Recommended Resources: Great Books and Blogs for Nurturing a Child’s Multicultural Spirit

One of the deeper themes of my efforts to support the bilingual and multilingual journey of families in the world—as I stress in such posts as Why Raising a Bilingual Child Matters in a World Gone Mad and Why Your Bilingual Child Is Tied, Profoundly, to Hiroshima and Peace—is the idea that children with ability in more than one language can potentially feel keener empathy for others and contribute to creating a more harmonious world through their outlook and actions.

I realize, of course, that the world is still very far from the peaceful place we wish it was—and I admit to wrestling with a more jaded side, too—but I nevertheless continue to believe that the efforts we make, including our efforts to raise bilingual and multilingual children, do make a productive difference to the larger arc of our evolution as a species.

Great books and blogs

This same idea—that expanding our familiarity with the world and our empathy for others can help promote greater peace on this fragile planet—is the essential aim of two books on nurturing a spirit of multiculturalism that I wholeheartedly recommend: Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World and The Global Education Toolkit for Elementary Learners.

Growing Up Global, by Homa Savet Tavangar, is a passionately written and researched book that provides a marvelous wealth of ideas and resources for engaging children with the diversity of the world and cultivating a curious and positive attitude toward other cultures. Geared for families, Growing Up Global is a “parenting toolbox” that can serve as a valuable source of information and inspiration for families everywhere. To learn more about the book, and the author’s impressive work in this field, I encourage you to visit her website.

The Global Education Toolkit, co-authored by Homa Savet Tavangar and Becky Mladic-Morales, is also a wonderful reference for promoting a spirit of multiculturalism, with a wide range of innovative ideas and practical activities for children at schools or other child-oriented organizations and groups. This is a book that I wish had been available when I was still in the classroom—as a teacher of bilingual and multilingual children, it would have been a key resource for me—and I think every school should have this inspiring guide on hand for their community.

In addition to obtaining these two books, I also highly recommend visiting the numerous multicultural-minded resources you’ll find online. Three excellent places to start would be…

Kid World Citizen (Becky Mladic-Morales, the co-author of The Global Education Toolkit, is the founder)

InCultureParent (Stephanie Meade, founder)

Multicultural Kids Blogs (Leanna Guillen Mora, founder)

How about you? What other resources would you recommend for nurturing a child’s global spirit and empathy for others?

2 Responses

Jennifer says:

June 16, 2017 at 11:36 am

Timely post! I’ve been sitting here prepping for 4th of July festivities feeling like it’s not enough for my little bilingual dual citizen to have a “nationalistic” standard of education in regards to learning about the world and his countries like I had decades ago. These resources are just what I need to give him a wider view and bigger heart toward all the players on our world stage.

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1. Adam says:
  
  June 16, 2017 at 11:41 am
  
  I’m glad these resources can be helpful to you and your family, Jennifer!
  
  Reply

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Welcome to Bilingual Monkeys!

I’m Adam Beck, the founder of this blog and The Bilingual Zoo, a lively worldwide forum for parents raising bilingual or multilingual kids. I’m also the author of the popular books Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability and Bilingual Success Stories Around the World. I’ve been an educator and writer in this field for 25 years as well as the parent of two bilingual children, now 19 and 16. I hope my work can help empower the success of your bilingual journey.