Kids and Culture

The last few weeks have been “los Jornadas Culturales,” or Cultural Days, at the kids’ school.  The Cultural Days are an annual celebration of, um, culture.  They mark the birthday of the school’s namesake, German pedagogue Federico Froebel. 

Federico Froebel:  a Oaxacan?

Helen’s Cultural Days lasted two weeks.  Each class studied a country where one of the students in the class is from. 

Flags of the countries represented by families in the preschool.

Helen’s class studied the United States.  Helen’s teacher turned over the planning and the teaching to us.  We went in five days for about an hour each time.  Here is what we did.  (Keep in mind, our audience consisted of four- and five-year-olds.)

Day 1:  Colonial history and independence (in 60 seconds), history of the flag (in 120 seconds), Star Spangled Banner (several versions, including one performed by cats and dogs), flag-making (rest of the period).

Flags!

Day 2: United States music.  I brought my guitar and we sang “This Land is Your Land,” “Old McDonald,” “BINGO,” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

Day 3:  Clothes and food in the United States.  Special guest Tamara told the story of Levi's jeans and the Gold Rush.  (The kids were captivated, although maybe they were just perplexed that Helen’s aunt speaks such good Spanish.)  Then we sang the Peanut Butter and Jelly song, which I introduced by translating peanut butter as “cream of turkey” instead of “cream of peanuts.”  (In my defense, they use the Zapotec words for peanut and turkey here, which are easy to confuse:  cacahuate for peanut, and guajolote for turkey.)  We ended the class by making fruit ambrosia.  Whatever self-righteousness I felt about demonstrating that we eat more than junk food in the U.S. was blown when we added the marshmallows – the kids' favorite part.

Day 4:  Famous United States landmarks (a slide show).  Photos included Niagara Falls, the White House, the Washington Monument, Disney World, the Mississippi River, the St. Louis arch, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, a Redwood Tree, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hawaii volcano, and Mt. Denali.  Disney World and the volcano were the big hits, hands down.

Day 5:  Natalie attended the final “cultural fair.”  The idea was to sit at a table and answer questions about the United States.  The reality is that there was a picture of Buzz Lightyear on the table, so Natalie spent the hour answering questions about Buzz.

Max’s Cultural Days lasted one week.  There were mostly cooking workshops, but previously Max was selected as one of three kids from each grade to help a visiting artist paint a mural, so he did that instead of cooking.  (Max's teacher said she picked Max because he does such creative doodles in his assignment book.)  After a couple of weeks of planning, the kids and the muralist have spent the last four days painting.  Max has loved the experience so much that Natalie and I are willing to overlook the two pairs of pants and two shirts with nonremovable paint stains.  Actually, it has been extremely cool to watch the mural take shape.  There is no question that Max will have left his mark at the school.

Max did not participate in the cooking workshops, but a friend gave him his chef's hat. 

The wall, prepped for painting.

Partially-completed mural.

Max designed the scale and helped paint it.  The mural has been a true collaboration between the students and the visiting artist, whose name I did not catch.  

Max is not the only muralist in the family.  Natalie was recruited to paint the U.S. flag on a mural in the preschool, since the teacher wanted it to have all 13 stripes and 50 stars.

In addition to the three weeks of Cultural Days, which end today, the school observes Children's Day today, which is an official holiday in Mexico (normally observed on April 30).  For the kids, it means wearing “street clothes” to school and another day of fun activities organized by the parents.  For the parents, it means another day of organizing fun activities.  (As an adult, I can appreciate the answer to the age-old question of why, at least in the United States, there is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but no Children’s Day:  “Because every other day of the year is Children’s Day.”)  Natalie is carrying the banner for our family.  She is at school now, painting faces for the preschoolers.  Her one text to me was this:  “Someone thought it was a good idea to give all of the kinder whistles before the show!”  It sounds fun.

Helen and Max, modeling the outfits they chose for the one day they do not need to wear uniforms to school.  On the way outside, Helen decided the 70-degree morning was too cold for what she was wearing, so she changed into a longer skirt.

Natalie, dressed for Children's Day.

Now that the Cultural Days and Children's Day are coming to a close, we need some R&R.  So, this evening we leave on a two-week trip.  First we go south, where will visit Chiapas and then spend an afternoon in Guatemala to (hopefully) renew our visas.  Then we go north, to Mexico City, where Max is playing in a soccer tournament and Helen, Natalie, and I will do some sight-seeing.  We will have access to e-mail, but we are not bringing the computer so the next blog entry might not be until we get back at the beginning of May.

A quick parting story:  Yesterday Helen had a stomach ache.  Our housekeeper, Cristi, examined her then told me and Natalie in Spanish that Helen has a "ranita," or "little frog," in her stomach, which is a colloquial way to say she has a tummy ache.  Helen, who understands more and more Spanish every day, got upset - and maybe even a little frightened - when she heard about the ranita in her stomach.  She yelled into the kitchen, "I DID NOT EAT A FROG!"

Happy (early) Children's Day.  --Harrison