welcome to the tea blog

August 18, 2008

Welcome to the Tea Blog, a conversation about raising a growing generation of global citizens. We hope you stay and explore all the wonderful stories Tea parents are sharing about their little citizens and the world they’re growing in.

At Tea, we’ve been talking about these little citizens of the world since the company started six years ago. Season after season we bring a little bit of the world into our collections, sending our design team around the globe to find inspiration that makes the foreign a little more familiar.

This summer, the Tea team is excited that so many people are joining us in this conversation about raising little global citizens.

Need help navigating your way through our writer’s inspiring stories? Our blog is divided into several categories:

CURIOSITY includes articles about how parents are introducing a global perspective into their children’s lives. Wander on into CURIOSITY to learn about Katherine Bose studying Mandarin with her toddler.

HERITAGE explores where we come from and how our family roots can reach far and wide. Check out Africa Fine’s stories of raising a bi-cultural family and Kathleen Cantrell’s post on keeping her Italian heritage alive in her kitchen.

INSIDE TEA is a place where you can get to know our Tea family a little better. Here people in our company contribute their perspective on life at Tea. Tea offers an international travel allowance that has sent our team far and wide. Read all about Leah’s trip to Greece, especially idyllic because it was her honeymoon!

In RECOMMENDATIONS, I will post your recommendations for things you’ve found help you raise your little citizens of the world. So far, we have a book recommendation from Stephanie Precourt and a bassinet Cindy McLaughlin thinks is great for travel. We hope to make this a go-to place for anyone looking for tips for globally-minded parents!

STYLE is all about children’s clothing. At Tea, we believe that because children’s clothing is a part of everyday life it has the power to reflect both our values the beauty found across the world. In STYLE we will post stories of our globally minded clothes and how they’re shaping the stories of little citizens everywhere.

TRAVEL is all about travel. We at Tea have found these stories so inspiring! Beware: they may move you to take out a notebook and start planning your next international adventure right away! The postings here include everything from travel tips to reflections on globe hopping with little citizens. We hope TRAVEL will become a rich resource for parents looking to share the globe with their kids.

We are so excited to have you join our conversation! Feel free to comment on articles that move you, contact us with ideas on how we can grow, and raise your hand if you’d like to become a writer. We’d love to have you share your stories with the Tea community!

We can’t wait to see this conversation flower, unfolding into a space where parents can share their ideas and experiences and ultimately enrich the lives of the little citizens everywhere.

The Editor

choosing a birth announcement

August 18, 2008

I found selecting a birth announcement overwhelming. It was my opportunity to show off my son to friends and family and I wanted to make sure it was just right – the perfect picture, the ideal card. The selection and styles of birth announcements is vast. I knew I wanted to include a picture, wanted the style to be more elegant than babyish, and that I prefered a more simplistic style. The Longevity Birth Announcement designed by Tea, available through Tinyprints.com fit my criteria just perfectly. I have received several calls from friends and family about how amazing the birth announcement is.

global fund for children’s guides to raising little citizens

August 14, 2008

At Tea, “For Little Citizens of the World” says it all. The “for” is at the heart of our work – it reminds us about the why.

At Tea we believe raising our children to be familiar with other cultures shapes them into better world citizens, conscious, aware, and mindful members of the global community. When we started Tea, we aspired to work toward this goal through our collections, bringing globally inspired designs to the world’s little citizens.

After a few seasons, we wanted to make our philosophy more tangible. We searched for a partner that had a similar point of view and found the perfect match in the Global Fund for Children.

The GFC’s inspiring work includes financing grassroots organizations that transform the lives of children around the world. They also publish beautiful books that make the foreign a little more familiar for our own children through pictures and stories.

