Friday 5 December 2008

International Day

PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek


At the school where my granddaughters attend, they recently held an International Day and invited the pupils to pay a pound to wear outfits from other lands. This was in aid of Children In Need.
Obviously Amber and Millie each put on  their Japanese yukata. Children made a real effort (or their parents did) and they came dressed in beautiful Spanish costumes, cowboy outfits, African robes, and anything else you could imagine.

A fair proportion of children at school are of mixed race as are my granddaughters, or more correctly, dual nationality, or mixed heritage. Not like when I was a child and the term was half ----. I'm sure it wasn't intended to be unkind, it is just the way things were then.

Millie, the youngest, has a best friend who is Anglo/ African and they truly love each other. They really do look very good together and throw their little arms round each other in greeting each day and don't like to stray from each other's side. They have started having each other round for visits and now the bigger sisters are getting friendly too.

I think it is really good that children are encouraged to celebrate and be proud of both of their inherited countries.
One thing I have noticed though, is that the children of dual nationalities do seem to  be rather beautiful! I expect I am very biased!




These photos and my story were published for Photostory Friday hosted by Cecily and MamGeek.

25 comments:

tiarastantrums said...

gorgeous

david mcmahon said...

I hope they had a wonderful day, Maggie.

® ♫ The Brit ♪ ® said...

Great photos Maggie!
And a wonderful idea that the school has! x

Unknown said...

Sounds like a lot of fun. Love the clothing.

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

It's a wonderful idea and good for the children to have some idea of other backgrounds and nationalities. Helps too to make us all more tolerant of one another.

A x

Unknown said...

That is such a great idea! I would love it if we had something like that here, at the schools or something. My two girls are half white (I call it that cause I'm French, Indian, German and Irish) and their dad is 100% phillipino. It would interesting to have them dress as their phillipino heritage.

But those Japanese robes are just beautiful!

Suburbia said...

So colourful! I think you are right about the beauty. Perhaps that is how we are all meant to be :)

Indrani said...

This innocent bonding will go a long way,I am sure. Those outfits are gorgeous and colorful.

Izzy, Emmy 'N Alexander said...

Beautiful story and I love their outfits.

larkswing said...

That is a fun idea and the girls in their outfits are toooo cute!

Cecily R said...

What a GREAT idea and experience for those kids!! Wonderful way to teach tolerance and love and fun. Those girls are gorgeous!!

Jay @halftime lessons said...

Wow...Soooo Cute.!

Nice PhotoStory Friday!!

Jay

PS...do you know that your word verification is on? You can easily turn it off...
I wrote about how to do it here...

Anonymous said...

They look delightful. What a good idea to have such a day in school, it gives the children something to look forward to aswell as making money for a good charity.

CJ xx

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

areOh that is SO LOVELY!

Dr.John said...

The kids seemed to have fun and a good cause was served. What more could you ask?

Chris said...

That's neat. I think it really helps kids to see that we really are all the same.
We could learn from our kids.
Your little "japanese" granddaughters are lovely.

Irene said...

I agree that children of mixed heritage are usually very good looking, and I may be biased also, but I think my children, who had an American father and a Dutch mother, were (are) very good looking also, although there should have been no cause for it. Maybe it helps if we share wide spread genes.

Irene said...

Dear Maggie, I have sort of an award for you over at my place, can you come and get it?

Irina said...

I have a yukata, too! I got it when I was working with Japanese.

Sometimes I wear the yukata being at home. Just for fun!

I'd like to have a kimono, but it's too expensive :)))

And it's a great day!!! (my husband is Korean, but my child is Russian, anyway, we have to learn how respect other races, not everybody can do it)

Hilary said...

Sounds like a great time.. looks like it too. You might well be biased (in that good way) but I agree with you. I have always noticed bi-racial, dual-heritage, blended background kidlets to be particularly beautiful. It's as if they take on the best features from both parents' gene pool. Great photos.. colourful! :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful outfits and wonderful thing to celebrate.

Maggie May said...

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments about this post.
Some of you like Bina & Irina & The Finely Tuned Woman, have really fascinating mixtures in their families. I think we are in agreement that mixing the genes does seem to produce good looking offspring!

Mean Mom said...

Beautiful robes and beautiful photos as usual, Maggie. I wish that I could have seen all of the children dressed up in their finery. A wonderful idea.

I am very ignorant and I've never heard of a yukata. I'm off to check out yukatas and kimonos and stuff.

Debra in France said...

What a fantastic idea. The girls look stunning.

cheshire wife said...

Wonderful idea for the children. It would not have worked in my day as there was only one dual nationality child in the whole school.