Summer holidays can be costly for most families especially when we get caught up in  the summer holiday  race. 

There are lots of ways in which we can reduce the cost of entertainment during the holidays. Sometimes it is much more fun, by just being together in one place, by being present and being creative with what we have.  

I have tried a week without paying for any activities and I have come to the realisation that summer holidays can also be a time for children to learn news skills from their parents, life skills which they are not often taught in school. Depending on the age of the child some of these activities can include car wash, cookery, decorating, community support (charity shops, care homes, parks etc.), How ever mad this may sound to some of us, some of these activities can encourage children to stay off their screens and learn how to balance work and play.    

Right! Sign up here and tell how children in other parts of the world spend their summer holidays.

Coming together to share a meal is a great way of unifying different cultures, it is also a useful avenue to learn new words and meet new people. To learn about sayings before and after meals, eg prayers the French 'bon appétit,meaning “good appetite”. manners and dining etiquette of different countries, rules about growing, harvesting, preparing and  eating certain foods and understanding the ingredients and utensils’ used etc. 

What’s your national dish?

What are the customs around it? 

How do we order this dish in your language?

Over the summer, children had the opportunity to explore and develop cross curricular and intercultural skills through: games, language tasters, cookery and craft.  
The children tried different styles of cuisine, tasted and created their own recipes. They engaged and shared experiences with people from different countries like Cameroon, Syria, France, Spain, Srilanka, India and China. 
It was like going on a world adventure without leaving England!
The Journey Firstly they set off for India, where a guest chef, Andy Tibb from Poco Culina came and showed them how to make ‘masala’, dips made from a mixture of different Indian spices. Secondly, the children then got to taste and make Srilankan food.  In Eastern style, the children were also hosted in Syria by Hanan. Hanan got them to taste and make fresh Syrian food with. On the menu were: Foul and Fattoush salads including a rich pudding, LaialyAlSham (Damascus night). These were all quick to cook and healthy meals. 
Finally, the children had Edufun founder Regina, from Cameroon who showed the children some typical Cameroonian food. Their favourites were ‘puff puff, plantain, guava, passion fruit and mango smoothies. They children tasted and cooked on a real tropical journey.

Language exploration and creativity

After Asia and Africa, the children travelled back to Europe to explore some of the languages they encountered including French and Spanish language.   Some of the words the children enjoyed learning were ‘Namaste’, which is a formal greeting, ‘Satay’, a Malaysian dish which is meat grilled on a skewer and it also contains peanuts, and  ‘paratha’ which is a type of Indian flat bread. 
“Have good Practice for the Future” Lula.
As the children created their recipes and learnt new words, they also came up with many expressions. Some particular words  which they invented as they moulded  the ‘paratha’ dough in their hands to get it into the right temperature and shape: ‘the magic happened’, ‘mine is called Bob’, ‘mine is warm’, ‘this relieves stress’, ‘this is so good, ‘it smells like curry’. These expressions indicated how much the children were engaged and how much learning took place. In my opinion, this is vital in a world where one’s culture can sometimes be supressed. The fact that the children and their families showed genuine interest, brings hope for the future especially in terms of future opportunities for these young people. A parent expressed her child’s experience this summer with Edufun:
‘Fia has loved her time at Kid's kitchen...she always proudly explains how she has made all the different foods she brings home and enjoys sharing it with us. Along with learning languages, playing games and making friends, she has been very well cared for in a warm environment. Thank you.’
As Regina stated:
‘Summer 2018 was empowering, full of learning, creativity, appreciation of differences and curriculum support’. This is what Edufun is all about.
Edufun gives children a head start for the future.  
​By Lula Hureau

Travel around the Kitchen!
 
One of the best things about travelling is the food you can taste and enjoy.
As a fan of eating, I enjoy exploring and trying different foods. For example, Spanish Tapas, Paellas. There are also the Italian pastas, fish dishes, my great Aunt from Italy fish married someone who owns a fish restaurant and is a wonderful chef, he has even released his own cookbook! Which has many fish dishes you can try.
Oh and you cannot forget the French bread and cheese, France is the only place where I like cheese, there’s lots of flavour and variety.
And that is just Europe, when I went to Ghana. I tried a whole new variety of foods. I particularly liked the fried yams, which is from the potato family. You can have fried yams or on their own or with beans in red sauce, which they call red. These are a few dishes that I got to try over my travels.
 
