Multicultural Gift with Meaning

*This isn't a sponsored post, I was honestly excited enough about this item and cause to write about it.*

For Chiquita's birthday I got her a magnetic doll set.  I was excited about this for a few reasons:

1.  The doll includes dress up and backgrounds for China, Peru, Poland and Uganda.  It gives us a chance to talk about the traditional dress and lifestyles in these countries.
2. By buying this item I was able to support Heifer International, a favorite charity of mine.  They are an international charity helping build self-reliance through gifts of animals and plants to people in poverty.  My favorite part is that recipients pass on the gift by giving some of the offspring of their animals to neighbors who are also in need.  The people involved in this program have an increased ability to provide for their families and their communities.  

 Chiquita's b-day party was yesterday, and I was happy that this morning while looking through her gifts she was excited about this doll!  At first she just wanted to add absolutely every piece of clothing, food, animal and accessory to the doll, but after playing a few times I convinced her to switch outfits and backgrounds a few times.  We talked about how llamas could live with our doll in Peru, but not in China or Poland (unless they were visiting from Peru).

Besides the multicultural aspect, I'm hoping that she'll get more interested in changing clothes when she plays dress-up rather than just putting on every piece of clothing in her closet...

This post is linked up with Creative Kids Cultural Blog Hop!