Celebrate Women's History Month with your kids

March is Women’s history month. My son is eight and had some school activities for the women’s history month celebration. I was curious to know whether he understood the significance of celebrating women’s history month. I googled and read some articles that talk about how to explain women’s history month to kids. I felt that many of the explanations mentioned gives a basic way to explain it to kids but I was not sure whether the preschoolers and elementary school kids will be able to understand and resonate with that.

I thought and decided to start a conversation with my son and hear his understanding before trying to explain anything to him.

I asked my son, “You are talking about Women’s history month at school, correct? Why do we celebrate women’s history month? What is the need for that? What do you think?”. He replied immediately, “That’s because women were not treated fairly earlier. Like, they did not have voting rights and were not allowed to study in school and colleges.” I was surprised to hear those answers. Indeed this is a great explanation to a preschooler as well. I appreciated him and told him that irrespective of all those challenges, women have made huge contributions to the society in various fields and made history. As part of parenting, we do learn many things from our kids.

I am mentioning some of the women who made history in various fields below.You can choose one of them and read books related to them.

Literature and Arts:

1. Avvaiyar - A tamil poet who wrote great poems for kids

2. Harper Lee - American novelist. She penned the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird that won the 1961 Pulitzer.

3. Jane Austen - British novelist who wrote classics like Pride and Prejudice.

4. Frida Kahlo - Mexican painter and feminist icon

Political and Environment Activist:

1. Helen Keller – American author, political activist, and lecturer

2. Rosa Parks – American civil rights activist

3. Malala Yousafzai – Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate

4. Greta Thunberg - Environment activist

5. Susan B. Anthony – American women’s rights activist

STEM:

1. June Almeida, Scientist Who Identified the First Coronavirus

2. Dorothy Vaughan - Mathematician who worked at NACA and then NASA as first a "human computer" and then as a computer programmer and played a crucial role in NASA’s space mission.

3. Marie Curie – Polish physicist and chemist, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity.

My son is going to create a picture story on Greta Thunberg using the Record your own story option in the MagicPolygon app and share it with our family members. Do you want create your custom picture stories using photos and artworks? Download our MagicPolygon app and try our Record own story feature.

How did you explain women’s history month to your kids? Comment and share your thoughts with us.

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