My love for food brings me excitement to tell you about Edufun’s theme for the year… FOOD! Edufun is taking world food to Cheltenham as of 30th of July to the 15th of August.  We will be exploring and making different recipes, some gluten free, nut free, vegetarian and even vegan too! This will be followed by different games and activities too. Parents are welcome to join in with the children. We hope to see many of you there!
 
By Lula Hureau Chapman 

 
From Cheltenham to Tours has been a giant stepping-stone for this small person.
The content is now, not only more complex, but in a language I am not used to studying in as intensively. However, with every bump and curve, you know it’ll all be worth it in the end. It is exam period, I am being tested on everything I have learnt for the past term/ semester (as they call it in France).  
I have been able to enjoy a few Christmas festivities as they have come around this month.
 
Across the channel
Being in France has got me to explore new cultures as well as discover my own heritage. For example, being a person that is fond of church, I got to meet some wonderful Americans who host a Thanksgiving dinner every year.  A time where they give thanks to everything good that has come to them, it is also a time for sharing, which is what I believe the Christmas period is all about.
‘La place Jean Jaures’
This weekend was the beginning of the Christmas market and you could feel the magic coming alive at this time of year. From crystallised jewellery, woolly hats and scarves, coloured lights/ lamps to warm hot chocolates, crêpes, waffles, chestnuts and mulled wine.  As you walk through the market, you reach the heart of the town, called ‘la place Jean Jaures’. Here you find a number of small and large Christmas trees, surrounded by ginger bread men and one large snowy bear, all covered in tinsel and lights which brighten up the town at night.
The lights and tinsel take you up the high street and at the end of it, there is a wonderful Ferris wheel and an ice rink. Even in the winter, you can still enjoy fun activities (so long as you make sure you have your coat!)
 
Edufun’s festive season’s treat
As I enjoyed the festivities across the channel, Edufun also had an exciting end of year event: Opera and Koto experience.  All those who attended took a moment to learn and enjoy the traditions and cultures from Japan and Italy.  Guests were fascinated by the Japanese national string instrument The Koto played by Sakie Plunkett who mesmerized the guests with a piece of traditional music that was created about 350 years ago.  Soprano was sung by Mifuji Kirstin Clark in Italian and Japanese accompanied by pianist Peter Homer. Edufun Christmas treat included traditional costumes, English and Japanese foods.
 
​Written by Lula Chapman Hureau
 
 

This year was the very first time where I have organised and planned a week’s worth of jam-packed fun, games and learning.  I cannot deny that I was a little scared and nervous about it; it’s a big change from assisting to leading. Children pay more attention to you when you’re in charge and they look up to you. As a leader it’s important to know and explain properly what you want to teach them.  I wanted to make sure that what I was doing was going to turn out as close to perfect as possible. I still have learning to do before that happens as I grow and learn from planning sessions for the children. However, I have to say this summer was a great success.
 
When the summer camp arrived, it was easier and less pressure than I thought it would be. The children were absolutely wonderful and were eager to participate in the activities. A lot of the children came back saying they particularly enjoyed the cooking, this is where we made crêpes and a traditional French dessert called the Tarte Tatin. The girls were particularly engaged in the designing of clothes and making props and posters to present their fashion designs, as the theme for French week was a Fashion Show in Paris. The parents enjoyed learning what their children were up to, showing great interest and excitement.
 
Working with Edufun has taught me how to engage with children on a new level, and has given me a new confidence and outlook on taking care and looking after children. I could definitely see how open the children were to new cultures and how they care as much as Edufun do about the world that we’re surrounded by.
 
Now the next chapter of my life is coming up. I am writing this to you from the airport, waiting to go off and start my new adventure in France. I am waiting quite impatiently and yet excited at the same time. I am really going to miss Cheltenham and the Edufun team, however I will continue to be blogging, contributing ideas and hopefully leading another week next summer.



Written by Lula Chapman-Hureau

I am more than the colour of my skin. I need not be reduced to that.

Every person is the sum of their experiences and they must gain their own experiences. I always wanted to have straight hair and green eyes.  If that happened, people told me I would be “denying my identity”. Was that a warning? I felt challenged, I bought myself green contact lenses and went to the hairdressers. It was a good experience to stay the same even after all the changes. I wanted to stay curious, let myself make mistakes, investigate further – and add to my experiences.
 
