Holiday Gifts Come From Away

Investigate presents that help others and the world.

• SERRV (serrv.org/category/gifts)
• UNICEF (market.unicefusa.org)
• Heifer (heifer.org/marketplace)
• World Wildlife Fund (gifts.worldwildlife.org)
• National Wildlife Federation (shopnwf.org)
• kiva micro loans (kiva.org)
• Samaritan's Purse (samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child)
• Arbor Day Foundation (shop.arborday.org)

Make Holiday Season the Best Time of the Year

It's important to make sure everyone enjoys the holiday season, since studies show it can be a very sad time for some folks.

     Excited kids and adults who need to chill in what also can be a hectic season need to work on projects together. Making holiday cookies can be as easy as slicing and baking readymade sugar cookie dough from the grocery store or as complicated as mixing, rolling out dough, cutting shapes with cookie cutters, and frosting them.

     Making a garland paper chain to trim a tree has become easier through the years. You still cut out red and green strips of construction paper, but connecting the loops of paper together has gone from using some kind of paste that slops all over to staples to a neat little 3M dispenser that rolls out glue on two sides.

     One year my young daughter and I made scented pomanders by stuffing oranges full of whole cloves. We tried it unsuccessfully another year with limes that went bad and mushy before we finished, however.

     Then, there are the potato prints you can use to make gift tags and wrapping paper. Cut a really large baking potato in half and use a star cookie cutter to press the shape into the smooth side of each potato half. Then, carefully cut away the part outside the star shape to make the star stand out. Pour poster paint: red, green, yellow, blue, or whatever colors you want to use, on two different saucers. Dip the potato star into the paint and stamp the design on heavy card stock to make gift tags (Cut the holiday cards you receive this year into usable pieces to use for gift tags next year.) or stamp the star shape all over plain tissue to make wrapping paper.

     Germany is credited with originating the custom of having a live, decorated Christmas tree at home and in the public square. St. Francis of Assisi added the custom of including a Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Christ child. St. Francis, who is associated with his love of animals, would be happy to see how sheep, cows, oxen, camels, and other animals often complete the manger scene.

     Singing carols is a tradition in homes, churches, schools, and even in concerts where the audience sings along. Entertainers make holiday records and CDs and host seasonal  music specials on TV.

     St. Nicholas and Father Christmas make sure there are gifts and gift drives that bring joy to the naughty and nice alike. Presents might be placed under trees, in shoes, in hanging stockings (thanks to a custom from Holland), and in bins for the less fortunate at community centers, churches, libraries, and stores.

     Presents come earlier in some countries and later in others. St. Nicholas can arrive December 6. Sweden celebrates St. Lucy Day on December 13. When days are about to become lighter, young daughters, dressed in white, wear a wreath of greens and lighted candles on their heads and carry trays of coffee and buns to family members. Elsewhere, shoes are filled with gifts from the Three Kings (Magi) on January 6.

     What is the holiday season's best gift? Good will toward each other, of course.   

   

   

Aspirational Holiday Gifts

My grandfather believed in aspirational rather than age- appropriate gifts. Of all the holiday and birthday presents I received while growing up, the one I most vividly remember was the fountain pen and mechanical pencil set my grandfather gave me, when I was five. My initials even were embossed on both the pen and pencil in gold.

     What are some aspirational gifts that would inspire young people to learn more about the world? A globe is my favorite. It shows the world is round and countries are their correct relative sizes to each other, unlike on some two-dimensional maps, where Greenland is as big as Africa. Globes show the world has more than 200 countries, three oceans, and seven continents, one of which is frozen. A child can put a sticker on where he or she was born and lives.

     If a child already owns a globe, there is the Atlas of Animal Adventures that shows where animals live. Children can go from the book to the globe to find the country habitats of their favorite animals.

     Even in this digital age of email, children feel very grown up, when they receive mail. With a subscription to National Geographic Kids (shop.nationalgeographic.com/ category/magazines/national-geographic-kids), they receive a magazine nearly every month. Adults also will look forward to the world's fun facts, activities, photos, and games in each issue.

