why is it so hard to find multicultural toys?
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As a teacher in South Texas - where my middle school of 1600 students had 3 white kids and 6 Filipino kids and the rest Hispanic - I saw the results of being isolated in your own culture. I was an outsider. Many of my students had never met a black person and thought it was acceptable to refer to my black program director as "the n***** who came to watch you teach."
They had no clue that they were using a bad word, having only the context of rap music to educate them on black culture.
Now we live in a predominately white area of town and go to a mostly white church. That makes it a bit more difficult to ensure that our children are educated about other cultures through real-life interactions and not just external media. To that end, we made a point to find a school that (a) taught a foreign language daily, (b) had a diverse population in which the achievement gap between white and non-white students and between economically disadvantaged (E.D.) and Not E.D. students was lower than average for our area, and (c) included children with special needs in their population. For us, those were our most important criteria in choosing a school.
Our family's life verse is Micah 6:8:
More details to come soon on pre-ordering yours... plus one more design based on Proverbs 3:27, which will include kid sizes too!
To us, we're not doing justice or loving kindness or walking humbly with God when we support a system that lacks equity in educational opportunities across racial, socioeconomic, and disability categories.
When we first considered educational options for our kids, including the early learning environment in our home, we were white parents (still are!) to two white children (still have them, but have added our little one from Taiwan and are in the process of adding three more from Uganda). So when we were expecting Jocelyn's birth, we tried to find a range of multicultural toys for her at consignment sales and online. We wanted the beautiful hues of skin God has created introduced early and often, normalized in one way by her daily playthings.
And?
I was disappointed by the few options available at mainstream retailers, who usually carry a wide assortment of dolls and books and toys with my skin color but just a token few with any darker tones.
It's gotten better, but I still have to go out of my way to find products that are multiethnic, especially ones that reflect the varying shades now (and soon to be) represented in our own family. Tomorrow I'll be starting a series of posts on my favorite multicultural toys (including a couple giveaways from my friends at Hearts for Hearts dolls; CLICK HERE to go to their Facebook page, because liking it will be good for one entry in the giveaway!).
Please, please, please leave a comment if you have a multicultural toy or book or resource recommendation for me! I'd love to include more in this blog series (and check them out for my own colorful family).
They had no clue that they were using a bad word, having only the context of rap music to educate them on black culture.
Now we live in a predominately white area of town and go to a mostly white church. That makes it a bit more difficult to ensure that our children are educated about other cultures through real-life interactions and not just external media. To that end, we made a point to find a school that (a) taught a foreign language daily, (b) had a diverse population in which the achievement gap between white and non-white students and between economically disadvantaged (E.D.) and Not E.D. students was lower than average for our area, and (c) included children with special needs in their population. For us, those were our most important criteria in choosing a school.
Our family's life verse is Micah 6:8:
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?In fact, here's a sneak peek at two shirts that we'll be selling soon to raise adoption funds...
More details to come soon on pre-ordering yours... plus one more design based on Proverbs 3:27, which will include kid sizes too!
To us, we're not doing justice or loving kindness or walking humbly with God when we support a system that lacks equity in educational opportunities across racial, socioeconomic, and disability categories.
When we first considered educational options for our kids, including the early learning environment in our home, we were white parents (still are!) to two white children (still have them, but have added our little one from Taiwan and are in the process of adding three more from Uganda). So when we were expecting Jocelyn's birth, we tried to find a range of multicultural toys for her at consignment sales and online. We wanted the beautiful hues of skin God has created introduced early and often, normalized in one way by her daily playthings.
And?
I was disappointed by the few options available at mainstream retailers, who usually carry a wide assortment of dolls and books and toys with my skin color but just a token few with any darker tones.
It's gotten better, but I still have to go out of my way to find products that are multiethnic, especially ones that reflect the varying shades now (and soon to be) represented in our own family. Tomorrow I'll be starting a series of posts on my favorite multicultural toys (including a couple giveaways from my friends at Hearts for Hearts dolls; CLICK HERE to go to their Facebook page, because liking it will be good for one entry in the giveaway!).
Please, please, please leave a comment if you have a multicultural toy or book or resource recommendation for me! I'd love to include more in this blog series (and check them out for my own colorful family).