an innovative audio player for kids 3+ that is great for bedtime stories, music, and education. There is an option to make a custom recording on the Toniebox and we’ve used that to record our voices for Luka. Whenever either one of us has to be away from home for an extended period of time, we leave our voices and a special message on the Toniebox for him to play anytime he wants to hear from us. We have also recorded snippets from Youtube and Spotify, such as songs or stories in another language, for him to listen to. Leveraging tools like the Toniebox has also been game-changing for us as we raise our toddler.
I totally get it – all of these tips and ideas can be overwhelming! But please don’t be overwhelmed by all of the modern, do-it-all parents we see on Instagram and know in real life. We’re all figuring things out day by day and trying things with our kids in a “trial and error” way. The key thing is to start somewhere and try things. If you try new things – whether it be food or a new activity – your kids will see that and learn from you to try new things, too.
Hopefully our list has inspired you to choose your own starting point and will enrich your family’s multicultural journey. Let us know how it goes and please share your ideas – we are always open to picking up great tips and recommendations!
