Adoption Heritage Tours... Online!
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Learn about your family's heritage and culture right at your computer
Adoption heritage tours are journeys into culture and history. We experience traditions, and build an awareness of our roots and origins. Seeing and learning about where we came from helps build a stronger and more secure feeling of our identity as individuals.
These tours are for the entire adoptive family, so they can learn together and take pride in their differences as well as their similarities. And it generally means traveling to the country where we were born, or to places where other people share our heritage.
Whether we travel by air, land, or sea - or we journey over the Internet, the trip is important for all adoptive family members. How far we travel may not be the most important issue... what may be most important is that we make the trip. To books, to libraries, to groups, to events, to communication.
In an article titled, "How I Learned I Wasn’t Caucasian," a Korean-born adoptee tells how she was shocked, her first day in Kindergarten, when faced with a racial slur. Prejudice didn’t exist in her home, but her heritage had never been discussed. She was not prepared to meet the "small-mindedness of others."
While travel to far-off lands or other cities is a wonderful way to directly experience our heritage, it isn’t always possible, and certainly not on an everyday basis. Or is it?
Welcome To The Internet!
The Internet has opened doorways to the world, allowing each of us to participate - even from a great distance - with those who share our or our children’s ethnic, cultural, and racial heritage.
Start Here with Virtual Tours
Were you born in another country? Or are you descended from the English or Spanish? Pick the place you want to go on your tour and learn about the people, the language, and the culture - and maybe even make a new friend.
| Activities and Fun at KidLink | A place to meet and join in projects with kids from around the world. Ages 6-15. |
| Africa Online - Kids Only! | Play games, visit lots of places, find a pen pal. Ages 6-16. |
| EarthCam for Kids | Real-time connections to places around the world . Remember the time difference! When it’s daytime where you are, it may be nighttime in another country. |
| Lonely Planet Destinations | Watch a slide show, learn about the politics, people, and living environment. Great research site. Teens - adults. |
| My Home Town in China for Adopted Kids | See where it is, learn about the people, and find others who are also from your home town. For all ages. |
| Visit Schools Around The World | See the schools, meet the students, and you can even add your school! From KidLink. All ages. |
| World Holidays | What are kids celebrating today in the country where you were born? |
Additional Resources:
Tell Me A Story
Great beginnings for younger children who aren’t "Net savvy" can be found in online bedtime stories. So gather up your youngster in your lap and read an illustrated online bedtime story from the African-American or Native American collection of stories, from Bedtime Story. The site also has links to teaching aids for a look at historical and cultural information you can include as you tell the stories.
Culture by Cooking
Rhonda Parkinson has put together a terrific resource for parents of children adopted from China in her article Teaching Culture through Cooking. Using these ideas and recipes from other parts of the world and the U.S., this can be easily adapted for your family as well.
Credits: by Nancy S. Ashe
