Hello Everyone!!

This week we are participating in the mommyfest.com Blog Party!!  Click on this link to go and visit all of the other wonderful blogs that are participating.

To celebrate our participation, we are giving away one of our Regionz Kidz Tank Tops for infants, toddlers or moms FREE

To enter, just leave a comment with your email address on this entry with your favorite character, gender and design from our Regionz Kidz sketchbooks, found on our website home page.  At the end of the week, we will choose our winner and you will be contacted via email to choose your size!!

Also, in your comment, if you are interested in receiving our monthly newsletter, please make a note of that and I will add your name to our list.  Our newsletter contains articles on diversity, healthy kids, and growing up “green”, along with coupon codes and great partner deals.

Thanks and enjoy the PARTY

As parents, we all want our children to feel good about themselves - that is inherent.  Having good self-esteem is vital to kids achieving higher marks in school, staying away from drugs and alcohol, and leading an overall productive and healthy lifestyle.  How then do we help children develop high levels of good self-esteem?

*Accept your child for who they are.  Embrace the talents, interests and skills that they DO have, rather than focusing on things that they are not good at or do not enjoy.

*Listen to your child.  Do not always provide a quick solution to their problems.  They may not be searching for an answer, just someone to listen.  Let them work out small problems and situations on their own.

*Don’t use labels to describe your child, but rather their behavior.  Do not tell a child, “You are bad.”  Instead let them know that their behavior in a certain situation was unacceptable.

*Provide structure, reasonable discipline and limits.  These show children that their world has a pattern and routine and they allow children to feel some control over their situations.  Children that feel helpless are more dependent and less able to make good decisions in the absence of adults.

For some wonderful resources and educational activities to help promote good self-esteem in your children, you can visit the sites listed below.  They provide colorful and fun stories, worksheets and family activities that will help parents teach their kids about positive, happy feelings, believing in themselves, and ways to grow and help others build their own self-esteem.  They empower children to become their own biggest believers, and make learning about this sometimes difficult and confusing issue, fun.  I have had personal contact with both of the owners of these companies (Women!) and have found them both to be passionate about what they believe in and educated on the topic of children’s self-esteem and how to foster and develop it.

http://www.bingnote.com - INSPIRE CHILDREN TO BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES!

http://www.yeahyeahoutloud.com -Empowering kids to discover their inner “cheer”leader!

I came across this company in Working Mother Magazine & was impressed with their business philosophy and company mission - please take the time to visit the website and pass their company information along to others that can benefit from their products.

Real Cosmetics is a revolution in the make-up industry.  Created by a Pakistani-American woman tired of not being able to find the right foundation color for her ethnic skin tone, Lubna Khalid’s company has become her passion.  9 years ago she launched her line which features makeup with a broad range of undertones including olive, golden and red-brown skin.  Lubna wanted not only focus on the sales and marketing of her 2 different product lines (face and lips), but she also wanted to take time to focus on women’s issues of beauty, empowerment and social stereotypes.  She uses “real” models for her products, 90% of her employees are multicultural women, and she tries to adress the concerns of multicultural women through personal enhancement and diversity of beauty ideals.

Real Cosmetics has a Face Line that features liquid foundation and pressed powders in 16 shades & a Lipstick Line in 16 colors.  They have been featured on the Oxygen Network & Fitness, Shape, InStyle, Cosmo Girl & “O” Magazine.  They are currently in the process of opening several retail stores in major cities across the US.

Catering to a growing market of multi-ethnic women looking for beauty products that make them feel beautiful, Real Cosmetics is a leader in the field of product development and social conscience.  No longer do women of color have to say, “My skin tone must be abnormal because I can’t find any products for me.”  Instead, when they visit Real Cosmetics, they will find high quality products made specifically with them in mind.  Congratulations to Lubna Khalid for creating a company and products that can help to include women into the collaborative view of what is beautiful.

We All Went on Safari- A Counting Journey Through Tanzania
written by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Julia Cairns

“We all went on safari,
Over grasslands damp with dew.
We came across some ostriches,
And Mosi counted two.”

 This book is great for toddlers beginning to count, as well as older children who are ready to learn about the world. The book follows a group of Maasai people as they explore their world, counting animals in English and Swahili. Each phrase and number get a beautiful two page illustration from Ms. Cairns. The counting poem is followed by a number of pages with information about the Maasai people, the country of Tanzania, the native animals and Swahili names. There are a number of pronunciation guides to assist in reading the story.

This book was winner of a Starred Review by the Kirkus Reviews, and recently School Library Journal said, “Youngsters will learn numbers from one to ten in English and Swahili as Mosi, Tumpe, Arusha, and other friends count African wildlife. Attractive borders frame vibrant watercolor spreads of different types of animals, including giraffes, elephants, zebras, and lions. The rhyming singsong verse, beginning with the refrain “We all went on a safari,” lends itself to a fun read-aloud.”

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book will be donated to the African Wildlife Foundation, to aid their wildlife conservation and community building efforts in Tanzania. This is a fun book to read aloud or alone, and is a great way to introduce children of all ages to the country of Tanzania.

To find out more about this book and print an activity sheet, please visit my website at http://barefootfamily.mybarefootbooks.com

Thanks again to Jenn for the great write-up! Please take a look at what Barefoot Books has to offer - they truly are a unique and wonderful company.

