Black history month for 3 year old

[custardcream5]

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I have a mixed race daughter she is only three and a half and began nursery this month.

With it being Black History Month I would like us to do some activities about black history and her heritage as feel it is vital. I am going to ask her nursery if they are planning on doing anything with the kids.

What could I do with her which would be age appropriate and make her feel connected to her black history?

I have a kids book on Rosa Parks which we will read but if anyone has any other ideas I would really appreciate it

Thanks

I think three is a bit early for anything too full on. Any relevant exhibitions near you?

Agree with above poster, she's a bit young so her understanding will be limited.

The local children's centre near me were running activities aimed at 0-5s relating to this. I've attached the poster timetable which has some ideas that might be useful? Including a couple of book suggestions.

Does your daughter have American ancestors? It’s a very particular history which doesn’t really connect to ... lets see ... poetry from the Caribbean (as I’m writing a Trinidadian writer has just won the BBC Short Story Award,) or the Benin sculptures (West Africa) or a whole host of other historical references. You really don’t need to begin with the aftermath of degradation in the US - there are other stories!

‘Black’ history is a pretty meaningless term. Which country exactly are you planning to focus on? Which period? Where are her ancestors from?

Can’t recall whether Oxford or Cambridge is holding an exhibition of ‘black’ students through recent history. Might be worth a visit? Or just make a wide choice of children’s authors - without making a fuss about it.

For my kids I just do a nice variation of dolls and books that look like them. There may be some good poems etc. Akala has done a really great kids book- not focussed on black history as such, but a great black British influence. Sorry I’m rambling and not offering any strong advice. 🙈

What a lovely idea OP Kadir Nelson's book on Nelson Mandela is beautiful. There are also a fair few books, mostly American, that encourage black children to think positively about themselves, e.g. 'I Love My Hair'. There is another gorgeous book along similar lines coming soon called 'Hands Up' but I think the UK release is a while off yet.

Although it’s worth remembering that millions and millions of children grow up in countries where the white population is in the minority. Those children don’t need American books to tell them it’s fine to be themselves - they know it already. So you could also encourage your daughter in her own uniqueness - her own history need not be predicated on ‘black struggle’ - however heroic Nelson Mandela or Rosa Parks might have been.

I’d be quite specific about her particular heritage at that age and let the history flow from that. Talk about Grandma and Grandpa’s story, and Great Grandparents and Great great grandparents if possible, drawing maps and finding pictures both of other countries they have links to and also of their life in the U.K.

And Google what’s on locally. Our library has a bunch of BHM stuff on, (plays of Handa’s Hen are a junior BHM staple for example) and there will probably be a display of books to borrow.

@Hatstand - I wish you’d come back and expand a little in your point of view. The idea that every single black child (in the world or just in the U.K.?) needs the sort of book you mention is making me unfeasibly furious.

But yes, first hand accounts of family history are absolutely the best at that (or any) age - if available.

Sorry @QuaterMiss, I can see that's how it came across but that's not what I meant. I wanted to suggest some alternative books to the 'historical figures' type and the American examples came to mind.

It depends what kind of black her ancestors were. For instance the Australian's have nothing to do with the South Africans so learning about an ethnic group that isn't anything to do with you isn't going to help her understand her heritage in the slightest

There’s a lovely book by Jamia Wilson called “Young, gifted and black” which focuses on a bigger range of talented black people, rather that specific historical figures relating to the civil rights movement, if you just wanted to provide her with a bigger range of potential role models/inspiration which is more reflective of her heritage/background.

I read the Rebel Girls book to my 3.5yo DD as bedtime stories - some things came up on the back of that.

She understood the Rosa Parks story really well, and was able to talk about it intelligently he next day - I think because buses and being told where she can and can’t sit are relateable.

Slavery has come up as well - the economics are way beyond her - but the idea of people being taken away from their families on boats and made to live a long way away is understandable.

3yo is a good age to start the understanding that it’s okay to talk about the colour of people’s skin, but that everyone should be treated fairly. But some people are not fair and that is wrong.

Ohhh ohhh I have a beautiful book!!! Let me find

This is gorgeous, the illustrations, the stories...

I love how all the women have those really calmed expressions in their faces but were / are bad ass 😀 I think she will like it

My daughter's nursery celebrate black history month every year focusing on art and culture. They've painted Caribbean flags, danced to African music (my daughter is mixed race and my husband provided some music from his home region in East Africa last year for her toddler room), explored beautiful African fabrics. They also did an art display based on Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" speech and painted their own dream. She's in the preschool room this year. Not sure what they'll do in her room this year but I know they'll do something.

Check out your local museums and have a look at relevant twitter hashtags.

it’s okay to talk about the colour of people’s skin, but that everyone should be treated fairly

I’m sorry - really, I am - but this sentence ... (It’s the ‘but’, I think,) added to the economics of slavery ... I’m sure you mean well. But .... Can you not see the impression you’re giving your child? Do you think children on other continents are taught that they should expect to be treated unfairly because they have some terrible disadvantage? Do you think that the only history they learn of the country they live in is of slavery?

Thousands of years of art, science, travel, philosophy - reduced to this?