August 10, 2007

Montessori Academy hosts annual International Night

Cultural booths and performances teach children about the world

By Christina Brown
Times Intern

With passports in hand, children ages 2 to 6 “traveled” all around the world at Montessori Academy’s International Night.

Two parents help out at the India booth, which displayed clothing, jewelry, and pictures of Hindu gods and famous monuments and had food for the children and parents to sample.

Held on Friday, July 27, from 3 to 5 p.m., International Night featured parent-sponsored booths representing different countries or regions of the world and parent performances. About 150 parents and children enjoyed the festivities.

Montessori Aca-demy’s Yukti Singh took over the event four years ago and was excited to see this year’s focus on education.

“We had much more information than in previous years,” said Singh. “The children are very young, but if they can remember one or two things about the country then that’s great. We have created the curiosity.”

For the first hour and a half, parents manned booths representing Africa, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States, with each showing flags, artifacts, pictures, dolls, maps, and information about currency, government and leadership of the region, while the children walked around learning about the different cultures.

Many booths also served native foods, like the Mexico booth led by Ruby Robles, which gave out tamales, churros, Mexican candy and corn on the cob.

At the African booth, Singh and Sheila Brown, a parent of one of the students, showed a variety of items that included pictures of Victoria Falls, the Nile River, and the pyramids; native clothing; and statues and musical instruments from various regions of the continent. Singh and Brown also performed a song from Zambia at the end of the event.

Singh was thrilled that her own daughter was so excited to learn about her culture.

“[My daughter] told me, ‘Mom, I didn’t know you could speak your language so well. I want to visit Africa,’” Singh said.

Sharon Darknell helped put together the United States booth decorated with maps and flags of all the states, a statue of liberty, an eagle, images of national monuments, and hot dogs. When children would come to the booth, Darknell asked them to point on the map where in the United States they lived, helping those who could not find San Jose on the map.

The Africa booth at Montessori Academy’s International Night displayed clothing, figurines and pictures from all over the continent.

“[The booth] helped them to have a grasp of the United States as a whole,” Darknell said.

The highlight for Darknell, however, and many of the children, was the show during the last half hour featuring parent performances, ranging from songs in their native languages, cultural dances and storytelling of national folktales.

“What was exceptionally nice was when you got to see the performances,” Darknell said. “They held the kids’ attention.”

She also noticed her daughter’s reaction to the performance.

“She was just staring at the performers,” she said. “It was very satisfying to see her so interested.”

Brown enjoyed seeing her 4-year-old daughter’s reaction to the booths and said, “My daughter loved it. She said she wanted to go to all the countries.”

Brown also appreciated how informative the event was and how it opened the children’s eyes to see beyond their borders.

“It’s really nice for the kids to learn about other cultures and that not everything comes from America,” Brown said. “It was educational for the parents as well.”