The school that my son goes to is having Cultural Night in about a month. I’m not exactly sure what they are going to do since his teacher hasn’t shared all the detail yet. All I knew is the second graders are going to do some research about culture unit; how a group of people develop custom and culture. Then they will create a slideshow and do presentation on Cultural Night event at the school. The teacher did send an email to all the parents telling us to write a friendly letter to our child about our heritage. Well this is a no-brainer for me since both my husband and I are the first generation from Indonesia living here in America.
So just for fun, these are what I told my 7 yr old about Indonesia. Note that I had to make it as simple as possible for him to understand
- Indonesia is a tropical country in Southeast Asia, located between Singapore and Australia
- There are 5 big islands and over 13,000 small islands (I didn’t use the word archipelago because obviously that’s a bit too much for a second grader)
- It’s very far from here. If it’s 10 o’clock in the morning here, it is 10 o’clock at night at grandma’s
- Indonesian speaks many dialects but we all speaks our national language, which is Indonesian
- It’s very hot and humid. There are only two seasons, dry and rainy season. No winter, spring, summer or fall. The sun goes up at 6 am and goes down at 6 pm, all…year…long
- Indonesian eats rice every day, sometimes for breakfast. And yes we love spicy food
There are so many things about Indonesia that I could list, but again, I had to make it as simple as possible for a second grader. I asked the teacher if I could send a prop, and she welcomed the idea. So I sent the photo album of our trip to Indonesia when my son was merely two years old. I was so dying to send the traditional clothing that my mother in law sent me, but it was too small for him.
I just can’t wait to go to the Cultural Night and am so grateful of the diversity in my son’s school.
Are you in Ohio?
Yes!! Columbus to be exact.