As I was reading to my son last night I was thinking about the books he chose. I always tell him to pick three books and I never know what he will bring. It’s always different, which is why I like to have loads of books for him to choose from. Neither of us ever gets bored.
Last night one of the books he chose was Why The Emu Can’t Fly.
As an expat-Australian, my husband (and his family) are mindful of still keeping our kids aware, if not immersed, in Australian culture.
They have been given many Aussie stuffed animals. Crocodile, emu, platypus, gallah, kangaroo, koala, echidna, etc not to mention the animal’s biggest advocate….a Steve Irwin doll!
We sing Australian songs. Big D knows the words to Walzting Matilda and Home Among the Gum Trees, among others.
We read Australian books like Bilby Moon, Possum Magic, Bananas in Pajamas, and How Koala Lost It’s Tail. Also other books like Adventures of the Wishing Chair and The Magic Faraway Tree, that are not by an Australian author (British author, Enid Blyton), but that many Australian children grow up reading.
And we talk about Australia a lot. Big D can point to Australia on a map. He knows we are going to have a hot Christmas this year since we will be in Australia. He knows to call koala and kangaroo babies, “joeys”. He has lots of shirts advertising Australia and will tell tell others who lives there if asked (like his Nana and Grandad and Auntie or cousins that he might be talking about at the time).
We use Skype and the computer camera so we can see and talk to people in Oz, and they don’t feel so far away and faces are always familiar to the kids.
It’s funny to me that our kids will grow up thinking that Australia is just a place we visit all the time, not really thinking much about it or how far away it is. Going there from the US will be normal to them, like going to Alabama or Florida was to me. That is just amazing to me.
Just like anybody whose family lives far away, whether in another state or another country, it’s hard for kids to stay connected to grandparents or family members when they don’t see them all the time. We have to make an effort. It’s something we talked about a lot before we got married.
We knew we would have to make sacrifices in order to afford travel when we had kids. We knew we wanted to travel once a year to the country that we weren’t living in so that our kids could know their family and culture in that country.
So far it’s been great. My in-laws from Australia have also visited twice in 3 years, and my sister-in-law is coming for a visit next month. So far, we’ve been able to keep everybody really connected and familiar. We also have a personal blog that I post photos on all the time, which the Aussies (and the Americans) love.
We have dreams of travel around Australia as the boys get older. Like, loads of camping trips, travel to the West Coast and Tasmania, among other places while we are there, possibly take a year off (or at least the summer) and travel around Australia in a caravan….heaps of plans. One day, when they all get older, I would even like to take my nephew and niece with us on a trip too.
How we are going to fit this in with our plans for travel around the US is beyond me, but we will work it out!
What kinds of things do you do to keep your kids connected either to another culture or family that is far away?
