Teaching Your Child to Respect Other Cultures

“This post is a partnered post and may contain affiliate links. These thoughts and opinions are in line with my own personal beliefs.”The world is filled with diversity and finding ways to teach your child to respect other cultures will help them learn to respect people who are different. Equipping them with the knowledge to recognise and celebrate diversity will help fight racism and other types of bias, and help you raise an open-minded, considerate child. Here’s some advice from an independent school in Gerrards Cross.

Explore the Globe

You don’t need to hop onto a plane every other month to explore the world with your child. Show them a globe or a world map and point out some countries other than your own, explaining that people speak different languages there, have different coloured skin, have different religious beliefs, and wear different clothing. Perhaps you could consider picking out a different country on the map each week and doing some research about it to their knowledge. Perhaps you could even consider encouraging them to create a collage or write in a diary to help augment their learning.

Learn a New Language

Explain to your child that people speak different languages all over the world. Pick a new language together and try to learn it using online tools, books and/or apps. Ask your child if they notice any similarities or differences between their own language and the new one and find out how many people speak it all around the world. You don’t have to become fluent, but it can be fun to learn how different countries greet one another or say please and thank you.

Try New Recipes

Food is closely linked to culture, as there are special flavours, meals and even methods of eating that are unique to different countries. With that said, why not use your taste buds as a way to help your child explore other cultures. Try eating Asian foods with chopsticks or preparing tapas or enchiladas. Even if you consider yourself a foodie, there are still hundreds of recipes out there that you haven’t tried yet. Invest in a global cookbook and work your way through it, learning about different cultural traditions as you source the ingredients and prepare the meals.

Celebrate Different Festivities

There are lots of different religious and cultural holidays around the globe that you and your child may not have even heard of. Try and learn about them and perhaps even celebrate them in your own home. Here are some examples:

St Patrick’s Day
Ramadan
Eid
Diwali
Hanukkah
Mardi Gras
Thanksgiving
Chinese New Year
Korean New Year
Halloween
Christmas

As a childcare professional I find websites such as days of the year a really helpful resource to plan celebrating festivities.

The more your child understands different cultures and what they believe in, the easier it will be for them to accept and respect these differences. There’s no time like the present to get started.

I would love to hear ways you’ve found helpful for teaching your child to respect other cultures. Please share your experiences in the comments box below.