Martin Luther King Jr.
For homeschooling today I really wanted to emphasis to my son not only the history of Martin Luther King Jr. but also the importance of how we're all created equal in God's eyes. We discussed people's skin color and other attributes. I sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" to him several times. I printed out two coloring pages of Martin Luther King Jr. I colored one while he colored the other. Being the realist that I am, I immediately grabbed a brown crayon and started coloring in Dr. King's face. While doing this I handed my son a brown crayon and told him how skin color doesn't matter. Well, he took me quite literally and rejected the brown crayon and colored Dr. King and handsome green and blue combination! I started telling him that Dr. King's skin is brown, but after all, I did just tell him that skin color doesn't matter!! Gotta love 3 year olds!
He also colored a picture of Jesus surrounded by children of different ethnic backgrounds.
I just love the purity of outward sight children have. While at the local library a few months ago, an African-American mother and her daughter arrived soon after my son, daughter and I did. Her daughter was close to the same age as my son. I looked, smilingly to see how my son would react. He's seen people of many different ethnic backgrounds before, but to have an opportunity to play with a little girl with darker skin was new to him. The mother and I glanced at each other and I daresay we both had similar thoughts of the reality of "racial issues." (I put that in quotes because while I don't deny that some people are bigoted, or what is politically called "racist," I believe there is only one race...the human race.) Was she wondering if I had a problem with my white son playing with her black daughter? I wondered if she was wary of her daughter playing with my son. It made me so happy to see my son, innocent of the idea of racism, segregation, etc etc etc, race to the little girl and try to play with her, showing her the table full of crayons and papers to color.
Jasmine at Joyfully Home (link on my sidebar) has an excellent post that echoes my thoughts and beliefs on such matters. Check it out!
On my son's Martin Luther King Jr. coloring sheet there was a little blurb of history about Dr. King. In it, it said that he did so much for the African-Americans. I have to disagree. He did so much for ALL OF US.
He also colored a picture of Jesus surrounded by children of different ethnic backgrounds.
I just love the purity of outward sight children have. While at the local library a few months ago, an African-American mother and her daughter arrived soon after my son, daughter and I did. Her daughter was close to the same age as my son. I looked, smilingly to see how my son would react. He's seen people of many different ethnic backgrounds before, but to have an opportunity to play with a little girl with darker skin was new to him. The mother and I glanced at each other and I daresay we both had similar thoughts of the reality of "racial issues." (I put that in quotes because while I don't deny that some people are bigoted, or what is politically called "racist," I believe there is only one race...the human race.) Was she wondering if I had a problem with my white son playing with her black daughter? I wondered if she was wary of her daughter playing with my son. It made me so happy to see my son, innocent of the idea of racism, segregation, etc etc etc, race to the little girl and try to play with her, showing her the table full of crayons and papers to color.
Jasmine at Joyfully Home (link on my sidebar) has an excellent post that echoes my thoughts and beliefs on such matters. Check it out!
On my son's Martin Luther King Jr. coloring sheet there was a little blurb of history about Dr. King. In it, it said that he did so much for the African-Americans. I have to disagree. He did so much for ALL OF US.
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