Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.


My family’s country of origin is the Czech Republic.


I would be prepare myself to be culturally responsive by:


Reading up on the Czech Republic, finding out things like the national language, dish and traditions that most Czechs practice.


I would find out the family’s traditions and see if I could celebrate any of those traditions in my classroom.


I would learn the students names properly and the names of their family members.


I would put up things around the classroom that reflect aspects of the Czech culture.


I would also like to contact some Czechs in my area and see if they have any suggestions regarding how I can make the new student feel more welcome.


Hopefully these preparations will help me to learn things beyond the surface culture and help me to be responsive to the student and his or her family and help them to feel accepted and welcomed.