8 Tips to Help Your Children Appreciate Their Heritage:
- Cook traditional foods and make mealtime something important. Eating while all sitting at the table will make the foods more meaningful.
- Don’t forget your home country’s holidays; it will definitely be fun for your kids to have more holidays and celebration.
- If you live in a community where there is no representation from your culture, become one. Plan activities for your kids where you can show them more about your culture, invite your children’s friends.
- Involve your children in issues relevant to your culture (depending on their age). Make them aware of cultural events, news or needs of the community.
- Play traditional music in your home. You can create fun games about who dances better, who knows the lyrics and such.
- Keep in touch with family members abroad. Let your children talk to cousins, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas. This will make them feel part of that group as well.
- Teach them basic history, the flag and basic geography of your country. They won’t know as much as a child that is being raised there, but they should know more than a child with a different background.
- Speak to them in your own language. It’s one of the basics for your kids to get immersed in the culture, being able to communicate with relatives who don’t speak English.