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Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

A Dupatta Is ... - a New Picture Book that Teaches about Culture

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share a new multicultural picture book. It is actually being released tomorrow! This book shares about a cultural view of a dupatta. A dupatta is the long shawl like scarf Middle Eastern women wear often over their heads and/or shoulders. It is part of the national dress of Pakistan and is worn today by people of India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The book is A Dupatta Is ... by Marzieh Abbas and illustrated by Anu Chouhan. It is recommended for ages 3 to 6.

Goodnight Ganesha Book Review and Fun Facts about Ganesha

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

I took last week off. My family made the decision to put my father into a memory care facility. His care has gotten to be too much for my mother and his Alzheimer's is getting worse. I needed time to help my mother move my dad and also time to grieve this next step. Although I'm still grieving I am trying to move on with life. So today I am sharing a new picture book that comes out this week. It is a bedtime story and is about the Hindu culture. It is perfect for Hindu kids as well as others who want to learn about other cultures. It will be available on August 31, 2021. The book is Goodnight Ganesha by Nadia Salomon and illustrated by Poonam Mistry. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7. To go with the book I will be sharing fun facts about the Hindu god, Ganesha, so it can be a learning experience for those not familiar with the Hindu religion.

Kamala Harris -- #Blacklivesmatter Series

My family is having a stay-cation this week so I may not post quite as often. I missed Crafty Sunday because I hadn't really crafted and was tired. We celebrated my birthday with my sister over the weekend. Hard to believe I am 50. Wow! Anyway, I do want to keep up my commitment to post about Black people every week. This week I returned to the list I received from my three Black teacher friends and am focusing on Kamala Harris. I will admit I knew nothing about her when I added her to the list, but of course she is in the news quite a bit now and maybe more so if she is picked as Biden's running mate. I will also add that I am not trying to make a political statement by featuring her. Although I tend to agree with the liberal side my husband is the opposite and yes the past couple of years have been tough when politics comes up more so than in the past. I usually can see both sides so I can stay somewhat neutral around him, but I have struggled with that recently. Anyway back to our post about Kamala.

Multicultural Stories & Poem Book Round-Up

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Since Hazel was young she always enjoys a story from another country. She loves learning about other cultures and learning words in other languages and so much more. Today I am sharing a round-Up of books from various cultures to learn more about them. Let's start with a book of stories from India. It is Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship by Chitra Soundar and illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy. 

A Time to Dance Review #readyourworld

Disclosure: I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review as part of Multicultural Children's Book Day. All opinions are my own.

Imagine being at the top of your world. You just one a competition in your dream activity and then on the way to the press conference a horrible accident occurs and you lose a limb so your dream activity seems impossible. That is how this story begins. It introduces us to Veda who danced before she even walked. She is a young Indian woman trying to figure out life and live her dream. And then in a horrible accident she loses one of her legs. There was no way of saving it. Will she be able to walk again? Will she ever be able to dance? The book is A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman. 

Artists from Around the World

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

I recently read an article about how multiple art-focused field trips raised the scores of standardized tests. At a time when so many school districts are cutting the arts it is important to see the whole picture. Today I am going to share some books about artists from different countries around the world. We will start with Japan and Yayoi Kusama. The first book is Yayoi Kusama: From Here to Infinity by Sarah Suzuki and illustrated by Ellen Weinstein. 

Gifts of Books -- Ideas for All Ages -- Crafts, Activities and Non-Fiction Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you love giving books as gifts? One of my sisters always gives Hazel books for a gift. I know I tend to love giving books to friends' children as well. Today I am sharing a variety of books for different ages and people in your life.


Books for the Younger Kids

Let's start with the youngest. Our first book is Hey, Baby! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer.

Merry Monday: Sweet Holiday Picture Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week? The holiday season is upon us. Today I am going to share with you five holiday picture books. These books have stories that are sweet. I am referring to them as holiday books because of one of them is a Hanukkah book. It combines the parents' cultures--Jewish and Indian. Talk about a multicultural mix It is Queen of Hanukkah Dosas by Pamela Ehrenberg and illustrated by Anjan Sakar. 

I Am Gandhi and I Am Sacagawea Blog Tour

Disclosure: Penguin Kids sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Today I get to share with you the latest two books in the Ordinary People Change the World series by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. I am sharing these books as part of the blog tour!


Multicultural Books for Different Ages

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

It has been awhile since I did a Multicultural Monday review, but here it is. Today I am going to share with you book for different ages from all over the world and with diverse characters. Hazel loves learning about other countries and cultures. Today I am sharing books that tell tales from other cultures, share about other countries and a multicultural young adult book set in Boston. We will start with All About Thailand by Elaine Russell and illustrated by Patcharee Meesukhon and Vinit Yeesman. 

