Common Ties: Living Together in a Multicultural World*

Common Ties: Living Together in a Multicultural World*
by Patricia del Valle, Ph.D., NCC, Maria Gondra, Psy.D., and Raysa Richardson, Ph.D.

When children enter a new culture, they often experience fear, anxiety, and stress. These children and their native-born peers are engaged in a socialization process—the former learning to navigate in a new environment, the latter learning to welcome children from unfamiliar cultures.Common Ties eases this process by helping children find shared feelings and experiences and accept differences in a non-divisive way.

To start, each player is given a "passport." The goal is to travel around the colorful game board, visiting seven geographic regions and answering questions posed on game cards. Appropriate answers are rewarded with tokens that players can insert in their passports.

Game cards address friendship, emotions, customs, responsibilities, family traditions, holidays, favorite activities, and more. To introduce a bit of geography and stimulate discussion about other cultures, some cards ask players to identify countries based on clues provided. In addition, blank cards are included so that you can create questions relevant to your particular group.

Common Ties helps newcomers learn and internalize the traditions, behaviors, and values of their new culture without losing their identities or respect for their original cultures. In a parallel process, it helps native-born children understand cultures different from their own. For 2 to 4 players or teams.