teaching multiculturalism beyond books

[Bad Mama Jama]

i'm a single mama with a multicultural child.  for me, i need a bit of advice for creative ways to introduce my daughter's other background without the assistance of the other parent as he is not present.  i've presented mine in a host of ways because it is not so abstract for me, but we often talk about her other parent's and go through books and such.  we also dine at a host of restaurants and such that serve food from the other parent's background.  other than that, i'm kind of at a loss...

[Bena]

Is there a large community from your child's father's culture in your town?  They might hold special community events, or festivals?  Do they have specific holidays or celebrations or even traditions around holidays that you celebrate that are different th an the ones that you have?  You could start celebrating them, in your own way, with your child. 

What about language school?  In our city, the school board offers saturday morning language school in a multitude of languages, for kids, for free! 

Also,maybe there are other families on this board of the same culture as you ex, who could offer you some specific ideas!

[Bad Mama Jama]

i love the idea of the festivals and such.  right now, our language school doesn't offer the language that i would need, so that is out.  but i like the other suggestions that you had.

[HappyHappyMommy]

I really like celebrating holidays from different cultures. If there isn't a celebration where I live, I try to find out about the holiday and try to make our own celebration by making foods that are typical of that celebration and do crafts or other traditions. Right now, my DD is really interested in Rahki. We're a little late in celebrating, but we've been making bracelets and learning about the festival. We are also celebrating Rosh Hashanah by having some foods like apples dipped in honey.
 

[Erin77]

Movies and cartoons from the other culture would be fun, and if your daughter is old enough, what about a penpal?

[CA Country Girl]

There is this great HBO series called "Happily Ever After:  Fairy Tales for Every Child" that retells all the classic fairy tales with multicultural characters.