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Originally Posted by Barbie19
The creativity side to it isn't really an issue. We have decided and planned the way in which we are going to go about it. However,as a general rule would you stay away from creating any religious building in a role play area even if the attention was not on the religion itself? The practitioner herself has said that she would not mind if i asked her to create a mosque if it was during Eid, but finds the idea of having a church offensive. The majority of parents that we asked out of interest couldn't see what the fuss about having a church was. If the Royal Wedding was based in any other format i would have suggested doing the role play in that way too. I am not pushing the idea of Christianity to the children, but merely setting the scene of the wedding itself. If the Royal ceremony was held on a beach, i would say Let's do a beach! Honestly, would you be offended if your child's nursery had a church to simulate the scene of the Royal Wedding in their role play area?
I certainly wouldn't. I would want my child to have awareness of all cultural ceremonies and/or religions as I feel it is the only way to create an open minded future generation. I myself am Atheist so religiously i have no issues, but also personally I really don't see the big deal?? Maybe it's just me.
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I think your theme is a lovely idea, I know children in our setting love to dress up, girls as brides or princesses, the boys love dressing up - especially wearing capes (we provide many options and accessories etc) - whether they are super heroes or kings. Marriage must still be talked of as the children re-enact through their role play and talk of getting married naturally. Many know that their parents are married, some have been bridesmaids, page boys or just attended a wedding.
If you are worried about offending by recreating a christian wedding, how about researching a little bit about other cultures/religious wedding traditions?
We have saris in our dressing up - not as elaborate as wedding sarees, but by providing other options, perhaps some pictures or accessories of other wedding ceremonies/celerations you could look at will help allay others concerns/fears.
I'm sure whatever you do, you will make it age and stage appropriate, obviously remain unbias in presenting your story telling/facts - you could talk of how a British bride may prepare/wear for their wedding and for an Indian wedding how they decorate their hands with henna, wear gold jewellery etc. You may want to look at a European wedding - pick out snippets that you think the children would like to hear. At some European weddings they really go to town decorating the wedding car with flower garlands, and after the ceremony driving through the town beeping their car horns to announce to all that someone has just married, in Britain we tend to have a ribbon on the bonnet of the car to go to the church, the registry office - or even a castle these days!
If you have lots of capes and crowns this will give the children an opportunity of dressing up as Kings and Queens - there are other Royal families throughout the world - another option to look at, talking about William and Kate as our King and Queen one day.
All these options don't have to make more work for you, keeping it simple will allow the activity go in the direction the children want it to.
I think your idea is a good idea - you just need to make sure that colleagues and parents can see that you have thought of equality and diversity when providing activities and learning opportunities for the children and there shouldn't be any problems. The union of a couple should be a joyous occassion whatever the cultural or religious beliefs.