This excellent video series gives viewers a chance to
spend a day with children in another part of the world. Each video shows scenes
from two children's lives — usually in both rural and urban settings —
from the featured country.
We took a look at two new titles in the series, Families of Korea and
Families of Israel. Each segment begins with a child waking up in the
morning and ends with that child saying "goodnight" in the evening. In between,
children watch as the featured child naturally moves about his or her day. The
only narration comes from children, who speak in a manner that is clear and
understandable. Perhaps because the presentation is through the eyes of a child,
references to the politics and history of the featured country are minimal.
Instead, focus is mostly on culture — family life, community life, and
food.
Families of Korea begins with a day in the life of
Heejin, a nine-year-old
girl who lives in a small village in South Korea. Viewers follow Heejin as she
gets ready for school, eats a hearty breakfast of rice, meat, and pickled vegetables
with chopsticks, spends time in her third-grade class, goes to the market, and
more. Kids are shown the process of mulberry papermaking and discover that this
paper is used in Heejin's home on her windows and inside walls. In school, Heejin
practices a mask dance that includes a story, gorgeous costumes, and music.
She explains the origins of the dance and describes it as a chance for people
to "complain" about their rulers anonymously. The second segment features another
nine-year-old third-grader, Kitae, who lives in the city of Seoul in South Korea.
Again, the basics of his day are presented, and kids get glimpses of grown-up
life (including large traffic jams) as well. School life includes plenty of
musical instruction, and Kitae takes tae kwon doe lessons and plays with video
games in the afternoon.
In Families of Israel, viewers are introduced to
Inbar, a nine-year-old
girl who lives in a kibbutz in the Red Sea Desert. Children learn that the major
philosophy behind kibbutz life is sharing. Inbar eats most of her meals in a
communal dining hall, and her kibbutz grows and sells watermelons, dates, and
dairy products for a living. Child testers enjoyed watching as Inbar and her
brother played in a sand dune in a similar way that they play with snow —
rolling and sliding in the sand and making "sand angels". Viewers are also treated
to a celebration of the Sabbath. The second half of the video is devoted to
time spent with Yoad, an articulate six-year-old boy from Jerusalem. City life
is portrayed through the eyes of this young child, as he makes his way through
his very busy day of school, after-school activities, and a Sabbath meal with
his grandparents.
There is a very unaffected quality to these videos that is priceless. Because
young viewers easily identify with many activities in the lives of these foreign
children — such as catching the school bus, doing homework, and playing
video games — they more readily and naturally accept the cultural differences,
such as sitting on the floor to eat and bowing to grandparents to show respect.
Other featured countries in the series include Brazil, China, Ghana, India,
Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA. The series was previously
only available in educational and library markets, and is now available to the
home video market. Each video runs for approximately 30 minutes.
Rating: 
