Adoption Initiative Conference 2022
2 years ago
Monday, November 10, 2008
New Poll: How do you incorporate your child's birth culture in your lives?
I've taken the suggestions from 14 Ways to Focus on Culture to ask how you bring homeland culture alive for your kids. Notice I'm presuming that you do SOMETHING! Use the comments to discuss whether it really is important to make the effort, and to give suggestions for what you do that's not on the list.
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5 comments:
We are lucky enough to have a public school Mandarin immersion program. My bio son (6) is currently in the program, and his sister (adopted from China, now 3) will be in the program as well.
We try not to make the special meals "special" - I don't want Chinese food or the fact that I spent all day attempting to make dumplings or steamed buns to be a special thing, but just what we do in our family.
We shop a lot at the Asian markets for every day things, and attend community events for holidays (moon festival, Chinese new year, dragon boat races).
We do as Lesley does, food is just a part of our lives--not a special meal; however, our daughter tends to pick Chinese restaurants (she has two favorites) for her special days.
You are lucky! I wish we had a great immersion program--nothing here, and we have to drive for over an hour to get to a market. Jealous!
We really enjoy celebrating the Chinese "holidays" together and learning together about each one. We are blessed to have adoptive families in our development and we get together to celebrate Chinese New Year and the mom's all cook (or try to cook) a Chinese dish - the girls are young now, but hopefully when they are older we will be "pros". We also go to the oriental grocer to sample mooncakes on the Autumn Moon Festival, and go outside to see the bright moon together. Mia and I started a Chinese culture and language class together and go every Saturday. We truly have a love for China and we enjoy learning about every aspect of this beautiful country. We cannot wait to take Mia back ~ we cannot wait to go back :)
I'm torn on the "special meal" idea. I can see the value in mainstreaming Chinese food, and that's what we do. But I can also see a value in making it "special." Maybe we'll work on combining the two -- once a month research a new Chinese dish and make it a big deal to make it, while having our usual Chinese noodles, dumplings, etc. without fanfare.
I, too, am jealous of your school's immersion program, Lesley. What a great resource!
When we adopted our agency recommended we "get to know" families with adopted children the next age/stage up. Given the times we are in I can do this in person and "on-line".
I come to your site to hear the "adoption-conversations" of your life and what I might expect as our daughter grows. I find your blog a great source of adoption talk information. I realize it's only a part of your lives.
Just giving you some support in what you do!
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