I used to play this game with my travel agency coworkers. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? Then we’d look at the map on the wall naming as many places as we could until a customer would walk in and make us work. It’s a fun game, but it’s also really hard for someone like me. Someone who would travel anywhere. Pretty much. With the world and our imaginations as the only limit, where would we go?
Budget and time are the two things that narrow my choices when I’m not playing a game and I want to travel.
But, when I’m faced with the thought of what book about what culture I’m going to read next, it kind of reminds me of that game I used to play. When faced with the world, how do I pick one (for today)?
Enter: the Diversity Calendar
Then I came across this calendar from Becky at Kid World Citizen. For the past few years, Becky has been gathering international events, festivals, and holidays into an academic calendar. Each year she finds out about more celebrations and adds them. For the 2018-2019 academic year, she has over 300 separate events!
Becky graciously offered me a copy of her calendar for review. (And the opinions of it are my own.)
I immediately felt a sigh of relief. When I don’t have my own plan of what we can read next, I can just refer to the calendar. Maybe there’s a global event or celebration in another country that I can use as the jumping-off point to what we’ll read over the next few days. *Please note the image above is for 2016-2017, but links go to the most current option available.
How to use the Diversity Calendar
If you’re thinking of how you can use this calendar, well that’s up to you. You can keep it as simple and acknowledge it on the day. You can find out if local organization’s are hosting anything. Or you can do more.
Here’s one suggestion of how you can go all out:
- Take a look at the upcoming month and see what pops out at you.
- Find out what that event means, specifically, if you don’t know the details. (Ie. do a google search.)
- See if there are any arts and crafts activities associated with that event directly. (Ie. do a Pinterest search.)
- Search for any traditional foods that may be part of the celebration. (Ie. look in Pinterest.)
- Find out if there are any books related to the event or to the country where the event is located. (Ie. do a KidsTravelBooks search.)
- Take a trip to the appropriate stores, or order online (affiliate link), all of the tools needed to do what you want to do.
As for me – I’ll be printing out the calendar monthly. When time allows, I’ll find a book and either a craft project or recipe to enjoy. And when it makes sense, I’ll share it here or on social media.
If this interests you, you may also like this beautifully illustrated book of folk tales from around the world. There are 52 stories in total, four for each month. Each tale tells a story from a different country and an associated holiday that occurs in the same month. I have this book and it is a fun read. Click on the image below for more details:
How to buy the Diversity Calendar
The calendar officially starts on August 1. Buy it now. You do not want to miss out on any early-August events. It really packs a lot of punch for a really low price.
- Buy your copy of the Kid World Citizen Diversity Calendar.
- Read more about it at the Kid World Citizen Blog.
Thanks, Becky, for creating this awesome resource and sharing it with me!