     Little Passports (littlepassports.com) is another way to give children mail every month. Each mailing provides activities, souvenirs, letters from fictional pen pals, and other fun ways to learn about a particular country.

     Presenting a child with a $25 kiva (kiva.org) gift card enables a child to loan someone in one of 80 countries the funds to improve a life. With the help of an older person, a child can scroll through the faces of people who need just a little help to plant a crop, open a store, or build something. And it is up to the child to decide where to offer his or her loan. They then receive email messages telling the amounts of every loan repayment.

     And finally, to advance a student's budding interest foreign languages or foreign travel, I'd suggest Other Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely From Around the World  by Yee-Lum Mak and illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley and the series: The 500 Hidden Secrets of London, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, and The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona.

     None of these aspirational gifts will choke children under three (I hope), but they will give them a head start in feeling comfortable in the world where they will spend their lives.

   

Santa's Helpers

As the holiday season approaches, let's find some gifts that help those in need around the world.

You can help the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana that provides the delicious Divine Chocolate in the advent calendars and bags of foil covered coins sold by SERRV (serrv.org). Request a SERRV catalog to find other gifts from less developed countries.

Two organizations give children an opportunity to choose how they would like to help others overseas. With a donation as little as $25, children can go to kiva (kiva.org) to pick out a borrower they would like to help. For a donation of $10 or more to Heifer International (heifer.org) you can send honor cards to children telling them how much they have to contribute to the purchase of an animal for a family in need.

At wwfcatalog.org, when you donate $55 to the World Wildlife Fund, you can choose a plush version of over 100 symbolically adopted animals for a child and become a partner in a global conservation effort that establishes new protected areas for animals, stops wildlife crime, finds innovative ways to safeguard marine life, ensures healthy freshwater systems, and provides a sustainable future for our planet.

Gifts from unicef (unicefusa.org) not only help save and protect the world's most vulnerable children, but unicef's rolling carry-on plastic suitcase (12" tall x 18" long x 8" deep) can start kids thinking about how they can travel to a foreign country some day. Until then, they can ride or pull their durable suitcase, which holds up to 75 lbs.

Speaking of foreign travel, maybe it's time to give a youngster his or her own passport. Many US post offices can help with the process or go to travel.state.government/passports.html for information.

To keep youngsters from getting bored on a trip, American Stationery (americanstationery.com) offers personalized, 100 sheet game pads printed with tic-tac-toe, hangman, and dots you connect to make squares.

Of course books are one of the best ways to help children develop an interest in their world. Entertainment Weekly magazine recently mentioned two new picture books that would help parents and teachers introduce youngsters to adventures around the world: Atlas of Adventures by Rachel Williams and Lucy Letherland and The Safari Set by Madeleine Rogers. Another gift-worthy book, Max, Mia and Toby's Adventures Around the World, from Little Passports (littlepassports,com) comes with 7 souvenirs. This site also offers other global gifts, including a World Coin Collection of 20 real foreign coins and a booklet of coin related activities and trivia for kids 6 and over.

                                             Wishing you all a joyful holiday season!

Gifts for Happy Holidays

Halloween is about to usher in the holiday season of Hanukkah, St. Nicolas Day, Christmas, New Year's, and the Epiphany. This season not only presents an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends, but it also offers an opportunity to give children gifts that open their eyes to what the world has to offer.

     Foil-covered milk and dark chocolate, Kosher certified, coins that children love can be ordered from SERRV (serrv.org), a nonprofit organization that makes sure gifts are made around the world by poor artisans and farmers who receive a living wage and work in safe, healthy conditions. SERRV also sells an Advent Calendar that hides a milk chocolate heart behind each day leading up to the nativity scene. For each Advent Calendar sold, a school notebook is donated to a child in the schools of Kuapa Kokoo, Ghana, where the cooperative that raises the cocoa beans for these chocolates is located.

