Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, November 7, 2007 12:59 am

Sometimes I am a glass half-full type of person, and sometimes I am more inclined to be a glass-half empty type.

About peace…I think I am running on empty. I feel that throughout history there never has been peace. There never will be peace in the future either. It is just human nature to fight.

Religion, which is supposed to be all about peace (no matter what the religion), seems often to make matters worse. The Crusades, the Inquisition, etc. I’ll stop my brief list there so as to not get myself into too much trouble.

The glass half-full part of me says: “Hey, wait a minute! Why not start with the children?”

Well, why not start with the children? What an excellent idea. If all the world’s children could learn about and appreciate other cultures, races, and religions, then wouldn’t there HAVE to be peace?

Glass half-empty says: “There is no way to teach every child in the world these things!”

Glass half-full says: “Maybe not, but the way to start is with our own children. Let’s teach them about the beauty of diversity.”

Yes let’s.

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Here are ten thoughts on how to do that:

1) Have your child learn a foreign language, either through their school or through home, online or language school study. The US is one of the only countries in the world where a child/adult can get all the way through school, and even college and beyond, without learning another language.

2) Take your children to local multicultural events such as Chinese New Year celebrations, Greek festivals, etc. Check your local paper for details.

3) Travel with your children, which leads to the next suggestion:

4) Get your child a passport now so that he or she can travel with you when old enough, and the opportunity for foreign travel arises. Passport processing is taking a long time these days, so why not simply put it on your to-do list and get it over with right away. (Most US post offices can issue passports and even take the passport photos, it is very easy). By the way, passports are now required for air travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, even for infants.

5) If your children are teens and are interested…let them be an exchange student. I did it as a teen (twice) and it totally changed my life!

Youth for Understanding (the program I used)

AFS Intercultural Programs

ASSE

6) Host an exchange student in your home (it doesn’t have to be for a year, it can be a semester, a summer, or even less!) Check out links above, or Google “international student exchange.”

7) Get your child a penpal. Google “penpal” for some sites that can arrange this. Being the paranoid parent, I would check it out carefully first though before signing up. I would choose a “snail mail” penpal over an email one, and would monitor the whole thing very carefully. Check with your child’s school too. Often penpal arrangements can be made through a teacher at school. If a teacher has contact with a teacher in a foreign country, many times classes can exchange letters.

8) Go to the library and check out an international cookbook. Cook an exotic foreign meal together, talk a little about that country, and find it on the map or globe.

9) If you and your family are really in the mood for adventure, either rent a house in a foreign country or do a house swap. A house swap is where you trade a month in your house, for a month in someone else’s house for example. Sometimes the trade even includes the use of a car. There are many websites dedicated to rentals and home swaps. The classifieds in the back of alumni magazines are also a good source. Many college alums prefer to rent their foreign house or apartment to another responsible alum rather than a total stranger.

Here are some house swap websites (note: I am not personally familiar with any of these):

HomeLink International

Home Exchange

Home Xchange Vacation

10) And of course the simplest and cheapest way to expose your children to other cultures, is to read to them. Go to the library. Read multicultural books to your children. Check my International Children’s Book Day post for detailed suggestions of books and web links to books for some ideas.

For inspiration, here are some of our favorite multicultural/international books. The last one is a real eye-opener: Material World: A Global Family Portrait, is geared more toward adults, but children will find it fascinating too, when read with an adult.

(For more info on two of these titles: I have written posts about Wake Up World, and Let’s Eat - plus another here about Let’s Eat)

Dona Nobis Pacem…Grant Us Peace - PLEASE!!!

Please visit Mimi’s Blog to find links to many, many, many more Peace Posts today.

Also, for more thoughts on peace, please visit my June Dona Nobis Pacem post.

Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, November 4, 2007 9:29 pm

This has been a hectic week for us, so we were never really able to sit down and do this one all together, but rather in bits and pieces throughout the week.