I would like to thank Sheena for this great review as well as her unique perspective on race and diversity! You can view her blog at: http://www.mommydaddyblog.com

Growing up I went to predominantly African American schools. I wasn’t taught much about diversity and different cultures, just racism and segregation year after year. Of course this had some effect on how I perceived other races. I developed schemas based on textbooks, television, and my surroundings. Although we were taught Martin Luther King’s dream multiple times in school, it didn’t have much affect on me because there was no uniting races when the school made up one race. I wasn’t exposed to diversity early on so I didn’t know how to interact once exposed later in life. Of course I was always taught to treat others with respect but the subject of diversity never really popped up.

I remember entering high school, it was a predominantly African American high school but there was a noticeable percentage of Caucasian students as well. At first interacting with each other was a little awkward, making sure we didn’t say anything to offend each other. I remember at a band gathering having a conversation with a group of people of different races; “no offense” was used quite a few times. Nothing said was offensive, “no offense” was just said to be courteous just in case someone did take offense, I suppose. It just tickles me now thinking about it because we didn’t know how to act around each other. This was due to the lack of exposure and proper knowledge of other races and cultures.

It is important to start teaching children early about diversity. While it is important to teach your children to embrace their culture it is also important to teach them about the cultures of other people. It will help them better understand why some people do the things that he or she may not do, why, and to certainly not be afraid of them because of it. The key is to help your children become well rounded individuals because the real world is one gigantic melting pot.

There are a handful of stores that are devoted to promoting multicultural products for children. Regionz Kidz is a great place to pick up products to help teach your children diversity and unity. At Regionz Kidz you can find SUPER CUTE culturally diverse t-shirts for infants, toddlers, and mommies! Regionz Kidz’s t-shirts feature amazing sketches of babies in different regions all over the world. There are over 104 designs to choose from. You can even have a custom sketch of your child designed! In addition to t-shirts, Regionz Kidz offers books and games as well! Some useful articles and resources can be found on the Regionz Kidz blog and free coloring sheets can be found here! Regionz Kidz was founded last year and has gotten off to a great start! I look forward to seeing what the future brings!

This entry was written by our new partner Jenn Aaron of Barefoot Books. She will be doing a review every month for us to learn about some of the books Barefoot offers that can help us teach our children about diversity and other cultures. If you would like to purchase any of these books, please visit Jenn’s website at: http://www.barefootfamily.mybarefootbooks.com and use code EV01 when checking out! - - Lisa

Playtime Rhymes for Little people a re-release with a newly recorded singalong CD featuring Susan Reed. This hand-sewn anthology is full of exmples of Clare Beaton’s wonderful fabric and embellishment work. It includes a collection of forty popular action rhymes with favorites such as “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Head and Shoulders,” as well as less familiar selections such as “Fishes Swim in Water Clear” and “There’s a Wide Eyed Owl”.

Barefoot says, “The book is designed to help children develop language and counting skills while improving their coordination and encouraging them to interact. Playtime Rhymes for Little People is a glorious anthology that will keep children happily occupied for many hours, and will be treasured for many generations.”

Kids will be familiar with a number of the poems, and will be delighted with the ones they’ve never heard before. Poetry is an important part of building pre-reading skills, as well as strengthening the abilities of beginning readers. This is a book that you can be proud to give as a gift for a baby shower, birthday, christening, easter, or any number of other special occasions. The best gift you can give is the gift of reading- just 20 minutes a day can boost early literacy rates and the enjoyment of reading for years to come.

So, I am an avid Harry Potter Fan and had a long drive to make this weekend - the perfect solution - take my books on CD to listen to!

As I paid close attention to the words, I realized what an important lesson the books teach us about diversity and learning to live together and stand up for one another regardless of our background or how we look.  JK Rowling introduces us to flawed characters that are all different; muggles (non-magical), half-bloods (mixed ancestry), giants, werewolves and so many others.  She shows their weaknesses, but also their strengths and what makes them just like everyone else - their humanity.  In the end, they all end up banding together to fight the evil that threatens to destroy them.

What a wonderful theme that the books teach our children and how wonderful that an author who is bigger than life, took time to carefully set out to teach important lessons and help our children learn lessons of life on a fun and imaginative journey.  These stories are very much more than media hype - they have brought families together to read again, they have re-introduced adults to the fun of reading for pleasure and they do teach much deeper lessons about life.

Good vs. Evil, acceptance, tolerance and perserverance are all themes that are interwoven into all of the stories and are magnified in the character of Harry.  We can all find a part of ourselves in him I believe.

If you have not read these books or better yet, read them with your children, I encourage you to do so - - much more than taking you to a vivid imaginative world (and they will do that!) they can also help to remind us that although we are all different, no one is perfect and we are all working toward the same goals.

Having just returned recently from the Happiest Place on Earth & having had a WONDERFUL experience taking our 2 year old daughter for the first time, I thought this was a great slideshow the shows the cultural sensitivity of the Disney Company & the class with which they handle themselves in all aspects of their business.

Click here to view the slideshow 

Please enjoy the slideshow & visit Disneyland when you get the opportunity - you really will feel warm and fuzzy all over when you leave Lisa

Regionz Kidz books & clothing

PersonalChildStories.com - Who Am I and People and Trees

BarefootBooks.com (please use code EV98 when checking out)
Whole World Book & CD
Peace, Love & Vegatables Gift Box