     Since museums feature exhibits from around the world, their shops are an excellent source of global gifts. In New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store (store.metmuseum.org) is known for putting together a collection of items that cater to kids. One of its most interesting offerings is a Global Glowball that entertains and educates children six months and older. There are 39 sections on the globe that each light up and play a song, such as Bollywood pop, a tango, or jazz, from the area of the world a child pushes. Youngsters can roll the globe, learn geography, and use it as a night light; the Global Glowball does it all.
     Children 8 and older also can get hands-on experience writing with Egyptian hieroglyphs and making Japanese origami projects with kits and instruction books from the Metropolitan Museum. Or they can assemble a 252-piece floor map puzzle of the world from the museum.

     Some gifts last all year. Just as adults might exchange magazine gift subscriptions and memberships in a fruit-of-the-month club, children aged six and up would love to receive a gift subscription that brings the prize winning collection of fascinating facts of the world in National Geographic Kids (kids.nationalgeographic.com) to them ten times a year. For kids aged 3 to 6,  National Geographic Little Kids comes out six time a year. Preschoolers enjoy its read-aloud stories and colorful animal photos, games, puzzles, and other activities
     To introduce its program that sends 5 to 10 year olds a monthly package of items related to a particular country, for a small fee, Little Passports (littlepassports.com) sends a child a travel suitcase with a world map, stickers, an activity sheet, and access to online games and activities.

     Nothing is more welcome after all the gifts are unwrapped than seeing a child settle down to relax and enjoy one of his or her presents. Like any child in the world might do, my granddaughter would start to work out some of the logic or number puzzles in a Perplexor workbook from Mindware
(mindware.com).
 My daughter used to start to read one of her new books. This year, children might like to read:
     The Last King of Angkor Wat by Graeme Base. He tells 6 to 8 year olds the history of Cambodia's
famous temple by using detailed illustrations of the tiger, elephant, monkey, water buffalo and gecko that reveal their strengths and weaknesses as they compete to be king.

     Animals also are the focus of two non-fiction books for 6 to 8 year olds: National Geographic Kids Animal Heartwarming True Tales from the Animal Kingdom by Jane Yolen and Heidi and Adam Stemple, which tells about the geese that saved the Roman Empire and much more. And Born in the Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents by Lita Judge, a book that uses illustrations and text to show and tell how little animals all over the world live and grow.

     The Copernicus Legacy by Tony Abbott uses puzzles, intrigue, and adventure to take readers 9 to 12 around the world on a hunt for pieces of the past.

     Winners of a South Asia book award also involve young readers in what's happening in the world.
Jennifer Bradbury's A Moment Comes follows the struggles of three students in 1947 India, before the country was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan.
     In Elizabeth Suneby's Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education, Razia has to convince her family that her education at Afghanistan's Zabuli Education Center for Girls just outside Kabul would benefit not only her and her family but even the whole community.
     Two Muslim girls have the dual problem of practicing their religion and fitting in at school in The Garden of My Imaan by Farhana Zia.

     Really young kids might like to have someone read them a new kind of alphabet book. Oliver Jeffers, the Australian author who grew up in Northern Ireland and now lives in Brooklyn, NY, has created a122-page gift, Once Upon an Alphabet, that goes beyond "A is for apple" to illustrate and write stories for all 26 letters of the alphabet.

    Finally, there are several very unusual presents.

•  Young people who receive a $25 Kiva gift card can go to the Kiva website (kiva.org) and scroll through a list to decide which of the small businesses around the world they would like to support. They could return to the site again and again for progress reports and to receive a borrower's repayment in their Kiva Credit Account.
•   The World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org) helps animal-loving kids make a symbolic adoption of a tiger, panda, fennec fox, African black-footed penguin, or African elephant. World Wildlife also offers a "Sniffer Dog: Labrador Retriever Adoption Kit" that comes with a plush dog, like the ones that work at airports to sniff out illegal wildlife being transported by smugglers.
•   Through Heifer International (heifer.org/gift), a young person who receives an Honor Card worth $10 or more learns he or she has helped end hunger in the poorest parts of the world. Contributions go to purchase cows, goats, sheep, water buffalo, pigs, donkeys, llamas, rabbits, honeybees, chicks, ducks, trees, water pumps for irrigation, and biogas stoves. Since families who receive animals give one or more of their animal offspring to other needy families, one contribution has a multiplying effect throughout a community.

