Meet Kristina Wenger
Kristina Wenger spent eight years of her childhood in Guatemala, living among descendants of the Maya. She has a Masters degree in Elementary Education, has taught first grade, and is a school and library volunteer. She lives in Lancaster, Pa., with her husband Timm, her children Katia and Thaniel, and a cat Cody.
The Storyteller's Story
Once upon a time...there was a mother of two who wanted her children to learn about and enjoy children of other cultures. She searched high and low, looking for ways to teach them. She was ever reading, taking them to events, and introducing them to new tastes, sounds, and customs. Why did she do so?
Perhaps it was her own personal cross-cultural experience. After all, she did spend eight years living in Guatemala as a child, and nine months in Costa Rica. Surely she was influenced by her three-month tour of Central America, her four months in northeastern Brazil, her month in Spain, and her six-week tour of Europe.
She could have been influenced by the variety in her own education: as a student, she was homeschooled, privately tutored, and she attended boarding school, private non-parochial school, private religious school, and urban public school. Then, she graduated from Millersville University with a degree in Elementary Education, and later with a Masters degree in the same field.
Perhaps her teaching experience drove her to introduce her children to those from other cultures. She spent three years teaching first grade. She also had a stint as a preschool storyhour teacher. Then there was her year of homeschooling her daughter, her five years of volunteering at her local public school, and her months of teaching 4-6 year olds at church.
Whatever the reason, this mother pressed on for ideas. She just had to find ways to encourage her children to celebrate the variety of people on this planet! Developing an online directory of resources for other parents and teachers, www.KidsAndCultures.com, became an avenue for her and her husband to share what they had found. Then, one day, her husband suggested that she begin telling stories to children about children from other cultures, and "Treasures of the World" was born.
Presenting storytelling assemblies was a new idea for this mother. Perhaps she should have thought of it before. After all, she had already completed five years of planning and leading large group assemblies at the summer club at her church, and presented assemblies at the local shelter's preschool, and other storytelling assemblies at local schools.
This idea also presented a new way for the mother to develop and use her interest in drama. She was first involved with drama in elementary school, then Junior High and High school. She performed in three shows at Sight and Sound Entertainment Centre (Strasburg, Pa.), and has told stories to the children (young and old) at her church for nine years.
Developing the curriculum and activities to go with the stories fit right in with the mom's history, as well. Beyond the teaching experiences she had, she also had children's activity pages published for three years by a local charity in their monthly magazine. She had an activity booklet published for use by Morning Star Magic. A book that she developed the activities for, called Let's Visit The K'ekchi', about the people she grew up among in Guatemala, is in its second printing.
The mother was very happy to have found yet another avenue to help her children cherish cultures other than their own. She hopes to share her enthusiasm and ideas with you! So come sit a spell, listen and participate. Learn about other cultures together with her and with others. Then you can help to be a part of our global family's...happily ever after!
(Note: When she isn't telling stories or looking for ways to encourage her children to enjoy people from around the world, this mom can be found reading--especially children's literature, collecting ideas, creating crafts, scrapbooking, planning surprises/events/activities for the children in her life, or hanging out--where else--at the library!)