My 5 year-old son didn’t feel like doing it (I was going to have him illustrate one of my haikus), so it was an all girl event at our house!

My 7 year-old daughter really loved the whole exercise and of course chose to write about her new fish that she acquired by trading her Halloween candy. She immediately hung her haiku and drawing up in her room by her fish (along with some very funny “Fish Rules”).

The way I decided to introduce it to her was the following:

1) She picked a subject (her fish)
2) She wrote down a list of words that described her fish
3) She wrote the number of syllables in each word next to that word
4) She combined them and added a few words, to create the appropriate number of syllables for each line (I had to help a bit with this part - finding and extra word here and there to help fill things out, but basically this is her creation).

Actually, it was hard to get her away from thinking in terms of sentences, which is what she is used to when she writes at school. Very interesting!

Here are the results. My haikus are not high quality, but considering I have not written one since elementary school, I guess they’ll do. I had so much fun with this since it has a very logical, almost puzzle-solving aspect to it, unlike a lot of poetry. I might even inflict more haikus upon the blogosphere! (Sorry!)

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Our Gallery:

Author: Oldest daughter, age 7
Illustrator: Oldest daughter, age 7

My Fish

He is a Betta
With sparkly shiny scales
In a tall glass vase

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Author: Me, age more than 7
Illustrator: Oldest daughter, age 7

Squirrels

Chattering gray clowns
Who do tricks for a peanut
Make me laugh out loud

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Author: Me
Illustrator: Youngest daughter, age 22 months

Green

Color of envy
Cool spring rains bring emeralds
That taste like a lime

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Author: Me
Photographer: Me

Pipsqueak

Ebony silk coat
Black cat sits on my paper
Fur tickles my nose

(yes, black cat Pipsqueak helped me write the haikus!)

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This was a fairly detailed, specific project. I hope it was fun, but for next week I have decided to go in entirely the opposite, very minimalist, direction. Here is next Monday’s Unplugged Project:

Red

I can’t wait to see what we all do with it!

Comments (7)

By Mom Unplugged, November 2, 2007 11:32 am

Hopefully this week’s Unplugged Project isn’t too daunting. It involves reading or writing a haiku. If you have older children, then they can try writing one, if not (and you feel brave enough) then you can try it. A very basic description of a haiku is the following:

Haiku:
- subject: everyday things - often nature, feelings, or experiences
- length: three short NON-RHYMING lines
- form:
1st line: 5 syllables
2nd line: 7 syllables
3rd line: 5 syllables

Here a few links which might help or inspire:

Haiku for People

Internet School Library Media Center Haiku Page

eHow: How to Write a Haiku (good basic advice)

I went to our local library in search of some haiku books for children and came home empty- handed (but our library is quite small). If anyone finds some good kids’ haiku books, please write about it! A search on Amazon of “haiku” in the children’s books section turns up lots of good-looking options, so I know the books are out there somewhere, just not in MY library.

Remember, these projects are supposed to be flexible and fun, so if you want to do a poem other than a haiku, that’s fine. If you just want to draw a picture that’s fine too. The point is for everyone to have fun. Plus, I am trying to make the projects adaptable to all ages, little ones through adult. Here, again, are this week’s instructions:

Haiku

1) Write a haiku and illustrate it, either via original artwork or photo

-or-

2) Read (and share) a haiku and illustrate it, either via original artwork or photo

-or-

3) For smaller children, parents can find (or write) the haiku and help their children “illustrate” it

-or-

4) Any other haiku/poetry possibilities that you can imagine! Anything is fine…just go with what you want to do!

(unless you have a newly budding photographer at home, the photo option is probably more one for any older children or adults who want to take part and would rather not illustrate)

Haiku:
- subject: everyday things - often nature, feelings, or experiences
- length: three short NON-RHYMING lines
- form:
1st line: 5 syllables
2nd line: 7 syllables
3rd line: 5 syllables

Click here for some examples.

Hope to see you on Monday!