     Wishing the whole world peace and happiness this holiday season!

(Find ideas for making holiday cards and gift wrap at the earlier blog post, "Arts and Crafts for Christmas in July.")

Arts and Crafts for Christmas in July

Instead of waiting until December, when the idea of making gifts for friends and relatives competes for time, often unsuccessfully, with holiday recitals, shopping for presents, cookie baking, and parties, now is the time when kids on vacation are looking for things to do. Besides, if a project is messy, this is the season when it can be done outside. Last weekend, for example, my granddaughter and I went to a neighbor's home to do some tie dying in their driveway.

Potato Prints

Potato printing is one project that can produce holiday wrapping paper, gift tags, and cards. When my daughter was only three, I helped her use a big potato, a star cookie cutter, and yellow poster paint in July to turn white tissue paper and blue construction paper into all the items we needed to wrap gifts in December.

     Begin by cutting a potato in half. If you are going to use a cookie cutter for a design, the potato has to be big enough for the cookie cutter to fit on the potato's cross-section. Original designs can be made to fit on any sized potato. For example, you can cut a fir tree out of cardboard to any size. Place it on the exposed half of the potato and cut around it with a knife. A cookie cutter can just be pressed into the potato to make a design.

     The purpose of printing is to be able to repeat a design. Relief-printing uses the raised part of the design, while the area around the design remains white. Consequently, it usually is necessary for an adult to cut away all the potato that is next to the design. Put some paint in a saucer or dish. Carefully dip just the raised part of the potato design into the paint. Stamp it on white paper or another light color. You also can use white paint to create a potato print that will show up on dark paper.

     Hobby stores often sell linoleum blocks, knives, and folded card stock that older children can use to make more intricate designs for holiday cards. Again, the area around the design is removed. Instead of dipping the block into paint or ink, a roller applies paint/ink to the raised design. The card is placed on top of the painted/inked surface and the back of the card is rubbed to transfer the design.

     Kids who learn how to make and use prints, or a master plate known as a matrix, are following a long tradition of those in China, Tibet, and India who first printed multiple copies of Buddhist texts.

Family Tree Scrapbooks

Any relative would appreciate a scrapbook that presented a well-researched, attractive family tree. Begin by collecting pictures of relatives and finding ancestry information from genealogy websites. You might to go to ancestry.com for a free trial to see how much you can discover about your family's background. Once you identify the countries from which relatives emigrated and where relatives live now, you can combine flags, maps, ethnic clothes, and pictures of cities and geographical areas (mountains, rivers, lakes) with photos of relatives and the information learned about births, marriages, children, military service, etc. (The earlier blog posts, "Picture the World," "You Are Here," and "A Salute to Flags," may give you some additional ideas of what to include in a Family Tree Scrapbook.)

Santa's Checking His List Twice

In preparation for the holiday gift-giving season last year, I wrote the blog post, "Go Holiday Globe (S)hopping." Many of the gift suggestions in that post are still available. UNICEF (unicefusa.org/shop) and SERRV (serrv.org) again offer Advent calendars. For children who celebrate Hanukkah, SERRV also sells Kosher certified dark and milk chocolate foil-wrapped coins from the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana, Africa.

     This year, there are gifts that enable youngsters to sample the world's latest technologies. Using a LED touchscreen, kids can change patterns on Barbie's new "Digital Dress." A variety of robot toys are sold at YoungExplorers.com, mindware.com, Museumtour.com, and shopng.org. Since the American Red Cross Field Radio and Phone Charger from shopng.org uses both solar power or hand cranking to recharge, it can go high tech or low.

