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Exploring the world and appreciating different kinds of people often starts with recognizing and celebrating your family’s own history and traditions. This awareness can help your child understand that while your own family culture is special, it is also just one of many different ways of being in the world. As you play and learn together about your own family's traditions, your child can feel positive about herself and others who might do things differently. Use these activities and videos to help nurture your child’s curiosity and encourage her to celebrate what is special about herself, her family, and the wider world.
Discover Your Diversity
Look through family albums and share stories about your parents, grandparents, and other relatives with your child. Use names and relationships to create a family tree together by drawing a tree and cutting leaves from construction paper. Cut enough leaves for each of your child’s relatives and write their names on the leaves. Glue the leaves to the tree, starting with the oldest generation in the center and working your way out.
Watch Together: Rachel’s Family
Talk Together: Who are the people that make up our family? Tell your child a story about a relative he doesn’t know.
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Share your family’s traditions with your child . Maybe you eat a certain type of food at holidays or spend Sundays with Grandma. Talk about your child’s favorite family traditions and recall interesting stories from her experience with them. You might also talk about family traditions you celebrated as a child, and whether or not any of those have been carried down through generations. Ask your child how are they the same or different from other families’ or friends’ traditions. Watch Together: Kid Talk About the Holidays
Talk Together: What are some of the holidays you celebrate? How do you celebrate them?
Celebrate Your Child’s Uniqueness
Sit in front of a mirror with your child and talk about his hair, skin, and eye color, including their type, shape, and other characteristics that are unique to your child, or that you share in common.—all the features that make him special. Then have him draw a self-portrait. Admire the portrait together, talking about the ways your child represented himself and why.
Watch Together: Everybody’s Different
Talk Together: What features make you different from other kids?
Prepare a Favorite Family Recipe
Share the story of a favorite family recipe while you’re preparing it. How did you learn to make it? Was it made for special occasions? Why is it a favorite? Do you know any other families that make this dish too? As you share stories and talk together, allow your child to help measure and mix the ingredients, and serve the finished dish.
Watch Together: Making Hamentaschen
Talk Together: Which family recipe would you like to share with a friend?
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