UN Day 2008

Today was UN Day at the American School. Like last year, it is a day where the school celebrates the diversity of its students and teachers. During the two weeks leading up to UN Day, the kids make presentations to their classrooms about their home country (or State) so that the children learn more about where their classmates come from. This year, instead of representing his many nationalities, we let him focus on the USA since we will be moving back there this summer. He specifically focused on FL. Trying to get Thing 1 to focus and actually work on this was worse than a root canal. It didn't help that Thing 2 was starved for attention and kept asking me to give her "homework" too. Between sorting through pictures, online resources, a little typing and a little writing, we managed to put a poster together. I didn’t know where to find posters and by the time I found out, I had already cut out a cardboard box and made my own. I figured that at least I am recycling.

At home, he chose a picture atlas to read from every night and we covered the countries he had learned from during the day. Thing 1's classroom is made up of children from the USA, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, and Mexico. We talked about Columbus’ “discovery” of America on Columbus Day. He learned why Columbus called people in America “Indians” and why today most people in Central and South America speak Spanish. Quite a history lesson, but after all, history is one of my favorite subjects!

Every year, country tables (staffed by parents) are set up in the gymnasium and main hallways. Each student is provided a “passport”. Each table has a country stamp, for example, the American stamp is the Statue of Liberty, Germany is a castle and so forth. The children visit the different tables and answer questions about the country (based on their age), receive all kinds of goodies and get their passport stamped.

This year, the 1^st graders were paired up with a 5^th grader. They thought this was pretty cool. Thing 1's 5^th grade buddy happened to be his best friend's brother. So they went around the world together. I supervised 5 pairs of twos and Thing 2.

On the day leading up to UN Day, it is best to fast if you will be indulging in the festivities. Every year the cafeteria closes for that day. Parents provide dishes from their home country to share with the classroom. You literally can spend the entire day eating. My favorite of the day was "Nanaimo Bars" brought in by Thing 1's Canadian classmate. His mom was even good enough to include the recipe which I photographed (see below) so that I can replicate. Try it for yourself – a bit messy, but it is exquisite.

Each country table also provides miniature edible treats. For example, you can try Irish Cheddar Cheese at the Ireland Table, Belgian Chocolate at the Belgium Table, Croissants in France, and tea in India, China, and Japan. Our USA table provided chocolate chip cookies and Hershey’s kisses.
Thing 1 had fun answering questions about country flags, capitals, animals, etc. He visited every table. To give you an idea of the school demographic, there were tables for the USA, Poland, Lithuania, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Kenya, New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Brazil, South Korea, Israel, France, Ireland, Canada, India, Portugal, South Africa, Great Britain, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Japan and Malaysia. And that doesn’t include the countries that did not have a table because they did not have enough people to staff one, like Spain. We almost didn’t have a USA table because most of the US moms were either already room parents or they had small children who would not sit at a table for hours. Luckily, an Embassy mom with older children stepped up and we just provided her with supplies for the table.

Thing 2 joined the children in their trip around the world. We call her and another boy’s brother, the 1^st grade room sister and room brother. They mostly played with balloons in the gym while the older kids visited tables. Thing 2, however, spent more time going table to table and collecting edible goodies. The child was eating every treat she could find. I even caught her stuffing her jean pockets with some treats. She also very rudely (but childlike) put back something she tasted that she did not like which I had to then take and throw out. She’s definitely a “foodie.”

As fun as it was and as much as we will miss this, I am quite pleased that these two UN weeks are over. No one realizes how exhausting it is for parents to put these things together. And I only had one at the school! I saw moms with 3 or 4 kids trying to split themselves into 3 or 4 so they could participate in each child’s experience. That’s 3 or 4 different meals for 3 or 4 different classes. They could start a catering service for all that trouble!