Please me gentle with me......

[katymac]

I got into a big arguement with people about this on a course.

I childmind as you all know - and I have a wide range of multicultural stuff, because of OFSTED and also because I feel that it is right

The children I mind were dressing up at the end of the week and they all went for the police uniform or the princess or the spider

The beautiful multicultural stuff I have was ignored

I asked a child if he would like to put a chinese/indian costume on and he said (he's nearly 4) what do they do? so I gave a bit of general information about china - he said yes but what does the china outfit do? I said it doesn't do anything (I was obviously not getting the idea)

He said well a police man tells peopl to slow down and the spider spins a web and eat flies - what does a chinese person do?

So I got out a book (well several)with a chinese policeman (in the UK) and a chinese chef and a chinese teacher - and he said yes but they aren't weraing PJ's

And I got to thinking...how should I have dealt with it? Is National/Cultural dress an effective multicultural tool or does it reinforce steriotypes?

Don't shout at me - please

i can see the kids point..
do you have an engligh person outfit? if you did, would they want to play it?

Not really - what would it be?
I agree with him to be honest (which is why I got into trouble)

Why would a chinese person wear PJ's
A lady in a sari is in fact a mummy (what else?)

i think you missed the point!

if he dresses up as a policeman, that's a job! its a uniform a person (of any nationality/ethnic group) wears to do the same job, not to identify them as a particular nationality / ethnic group etc etc.

What you need is separate dressing up boxes.

one of jobs - policeman, fireman, teacher, nurse, doctor etc - they can role play jobs

one of traditional outfits - chinese, indian, masai etc etc - you can teach them about different countries / cultures

They can play at being a copper. they cant play at being a chinese person, but they can learn about china!!

NO idea why a chinese person would wear pj's lol!

tbh i think it's great that you have the stuff there... but at the end of the day kids will play with what they want to play with

i thinjk you dealt with it just right

We do that sort of stuff (honest)

But I'm not sure what value it has

Are we reinforcing historical steriotypes which no longer exist?

Starlover it's the trad chinese costume (well from the early 20thC I think) it does look like PJ's

Mytwopenceworth that's a good idea (I'll have to work on storage) but that was the point I got from him a policeman can be chinese or indian or "Brown like DH" as the children say - but the costume is non specific

Are children in India colouring in picture of St George and the Dragon or a beefeater?

Is there a generic "English" or even British costume?

Do I worry un-necessarily

there is nothing wrong with traditional dress as a learning aid and fun dressing up. Traditional dress is an important part of any culture and highly valued by many.

eg you could have the kids dress up in traditional masai attire, then tell them about the traditional nomadic lifestyle, talk about the animals, get them to draw some, get them to do the dance! explain some masai choose to maintain a traditional lifestyle and others dont. gosh, so much you can do and it combines history, geography, cultures of the world and so much more - you can even teach them a few words of greeting in many languages!!

Mytwopenceworth the rest of the group were 9 months, 2 @2yrs a 13 month old and an 18 month old......getting the clothes on is an achievement

English dress up for kids? Nights of the round table, castles and all things 'robin of Hood' stand out in my mind.

We have Knights and princesses (however I would class them as fairytale - iyswim)

At least I can now say I have british costumes

what about this for something traditionally english?!

Knights (Sorry!)

Morris dancers and May poles.. didn't think of of that

Thinking of children from another culture

How much information about the UK would a child (under 5) get learning about Robin Hood/Knights/Morris Dancers

Would it give them a respect for our culture?

We do loads on religions - that makes much more sense

And we do this thing with photos and trying to guess what religion a person is (just by looking at them) with older children - which is really good

I just wonder about reinforcing out of date opinions/beliefs with the dressing up stuff

Anyway this is prehaps a bit deep for a Saturday night

I don?t think by dressing up you are reinforcing out of date opinions. Just having a fun history lesson if you like.

Sat night - I've got my glass of wine.

(did you have a good holiday BTW?)

Fantastic holiday thanks

Sorry I fell asleep it's something to think about

I think you sound like a lovely childminder who is v sensitive to the needs of children. Agree with posts so far. Also maybe you could show a video of people in national dress so they can identify with the images on the tv. They might respond better if it's kids on the dvd/video - but you would probably know the answer to that better than I (as I work with adults). Also face paints are very popular with kids eg red indian, tribesman etc.

I dressed my DS (4 years) in a Chinese outfit yesterday for Chinese New Year and the kid next door told him he looked like a Kung Fu master - he wouldn't take it off after that!!

ahem...you can't say "red indian" anymore

It's Native American

This is a very interesting thread.