     A variety of approaches to geography update a familiar subject. Maps, a new book by Aleksandra and Daniel Mezielinska, associates fascinating facts with illustrations of every region of the world. By touching one of 39 sections on the "Global Glowball" from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art store (store.metmuseum.org), children can activate a song from that part of the world. Based on the latest facts about every country in the world, the geography game, "Where in the World?" from Museumtour.com is fun for 2 to 6 players 8 years of age or older. Using pieces shaped like countries, children over 4 also can put together a "World GeoPuzzle" from Museumtour and those 12 years of age and up can build Museumtour's 4D puzzles of Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Osaka, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Tokyo, or Toronto. For free, go to "google maps" and introduce children to the way they can use a computer to tour countries, such as France, and cities, such as Nairobi, Kenya.

     Several new gifts provide the kind of indoor activities youngsters need to amuse themselves during the winter. Games, stencils, stickers, and crafts come with The National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book. In Dawn Casey's book, The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales, stories from around the world are coupled with related activities. In the virtual world, students can build the world's landmarks with the Swedish video game, Minecraft. Or they can paint Paris and London in watercolors with Ravensburger's Aquarille World Cities Arts and Crafts Kit, which comes with all needed art supplies and instructions for different painting techniques.

     Paris seems to be a popular destination this holiday season. Chavonne, the African-American "Journey" doll at Toys R Us, is about to travel to Paris. Madeline is already there in her new book, Madeline and the Old House in Paris.  In Paris! Recipe for Adventure, a book by Giada DeLaurentiis, Zia Donatella takes a brother and sister to a French cooking school to show them home-cooked meals are better than fast food. (The same author also visits Naples! Recipe for Adventure.)  Students can build Paris' Eiffel Tower with National Geographic's 3-D puzzle or the more difficult to construct 5-foot tall model that uses the same engineering principles as the real landmark. (At shop.nationalgeographic.com, National Geographic also offers a 3-D puzzle of Big Ben and a 4-D Cityscape puzzle of London.)

     For teen age girls who want gifts with a touch of Parisian glamour, artisans around the world are creating original jewelry just for them. The SERRV website (serrv.org) and Shop For Social (shopforsocial.com) provide many options.

     What would be the ultimate gift? Book an international family vacation with AdventuresByDisney.com, journeys.travel, AAA.com/ExploreMore, worldwildlife.org/travel, or hfholidays.co.uk.

    Best wishes for peace and joy throughout the world in this holiday season and every day in 2014!

Fashion Forward

Before discounting fashion as a trivial subject, consider how exploring closets and underwear drawers can lead children to a map and to ask questions about why their clothes are made in certain countries. Checking labels and listing where clothes are made can lead to a worldwide map search for all the countries that manufacture a child's outfits and accessories.

     Kelsey Timmerman's interest in the economic conditions, wages, and working conditions in countries that produced his clothes motivated him to travel to Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China to see the factories where his underwear, jeans, and flip-flops were made. The record of his journey, Where Am I Wearing?, is a thoughtful discussion of the people and countries that depend on textile jobs and the options consumers have for buying these goods. In the aftermath of the clothing factory collapse that killed more than 1000 workers in Bangladesh, where 75% of the country's exports are textiles, ecouterre.com reminded customers not to boycott clothing produced in Bangladesh and listed some of the responsible companies operating there. After the April 24, 2013 factory collapse, ecouterre.com also reported that Abercrombie & Fitch and the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands signed an Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh. Walmart, which announced it would fund a project to develop labor standards for the country, is among the retailers, including Target and Macy's, that have not signed the Accord.

     There are organizations that are devoted to distributing clothing and accessories produced by workers paid and treated fairly in developing countries. Although there is no third party fair trade certification program for apparel, Fair Indigo has several small shops that sell "sweatshop-free" clothing in the United States. Baby sleepers and baby clothing made of 100% pure organic cotton from a worker-owned cooperative in Lima, Peru, are available through Fair Indigo's catalog (800-520-1806 or fairindigo.com).