Like lots of people, I wished I was a scary, complicated creature: unpredictable, complicated, full of life. I wanted to surprise other people and myself with my character, my decisions, my actions. That is a part of my personality.
 
I used to write a column for a newspaper called “I am another”. In the column, I once described searching for identity. It was about who I was. It was about other people trying to explain things. It was about thinking carefully about feelings and character. A publisher phoned me just before it was printed. He suggested that I write a book. It was a special chance for me to understand myself.
 
“The proportion of Heaven…”
           
The subheading was clear straight away: “My family and other wonders”. I wanted to call the book “The proportion of heaven” - that’s what the name Abini means. But that wasn’t a catchy title. 90,000 books are printed every year, so a new book should stand out. You might say: it should stand up to the challenge. Or maybe blend in with the shadows? Either way, I wrote 250 pages against generalisations. I had to realise that this book may well have been a rough sketch of my life, not a way to make money. That’s how my book “Chocolate Child” (Schokoladenkind in German) came about.
 
I linked “Chocolate Child” to some similar German sayings. In German if you say show your chocolate side (Schokoladenseite) that means you are showing the best of yourself. Lucky child (Glückskind) and Sunday child (Sonntagskind) mean that you are very fortunate. So, title of the book had more to do with life than skin colour. Other people usually pointed out my skin colour anyway – for me it was always obvious. I got on with other things: I wanted to let my mother know I loved her. I wanted to tell her about the country I grew up in. Tell her about things I understood well and things I knew only a little about, about big and small miracles.
 
What was surprising was that people understood the book so well. In fact, people saw “Chocolate Child” as lots of different things, including a story about mothers and daughters and German history. They thought it was a book for women, and it described how people “got away from everyday life” well. People thought it was a memory of “where and how we once had lived”, a “desire to be different”. Other people thought it was a book about an important time in history without sadness. People thought it was a witness to the time when it was written. They thought the book was different because it wasn’t about an average person’s life. This made me proud, because nobody tried to label me. It showed me that I am more than my skin colour.
 
Since I was a little girl, I have felt like I had other colours – I had to behave like them often. I had to answer questions that I hadn’t asked. I had to fight discrimination. Sometimes I was faced with people who got angry about my skin colour. It would have been simple to say that all people were racist. My mother said this was “too easy”, she thought it was important to recognise the differences between people. “In general, each human being is a special case” she said. I should never think that I know them all.
 
„Trust people to…”
 
A well protected childhood was waiting for me. My mother protected me from being hurt by logic. The German Democratic Republic protected me from getting to know the world. God protected my family from being rich and buying lots of things. My father taught me that it’s okay for rice to go lumpy.”
 
In 1937, my mother fled Berlin with her Jewish family. She came back to Germany in 1950 and made friends. Friends who had not only gained experience, but also could also use their experience. They would have thought it terrible, to be racist themselves. My mother trusted people to something about racism.
My mother didn’t like the dark, because that’s where things were put out of sight. Things were made smaller and adjusted so they could be hidden away in the shadows. Boring old sayings, mistakes and contradictions were hidden there. Therefore, my mother made sure she left a light on for me at night. This shaped my life. Even now I shake when I think about someone being stuck in the dark. I don’t live by other people’s rough sketches, my life belongs to me. I don’t have to explain the way I live. Therefore, I think about myself as more than my skin colour, even if other people don’t think that too.
 
I can never achieve what a community expects me to, even if my skin is white or black. I meet other people with black skin and straight away I feel a positive reaction and sympathy - but not a sign of togetherness. I ask myself questions like; What has made this person who they are? Why do they have that opinion? Do they have a reason why they answer like that? How do they deal with things? Why are they turning to me for help? The answers to these questions are my guide. I don’t think skin colour is a reason to try and fit in. My skin colour is a benefit of mixing with lots of different people.
 
It is terrible that people have to work hard to deal with their skin colour in a relaxed way - sometimes people are able to do this. Learning who you are definitely depends on things in your life. For example where you live, if you are a man or a woman, your family and friends and other people you meet. Every person really is the sum of their experiences.
 
I am proud of my skin colour, I have never wanted it to be different, not for a second. But I also didn’t want it to be the only thing people noticed about me. My skin colour is a good thing that I thank my parents for. The colour of my skin is not a racist trap. It is actually a surprising fact. It isn’t an identity that you feel, it’s something you honestly know. My skin colour isn’t failure, but rather success.
 
