Thursday, October 04, 2007

Let's get cultured...

My son's first big project of the year is to put together an "All about my family" box, with pictures, mementos, and articles that represent his family, culture, traditions celebrated and his ancestry. I am so stressed. I really don't want to be one of those parents that actually DOES the project for their child. I'm trying so hard not to be.

Admittedly we're finding my heritage, with my Chinese background, to be a bit easier to represent in this project. We don't celebrate all the traditions, and I grew up very Canadian, but there are several activities that we participate in that are just so ingrained. A few that I've already blogged about.

The more difficult part is trying to find representation from his Dad's side, which is Canadian from a few generations back, with German and Scottish along the way. We don't really celebrate any uniquely German or Scottish customs. There are many traditions that we adhere to, but what really is Canadian culture? What's most distinct about Canada is really how young the country is. And that people come from all over the world, and are fighting to come here, to experience the freedom to celebrate their culture and traditions in this country.

With my brain hurting, after Giselle and I made our way to pick Liam up from school, and ultimately left with only his backpack (remember, Liamster, the serial playdate playmate - took off with his one of his best buddies), I decided to head to the library to try to find inspiration.

So this is what we'll be studying this weekend...





There's got to be some German/Scottish content somewhere in there, right?

6 comments:

Cherry said...

Oh yes! I'm sure you will get a lot of inspiration from those picks!
I know, he can write a note that says my daddy is German and he loves Beer! That's related right?

Good Luck! Uh, I mean Good luck to Liam (because you are not doing the whole project for him!)

Karen MEG said...

That's funny, how well you know us Cherry! The first thing that came to Ian's mind was "too bad we don't have a stein anywhere in the house" - unfortunately no such heirlooms anywhere! We actually considered putting a photo that we took of the BMW museum years ago in Munich for German content. Then L says - what does that have to do with my family? I know Dad likes cars, but ... HUH? So funny!

Kellan said...

Very funny! And my girls would be so proud of you - they LOVE Will Farell (can quote all his stuff) and love this movie (I wasn't crazy about it, but there is a very funny "Baby Jesus? scene in it I fell over laughing about). Have fun and good luck finding any German/Scottish content. See Ya.

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen,

Omigosh, except for the differences in the kitchen, I think we're quite similar! Strangely enough, there's no German anywhere NEAR our family, and we have a number of antique steins on my mother's Welsh (nope, not that either:-)) dresser. Good luck to you AND Liam on the project! =)

P.S. Maybe we should start "Bad Hair Wednesdays" to force Sarah to feature really needy people on Thursdays! All I can say is that she'd better come up with some bad hair for next week or I'm going to start screaming and I won't be able to stop. [Moi practices yoga breathing here.]

Moira

Anonymous said...

Karen, it's opening weekend of Oktoberfest here in K-W. The big parade is Monday morning .... want to come??
Sue

Karen MEG said...

Kellan, we're huge Will Farrell fans here too. I really like him in Elf as well :)
Moira- bad hair wednesdays - I likey!Thanks for stopping by!
Sue - Oktoberfest - right! Can't make it Monday though - we're doing my family t-giving here with the babies. Looking forward to tomorrow! BTW, I found that "baby stein" you gave me years ago for oktoberfest - that'll go into the family box for sure!

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