Let’s be honest – It’s not always easy (or cheap) to take your kiddos all over the world with you… but we want them to be exposed to other cultures and people and nations…
One of the many things that I love to do with my girls is read books! We have some books that we have read over and over again to the point that Ivey pretends that she’s reading the book to me now. It’s really the cutest thing – hearing her recount the words like “jammy to the left, jammy to the right… jamma jamma jamma PJ!” from the PaJama Time Book. I could share a couple more but I’ll save you – because I know you probably can relate!
As we were reading one day, it was like a lightbulb went off and I began to ask myself, “Why am I NOT reading to my girls from books about things happening all around the world?!?” I got so excited and started to search all over Pinterest for worldview books / global books, etc. and honestly, I just wanted to cry and not in a good way… it was OVERWHELMING! I went to the Library and begin to search and I had NO idea where to even start! But I also knew that reading to my girls about the world was crucial to begin to open their little hearts and their little minds to see and love the world and the people that God created! I can’t expect them to have a heart for the world when I don’t show them that a world exists outside of our little part of town or even our street.
So as we read together now, I strive to choose books with purpose – books that show different cultures, introduce different languages, tell stories from other parts of the world, and while right now, they don’t fully understand that Chad is in Africa and Africa is a LONG way from here or that there are all types of bread from around the world, or that they can learn to count in different languages – they are learning and I want to capture it while I can and hopefully help teach them to have a love and passion for others around the world.
A Great Resource so you won’t be crying at the library or waste 5 hours of your life on Pinterest:
Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time
Articles with Book Ideas:
https://www.imb.org/2016/09/05/reading-list-missional-parents-raising-globally-minded-kids/
What books are you reading with your kiddos? Have you come across books that will help open up our minds to learn about other cultures?
onmissionmoms.com 