Zamora, age thirteen, lives in a rural village in Afghanistan. Her family feels the effects of recent war, caring for an uncle who was injured by a landmine. Zamora feeds the cows and chickens, cards cotton, gathers wood, helps with laundry and house cleaning, and makes bread. We see Zamora at prayer and at her religion class. Zamora feels the effects of recent war, caring for an uncle who was injured by a landmine. She feeds animals, does chores, prays and attends religion class. Madina’s family is reunited after 10 years of exile in Pakistan. She tutors a fellow student in computer usage, plays chess and has a snowball fight with her cousin. Twelve-year-old Madina lives with her family in Kabul. Her father, an engineer, and her mother, a doctor, have rebuilt their home and reunited their family after 10 years of exile in Pakistan due to civil war and invasion. Madina goes to school, tutors a fellow student in computer usage, plays chess with her father and uncle, and has a snowbal
Visit eight-year-old Phoebe on her family’s farm as she gathers eggs, helps round up and shear sheep and learns to ride her new motorcycle. She enjoys Sports Day at school and takes violin and ballet lessons afterward. Josh, age seven, lives with his sister and parents in Sydney. He takes care of the family pets that include rabbits, fish, a parrot, and chickens. We visit Josh’s school, follow his dad to his work as a journalist and his writer-mother as she shops for groceries. Then we sit in on Josh’s piano lesson.
Luca, age five, and his family live in Rio de Janeiro. Luca’s grandparents take care of Luca and his brother before school, which starts at 1 PM. We follow them to swimming lessons, to the art museum, where their parents work and to their Dad’s amateur soccer team’s practice. Louisa lives on their family farm inland from Rio, where her father grows vegetables and raises cattle. Louisa’s mother drives the children 50 miles to their school in the nearest city, where she teaches ballet. Back home, the children entertain themselves by rollerblading and bicycling, watching TV and
Meet Hanna, age seven, who lives with her family in Nova Scotia. Follow her father, as he and his partner pull up 425 lobster pots and her Mom, a dental assistant. Go with Hannah as she rides two buses and a ferry just to get to school, where they’re having a wild week of Carnival activities. Hanna rides two buses and a ferry just to get to school, where they’re having a wild week of Carnival activities. John celebrates Thanksgiving at his aunt’s house, rakes leaves, attends Mass, plays baseball, studies and plays video games. Visit John and his family in the Toronto suburbs as he and his two brothers celebrate Thanksgiving at their aunt’s house, rake leaves and attend Mass. John plays basketball for a city league team, studies for school and does various chores and enjoys video games.
Ten-Year-Old Estibaliz lives in Cabuya. Follow her to school and be part of her classes. Her father is a janitor at a lux resort. Her mother cleans houses for a living. After school, watch Estibaliz do chores and study with her mother. The next day, walk with her to a nearby is land with a cemetery on it. The island becomes unreachable when the tide is high. Later, enjoy an exciting soccer game, followed by a community dance. Jose, a ten-year-old-boy, lives in Escazu, near the capital of San Jose, with his parents and three-year-old brother. Accompany Jose to school where he conducts science experiments and practices soccer. Take in the colorful local market with his mother and visit the family as they eat sushi made by the family’s housekeeper.
Six-year-old Hesham’s father supervises workers excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Hesham’s family hosts an aqiqa to celebrate his brother’s first week of life. Grandmother shops at the market, then we see how sun- bread’s made. Hesham and his father pray together, then they have a picnic on a boat with his little sister on the Nile. Yasmine, age seven, lives with her family in a suburb of Cairo. She goes to an international school with classes taught in English and she also takes French and Arabic classes, ballet and tennis. On Saturday the whole family always has dinner with her grandparents. This time they also celebrate her mother’s birthday.
