1. Listen to Spanish speaking music for a day or a whole month, like we are this year...Caliente on XM Sirrus.
2. Eat a Spanish meal.
3. Dance to Salsa music
4. Watch Spanish speaking t.v. show...all the way through
5. Play Spanish Bingo
A discussion at my house a couple of days ago:
Mom: "Hey Kids! Do you know why you are off school today?"
Kids: in unison " It's Rosh Hashanah"
Mom: "What Holiday is that?"
Kids: "A Jewish holiday"
Mom: "What does it mean??"
Kids: "A New Year"
Mom: Smiles
Finally, they are catching on.
Nothing is more embarassing when you ask a kid why they are off from school and they answer " Roe Hehanna"...well that was a few years ago, I've made a bit of progress with them.
This was the year to step it up and do a bit more research about this Holy Day, and boy was I surprised with new information. I love cultural research!!! No longer will I call this a Jewish holiday, but a BIBLICAL holiday...Here's a link to a new resource Heart of Wisdom's, A Family's Guide to Biblical Holidays.
Here's a link to Martha Stewart's Apple Honey Challa Recipe.
http://www.thekitchenspa.com/bread-recipes/martha-stewarts-apple-honey-challah-review/
I still think of the day after Labor Day the official start of the school year (although my kids have been back to school for two weeks already).
In Germany, there’s a lovely first-day-of-school tradition called a “Schultüte” or School Cone. Parents prepare a giant cardboard cone and fill it with back-to-school supplies, candies, and other small goodies. This gift, rather like an academic Christmas stocking, makes the first day of school extra special. The tradition dates back to the early 1800′s in Germany, and was implemented at our house this fall.
Source: Foreign Language Fun website
I surprised my son with a Schultüte on his first day of First Grade. I filled it with sweet treats including German gummy bears to add some cultural flavor.
Just another "Ethnic Scrapbooking" Tip from, Lisa, author of Ethnic Scrapbooking.
On this date 47 years ago, Martin Luther King gave the famous, "I have a Dream Sppech". What would he have said about the activities of this week, tension over a Mosque to be built at Ground Zero, an attack on a Muslim cab driver in New York, Tea Party Rally in Washington, and oh let's not forget the parts of his memorial arrived in DC recently.
I have a dream, like Dr. King's and I moved toward that dream by authoring Ethnic Scrapbooking and share with others my dream to raise children to have a healthy curiosity to learn about folks that are different from them, to not pre-judge, to connect to people on a HUMAN level and display Ubuntu. Although I'd like to see PEACE cover the earth, I know war is sometimes necessary, I can still dream for peace and harmony.
To purchase an autograph copy of Ethnic Scrapbooking, click the buy button on the left side bar, you don't have to have paypal, see the credit cards listed.
What an excellent time to have fun and preserve memories. This year we celebrated our family in a very big way at a cemetery of all places.
On a gorgeous Saturday morning we had a mini-african drumming session where we called out the names of our slave ancestors and all of their children and dedicated a headstone to our patriarch. To top it all off the local newspaper shared our inspiring story with the community with a front page feature story. What a blessing.
We captured this event on video, digital photos, camera phone photos, cassette tape audio recording and through the print media...what a day.
Although it's a weeklong celebration in the African-American community, everyone can reflect on the principles during December 26 - January 1and apply them to your own life.
For more ideas, check out Lisa Sanford's BLOG, or the ideas in Ethnic Scrapbooking.
Chris Rock's movie Good Hair is a great example of Ethnic Scrapbooking. Many women of all races come to me and ask me how to scrapbook their hair journey. Some just want to create a compilation of their various hairstyles, some want to make business portfolios, others want to scrapbook their journey as a form of therapy showcasing how they have come to grips with their hair. Every woman can write a personal story about their hair, jot down a story or two today.
Over on my blog, I let my hair down a bit, check it out CLICK HERE
