In January a newspaper in Clarksville, TN told of an activity an elementary school teacher did with her class to help them to understand the horror of slavery.

Fifth-grade teacher Rhonda Sorensen put together an activity in November that randomly paired her students as slaves and masters to illustrate pre-Civil War America. Students were randomly divided into slaves and masters on one day, then reversed the roles on the following day, said Elise Shelton, school system communication director.

The students were not divided by race, she said. Afterward,... more

Don't miss this excellent article about Ethiopian adoption.

Also be sure to check out this project www.change4orphans.com begun as a bat mitzvah project of a 12 year old girl named Leah who is interested in helping out Ethiopian orphans. Now that's my kind of kid! I am currently on my second reading of "There is No Me Without You" and I have been almost in physical pain thinking of all the children in desperate need there right now.

And finally, here... more

I'd been planning to write about Black History month this weekend, but have been flattened by the flu. Thankfully I've got friends - friends who have already done a dynamite job with writing all about it. So I thought I'd point you to their sites and also add a recommendation of one book I've been reading.

First of all, Erin, our Transracial blogger, did a dynamite pair of posts on celebrating Black History Month with children. Part One & Part Two

Avery writes about an ... more

(Part 1) Brian warned me in comments on the previous post that I was asking for trouble to bring up the contentious naming issue. Being a stubborn first-born, here I go anyway. One of the delights of having a blog is getting to state your own opinion. Feel free to disagree but, y'know, respectfully.

With each of our adopted children we kept their name from their country of birth as their middle name and gave them a name of our choice as their first name. That way we got the pleasure of naming/claiming the child, and child got an 'American' name for general use. Yet down the road they still have the option... more

Looking back through my archives, I was shocked to discover I haven't once covered the naming issue. Could this really be true? This is a hot topic among families.

There are several ways to handle the issue of naming a child born in another country. Some folks opt to totally rename the child and not keep any part of the name from the child's country of origin. Some choose to keep their child's entire Ethiopian name and just add the new family's name onto the end. This is most commonly done with an older child who is already very used to be called a particular name.

Others choose the middle road and keep part of the child's Ethiopian name, either as the first or middle name.... more

Just visited Erin's blog, where she addresses an issue that I have often faced with my girls, the comment, "She doesn't look African- she has such fine features!"

My first Ethiopian daughter got this comment quite a bit right after she came home- she also had many people raving about how beautiful she is - like they thought African people aren't beautiful. (Hard for me to fathom. Just look around. There is beauty everywhere.)

... more

When families are considering transracial adoption, they often wonder how people will accept the new look of their family. They wonder how it feels to be stared at in the grocery store. Will they be constantly fielding adoption-related questions? Is it possible to ever just be anonymous again?

STRANGERS

Our family has gradually gotten more and more note-worthy. When we brought our first Korean son home, I noticed an increase in interest and comments. However, the comments were just as likely about our family size as they were about his adoption status. He was our fifth child, and that size of family definitely generates curiosity. Our Ethiopian girls... more

Like most families, we own the full collection of Disney movies. Many of them - Little Mermaid and Pocahontas and Mulan - we bought more than a decade ago. Even back when all my daughters were blonde, it bothered me that none of the Disney princesses were Black.

Now that I have two Ethiopian daughters it has become even more troublesome. My beautiful 4 year old loves to play princess, and yet Pocahontas, the princess who looks closest to her, skinwise, has stick-straight flowing hair. I'd love it if Disney would get with it and create a beautiful Black princess--maybe even an Ethiopian one!

That's why I was so thrilled to hear about a petition being circulated for... more

"What's an immigrant, mom?" asked my eight year old Korean-born son.

"You are, honey!" I exclaim. "An immigrant is someone born in another country who comes to live in America. So you're an immigrant."

"I'm an immigrant." Spoken thoughtfully. "Hmmm..."

Click here to see the awesome website that sparked this conversation.

This afternoon my 8 year olds had a hankering for some TV. "Can we watch 'Arthur'?"

"No." I shook my head.

They were unsurprised at my answer. Despite their optimistic question, they knew I don't like the attitudes and unkind teasing that is modeled on that show.

Next, they asked if they could watch Maya and Miguel. Permission granted. Not only are the kids on this show kinder to each other; I also love the fact that people of every race are represented on this show.

Before I had kids of color, I didn't think lots about the predominance of white faces in the media. Now every time I turn on the tube,... more