School vacations, when you are freed from the constraints of busy schedules, is a great time to explore the world together through literature. Diverse children’s books can help provide a window into other ways of life, explaining differences but also allowing children to understand that we have much more in common than we realize.

Reading books about other cultures can:

• encourage children who don’t often see themselves represented in books
• foster empathy with those who may at first seem different
• reduce bullying by teaching respect for others
• spark curiosity about other ways of life
• raise awareness about challenges others may face

Travel the World Through Books This Summer

Now that you are excited to travel the world through books with your kids, you may be wondering how to get started! Here are some questions to consider when you are looking for quality multicultural books for children:

• Does the book include people of color or characters from other cultures/nationalities? (Even better, are these main characters, not just supporting ones?)
• Does the book rely on stereotypes or help break them down?
• Does the author come from the culture they are writing about, or have deep personal knowledge of it?

The great news is that your local library is a treasure trove of diverse literature that you and your family can dive into this summer. Your children’s librarian can help get you started, plus we have compiled diverse summer reading recommendations from bloggers around the world! This annual book list is sorted by age group, so you can be sure to find books perfect for you and your kiddos. Follow along this summer, plus be sure to visit the summer reading lists we have been creating since 2015!

Books are a wonderful jumping off point for exploring other cultures. Once your child’s curiosity is piqued, you can explore further. You might, for example, sample foods or make crafts from that culture, or trying to connect locally with neighbors who are from that area.

Want to raise a curious child who is respectful of others? Head to your local library and travel the world through books! Through reading about other cultures, you can nurture a sense of wonder about the world as well as foster empathy for those that may at first seem different.

What country would you like to explore through books with your kids this summer? Let us know in the comments!

Leanna is a homeschooler with three sweet, funny, rambunctious children. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their children to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” Leanna is the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs and also maintains her personal blog, All Done Monkey

Check out More Summer Reading Ideas Here!

The post Travel the World Through Books with your Kids! first appeared on True Aim.

Best of all, they may want to try something new!

What are the most common things that you do everyday? Playing, eating, doing chores are just a few things that come to my mind. What if you could peek inside someone else’s world and see how they do those things?

That’s what the new book Here and There does for children! From Buying groceries to exercising and holidays, this book gives insight on the typical lives of people all around the world!

Learn About New Cultures with Here and There!

Not only will this book be a great reference for your studies on different cultures, but you’ll also find new ways of doing things! I can’t wait to have my children try a couple of the chores that kids do in different cultures. LOL! Yes, I’m THAT mom! My kids are most excited about celebrating some of the festivals and holidays!

One of their favorite parts of the book talked about the different modes of transportation people used. In Norway, some children ski to get where they want to go!

My son asked, “What if you don’t know how to ski?” Great question right!? I asked him what other ways you could get around in a lot of snow and we brainstormed some other things like snowshoes and sleds. The book offered a great opportunity for discussions like those!

Here are the topics briefly covered in the book:

• Buying Groceries
• Playing Outdoors
• Traveling to School
• Healthy Eating
• Chores
• New Year
• Exercising
• Nature
• Festivals
• Getting Around

It’s a perfect introduction for ages 6-11 to the different ways people live around the world! After you read about them, then go out and do something or eat something that’s from another culture.

If you like the look of this book, then you might want to check out some of my other book reviews from other cultures like:

THE RACE OF THE ANIMALS – CHINA

ONE GRAIN OF RICE – INDIA

ARTISANS AROUND THE WORLD – NORTH ASIA

HEIDI and SWISS DECOUPAGE for KIDS – SWITZERLAND

This post is part of the Reading Around the World Cummer Reading Series. Please visit the post below for even more book suggestions!

The post Learn About New Cultures – Reading Around the World! first appeared on True Aim.

This book is set it India where there is a Raja ruling over the people. He decides that everyone should give them most of their rice so it can be saved in store houses in case of a famine. The Raja is smart because a famine does come, but he decides not to honor his promise. More on the story later…

Before reading the story, set up a simple visual example of what the book talks about. I used rice, but you can use anything; cookies, beads, even cereal. It could be really fun to have a special snack after the activity to make story time even more exciting.

Easy Multiplication Math Activity for Kids

I set up bowls of rice that doubled from one bowl to the next. First I started with 1/4 a cup of rice. I tried to use clear bowls so my kids could see the rice, but next time I’ll use bowls that are close to the same size so the kids can focus on the amounts of rice in each one.

I think cookies would be fun to use, just starting with 2 mini oreo cookies and doubling them in each bowl; 2,4,8,16,32.

After I was all set up, I called the kids in the room. I asked if they could see the pattern from one bowl to the next. They were a little puzzled. Right away they noticed that I had a bowl of red rice instead of white. Yes, that is a difference, but that was just because I ran out of white rice. oops!

Then I helped them by asking them if they were really hungry, which bowl of rice would they want? This helped them see that at one end there wasn’t as much rice as the other end. I compared the bowls from least to greatest and asked out of the two bowls next to each other, which one would they want?

Finally they saw that gradually there was more rice in each bowl.

This is where the story comes in. You can find the book, One Grain of Rice on Amazon. (affiliate link)

The pictures are magical, plus there is a fold out page that visually shows an example of the amount of rice that the main character gets in the end.

Or you can listen to it read on YouTube. I really recommend buying the book, but if you absolutely can’t this is the next best thing.

So continuing this story, a girl named Rani sees an opportunity to get rice for the people and help the Raja keep his promise. She sees rice falling from one of the Raja’s elephants, but instead of taking it, she returns it to him. He decides to reward her, and asks what she wants.

Instead of asking for a reasonable amount of rice for herself, she asks for a very small amount, just ONE GRAIN. She asks for that amount to doubled each day for 30 days. The Raja does not see the mathematical calculation of her request and grants her the reward.

It is a simple lesson of multiplication and exponential growth. There are so many different activities you could do with your children after reading this story. They don’t just have to be mathematical, but you could roll play about keeping promises and what happens when you don’t do what you say you will do. What happens when you don’t follow through.

As I’m reading, after certain parts of the story, I like to ask my children questions to make sure that they understood what we read. Questions like, what did the Raja tell the people to do? What happened when there was a famine in the land? What did Rani ask for?

After the story, we went back to the rice and I showed them how I doubled the amount in each bowl. I also showed them on paper what that looked like as a multiplication problem. Then I had them experiment with the measuring cups and rice so they could practice doubling amounts themselves.

What do you think about the story? Would you use rice for this activity or something else?

This post is part of the Reading Around the World Series. Please visit the post below for even more book suggestions and activities!

The post Reading Around the World: One Grain of Rice, A Mathematical Folktale first appeared on True Aim.