Multicultural resources for young kids?

[mommymilkies]

I would like to find multicultural movies/books/curricula/ideas for my 4-5 year old. We live in a completely homogenous town. Statistically insignificant diversity. This is becoming an issue for us. I was raised Jewish and had mostly African American friends growing up. My older kids had a diverse group of friends in NC. There are not those opportunities here, even in public school. I am pretty sure I'm also the only Jewish (though not "practicing") person anywhere near here. So no synagogue. For that matter, no UU, Mosques, Irish dance, pow-wows, etc.

 

She likes Allison by Allen Say. But she does not quite have the attention span for long or deep chapter books (yet).

 

Ideas? Books? Anything?

[K&Rs Mom]

Mine have enjoyed this: http://www.amazon.com/Children-Just-Like-Me-Celebration/dp/0789402017/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353466705&sr=1-1&keywords=children+just+like+me

It's part of a series, but any of them is a stand alone. It has a couple pages each on different countries and cultures, focused on daily life of kids age 6-14. There's one about religion, one about celebrations, I don't remember what else.

[Cinder]

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but my dd and I enjoyed the Families of the World video series. We got them from our library. They're 30 mins and show the lives of 2 children in a particular country; one from an urban home, one from a rural home. It was interesting to see how different children live throughout the world and even the differences among children in the same country. The videos are geared to a young audience but there is enough info for older kids & adults to enjoy. It's narrated by an actor, not the actual child in the video.