Welcoming Families From Around the World

Think for a moment about the following two statistics:

• About 195 different countries exist in the world today.
• According to the U.S. census bureau, the United States’ population includes individuals and families from 150 different countries.

It is certain that as an early childhood professional you will encounter children from diverse backgrounds whose families may have come from many different countries. In what ways can you prepare yourself for working in early childhood settings which represent such diversity?

 Imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

• The name of “your” family’s country of origin
• Brazil 
• At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family
• Have family fill out information report; it will share native language, hometown and family dynamics
• Learn key words in Portuguese (native language)
• Suggest and then schedule a home visit before child starts school or Schedule a classroom visit day before school starts or during school hours with the family
• Make the classroom environment have a Brazil cultural influence.
• Ask parents way to make child feel at home and comfortable; Have parents share books, food, language and other things pertaining to culture
• A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family
• When a family knows that you are caring and trustworthy then they will become more involved if possible. If you know more about their culture it shows you put forth effort to understand and respect who they are and their culture. Also the children will feel comfortable if aspects of their culture are shown around the classroom.  It is about respect, trust, and a high quality of child.