     SERRV is an organization that helps artisans in developing countries maximize profits from their crafts. Among the many items featured in the SERRV catalog (serrv.org) are knitted mittens, scarves, and hats from Nepal; headbands from Vietnam; and jewelry from Swaziland, Mali, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, and Peru.

     Museum gift shops are good sources of interesting alternatives to heavily advertised mall fashions. Locally, you might find a beaded ponytail band from South Africa, a handstitched story purse from Peru, or a woven backpack from Mexico that is the perfect present for a little girl who likes to start fashion trends.

Go Holiday Globe (S)hopping

Gifts can help kids think globally on holidays, birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions. In this gift-giving season, catalogues, international organizations, and museum, map, and book stores are good sources of presents with meaningful international connections.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year

Christians can purchase a pop-up Advent calendar from UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, (unicefusa.org/shop) and help provide for the health and education of the world's children at the same time. SERRV (serrv.org) donates a school notebook to children in Ghana, Africa, for every Advent calendar it sells. Why? Because the chocolate hearts young people find behind the numbers for each day in Advent come from the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa cooperative in Ghana. SERRV also sells Kosher certified dark and milk chocolate foil-covered coins for children who celebrate Hanukkah.

     When the Chinese New Year arrives between January 21 and February 19 at the second new moon after the beginning of winter, Chinese children receive money in red envelopes. Children in other countries would approve if their families joined in this tradition. Besides U.S. currency, the American Automobile Association (AAA) could add some foreign currency in the form of a TipPak (registered trademark) of Australian, British, Canadian, Japanese, or European Union money to these red envelopes. In preparation for the Chinese New Year, youngsters also can write their own fortune cookie messages with rub-on Chinese characters in a kit from Multicultural Kids (multiculturalkids.com).

Personalized presents

For children old enough to appreciate personalized presents with a foreign twist, there are cartouche (kar-toosh) necklaces and netsukes. In Egypt, a cartouche, or amulet, was designed to protect each Pharaoh. Nowadays, necklaces sold my Signals (signals.com) or made in Cairo for National Geographic (shopng.org) translate children's names into Egyptian hieroglyphics using eagles, owls, crowns, lions, and other symbols.

     Birthdays are especially good occasions to give Japanese netsukes, little statues once used on cords that closed pouches or baskets. Some are made to symbolize the animal zodiac signs for each year. This is the Year of the Dragon, and 2013 will be the Year of the Snake. Since animal designations occur in 12-year cycles,  kids can find the symbols for their birth years by counting forward or back from an animal known for one year. Children might enjoy seeing if their personalities match the qualities attributed to their birth year animals.

2000/2012 Dragon: A solitary, free-spirited non-conformist who is generous to others.
2001/2013 Snake: A wise, well-organized person who understands others and can wiggle out of
                              trouble.
2002/2014 Horse: A cheerful, popular crowd-pleaser who loves excitement and handles money
                              carefully.
2003/2015 Sheep/goat: A dazzling, elegant dresser and creative thinker with a shy nature.
2004/2016 Monkey: A clever, brilliant thinker with a thirst for knowledge and the ability to solve
                                  difficult problems.
2005/2017 Rooster: A talented, deep thinker who likes to work alone.
2006/2018 Dog: A loyal, somewhat eccentric protector who can keep secrets and inspire
                           confidence.
2007/2019 Pig: A gallant champion or causes who is satisfied with having a few lifelong
                         friends.
2008/2020 Rat: A charming, energetic, imaginative perfectionist who is careful not to hurt others.
2009/2021 Ox: A patient leader who inspires confidence.
2010/2022 Tiger: A warm, courageous, goal-oriented worker with a sparkling personality.
2011/2023 Hare/rabbit: A tactful, ambitious peacemaker who is fortunate in business.

