Culture Party: Learning About Ireland

Travel and Culture at Home!

I love to travel, especially travels that take me off my axis and challenge me to understand our world. I believe in using travel as a means to teach tolerance and self empowerment to our children. While not impossible, traveling with two small babies is not easy. Nor will it be easy later on, when they are grown and require their own tickets and rooms. Family travel can be super expensive! But, it’s a priority for Daddy D and I. In the meantime, I am excited to start a new series on using a culture party to learn about other cultures.

This month’s culture party is on Ireland, in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day!

Culture Activities for Kids

We started our Irish culture party by talking a bit of Ireland with our map. We noticed that Ireland is an island, actually made up of two countries. Being a young preschooler, we had to explain that an island is land that is surrounded by water. We identified where Ireland is and where Nevada is. We noticed that Ireland was far away, relative to where we are. We talked about what the weather was like and looked at pictures of Ireland. Alina loved to make the connection between lots of rain and beautiful, green scenery. She knows that plants and people need plenty of water to grow big and healthy.

We also listened to traditional Irish music and discussed some of the instruments used. While we listened, we asked if she could hear some of the unique sounds. Also, we talked about Irish dancing and had lots of fun pretending to Irish dance together!

Culture activities for kids don’t have to be elaborate or complicated. Teaching culture to kids should simply come from a place of sincere interest of learning. Kids love it when they know that you are learning too! Hosting a culture party can be a family affair!

Cooking with Kids: Irish Stew and Soda Bread

After learning a few fun facts about Ireland (such as location, colors of the flag, cultural traditions), it was time to make our traditional Irish dinner. I am a huge believer in cooking with kids, and bringing your culture party into the kitchen is a wonderful way to broaden your child’s understanding of other cultures. At our culture party (which we held on Saint Patrick’s Day!), we had a yummy Irish Stew with Cabbage and homemade Irish soda bread, using a traditional Irish recipe.

Big props to my sister for helping out so that I could take pics!

Soda bread is a thick, dense bread used alongside of stews and such. It was probably used to soak up the liquids, since the bread is not made with eggs or other ingredients that make a bread moist. It was, however, very yummy and the perfect accompainment to our Irish stew. It is said that an X is marked into the loaf before baking to ward off the devil!

Alina loved getting her hands dirty with his recipe, and really enjoyed the meal as well.

We had so much fun organizing an evening of culture learning! It really warms my heart to bring a bit of international understanding to my child’s life, even if international travel isn’t on our agenda. Just because you can’t get a stamp in your passport this year, doesn’t mean your passport to culture has to stay empty!

I plan to do more of these culture parties, hopefully monthly. How do you teach you young kids about different cultures?