Encouraging Diversity At Day Care

The world is getting smaller. The melting pot of heterogenous societies is over flowing and becoming ever more homogenous in other words, the wonderful blend of races, religions and cultures that is our current day multi-ethnic society.  This multi culturalism is a fact of our daily life and as such should be reflected in our day care programmes. 

When planning your curriculum and activities be sure to intergrate elements that focus on educating the children about ethnic and cultural diversity.  Programmes may have themes focusing on a different culuture each week incorporating arts and crafts, stories and imaginative play to encourage awareness.  An example of such a theme could be the Inuit people of the Artic region.  Children can learn via making igloos and inuit fishermen in arts and crafts (they love gluing cotton wool to represent snow and fur on clothing), stories can include tales of inuit children and the animals who share their geographical region i.e. seals, polar bears etc. 

You might also consider celebrating and exploring different festivals such as Kwanza, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, Easter Halloween, Christmas and on. Children often enjoy activities without any understanding of their cultural origins and it is important that we, the educators, introduce the history and meaning of these events to the children in a clear and fun manner. 

One of my proudest 'mom' moments was the day my 3 year old pointed to his face, framed by the fur edged hood of his coat and announced, 'mom, I look like an Inuit boy AND did you know that the Inuit mommies carry their babies in their hoods??'  Aaaaaaaah!

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