Stay Connected With Your Community!
Yum Yum Box from Brazil!
Each month at the World Affairs Council, we enjoy a Universal Yums box from a variety of countries at our team meetings. Through the recent transition as we #workfromhome our Global Ed Manager, Hannah had the opportunity to share the Yum Yum Box from Brazil with her niece, Jake Ayla (whoops, Elsa)!
Watch this adorable adventure of Hannah and her niece as they try some delicious and not so delicious snacks from Brazil (according to Elsa).
Explore the World!
The Taft Museum of Art, a museum now at your fingertips, is offering virtual tours of their museum! Tune in each Sunday for family-friendly, hands-on art activities led by their learning and engagement team.
Educational Resources & Materials
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Giving K-12 Schools His Videoconferencing Tools For Free
As the Covid-19 virus sweeps across the planet, leading to quarantined cities and shut-down schools, Zoom has emerged as one of the leading tools to keep businesses up and running and students learning. On Wednesday, the most recent day for which data is available, 343,000 people globally downloaded the Zoom app, 60,000 in the U.S. alone, according to mobile intelligence firm Apptopia — compared to 90,000 people worldwide and 27,000 in the U.S. just two months ago. (Zoom doesn’t share such numbers and wouldn’t comment on a third party report.) And overnight, having already removed the time limit from video chats using Zoom’s free service for affected regions in China and elsewhere, Yuan took another measure to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus: he decided to remove the limit for any K-12 schools affected in Japan, Italy and the United States.
Students or teachers who fill out an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school’s domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. The free Basic accounts are also available by request in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and South Korea, a spokesperson for Zoom said. “Given that many K-12 schools are starting closing, we decided to offer Zoom access to all K-12 schools in the country starting tomorrow,” Yuan wrote in an email overnight.
Global Storybooks: From Arabic to Zulu, freely available digital tales in 50+ languages
Globally, 750 million youth and adults do not know how to read and write and 250 million children are failing to acquire basic literacy skills. Literacy is central to education and plays an important role in development and peace.
In response to this global educational challenge, our team based at the University of British Columbia developed the open multilingual literacy portal Global Storybooks.
This portal hosts custom sites with multilingual open-licensed books for over 40 countries and regions on five continents. Our vision is to help democratize global flows of information and resources, to facilitate language learning — including Indigenous languages — and to promote literacy.
52 Creative Ideas for 52 Weeks of Fun
Serve creative challenges to your kids regularly. Enjoy a different creative activity! Being creative with your kids is fun, easy and important.
Be sure to make time for at least one creative activity with your kids each week. Stimulating children’s imaginations, listening to their ideas and spending time doing creative activities together are keys to their success.
Gorman Heritage Farm
Gorman Heritage Farm is going live on Facebook every Friday at 11 AM! Join this week as they visit the bunnies who live on the farm! Learn more on their Facebook Page!
What is Groman Heritage Farm?
Gorman Heritage Farm is a 122-acre nonprofit, working farm with a mission to educate about agriculture, nutrition, sustainability, and the environment. The vision of Gorman Heritage Farm is to cultivate an informed, involved community dedicated to Building Healthy Futures. Our values fulfilling the Gorman’s legacy are: Self-reliance, Stewardship, Service, Fun Experiential Learning, and Meaningful Labor.
Free Online Art Classes McHarper Manor Art Studio in Milford
Kindness and education are shining through during difficult times for kids and parents as COVID-19 continues to cause school closures across the country.
One business in Milford is reaching thousands of children across the world through art.
When schools and businesses began to shut down because of COVID-19, artist Tabitha Harper knew she had to do something.
So, she went to social media and began to offer free art classes for children. Now, she’s teaching students around the world.
“If we’re going to be bored for the next three weeks, we’re not going to be bored,” Harper said. “My heart has always been for kids with art. I feel like art is therapy. It’s my love language. It’s how I share love.”
Harper is an artist and owns McHarper Manor, an art and DIY studio in Milford.
She said she wanted to find a way to help children process what was happening in the country.
The idea took off and has reached not only local families, but families across the world.
“Not all moms, or dads, or grandmas or caregivers have the same toolbox that I have, to keep my kids entertained and happy, and unpacking and dealing with all this stuff,” Harper said. “So, it’s the least I can do to help people.”
Thousands of families are tuning in each day to help children learn how to paint, sculpt and up-cycle.
Learn more on their Facebook Page!
A Bit of Good News!
Chinese Company Ships Crates of Masks to Italy Covered in Italian Poetry: We Are ‘Leaves of the Same Tree’
A Chinese company has shipped crates containing tens of thousands of respirator masks to Italy in her time of need.
And it has done so with the artistic flair of a true Italian romantic.
Consumer technology giant Xiaomi mailed the shipment to the Italian Civil Protection Department, and they stapled to the side of the crates an ancient line of poetry from the Roman philosopher Seneca:
We are waves from the same sea, leaves from the same tree, and flowers from the same garden.
Siamo onde dello stesso mare, foglie dello stesso albero, fiori dello stesso giardino
The European country has had a terrible time of the pandemic, and Xiaomi International (pronounced Sheeow-mee) announced the donation on its Facebook page March 5, saying the company felt a responsibility to a market which had welcomed them so warmly when the smartphone maker expanded into Italy two years ago.
