Raising World Citizens: Learning About Syria & Turkey
Rooted & Wild Adventure Co. is born out of two of our passions. Raising kids to be outdoor explorers AND global citizens. We’ve loved focusing on getting kids on the outdoors, but wanted to start dipping into ideas for raising kids who are knowledgeable and curious about the world!
Recently, we were devastated to hear the news about the earthquake in Syria and Turkey. Such a huge loss, and very hard to comprehend and process from so far away. For my kids who so far haven’t learned much about this part of the world, these people feel like strangers to them. It’s hard to feel a deep empathy for people you don’t know.
But that is what’s really beautiful about learning about different cultures and people. We have the chance to learn about their customs and cultures, and find all the similarities in the way we live our lives. It builds bridges. And helps those families and children feel more real to us, feel like our neighbors across the world.
And when strangers feel more like neighbors, we tend to feel greater empathy and jump in quicker to help! That’s my goal with my girls—to teach them how to see everyone as a global neighbor.
So here are some simple ideas to start learning about Turkey and Syria with your kids. This is just a small start, please leave any other resources you love in the comments below!
Littles (ages 2-5)
National Geographic Kids, Are We There Yet? Series—we love this series. Fun and short introduction to countries all over the world. Here's the one about Turkey.
Children’s Books:
Songs of the Old City by Anna Pellicioli
I See the Sun in Turkey by Dedie King and Judith Inglese
Cat Man from Aleppo by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basha
The Adventures of Laila and Ahmed in Syria by Nushin Alloo
Kids (ages 6-12)
Any of the resources above plus these:
Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls podcast (Story of Yusra Mardini). This may be tricky to find on the podcast, but there is a youtube video here or you can listen to the audio book! Just make sure to find the chapter about the Syrian olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini. Such a good (and true) story.
Children's books:
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan
Teens (ages 13+)
The Swimmers on Netflix (PG-13)
Story about Yusra Mardini and her sister as they try to achieve their goal of being olympic swimmers while having the escape Syria. Moving story. Also fun fact, played by real sisters from Lebanon, they did such a good job!
Follows the fictional stories of 3 young boys and girls who escape conflicts in their home countires. The story of Ahmad is moving. He is from Syria.
Take a virtual tour of any Turkey Museum! Did you know you can take a tour of some of the coolest museums and even National Parks in Turkey from your computer? We had fun exploring these! Check it out here. (Note: this is free, there is a button to “purchase” but you can continue touring after about ten seconds when the pop up disappears”.
What else have you done that helps make Turkey and Syria more real during this time? We’d love your suggestions.