Camille, age nine, lives on the family’s 400-year-old winery, where they’re pruning 30,000 grape vines. Follow Camille to school, where students enjoy a two-hour break at mid-day for a lunch prepared by a nearby restaurant. Follow her to her horseback riding lesson, to a nearby bakery where they make her favorite raisin bread, to her after-school care. She does homework with her grandmother, looks for fossils, and celebrates Three Kings Day with her family. Camille lives on the family’s 400-year-old winery. Her school lunch is prepared by a restaurant. She enjoys horseback riding, looks for fossils and celebrates Three Kings Day with her family. Emilien’s parents are divorced, so he and his sisters live with each parent on alternate weeks. Emilien participates in Aikido class, swim-club, and basketball practice. Emilien, age ten, lives in Lyon with his two sisters and his dad, who uses a scooter to get to his work as a laboratory technician. His mother is a musician. Since his parent
Sophia is seven-years-old and lives with her family near Marburg, where Grimm’s fairy tales were written. Visit the castle that might remind you of some fairytale stories and a farm where Sophia helps. Then follow Sophia to her third-grade class and to a fund-raiser for a sick student, attend her guitar lesson and then her sister’s gospel choir concert. Sophia visits a real castle, then helps with a class fundraiser for a sick student, practices guitar and attends her sister’s gospel choir concert. Ole and his family go to a Halloween Boy Scout cookout, then he goes trick or treating, practices handball, takes care of his turtles and visit an animal museum. Ole, age ten, lives in Berlin with his parents and two brothers. The family goes to a Halloween Boy Scout cookout at a park that used to be a landfill, then goes trick or treating and takes the light rail downtown, where they see a man making huge bubbles. We follow Ole to school and handball practice, see him take care of his tur
Deborah has 12 family members. She gets up at 5:30 to wash dishes, sweep, and carry water from a well before she goes to school. After school, Deborah and her sisters make fufu and she plays ampe with her friends. Emmanuel serves as an altar boy for a funeral, then he visits a shop where coffins are created in shapes meaningful to the deceased. In Accra, Emmanuel, age ten, lives with his parents, sister and aunt. He serves as an altar boy for a funeral that starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon, then we visit a shop where coffins are created in shapes meaningful to the deceased: a fish for a fisherman, a banana for a farmer, etc.
Mariaelena, age seven, lives with her family on their farm in the mountains, where sunny mornings give way to rain in the afternoon. See how they and their workers roast coffee, shell macadamia nuts and milk cows; learn how the Mayans kept the land fertile and enjoy her brother and father playing a duet on the marimba. Nine-year-old Jorge lives in the city of San Marcos. His family includes his twin brother and eight-year-old nephew. Watch the boys practice with their band; see his Dad, a doctor, find a kidney stone using ultrasound; join the family for dinner at their clinic, and then follow them to Family Day at school.
Raja, age nine, lives with his parents in Jamnagar. His school classes are taught in Gujarati, one of India’s 14 languages, and students also learn Hindi and English. We see Raja do homework, play cricket with his friends, play chess with his mother and walk to the Hindu Temple with his parents and play a license plate game in the evening. Five-year-old Bavika lives with her extended family in a compound in Jamnagar. Visit the family farm, where we see bullocks plowing a field before planting and a caretaker milking a cow. Bavika and her cousins ride in a cart; and her grandmother divides milk between her son’s multiple wives, who work together to cook and serve meals.
Inbar, age nine, lives with her family in Lotan, a desert kibbutz of 60 families. The kibbutz sells milk, watermelons, dates, goat cheese and fish, as well as machines that her father designed to help keep foods fresh. Her mother is an art therapist. Visit Inbar at school and go to the Sabbath community meal. Yoad is six-years-old and lives with his family in Jerusalem. We visit his private religious school, see his parents at work, go to a first grade graduation ceremony, shop at the fruit and vegetable market and celebrate the Sabbath with his grandparents.
Fourteen-year-old Veronica lives on a farm south of Naples, Italy, where her family raises sheep. Watch them make sheep’s milk cheese and deliver it to customers. Visit the 2,600-year-old city of Paestum, accompany the family to Solerno to see the city’s famous Christmas light displays, and walk through the restored town of Pompeii, which had been buried by a volcanic eruption. Luigi, age ten, lives in Olevano sul Tusciano in a building that also houses his family’s olive oil business. Learn how olive oil is pressed and see how the family makes fresh homemade pizzas. Visit Luigi’s school, as well as the cemetery, where his family visits graves on the Day of the Dead. Accompany the town folks on their festive pilgrimage to the seventh-century grotto of Michael, the Archangel, in a mountain high above the town.
Seichi, age nine, lives on his family’s farm in Furukawa, where his family’s lived for 14 generations. We follow Seichi and his sisters as they feed the rabbit and chickens, bring in the eggs and clean the family’s soak tub. His mother and grandmother grow vegetables, flowers and bonsai trees to sell. We attend an engagement ceremony and follow Seichi to school and to a huge school event called Sports Day.
