Friday, November 30, 2007

Finding Cultural Balance During the Holiday Season...

There is much talk about the multicultural aspect of celebrating holidays during this time of year. Here is some advice for celebrating holidays in early childhood programs...

When carefully planned and thought out as one part of a multicultural curriculum, holidays can be a vehicle for learning about the traditions and values of the families in our programs and exposing children to the traditions of others. When poorly planned, holiday celebrations might trivialize or provide incorrect information about cultural or religious celebrations, or encourage myths or stereotyping of groups of people. Think about your current holiday practices and reflect on what is meaningful and appropriate for the children you teach and their families.


Decisions about what holidays to celebrate are best made together by teachers, parents, and children. Families and scare providers are more comfortable when both have expressed their views and understand how a decision has been reached. The important thing for all to remember is that when planning holiday activities, the rules of good practice continue to apply: Are the activities meaningful to the children? Are their needs and interests being met? Is the activity a valuable use of children's time?

Holiday celebrations are just one way for programs and families to work together to create developmentally and culturally appropriate learning experience.

Here are some signs of good practice in celebrating holidays:

Children enjoy celebrating holidays. We need to make sure that all cultural holiday celebrations are recognized


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