I love Ethiopia. I can remember thinking about Ethiopia when I was a girl. The news of the awful famine had a profound effect on me even as a small child. Then, of course, choosing Ethiopia as the country of our adoption led Hubby and I to learning quite a bit about Ethiopia. While I will never be a professor of Ethiopia, I still feel apart of this great country. On a recent min-vacation I took a friend to eat Ethiopian food for the first time. It was enjoyable to share this food with her and she enjoyed feeling apart of our family. The kids were not there, but it still felt homey when I was in the restaurant.
My previous posts have touched on how we have tried to integrate Ethiopia into our American home. Mita and Enu appreciate this (sometimes with words, sometimes with an eye roll and a smile!) but they don’t really care for us being a poster-board Ethiopian family. They do not want me to talk to their classes this year and that is okay with me, I want them to be comfortable. That said, Meg and Elle think it is pretty cool and like me to come and talk about Ethiopia with their friends!
This coming week I have been asked to share about Ethiopia at my preschooler’s class. They knew we were an adoptive family, but when my then four year old found Ethiopia on the globe and started talking about her trip there, they quickly asked me to come and talk in class someday. This will be the first time I will be talking to a group this young about Ethiopia, but it should be a good time.
My goals:
1. Keep the time short – 15-20 minutes that includes a snack time.
2. Help make the kids aware that there are amazing places in this world and that it is fun to learn about these places.
3. Try a new food/texture to expand their tastes and knowledge.
How do I plan on achieving my goals?
1. Books of course! I have two new books to donate to the classroom that I will mention below.
2. Handicrafts from Ethiopia. I have popcorn baskets and coffee beans, Elle will wear her dress and the animal wood carvings are always a hit!
3. Offer food! I plan on having Injera to pass out as well as cookies with and ”E” on them!
4. Action. I have a globe beach ball that I like to have the kids pass around to find Ethiopia.
5. Music. I have a great CD that plays some traditional kids songs that the kids already know, but the words are in Amharic. This helps them know that kids are kids everywhere!
I’ll let you know how my presentation goes and would love to hear ideas of what you do to help others learn of Ethiopia!
E is for Ethiopia by Lori Prodan & Keith Holmes is a fun book for pre-preschoolers as it features the English alphabet using pictures, facts and crafts from Ethiopia. The back of the book also has some educational facts that can be shared with older children as well, so this book can work for several age groups.
Philip and the Ethiopian is published by ARCH books and takes the popular Bible story and puts it in a easy story form that teaches a Biblical lesson. Elle goes to a Christian pre-school, so this is an easy choice for us.
AmharicKids.com are having a sale right now! A great time to stock up on a lot of the books I have talked about over the last year including the above, E is for Ethiopia. AmharicKids features many fun, educational and inspiring Ethiopian products that help us instill our love of Ethiopia in our family, friends and community. They are in the works for a new book coming out this Summer called Yafi’s Family: An Ethiopian boy’s journey of love, loss and adoption written by an Australian adoptive mom and features a forward by Melissa Faye Greene and the illustrations are done by Jan Spivey Gilchrist (a Corretta Scott King award winner). This promises to be a great book and I will let you know when I get to read it!
Here are the details of the sale:
15% off your entire order over $50 and you receive a free pack of Ethiopian traditional Art Greeting Cards. Coupon Code: 15 off
(this sale is for the next week, posting of this is March 13, 2010)
Thanks to Amharickids.com for sharing the sale code with us! Adoptionblogs.com and Mandy W. did not receive anything for our review of these products.
Photo Credit Mandy W.
Title…
Great to see such an Awesome Post!…