Cultural Day 2016

Parental involvement in a child’s life is said to be very key in their social, emotional and meta-cognitive development. It is with this premise in mind that the Jawabu School teachers, myself included, sat down to brainstorm on how best to involve the parents in our activities. One of our running themes for the term is culture and we thought it best to have fun with it by having a cultural day.

After much discussion, we agreed to have 8 cultures from all over the world, each represented by 7 children aged between 2-8yrs. The cultures we came up with are: Asian, Brazilian, Hawaiian, Maasai, Mijikenda, Nigerian, Scottish and Zulu. Each group was to represent their assigned culture in dressing, food and a presentation of their choice. Needless to say, the parents at first thought that we had tasked them with the most difficult job, but a after a while they began to have fun with it while exploring how best to represent their assigned cultures. Each group was also to ensure that there was good synergy between the children and the parents and that each child was fully involved.

I must give it up for our jawabu parents. They took on this project wholeheartedly and went all out to prepare for it. Outfits were prepared, specific dishes to serve the food were assembled, they even went out of their way to research and find specific regalia that are used by the people from their assigned cultures. Two godly and mature couples, honored us by taking on the role of judges on that day: Maina and Lucy Muriuki; and Jospeph and Beulah Mucharie.

It started out as a cold and chilly morning, but that wasn’t enough to dampen the high spirits that everyone had. Each team settled in their assigned spaces, ready to take on their ‘competition.’ At 9.30am, we started off in alphabetical order with the Asian community. Each group had about 7 minutes to make their presentation. Everyone participated the best way they knew how to. The joy and laughter that surrounded us that day was indescribable. Team after team made their presentations before they judges, and they in turn performed their duties excellently. The judges later mentioned to me that one of the major things that they were on the lookout for was, child involvement. It’s very easy for us parents to take up our children’s projects and work with them as ours, neglecting the fact that we were to team up with the children and help them where necessary.
The teachers and other staff were also heavily involved in their teams, and I must say that it was a huge success. Food samples were taken round as each team presented on their different cultures. It was a feast for kings! After all the presentations were done, the judges gave their feedback as well as some little but key parenting advice. There was pin drop silence at this point as each parent was keen to soak in some nuggets of wisdom. The judges then pointed out the strong areas that each team presented and some of the highlights of the day. The Nigerian team was then declared the winner of the mbuzi choma, because of the heavy child involvement in their team. They were however gracious enough to share the mbuzi with the entire school.
We did achieve our main goal, which was to have fun with our children. I don’t think such an event will be erased from their memories any time soon!