The most profound part of K week was our beginning to explore Kwanzaa. Admittedly, I have always felt intimidated by the task of trying to teach my bi-racial children a sense of regard and respect for African culture and heritage. We began with the colors of Kwanzaa- green, black and red, illustrated while making M&M cookies of course :) I have never really fully understood the scope and meaning of Kwanzaa, its history or purpose (outside the knowledge that public school must give an obligatory nod to the holiday if they are to celebrate any holidays at all). The holiday was created in 1966 to give African Americans a unique way of celebrating their history and culture. There are three represetative colors and seven qualities that are celebrated through the ritual of lighting the Kinara... The festivities begin on December 26 - January 1. It is important to me that readers undertand that Kwanzaa is not a "replacement" for Christmas, nor is it a religious holiday. I will share more about the seven aspects as we go through each day the week after Christmas. Merely teaching my children about the colors has sparked an interest and curiousity that ousted spelling lists and sight words for the week. I am okay with this, as some schools take a two week vacation this time of year, and we are just continuing along.
The Colors of Kwanzaa and Glimpses of Our Conversations
Green- the mother land of Africa and the concept of Hope. Having always been aware of the world map, my children and I looked at where Africa is, how far away and how long it would have taken for Africans to come by boat... I also shared a map of the world as it is printed in Japan, to offer a different perspective...
Black- representative for the race's skin color- my children have always been keenly aware of their brown skin, and their father's darker color. Following the advice of experts, I have done nothing more than speak of their distinct features in a positive way- beautiful brown skin and curly hair. During this color, Eva recalled that in preschool, she had made a family tree, on which there is a picture of me and their father, and she pointed out that on her tree, he and I are standing next to each other in front of a tree. At this point, Kobey wondered if I, too, could celebrate Kwanzaa although my skin is not black. I answered that anybody with respect and regard for Africa and African people can celebrate, and that yes, we will celebrate as a family. He was adamant about bringing his color-by-number kinara to his afternoon childcare provider to share with them what he was learning.
Red- the color red in the Kwanzaa celebration is representative of the bloodshed of African ancestors. I remember as an eight year old child, I lost sleep when I became aware f the topic of slavery and it having been a part of American history. Just as I have omitted the topic of evil or God's wrath when reading from the Bible, I have more or less ommitted the topic of slavery from our learning about race thus far. In simple terms, I explained that after Caucasian settlers (recall of our November lessons) came to America, they decided to bring African people here to be slaves. You can imagine my shock and horror when Kobey interjected "and you got one of them Mama?" And in the next breath, "wait, what is a slave?" This is Kindergarten so I kept the answer simple- a slave is someone who is forced to work for no money, treated very badly and given very poor living conditions, that instead of being free people, they are the property of the people they work for... I had to explain that slavery is a part of American history from long ago (several generations back), and that back then, there would have been almost no chance that their father and I would have gotten together. Somewhere around this point is when Eva chimed in that she has African people too :)
I went on to explain about the underground railroad and the Civil War- good guys and bad guys who felt differently about how the African slaves should be treated, whether or not they should be free to live and earn money on their own. Remarkably, he decided at that point, that "this" is all he wants to learn about now. This year, and only this year, I am planning on spending the entire month of February exploring Black History, as is custom in traditional school settings. Beyond that, we will reserve February as a special month to explore the topic in greater depth, but I will integrate knowledge and awareness of black history into every month, every topic, every subject (as I feel it should be done); Kobey wondered is it almost February?
For these lessons, I gathered information online and "lectured" at the table while my children colored. M&M Cookie night was an introduction that was followed by more formal learning the next morning. I will look up and add the links to the resources that I used. Additionally, I added these books to our monthly reading list:
My First Kwanzaa Book by Deborah Newton Chocolate
Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Kuku wa Handa (Handa's Hen) by Eileen Brown, a story written in both Swahili and English
Speaking of books, I am hoping to add a book list feature to my blog; I adjusted our Reading List based on what was available at the library, and will update and post the list later today. ON to L Week!
No comments:
Post a Comment