The GFC’s books below are great ways to begin talking to your little citizens about the great big world:

Children from Australia to Zimbabwe

And the companion guide for parents: Raising Children to Become Caring Contributors to the World

exploring new zealand

August 13, 2008

We took our son Luke to New Zealand for seven weeks of exploring when he was 13 months old. I don’t know how much of the Kiwi culture he absorbed during that time, but he did display an innate ability to take long naps in a backpack during six hour hikes, to snooze through a helicopter ride with glacier landing, and to make it just fine sleeping through the night in any manner of pack-n-play, port-a-cot, or whatever sort of crib the bed and breakfast of the day could provide – so long as he was nuzzled in with his favorite blanket. And his parents learned that babies require a lot less gear than they previously had thought, that they are remarkably adaptable to drastic time changes and the obliteration of the daily routine, and that journeying to new parts of the globe with the newest member of the family only enhances the sense of adventure and camaraderie that motivates us to travel in the first place. Oh, and that those pull-down swinging bassinettes are an absolute God-send on overnight flights… as are portable DVD players… and the ability to breastfeed a toddler on a mountaintop or in a pub with minimal embarrassment. And the trip was enough of a success that, three months later, we took him to the Italian Alps for more of the same.

can’t wait for fall weather

August 13, 2008

I have to admit I am suffering from “summer dress fatigue,” and I am really ready to put some new colors on my little girl! There are too many gorgeous new styles available in Daily Tea to wait for cold weather so I scooped up a few pieces to get me through the next few weeks. Lizzie debuted her Fall Daily Tea ensembles this past weekend to rave reviews! The amethyst paper- cut print comes in a short sleeve top that is a great match back to the dry rose legging. Even though it’s still warm here, the leggings are perfect for playground and indoor gym play. Lizzie still stumbles and needs to protect her knees! I also had to get the new short sleeve dress style, which is great to wear-now, and to hold onto for colder weather, with the addition of the re-designed Daily Tea layering tee (slim fit and stretchy rib to be layered under all short sleeve styles) and those cute leggings.

a globehopping little citizen

August 13, 2008

I realized then and there that our then-23-month-old, Milo is a true Little Citizen of the World. We were in a (perfectly engineered for strollers) taxi in London, heading for Heathrow, about to take the final leg of our 5-week journey back home to San Francisco.

“Milo”, I said, “do you know where we’re going now?”
“AIRPORT!” he cried (we had discussed this at length previously).
“That’s right honey, but do you know where our plane will be going?”
“Madrid!”
“No sweetie-pie, we’ve been there already. Where do you think we’re going now?”
“Berlin?!!”
“Nope, not this time! We’re going home to see Penelope (our beagle).”
“New York!”
“Uh..no. We live in San Francisco. Remember?”
“Airplane go Denver?”
“No Milo. We’re going home to San Francisco. Remember your bed there with the monkey mobile?”
“Mino’s hotel big bed?”
“Not exactly – we’re going to our house in San Francisco with your own big-kid bed. Remember that?”
Milo wide-eyed, “No.”

book idea: eating globally

August 13, 2008

My boys will try anything at least once, when it comes to food. Because my husband and I have a wide range of favorite cuisines (most often of the Thai or Middle Eastern variety) there is always a new opportunity to sample something new with chopsticks and little fingers. We do most of our dining at home, so the kitchen is where much messiness and bonding and learning takes place. They all are great at adding spices and helping with the veggies. And often they invent their own, ahem, unique edible creations. And since they are good sports to try what we make, Mommy & Daddy go along and try what they make, too!

Choosing restaurants that offer the not-so-usual American kid’s menu fare has allowed us to introduce delicious opportunities for our sons to taste. Not only are the entrees part of the experience, but the atmosphere and artwork representing culture and lifestyle different from what we know is all part of the adventure.

A favorite book of ours is Mama Panya’s Pancakes, A Village Tale From Kenya. Not only does it have a recipe and take the young reader along as Mama and her son shop for their evening meal, but it also teaches about sharing and turning what might seem like a little bit to some into something very big afterall.

Stephanie Precourt writes daily at Adventures In Babywearing.