Tips on keeping English culture in your family when living oversees

[ShakeWhatYourMamaGaveYou]

I have had 3 dc overseas and the oldest 2 are starting to get a sense of identity and whilst don't want to confuse them, them knowing they are half English and that's where I come from is really important to me.

I am trying to recreate English family traditions from my family and childhood as part if this..

Do any of you have tips on retaining a little Englishness in your family? (if that's what you want!) How do you go about raising your children to be 'half english' when you live overseas?

Thanks

at the food thing. I made crispy cakes for my DS2's reception aged class and got asked if I would make them as the desserts for when theschool held a big event for the education bigwigs. I nearly wet myself at the idea

My girls are growing up in Asia but are very English. I think watching British tv really helps.

We watch lots of old 1970s and 1980s sit coms on DVD; The Good Life, To the Manor Born, Porridge, Open All Hours, Dads Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Are You Being Served. We also watch more recent ones like Vicar of Dibley and Outnumbered. They absolutely love them all.

At the moment we are enjoying Men Behaving Badly, Call the Midwife and Downton.

We do Christmas and Easter the English way, also tooth fairy- Chile has a mouse who collects teeth from the slippers, we stick to teeth under the pillow.

Books and movies in English, OH likes to have English nic-nacs around the home. Old fashioned phone box money boxes, key ring with British emblem, little flags in the DC's rooms. Englsh type food, things like that. Do you visit England often?

I'm sure it's easier when both parents are the same nationality. I was speaking to another mum from school who told me she's half German, half Italian- but more German than Italian because her father is German.

Thanks thumbwitch for the tip about the Diamond Queen. It's on about 100 times this weekend so am watching it now and recording for DD. thanks for that.

There were times when I thought I had lost the battle for Irishness but one day DS said 'We don't talk like other people', and when pressed, he said it was hard to describe but I kept on pressing so he tried, and the gist of his answer was that we used different words and phrases, longer words, whole sentences in conversation, had a different sense of humour, didn't shy off a good argument, shared different sorts of things with each other than his friends and his parents did - I think what it boiled down to was a different family culture; although the DCs' accents are not Irish in the least, they could fit in fast in Ireland because they listen to different things in speech and take conversations in a different direction than American peers.

I never wanted them feeling they were outsiders, however, so I didn't labour the point of Irishness, and the fake Oirisheyness in the US was something I really wanted to avoid. I tried introducing them to Marmite (no joy), blackcurrant flavoured this and that (they loved), The Clangers on YouTube (love at first sight), and the Eurovision (lead balloon), but we normally had American Christmas desserts as well as something I loved as a child (meringues and a buche de noel) and did Thanksgiving in full American style. I see it more as sharing an important part of myself with them than making them Half-anything, identity wise - I also try to share my love of reading, music, history, maps, art, architecture, design, etc.

One thing I hope they will grow up with is a sense of curiosity and the awareness that there is more to the world than your own 'backyard'. Another thing I think is important to me is that they know as much as possible of their family history, and I have come to realise in sharing that with them the importance of the family farm to me, and the sense of being rooted somewhere. On my dad's side, the family were globetrotters who spent a few generations on one continent or another and then returned to a different part of Ireland, but mum's family always had the farm, or some farm, in one particular corner of the countryside, and although the DCs are two generations removed from the land at this point, I hope they will acquire a sense that that is a little patch of the earth that they have a deep connection to.

ShakeWhat -- the 7 year point is when it really hits you.

One thing that my DCs really seem to enjoy is listening to the BBC schools Podcasts. There are a few but 'something to think about' and 'Together' are their favorites. It may just be that I have strange DCs but I think they like that they get to hear a bit about UK school culture.

I originally started downloading them when I realised that my DCs (who are 7, 5 and 2) only really hear DH and myself speaking english and I wanted them to listen to a wider range of accents etc.

We're half Irish (DH) and half Welsh (me) at home, the kids have been in Germany since their birth.

We only speak English at home, but we can all speak fluent German and often intersperse German words into an English

I try to buy certain food items from a local expat shop - baked beans, Heinz puddings, jellies, chutney, pickled onions etc.

We often do a British Sunday roast.

We only do Christmas the Anglo way (Germans celebrate on the 24th) - presents on 25th and roast turkey and Christmas pud.

Most of my cooking books are English, and the kids have learned to cook in English. (do you sense a food theme here?)

We have loads of English books and DVDs at home, and the DC used to watch stuff on CBeebies online. We also have English scrabble and Monopoly.

They now go to a bilingual school which does more to retain their identity than anything else, as half their lessons are in English and taught by English-speaking teachers. The school has an excellent library.

We have BBC world service on in the kitchen, and now I listen to Radio 4 online.

I'm thinking about sending them to Britain or Ireland for a year in Year 11. I also want them to have the option of studying in an English country - due to the high fees England or Wales are out of the question, but Scotland or Ireland are still possible.

I have a differnt take on this.
I am australian and my child was born in england. DS has been toOz but has never lived there.As much as I try to forget it, he is English, not australian. I dont think reading him a few aussie books, fostering a love of being barefoot or celebrating mothers day in may will help.
I cant really get my head around him having any aussie ness at all :(

I would have a look at some literature on 'third culture kids'. Some of the Christian mission societies have a wealth of useful stuff on this, which is equally applicable for people of other or no faith.
Imnotbatman makes a good point - celebrating their Englishness is good, but the also get a huge sense of identiy as they grow from their peer group and host culture.
Your DCs will gain hugely from being exposed to two cultures, but ultimately wil want to 'fit in' as best they can wherever they find themselves

What an interesting thread.
We've been in France 8 years, DS1 was 2 when we arrived, DS2 was born here. I like to aim to have the best of both worlds! We eat more "English" food now than we ever did in the UK as I want my DS's to enjoy it. We tend to read books in the language they were originally written in, mostly English language films, don't really watch much TV.
So I would answer the OP with ; roast dinner every Sunday, lot's of "food based" traditions - for example mix-up Sunday in November, comics, books and verbal histories about the UK - all these things lead to natural conversations about our origins and roots, but hopefully not at the expense of their day to day culture in our adopted home.
I don't have any evidence as to why, but it feels important to me to try and do this!

I thik its when kids are at school and start learning history that you see the main differences.
I feel quite sad that mine wont learn about bushrangers, australian history , indigenous history, dreamtime etc but is learning about saxons,vikings and royal stuff instead. It just doesnt seem relevant to ds if I speak about my own versions.