Prince, a sixth-grader, lives in Nairobi with his parents and older siblings. Prince helps with morning chores before going to school. After school, he rides bikes with a friend and does his homework. On the weekend, Prince’s family attends church and enjoys a local festival featuring tribal dances. John, an eleven-year-old boy, lives on a farm near Kangundo Town. He gets up at 5 AM, and helps tend many animals. Then it’s an hour-long walk to school in total darkness. Next, we’re taken on a safari by John’s cousin who works at the Masai Mara National Game Reserve. Watch the wondrous wildlife of Africa, including lions, elephants, zebras and hyenas!
Nine-year-old Heejin lives with her family in a village that’s so old, the government is helping to restore and preserve it. Many village children are learning traditional Korean dances that are performed for tourists. The village also makes carved masks and totem poles. We visit Heejin’s school and the nearby open market, where her father buys food that he and Heejin’s mother will prepare in their restaurant. Kitae, also age nine, lives with his family in Seoul. Before school he takes English lessons by phone. He walks to school, where students get a fluoride treatment for their teeth, serve each other lunch and clean up after themselves. After school he takes math, art and Tae Kwon Do classes. His mother buys seafood at the market and cooks a special meal for his aunt and cousins.
Hermaina, age five, and her family live in the port city of Veracruz. Hermaina’s father and mother own an advertising agency, which her father manages. We see her mother teach a dance class at the city’s cultural center, go grocery shopping, visit Hermaina’s school and follow her to her swimming lesson. Eight-year-old Brizia and her parents and brother live with her grandparents on their farm. Visit her school and the surrounding farms owned by her aunts and uncles who are making tamales, harvesting cactus for salad, and sorting sesame seeds. Follow her family to a vanilla farm and an Earth Day parade in Papantla. Then visit the ancient site of El Tajin.
Guadalupe, age eight, lives with her family in a small mountain village near Jalapa in the state of Veracruz. We follow her to school, where at mid-day parents sell food they’ve prepared to make money for the school. We see how coffee is grown, sold and roasted, visit the Candelaria festival in a nearby town, and see how Guadalupe spends the day with her visiting cousins. Twelve-year-old Maurice lives with his family in Jalapa. We follow Maurice and his sister, Carolina to school. We see his father at work as an auditor, his mother visit a farmer’s market, Maurice’s karate lesson and his dentist and doctor’s appointments. Then the family goes to a park, has dinner in a restaurant, attends Mass and goes to a birthday party.
Juan Diego is nine-years-old and he lives in Panama City with his parents and grandparents. Join him as he goes to school, a Boy Scout meeting and a Family Day celebration. Visit his Dad at his job as a bank teller and his mom at her job as an industrial engineer. Juan Diego lives in Panama City. He attends school, a Boy Scout meeting and a Family Day celebration. Raisa sees a myriad of birds, monkeys, agoutis and sloths that live in Panama. In school she learns all about the world-famous Panama Canal! Raisa, a nine-year-old girl, lives in a village on the Pacific Ocean. See a myriad of birds, monkeys, agoutis and sloths that live in Panama. Visit her school, where we learn all about the world-famous Panama Canal!
Travel to the tropical Philippines to meet thirteen-year-old Khim, who lives with his grandparents on Cebu, one of the country’s 7,000 islands. He’s a freshman at a school with 10,000 students. Besides school, his day includes taking care of the family’s goats, playing arcade games, gathering wood and cooking rice for his family. Khim lives on an island. He’s a freshman at a school with 10,000 students. He attends school, feeds goats, plays arcade games, gaths wood and cooks rice for his family. Shahani attends opening ceremonies and English class at school, goes shopping with her mother, visits a mega mall and practices in her father’s modern dance class. Shahani lives on Luzon with her mother, father and sister. Like Khim, Shahani’s school is large…5,000 students, each wearing a name tag. We follow her to opening ceremonies and English class, going to buy groceries with her mother and visiting the large mall where her father entertains by dressing in costumes at birthday parties. W
Nine-year-old Jose lives with his family near San Juan. His mother works at a dialysis center and his father services and sells scales for science. Everyone is preparing for a big hurricane that is expected to hit the island, so they shutter windows, stock up on supplies at the stores and watch the weather forecast. Laura, age eight, lives with her parents on their farm, where they grow bananas and tropical plants. Her father also works for a company that sells fruits and vegetables to stores and restaurants. Her mother demonstrates new environmental farming methods. We visit Laura’s school and piano lesson and go to Aricebo, where they have the world’s largest radio telescope, which scientists use to try to find life in outer space.
