Want your kids to be educated citizens of the world, but feeling overwhelmed about where to start? This is the book.
I just finished Jamie C. Martin’s “Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time” and it was a fun and helpful read. She starts off by talking about her global family. She walks you through what she’s learned about the world through her marriage, her international adoption experiences and missionary journeys. It’s all really inspiring, but can also feel overwhelming if you’re primarily homebound with your little ones and wanting to still give them a feel for what the big world is like. But she moves from describing her travels to her tips for developing that kind of global mindset in your kids, no matter what location you currently inhabit. I thought she had some great (and guilt-free!) ideas about how to create a culture of reading and interest in the world within your home. These tips are simple things to incorporate in my home and can be a fun way to talk about your own ancestries and stories.
The second portion of her book is devoted to book recommendations. The recommendations are broken down by sections of the world with a short summary about the book and an indication of what country it came from. (As the adoptive parent to a Liberian, I was especially glad to see a book representing Liberia on the list.) I like that these books do not shy away from the topics of religion and culture, but allow for parents to discuss differences with openness and respect. Sometimes I get nervous about just grabbing random books at the library to try and introduce different aspects of a culture to my kids. I’m not afraid that the books will be controversial as much as I am bothered that they might just be boring or inaccurate. I don’t want to be giving my kids wrong information or boring them when what I want to be doing is piquing their interest in a new area of the world and the people who live there. The author does a great job of doing the heavy-lifting for you of prescreening these books and recommending ones she thinks are quality (she goes through her criteria for deciding what books to recommend at the beginning of the section on books from around the world).
The way the books are categorized will make it easy for parents to see a topic of interest or a current event you’re discussing and refer back to the book for other resources from that country. I can see how this book would be especially useful for homeschooling parents as they look to supplement curriculum with other books that integrate the areas they’re studying. I wish I had been thumbing through this book prior to the Olympics so we would have had some resources ready to go when my kids were asking questions about countries and cultures.
This book is a quick read and a great resource. If you’re looking for ways to use literature to introduce your kids to the world, I think this is a fantastic option. Enjoy!