Image from Wikimedia Commons: Calligraphy by Ishizaki Keisui

Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, October 31, 2007 12:31 pm

My daughter’s Montessori class (1st through 3rd grade) does a wonderful thing for Halloween that I thought might interest some homeschool families or teachers out there.

Instead of wearing Halloween costumes to school, or even simply using the day to celebrate fall, the children prepare an oral report about a famous historical person. They must read a book about (or by) that person, then gather facts about their chosen person, most importantly they are not allowed to tell anyone else (except the teacher of course) who they are.

Throughout the week before Halloween, the teacher briefly presents to the class each of the chosen historical figures so everyone is familiar with them.

On Halloween the children go to school dressed as their person. They each give a short presentation to the class about their person, ending their talk with the question: “Who am I?” At the end of each presentation, the class tries to guess who the student is.

I am so impressed with this idea. What a wonderful way to encourage excitement about reading, history and learning…all while dealing with the sometimes sticky issue of how to celebrate (or not celebrate) Halloween at school.

My daughter read Little House in the Big Woods and chose Laura Ingalls Wilder. We had a great bonnet in the dress-up box, but no dress. As a teenager, I used to make clothes, and I actually do own a sewing machine that I have used exactly once since I bought it about 8 years ago, so I decided to go for a Super Mom Award and make a dress!

We went to Walmart (our only local fabric source) to choose a pattern and an appropriate fabric. The pattern was simple. I chose a classic little girl dress and bought an extra yard of fabric to make it reach the ankle instead of the pattern-specified knee length. The fabric choice was a little tougher.

I was thinking “little girl in dainty flowered calico,” my 7 year-old was apparently thinking “trashy bar-maid in seedy saloon.” She kept holding up more and more impossible fabrics beginning with: “Oh look Mom!” (florescent rainbow motif) and ending with: “Would she have worn this one?” (hot pink sequins on purple sparkle background). We finally settled on something resembling more of a calico.

After many hours of work wrestling zippers and gathered sleeves, I was quite pleased with the final result. There are a few flaws that probably only I will ever see, and it might not be 100% historically accurate, but I am pretty proud of it I must say.

The presentations were amazing and the costumes were very cute, and quite clever. For example there was Neil Armstrong (tin foil boots), Abraham Lincoln (fake beard and hat of course) and Mother Teresa (very clever rendition of Mother Teresa’s classic “chura” headscarf made out of a white towel with blue ribbon sewn on!) … as well as a very realistic-looking 6 year-old Sandra Day O’Connor complete with gavel!

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, October 29, 2007 5:45 pm

I recently found these sturdy cardboard puzzles at Cosco and they are really great!

Each puzzle represents a continent. At the moment the manufacturer, A Broader View, only makes four (North America, South America, Africa, and Europe) but I believe that more may be in the works. Cosco had them bundled in packs of two, so we ended up buying all four and I am so glad we did!

One of my pet peeves with some geographic puzzles is that often the pieces are cut out in such a way as to bear no relationship to the actual shape of a state or a country. Why? Wouldn’t it be much more useful and educational to follow the natural boundaries?

These puzzle pieces do follow the natural shape of each country or state (except in the case of very small countries and states). This makes total sense to me!

Capitals are labeled, as are other major cities, large bodies of water and even lat / long.

It would be nicer if these were made of wood rather than cardboard, but at least the cardboard is quite sturdy, and feels like it will last a long time. One word of advice though: the first time it is unwrapped, an adult should remove the pieces since they are stuck in there pretty hard.

If you can’t get to Cosco (or they don’t have them any more), then you can get North and South America from Amazon (links below). It seems that as of right now, Europe and Africa are out of stock. Hopefully they will return eventually.

You also can find all of them, plus some interesting-sounding global puzzles (a future post!) at the manufacturer’s store: Geography Zone. Otherwise, search online to check for other stores and pricing. It seems to vary between $7.00 and $10.00.