                                                                        ******
 
Abini was a mixture, half Jewish, half Nigerian. A year had already gone by and she still hadn’t been baptised. Then my parents finally decided that I could be baptised. Christian. Most importantly, Abini is a mother of two and a daughter herself. In 2003, a German company published her book. "Chocolate Child” made it onto the Bestseller list, but not into any dark shadows! Abini thinks of herself as someone from Berlin, from Germany, from Europe. She is a mother, a daughter, a wife, a friend, and bad at car parking. Everybody is lots of these things at once.
 
Written by Abini Zöllner (translated from German)

I still remember words to songs which I sang as a child, they bring back happy 'clappy', fun memories of people and places as well. Some of my favourites are "Que sera sera'/What ever will be, will be.." by Doris Day,  'Whatever will be will be' ... "Elle a, elle a, elle a, C'est comme une gaieté, Comme un sourire..." by France Gall and lots more.

​Music researchers have found that singing can enhance listening and support the learning of vocabulary and slangs in different cultures, singing can promote positive thought patterns and even enhance the learning of a mother tongue, understand and appreciate other cultures. At Edufun we encourage language learning through singing. Everyone can join whether they are good at singing or not.

​If this resonates with you, tell us all about your sing along experience here.

The urgent need to promote Europe's rich linguistic diversity to foster tolerance and acceptance.

Quiz on Bosnia
Send us your answers and win a free entry to our multicultural event in December.
Eg. 1. SE Europe

1.Where is Bosnia situated?

2.​Bosnia is also called '..................' due to its shape.

3.What is the population of Bosnia?

4.What is the capital of Bosnia?

5.What languages are spoken in Bosnia?

6.What is the Bosnian currency?

7.Name some Bosnian food.

​8.What kinds of crops do they grow?

9.Bosnia has the longest river in the Balkans. What is it called?

10.Bosnia has the last remaining jungle in Europe. What is it called?

‘False friends’ or same word different meanings where words sometimes represent something different to what you expect!
Misusing words out of context could lead to people falling out with each other including bigger conflicts like war.


Did you know that:
fart Polish good luck English fart
grad German degree Bosnian city
gift English gift German poison
gift English gift Swedish married
gift English gift Norwegian poison
burro Italian butter Spanish donkey
blubber Dutch mud English blubber
but Polish shoe English but
cap Romanian head English cap
car French because English car
chariot French trolley English chariot
chips French Crisps English chips / french fries
dobro Croation good Portuguese double; twice

Have you found yourself in an awkward situation before for misusing words knowingly or unknowingly? Let know. 

Gender: Masculine

Valetine/VAL-ən-tien 
Meaning & History
From the Roman cognomen Valentinus from the name Valens to mean "strong, vigourous, healthy" in Latin.

Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century martyr and his feast day was the same as the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which resulted in the association between Valentine's day and love.

USAGE: English since the 12th century 

Othe usage: Valentinus (Ancient Roman),  (Danish), Valentijn (Dutch), Valentin (French), Valentin (German), Bálint (Hungarian), Valentino, Tino (Italian), Valentin (Macedonian), Valentin (Norwegian), Walenty (Polish), Valentin, Vali (Romanian), Valentin (Russian), Ualan (Scottish), Valentín (Spanish), Valentin (Swedish), Valentyn (Ukrainian), Folant (Welsh)

For this International Mother Language Day 2016, Let's look at the meaning of our names in different Languages and the story behind them.

Regina
GENDER: Feminine

USAGE: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Late Roman

PRONOUNCED: rə-JEEN-ə (English), rə-GEEN-ə (English), rə-JIEN-ə (English), re-GEE-nah (German, Polish), re-JEE-nah (Italian), RE-gee-naw (Hungarian)

Regina means "queen" in Latin (or Italian), used as Christian name from early times, and was borne by a 2nd-century saint. In England it was used during the Middle Ages in honour of the Virgin Mary, and it was later revived in the 19th century. A city in Canada bears this name, in honour of Queen Victoria.

Food and Languages.  6.15.2015
I wanted 'kaszanka' but found out I had ordered 'bigos' instead when I got served. Luckily 'bigos' tasted just like my African cabbage stew.
But it had much more meat and was delicious! The grilled sausages were mouth watering too. Tasting foods from other countries can be a great way of identifying with other cultures, making informed choices and learning new words.