Anti-Bias Activity: Mothers & Babies

(Right picture) Kaya, Isaac and Elika. 

(Bottom picture) Roan! 

All of these children are cousins :) 

For this activity you will need: 

• Images of mother and images of their babies from around the world within various cultures. 
• An image of a cat and her kittens. 
• Card stock
• Glue stick 

Prepare the cards and invite the child to try and match each mother and baby. 

Jessica 

Some questions that you can ask the child: 

Feona 

• What is different about the mother's faces? 
• Why did they choose that mother to go with that child?  

This activity is appropriate for ages 4-8. It can be discussed in further detail with the older children; like subjects of adoption, etc. 

Whose mommy are they??

Then show the images of the cat and her kittens, explain to the child how the cat is still the mother even though they might look different from her. 

Though the mommy kittens have orange and white fur, their babies can have light fur like theirs, but also black and spotted fur! 



I chose this activity because I personally don't look like my mom, and I think it is important for children that come from interracial families to understand why and that it is okay that they might not look exactly like either one or both of their parents. 

I think this activity could be done without the pictures of the kittens, and geared more towards families that have adopted, or children that have other caregivers or guardians. 

Jessica with her babies; Kaya, Elika and Isaac.

Feona with her baby Roan.

It is important for children to recognize that how we look is not what makes us family.
This activity teaches children concepts such as: 

• To recognize, appreciate, and respect the uniqueness, beauty, value and contribution to each child. 
• There are different kinds of families. 
• People are different. 
• Help children live happily and cooperatively in a diverse world. 

Books to use with this activity: 

Black is Brown is Tan by Arnold Adoff. 

 I found this book when I searched, "Children's books about interracial families." 

"When it was first published in 1973, Black is Brown is Tan featured the first interracial family in children's books. Decades later, Arnold Adoff and Emily Arnold McCully continue to offer a joyous and loving celebration of all the colors of the race, now newly embellished with bright watercolor paintings that depict a contemporary family of the twenty-first century." 

"black is brown is tan 
is girl is boy 
is nose is face 
is all the colors of the race"

Allison by Allen Say 

 Allison realizes she looks more like her doll Mei Mei, than she does her parents after she tries on a Kimono. Allison becomes angry, she breaks some of her parents things, and says that she doesn't belong to them. The author uses a stray cat that Allison wants to adopt to help her come to terms with the situation. It was then that Allison realizes everyone needs a family.

You're Not My REAL Mother! by Molly Friedrich 

About a little Asian girl who tells her mom "You know, mom, you're not my real mother," this book is appropriate for children from adopted families. 

The mother begins to answer her daughter by asking her what she thinks "real" means, then proceeds to ask her if real mothers teach their children the alphabet or how to count to a hundred, or if real mother loves and smothers her child in kisses? 

The book's high point comes when the mother addresses the loaded question, "But why don't you look like me?" 

With its love-builds-a-family message, this book is a good conversation starter and a reassuring read for adoptive children, especially in multiracial families.

Sources: http://carrotsareorange.com/bring-culture-anti-bias-learning-home-classroom/

http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/best-books-for-transracial-families/ 

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/diversity/multiracial/multi_race_picbooks.html 

Children's Picture Book Analysis: My First Highlights Magazine

For my children's book analysis I chose from an array of My First Highlights Hello Magazines. Highlights has been around since 1946, Highlights Hello are aimed towards toddlers, specifically for ages 0-2. Highlights Hello began in 2012. I nanny for a 2 year old boy, Travis, who has over 100+ books on his shelf, but he loves these magazines the most. Each one consists of 2-3 short stories. Travis' parents are both teachers at Antelope; his mother a history teacher and his father an English teacher. Together, they find Highlights Hello to be appropriately diverse for their 2 year old son.    

 


The first story inserted in this magazine is called Stroller Time. Since these stories are meant for preschoolers, I focused more on the illustrations rather than the words. On the first page alone, I see three different skin complexions. I felt like this was a relevant point to bring up because this is what a preschooler will typically see on a walk through the park. 
"Sitting in my stroller, my daddy pushes me..."
I feel like this goes against the stereotypical gender role since a father is out pushing a stroller through the park. The assumption can be made that this could be a stay at home dad, which we don't see as often as a stay at home mother.

A few things stood out while looking at the images for this poem titled Itsy-Bitsy Baby: 
1. The baby in pink clothes in both images. Its hard to tell if they wanted us to know that the baby was a girl or not, but this is a stereotype that girls wear pink. 
2. In regards to #1, the mother is dressed in green and blue. 
3. Even with their darker complexion, we can't be sure of what their ethnicity is but the illustrator did give both mom and baby really curly hair. 

 The last story in this Highlights Magazine was The Little Gardener. Initially what I liked about this story was that they had a little boy out in the garden with whom we can assume is mom, which goes against the gender stereotype that girls are the gardeners. 

But then as I looked further into it, I noticed the lighter complexion and the ways their eyes were drawn.. It looked like they were trying to represent the characters as Asian. I noticed the hat they have on the little boy to me looks somewhat like a rice farmer hat.

Of course I can be looking way too far into this, but I was hesitant whether that was culturally appropriate or not.

A Few of Our Daycare Kids :)