Holidays can boost kids’ cultural IQ

If St. Patrick’s Day means little more than displaying the shamrocks your child lovingly crafted during art class, it may be time to up your global smarts.

You don’t have to be Irish to celebrate the day, any more than you have to be Italian to enjoy tiramisu — or, for that matter, celebrate St. Joseph’s Day on March 19. By searching for ways to connect with other cultures, during their holidays and throughout the year, you can help your kids become tolerant, curious and open-minded.

“We have family values of honesty, trustworthiness, generosity, respect,” says Homa Sabet Tavangar, author of “Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be at Home in the World” (Ballantine). “Another is being a global citizen, where you appreciate what all these different cultures around you bring, and you’re always learning and it’s always an adventure.”

Of course, if you have Irish roots, now is a great time to explore them. Frank Crowley, school director at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago, suggests introducing children to Irish culture through the arts. Crowley’s parents — from the north of Ireland — surrounded him and his six siblings with Irish music, Irish dancing and “the most outstanding” soda bread, he recalls.

“I became interested in jazz at a young age,” Crowley says. “Later I saw how Irish music fit into jazz — as well as folk, classical and a broad spectrum of music. It made me appreciate my own cultural traditions.”

Just the kind of connection Tavangar touts in “Growing Up Global,” which contains dozens of activities, games, movies and other options for families to expand their cultural awareness.

“It should always be fun. It should never feel like homework,” Tavangar says.

Several ideas from Tavangar:

Learn through language. Start with the language of your ancestors, or pick one at random. “Look up basic expressions and try them out at the dinner table,” Tavangar suggests. Or pick some key words, “even if it’s learning how to say something mundane or silly like ‘toilet’ in five languages.”

Watch foreign films. With kids, really? Tavangar came up with an “Essential 7” list, suitable for children age 6 and up. It includes “Beauty and the Beast” (the original 1946 French version); “Spirited Away” (a Japanese story that won best animated feature at the 2003 Oscars); and “The Secret of Roan Inish” (about a 10-year-old girl who goes to live with her grandparents in a small fishing village in Ireland).

Party globally. Go beyond the usual character-themed birthday parties, encouraging your kids to think bigger: Cinco de Mayo, Bastille Day, Chinese New Year, Brazil’s Carnival. Plan the games and food and favors accordingly.

Try new foods. Start with bread, “a common, delicious comfort food spanning cultures.” Tavangar recommends reading “Everybody Bakes Bread,” by Norah Dooley, noting the diverse characters eating Jewish challah, coconut bread from Barbados, Indian chapati bread, Lebanese pitas, cornbread from South Carolina and Italian sweet bread. Then introduce new breads at your meals.

Reach out to the elderly. Whether visiting an assisted-living facility or connecting with elderly relatives, start a dialogue between your kids and a generation of people who remember a very different world than the one we currently inhabit. “Just ask them what their childhood was like,” Tavangar recommends. “They can tell their own experience of living in another country or talk about the recollections their grandparents used to share with them.”

Go find Ireland on a globe. (Get a globe if you don’t have one — another of Tavangar’s tips.) Download some Irish music. Blast it in the kitchen while you’re baking Irish soda bread. Cap off the evening with a screening of “The Secret of Roan Inish.” And go to bed dreaming of the next culture you’ll explore.

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