     Finally, no present is more personal and infused with international significance than a child's own passport. Students don't need to have a foreign trip planned when they get a passport, they just can start thinking about which countries they would like to visit. Local post offices provide the details about obtaining a passport, and they even take passport photos.

Global gifts

Usually presenting children with educational gifts is like giving them underwear. A number of globes, books, and toys escape that classification, however. The National Geographic website sells a levitating globe, suggested for students 8 and up, that uses electromagnetism to hover in mid-air between the top and bottom of its display stand. Younger children, 3 and up, can use a joystick to circle National Geographic's Fly and Discover Talking Globe to learn about the world's oceans, animals, customs, and fun facts. Young Explorers (YoungExplorers.com) sells the GeoSafari (registered trademark) talking globes that children 6 and up can use to answer 10,000 geographical questions, while MindWare (mindware.com) and National Geographic have interactive globes that students 5 and up can touch with a digital pen to find information about a country's population, weather, currency, and more. With a remote control, children 6 and up also can watch the world's cities go by on a wall "globe" using MindWare's Earth from Orbit Light. In low tech worlds, UNICEF has a Planet Earth Lift-the-Flap book and SERRV's mobile of the world includes children dressed in costumes representing their cultures.

     There is no shortage of fiction and non-fiction books with an international theme. For centuries, classics have taken children through German forests in the stories of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and many others collected by Jakob and Wilheim Grimm. Children have traveled with Paddington bear from Peru to meet Christopher Robin's Pooh bear and Alice in Wonderland in the gardens of England. Through literature, children have experienced the splendor of the Swiss Alps with Johanna Spyri's Heidi. Ever since the 18th century, when Frenchman Antoine Galland recognized how European and Muslim cultures could share the fascination of The Arabian Nights, kids and adults have shared the Indian and Persian stories of a genie who granted Aladdin's wishes, a girl who saved Ali Baba, Sinbad's adventures, and 998 additional tales.

     Books about Asia, Latin America, and Africa now have joined these familiar stories. Heian publishes a series of Asian folktales, and Raul Colon uses a unique combination of paint, etched lines, and colored pencils to illustrate a book of Latin American folktales. For their illustrations in Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, Leo and Diane Dillon won a Caldecott Medal from the Association for Library Service to Children. Just a couple more examples suggest the breadth of books that help children explore their world. Journey to the River Sea takes young people down the Amazon River, while Gena Gorrell, in the context of The Land of the Jaguar, describes every South American country for her young audience. The Children's Atlas of World Wildlife goes around the globe to show children the diversity of nature's creatures, and National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book couples information about the world's animals with games, stencils, stickers, and crafts.

Animals in a healthy environment

Gift givers are on a sure footing, when they tap into a child's love of animals. The World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org) makes it possible to present children with plush animals and, at the same time, introduce them to ways to save animals all over the world from harm and extinction.

     There are both animal gifts that help children play in traditional ways and some that provide a new experience. Besides plush animals, kids 6 and up can construct their own lions, tigers, giraffes, and zebras using puzzle pieces from MindWare. Toys to grow on (ttgo.com) invites kids 3 to 10 years old to go on their own safaris by giving them vinyl jungle huts, an SUV, and 12 animals. Kids also can hide a monkey, elephant, or tiger and launch an adventure using wands from YoungExplorers to find them.

     Toys appeal to children's concern for the world's environment not only its wildlife. To see solar power in action, youngsters can build robots from Young Explorers and MindWare that use the sun to move windmills, boats, helicopters, cars, bulldozers, and a scorpion. Even adults will be excited to learn how MindWare's zero-emission car runs on water converted to hydrogen power. And how does the greenhouse effect, desalination of salt water, or a solar oven work? MindWare has kits to teach those means to a clean environment, too.

Conclusion

From Signals (signals.com) wooden blocks with alphabets, numerals, and animal pictures in Arabic, Chinese, and 14 other languages to a full array of dolls, map puzzles, and books from Multicultural Kids and Latin American rainsticks from Musician's Friend (musiciansfriend.com), the world is ready to help children realize globalization can be fun.