Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Did your daycare observe Hannukah today? Mine did and I was actually happy they did because Amber has a Jewish Aunt and hopefully will have Jewish cousins. Of course some mother was pissing about it because she feels that religion/school should be separate. As long as the kids learn to appreciate and respect each others beliefs, why not??

For the non Christian Moms, does it bother you if your kids are exposed in daycare/school to "Christian" type activities, even in the none traditional sense (Easter Bunnies, Trees, etc.)?

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Our weekly theme for this week is Holidays around the world. Damien came home with an menorah made out of his hand prints it is so cute. We have a menorah and a Christmas Tree in our hallway outside my office.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

When I taught in daycare we set aside the month of December to recognize
1. Winter
2. Hannukah
3. Christmas
and right before holiday break we would do a theme for Kwanzaa as well.

ETA: My classroom had Hannukah and Christmas decorations as well as snowflakes on the windows. =)

Message edited 12/4/2007 6:45:42 PM.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

it wouldn't bother me at all, I want my daughter to be open to every religion, race, etc.

She comes from a diverse household and i want her to grow up being well grounded and being an open minded individual.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Jenna came home from pre-school today with a dreidel (sp?) I think it's wonderful to teach children about all cultures

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Yes..this is how I did it too.

I used December as holiday month and January for winter.

December would be for Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa.

We did tons of projects on each..learned songs for each and even read books about all of them. When we came back to school in January it would be about the New Year, snowmen and winter.

My kids went home knowing about all 3 holidays and even knew which kids celebrated what in the class. I loved December in school..it was AMAZING!

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

In daycare & in school, they're learning about all of the holidays & how they're celebrated.

I think it should be mandatory. I believe that not learning about other cultures & religions is a huge component of racism & prejudice.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

I'm Catholic and it will not bother me to have my DD learn about other religions and customs/celebrations. I remember when I was a kid, learning about Hanukah, playing dreidel, etc. and I really enjoyed it. No problems here with my DD being involved with that either.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

I have no problem with John learning about Hanukkah. Because of Elmo's Happy Holidays DVD, he's been walking around for the last 2 days singing the dreidel song lol.

I remember in kindergarten my teacher telling us about Hanukkah and teaching us about the dridel, I asked my mother to buy me one and we played all afternoon.

And we are invited to our 2nd Hanukkah party tomorrow night

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Our daycare only does Christmas, but I don't live somewhere where there are many Jewish kids and I know that Noah is the only one at his nursery. I did make a big deal to tell the girls who worked there about Chanukah and the second night they all asked me about it. So that was nice. I know its going to be all CHRISTMAS!CHRISTMAS!CHRISTMAS! and thats okay...as long as they don't take my kids picture with Santa...that would annoy me slightly (start flaming now)

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

We celebrated Hannakuh in school when I was little. I remember being jealous that some people got EIGHT NIGHTS OF PRESENTS AND FUN!

My sons each brought home little Menorah's and have learned a little about the holiday. They have not been given any real depth or understanding of the religion behind Hannukah or Christmas - and I can appreciate that it is probably very tricky to delve into the religious aspects of each holiday with potentially crossing some unseen parental line.

My older son does go to a Christian After School program where he says prayer and brings home Christian themed messages about the holiday. And since I am raising him in my own Christian beliefs, I have no challenge with this. If I did - I wouldn't send him to a program in a church!

I have no problem at all with my child being given exposure to other cultural celebrations. I think it is great. My oldest son wants DESPERATELY to celebrate all holidays and I am looking into it for him. I don't see any harm in letting him try to fully understand the beliefs and the beauty in other cultures and religion. One of my friends is alarmed by this and feels that I may wind up leading him to 'join' another religion - but I would feel better if I knew that my kids were making informed choices about their beliefs rather than simply doing what I told them to do.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Message edited 12/6/2007 1:23:18 PM.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

The only time it would bother me is if the school ONLY celebrated one religion - it doesn't bother me at all if Alex is exposed to other religions and their holidays, as long as they do something similar for the jewish holidays.

But, that's a non-issue right now considering she goes to daycare at a synogogue

ETA - it's funny because yesterday when I picked up Alex, there was a Hanukah card from her to us, in her bag. Then, I noticed, the same hanukah card was in her friend's bag, but I know her parents aren't jewish. I said to them, that's weird, they should have given you a christmas card. They just shrugged their shoulders, but it just goes to show that it works both ways. There are a lot of non-jewish families at our school because it's one of the best schools in our county, and yet, they NEVER celebrate any of the non-jewish holidays, and are constantly sending hom jewish related games, toys, cards, etc.

Message edited 12/6/2007 8:04:09 AM.

Re: Mom's with kids in daycare and celebration of holidays

Message edited 12/6/2007 1:23:55 PM.