Ireland

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

I am a teacher of a toddler classroom, and I have received word that I will be having a new child start in my classroom. I am going to have a two year old girl from Ireland. They are new to the country and this will be the first time that the child has been cared for outside of the family.

In order to prepare for this family I would want to familiarize myself with the Irish culture. I would also like to incorporate some things from their culture into the classroom. I can do this by doing some research, but also by speaking with the family. I could ask them what kinds of things would be representative of their specific culture, as well as ask them to possibly bring in some items to help the child feel more at home. This could be things such as clothing, music, books, or foods. I would need to be careful though as to not be stereotypical with the types of items that would be brought into the classroom. This is why I would like to ask the family for specific items related to their family's culture.