Multicultural resources

[katy jane]

Hi can anyone help me I can't find multicultural recourses that don't cost the earth! There must be cheaper ways around it! Any advice?

[leeloo1]

ELC Happyland figures are good - and cheap. Or baby dolls? Also how about some books? Either 2nd hand or cheap from Amazon can be a good place to start?

[leeloo1]

Something like these?

Happyland Happy Family : Happyland Happy Family : Early Learning Centre UK Toy Shop

Happyland School Children : Happyland School Children : Early Learning Centre UK Toy Shop - also little girl in a wheelchair, so also inclusion friendly!

I explained to my Ofsted inspector that I chose to have resources that represented the life of the children in my care and the people they meet every day, so e.g. children like them but with different skin tones rather than a 'Spanish lady in flamenco dress' and she was very positive about that.

[blue bear]

Print off two identical pictures off the internet. Laminate one,cut the other Into pieces (four or six not tiny pieces) laminate the pieces.
Use sticky Velcro one bit on back of cut out and laminated and one bit on original marinated picture.
Home madeuzzle costing pennies.
Think balti dishes, chop sticks, food packets, menus
Scarves bracelets
Skin tone crayons

[FloraDora]

I have moved away now from using the word 'multicultural' in describing my resources.
My home represents the diverse society we all live in now, with cooking equipment, textiles, books and music .....
So the resources the children play with are similar.
My cul de sac is a mixed diverse neighbourhood, yet our homes are very similar. The smells wafting out when cooking are similar too...when we have a barbecue in the summer we usually are dressed very similar and no matter who's house is hosting the same food is served, just spiced up/ or not in different ways.

Small world people are the most expensive to ensure diversity, once you get beyond happyland. Playmobil is ok now , but pricey and I won't buy those£20 stiff characters that come in families of different nationalities as they are just not good fun to play with, they don't sit for a start.

Kitchen/ cooking is easy and cheap to resource- the Range sell balti dishes small enough for indoor and outdoor play kitchens, tK mex usually have small bamboo steamers, chinese style crockery and woks of various sizes. Asda home section is good too, so pots and pans reflect my kitchen, Crockery reflects my range for different types of meals.

I buy material from Birmingham and Leicester market, textiles in our den are from The Gambia and Thailand. I don't have dressing up as such, just a bag of lovely material that they drape, lie on, wrap things in , want tied around them etc..

Cd box has music from round the world, all played with equal air time, European and Scottish,Irish and Welsh music is included in this too ( though my birthday is on St Patrick's day so my Irish heritage does come out on that day more! ) I play Elgar, Mozart, Pacelbel at lunch. Music room has a wealth of world instruments ...built up over the years of my sons diverse music tastes and talents....but I appreciate these are pricey to buy in one purchase now.

My books are my dilemma. All my old favourites are predominantly white, western world , so I am always looking out for ordinary stories that represent our diversity now..to balance this..I have a few books that I have built up when we have focus weeks about different countries and Topsy and Tim now show a diverse neighbourhood .....publishers are getting better at this ...I have just bought a set of books with English and Spanish and English and French words and a 2 year old won't let me finish the book without doing the vocabularly page at the back, enjoying hearing the different language words.

What I am trying to say is that in the world I grew up in - multiculture education had to be introduced as we only ate hotpots, roasts and sticky puddings....the neighbourhood I lived in were all British...the music we listened too was british or American, I am ashamed to say that my parents were in fear of my life because I decided to go to University in Birmingham, and lived in Saltley - I / they lived in a bubble of Britishness with no idea of how the rest of the world really lived beyond the traditional dress dolls and the idea that everybody else were ' different' .
As our neighbourhoods have altered we have embraced the world, we don't talk about differences anymore but how we are the same - unless we are fanatics. So the need for specific'multicultural toys' is not the same ...in fact we went too far for a while and a group of children grew up thinking that if your family's heritage was not British then you must wear traditional dress everyday and eat different food. That you were definately 'different' to 'us' !

Multicultural Britain is a much better place to live......and it is the norm for me now. Celebrating family traditions in our diverse world is good and makes others, who do not 'celebrate' aware and tolerant. But not everyone has to celebrate every tradition from around the world...just those relevant to their life, but they can be aware.

