Celebrating Black History Month
What is Black History Month? Since 1976, it has been a month-long annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time of recognition of OUR achievements in US History.
I’ll be the first to admit, I took BHM for granted as a child. I attended predominantly black schools from preschool to college as well as an active member of a southern black baptist church where we celebrated BHM annually, I ignorantly assumed teachings would forever be a part of our lives. Now that I have my own children who are often the minority in their schools and extracurricular activities, I realize BHM and it’s teachings are becoming a thing of the past or limited to Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.
Last year, I made my children black history month t-shirts because like I’ve shared before, I’m that MAMA! I was so proud of the Black Boy Joy and Black Girl Magic shirts I made and my children who were ages 6 and 3.5 at the time, were confused about why they had to wear these different shirts. Now, in all honesty I was brand spanking new to my t-shirt making machine so that could have impacted their view. However, my oldest son really did NOT want to wear the t-shirt because he felt it made him stand out and in his words, “no one in my class will have a shirt like this''. As he stated this in tears, I realized I had to incorporate black history, our history, his history into our everyday lives. We had to begin having certain conversations that we weren’t prepared for!
To help with conversations this year and beyond, I've created a black history month curriculum that is informative, age appropriate, and FUN! Learning history is a serious matter and shouldn't be taken lightly but we as parents have to meet our children where they are, exploring different methods ensuring they walk away with the lesson. Feel free to steal a few of these ideas! This year, I created a fun BHM bingo game highlighting inventions created by African Americans. Download, print it, and play with your children. Please share with me. I would love to see pictures and hear the conversations that it has sparked within your homes.
Place infamous quotes by African Americans around your kids room + read + reflect on the quotes.
Family Game Night feat. BHM Invention Bingo (download below) or other games that you are able to access online.
Have your children pick a black history figure that you both can research and learn about. Allow them to present and/or recap their findings.
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