Books to Teach Culture and More to the Young

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am sharing some of my favorite books to teach about Asian culture and countries. These books work for younger kids and also help teach ABC's. They are a series of ABC rhyming books about Asian languages and culture. Each book has information about how certain letters in the language are pronounced. 

Traveling with Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Do you enjoy traveling? Ever wonder what it would be like to raise children in another country? Want to teach your kids about the world and other cultures? Or perhaps you have a big trip coming up and need to figure out what to pack? Well today I am sharing books that do all these things. These books are for different ages. Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing a book that compared Asian parenting to American parenting. Today I am sharing a book that looks at parenting from Paris to New York. It is Say Bonjour to the Lady by Florence Mars and Pauline Leveque. 

Indian Tea Party: Chai and Henna -- Tea Parties Around the World -- Exploring India


This month we decided to explore India with our tea parties. India seems like a good one to mention when exploring tea around the world. It was after all a big part of the British trying to grow tea somewhere besides China. When the British were able to smuggle some tea plants out of China they ran into the problem of needing the correct environment to grow it in. They decided on India and began to colonize there. In my British and Chinese tea party posts I shared great resources to explore the history of tea, so I am not going to repeat it all here. Of course tea is so sensitive to environment, methods of processing and even methods and times of picking, so the tea in India was even different from the tea in China.

Saraswati's Way -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Monika Schroder gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Can you believe Multicultural Children's Book Day is on Friday? I cannot wait to see all the great books reviewed in the link up on Friday. I am a co-host so you can see them here!!
http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/

Beyond the Tiger Mom -- Book Review with Math Lessons & Free Printables

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

As a parent I want to make the best choices for Hazel and I am sure you feel the same way about your own children. With all the mixed messages out there it can be hard. There are the studies that say our children need more free play time and then there are the messages that our kids need to be doing academics more. I had a conversation with a fellow parent of one of the boys in Hazel's class that expressed concern about the school not stressing the academics enough. I was a little shocked because in my opinion it was stressing them too much at such a young age. But this mom has five children with the boy in Hazel's class being the youngest and she told me her older children (who started at a different Christian school that has since closed) had a better foundation in math than our kids are getting. She even talked about the Asian families in Singapore and having to compete with them. It does make one wonder what is being done differently in Singapore, Asia and in Asian American families that often put their kids in the top positions in math and science classes. 

Exploring Diwali with Books, Game & Craft -- Free Templates


This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Diwali for Kids Series. Be sure to check out the other great posts and link up an Diwali posts you have.

As Christians we do not know much about Hinduism or Diwali. We of course turned to books to learn a bit more. We found some books that we found informative and on the right level for Hazel at the library.



Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #30


Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs

This month our co-hosts are:

Indian Crafts

Disclosure: This post contains Affiliate links where I will receive a nominal fee if you purchase through it.

Since it is the last day of the month, we are finishing our exploration of India with Global Learning for Kids and preparing to move on to Lebanon in July. To finish India we made some crafts of things we had read about. Two of the craft ideas came from Super Simple Indian Art by Alex Kuskowski. This book has several great ideas that use things most kids have in their craft supplies.

The Cafe Spice Cookbook -- Book Review -- Exploring India

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We have been continuing our exploration of India, this month's country for Global Learning for Kids. We explored recipes from India in The Cafe Spice Cookbook by Hari Nayak and photography by Jack Turkel. 

http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/books-by-country/the-cafe-spice-cookbook-paperback-with-flaps

This cookbook is inspired by the Cafe Spice grab 'n go Indian meals found at Costco and Whole Foods. I am excited to review this book and have Hazel try some Indian food. Steve has never liked Indian food, so I was interested in seeing if he would like it. The only times he ever ate it was when other people had ordered it. Since we are not a family who loves things too spicy, I was hoping to keep the spice factor down, however I did not really succeed. We tried three recipes from the book so far. We started with a lassi. Hazel wanted to try a lassi after seeing it on one of the Indian DVDs we watched and hearing about it in a few of the books we have read

Exploring India -- Resources and Craft


This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring India. We have been reading books about India, people from India, places in India and stories from India. Today I am sharing with you a bit about India as well as some of the resources we found (some we have read and some we have not read yet) as well as a craft Hazel did with instructions from a book and minimal help from me. First a bit about India.



The Republic of India is the seventh largest country by area and the second largest by population. It has over 1.2 billion people in it! It is a country in Southeast Asia. The capital is New Delhi. It has a long history which includes the start of four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Hinduism is the most prevalent religion there today. India has a caste system which is a social hierarchy. In 1947 the untouchables caste was declared illegal due to the discrimination that the people put into this caste endured. At many workplaces the caste system is not important.  Family is important in India and many live with  large patriarchal families. Many marriages are still arranged by the parents with the consent of the couple. Divorce rate is very low since marriage is considered to be for life.