[loocyloo]

:-) well said floradora.
I used to live in a diverse area ... having moved ... It's not very diverse at all! So my LO are not that aware, therfore I do feel it is important that they have knowledge of the rest of the world but don't make a 'thing'about it ... it is just part and parcel of our play.
I do have assorted dolls of all types and skin tones, and some super finger puppets of different families. Fisher Price little people and duplo have people in many ethnicities.
I have books from all over the world in many languages picked up on mine and others holidays. Barefoot books are good for multicultural books. I have puzzles showing different people .. picked up at charity shops and around the place.
Dressing up is also a variety of fabrics and hats here, toy kitchen has implements from many cultures and we listen to music from here, there and everywhere! Multitude of instruments too.
YouTube is great for watching dancing/music from around the world ... we love watching and creating our own.
But I didn't get all of the above in one go. I have been minding a long time and before that was a nanny so have slowly built up my collection.

[moggy]

Charity shops, car boot sales, library ex-stock sales (good for dual-language books).
I have never spent more than a few pounds on these things and never bought new! Keep your eyes open and build them up over time
DK are good for children all round the world books, Barefoot book.

I agree with Floradora too!

[lollipop kid]

Hi can anyone help me I can't find multicultural recourses that don't cost the earth! There must be cheaper ways around it! Any advice?

Hello all.

I would thoroughly recommend Tabby McTat as a really useful resource to help demonstrate how you cover ANY of the diversity questions (or to challenge ANY form of stereotyping) that an inspector might throw at you. I live in London, so the children are exposed to a real multi-cultural melting pot here. This little gem of a book reflects what the children might see around them on any given day.

Tabby McTat: Amazon.co.uk: Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler: 9781407109275: Books

As well as being a lovely rhyming story, it has the following images (and I've annotated my take on these in brackets - I am not trying to offend anyone, I am just not great on being PC):

Jewish man (looks very traditional such as you'd see in Golders Green)
Muslim Man (white hat; white overgarment - similar dress to some that I've seen at Bethnal Green) ***
Afro-Caribbean school-girl (wearing a uniform that looks like one you'd see in Public Schools)
Female paramedic (white skinned lady)
Male paramedic (dark skinned man)
Female nurse (dark skinned lady)
Chubby, tattooed white male, skinhead type haircut walking a very gentle, happy looking dog
Affluent, well-dressed female 'pensioner'
Afro-Caribbean man in a very sharp pin-stripe suit, complete with briefcase
Scottish female busker (as part of a multi-cultural busking brass band)
Female 'pensioner' at a desk (so still working)
Family in very posh looking house (Townhouse) with a kitten (one of Tabby McTat's) being carried on a red cushion
Family in very rustic looking house (in the Countryside, or a village?), with hens and a rabbit and a new kitten (again one of Tabby McTat's)
Male and female 'homeless' people under a bridge arch, beside a canal
Male market-stall holder
Female market-stall holder
Lady wearing black dress to the ground, and full Niquab
Scenes of Canary Wharf from possibly Hampstead Heath
Scenes of another area of London, possibly from Primrose Hill
Busker at Embankment, with St Paul's in the background on the opposite bank of the Thames (again, multi-cultural, multi-aged crowd watching him play, including lovely elderly couple)
Elderly man carrying a briefcase
Asian looking lady
Child (looks about 3 or 4) in what looks like a special needs pushchair
Child (looks about 9) in a wheelchair - again part of the crowd happily watching the busker

I dig this out time and time again at Inspections. It always goes down well.

I also have the Happyland school set, which features a wheelchair (but don't try to get it on the Happyland bus!!!)

Hope that helps,

L

PS: ***Big tip for any London minders: I go to 'Potty People' in Bethnal Green to get my buggies repaired - they are a MacLaren specialist, but do other buggies as well. Their charges are reasonable and they do repairs same day - they do a 'go for a coffee, come back, and your new wheels are on' type of service***

[FloraDora]

Thank you Lollipop - ordered! Julia Donaldson needs to know what a good saleswoman you are.

I have come late to Julia Donaldson who crept into children's literature as I moved into management, away from my EY focus ...I have the book people 10 disc Audio and my LO's ( and me) love listening - the troll is current favourite with a great Brummie accent - but I know they wouldn't go near it if they saw the illustrations!

[lollipop kid]

Thank you Lollipop - ordered! Julia Donaldson needs to know what a good saleswoman you are.

I have come late to Julia Donaldson who crept into children's literature as I moved into management, away from my EY focus ...I have the book people 10 disc Audio and my LO's ( and me) love listening - the troll is current favourite with a great Brummie accent - but I know they wouldn't go near it if they saw the illustrations!

Thanks, FloraDora.

I love her books, and although Tabby McTat covers all the above (keeping Ofsted happy), the children don't give a stuff - they just love it when I read it to them, and shout - "again".

I'm going to look at those Audio discs - I have very little in the way of Audio stories (I adore reading), so I really should add.

L