Nicolai, age ten, lives with his family in a small village called Retkino. His grandmother takes care of Nicolai and his brother when his parents are at work. We follow Nicolai to school, his mother at work in a hospital and his father, an electrician, who climbs a pole to change a burned-out street light. Watch Nicolai’s father cut wood and heat water for the family’s banya, a kind of sauna. Seven-year-old Anya lives with her family in Nizhny Novgorod. We follow her to the first shift of school, which is in the morning (her brother goes to the afternoon shift) and to her gymnastics class. Later, at home, she practices piano and even more gymnastics on rings and bars in the family’s living room.
Evelina is five-years-old and lives with her family in Kalmar. We follow her to school, where kids make a cake for Parents Visiting Day. Her mother is a teacher and her father is a photographer. We go food shopping, make ham and noodles for dinner, go for a riding lesson and go to a birthday party. Alexander, age eight, also lives with his family in Kalmar. We follow him and his brother to school in the morning darkness. They take swimming lessons, learn about castles and study several languages. Because their parents are divorced, Max and Alex live with their dad for two weeks, then their mom. On Fridays they always have dinner in the living room while the family watches cartoons.
Rakkiaet, age ten, lives with his family along a canal in Bangkok. We watch his mother cook at 5 AM and give some of the food to the Buddhist monks who arrive at their dock. Rakkiaet takes a water taxi to school, where we observe opening exercises, classes and the noon lunch. His mother takes her boat to buy groceries at the floating market. His father sells noodle soup from his boat and his brother runs a water taxi. Seven-year-old Akeem lives with his family along the coast of the Andian Sea. His father, who dives for tropical fish to sell for aquariums, stays close to home, because they have a two-week-old baby. We see Akeem’s mother cook and bathe the baby and his father mend a shirt, bring water, and hang clothes to dry. We follow Akeem to school and watch him play and swim with his friends.
Jessica, age nine, lives with her family on their dairy farm in western England. Her father and grandfather milk 200 cows twice a day. Her mother packs lunches for Jessica and her sisters and drives them to school. Today the class takes a trip to the beach. The girls gather eggs, check out the new baby chicks, and play on the swing sets that their parents sell. James is ten years old and lives with his family in Bath. They play boules, feed their guinea pigs and watch a soccer game before school. James, his sister, and his father ride their bikes to work and school. James’ grandfather rings the bells in the church tower, his father writes music and James plays piano, clarinet and recorder. We visit a birthday party, church service and street fair.
Kyle lives in North Dakota with his parents and three brothers. They farm with his grandparents and several uncles and aunts and their families. We see how they harvest grain with massive harvesting machines, make repairs and take grain to the towering storage elevators in the nearby town of about 100 people. Kristin and her family are African Americans, living in Wilmington, Delaware, the second smallest State in the entire United States. We sit in for a myriad of her activities, which include a ballet class, basketball practice, a computer class, church services and a Christmas concert, where Kristin plays the flute. We visit her classes at school, her father at work, as director of a social service agency and her mother, as she teaches physical education to elementary school children.
In Vietnam, Anh Thu lives by the Mekong River with her family. She attends school and enjoys spending time with her friends and older brother. Her parents work on their banana and papaya plantation, then set off on their “floating store,” selling groceries to customers on the river. In Ho Chi Minh City, nine-year-old Thanh Hong goes to school where she studies French, art and reading and plays games with friends. After school, the family goes bowling, then Hong does her homework. The next day, Thanh enjoys swimming at the community pool and takes in the Vietnamese New Year Tet festivities, including fireworks and dragon dancing!
Zhu Kun, age nine, lives with his parents in a village near Ningbo that specializes in raising bonsai trees. Watch his father prune his bonsai. Go to school early with Zhu Kun and his friends to play ping pong, then watch farmers pick and process tea and his mother go to the open market and cook. Nine-year-old Yu Qinbo and her family live in the city of Ningbo. We see what she has for breakfast, how she rides a city bus to school and how the students serve and then clean up after the school lunch. Then follow her mother and father to work and to shop at the market and watch as they cook, help Yu Qinbo with homework and enjoy karaoke together.