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@Mrs. Blue: I don't have kids yet (I'm pregnant with our first) but I'm curious about this too. I'm in an interracial relationship (DH is white and I am asian) and I literally didn't give this a SINGLE thought until this week when I saw the Cheerios commercial on the topic.. may be somewhat ignorant I suppose, but I just didn't ever think about it when it came to my children! Not yet at least.

I grew up being bullied because of my race and still deal with comments and "jokes" from people.. I will definitely need to find ways to discuss this with LO when the time comes.

When I taught preschool we did a lot of "alike & different" talk (two things look different, but they are also alike). We pointed out when people tried/did different things and how positive experiences come from differences. We didn't put an explicit point on skin color though and I wish we had. I think that's how I'll approach it with my son.

Skin color is so obvious to children, so I think allowing yourself to comment on it in a positive way is where to start. As a white person, I wouldn't want to say "The lady with the dark skin." I'd look for different descriptors, but a child would likely be confused - skin color is the obvious descriptor. So, it's about recognizing & discussing that different skin colors ARE a part of our world but they aren't useful indicators of someone's worth (just like eye color isn't helpful). When kids are older, like grade-school, I think discussions of the way society deals with race are more appropriate.

LO is only 15 months so we don't have conversations yet. For right now it's through books and toys. She loves her "Shades of People," "Subway," "Corduroy," "My First Body Board Book," and more, which all feature babies/kids/and people of all shades. It's interesting to watch her "read" the "Shades of People" book, I noticed she's really drawn to the Asian kids. (I wonder what that means.)

Our nanny share family is white, so LOs BFF right now is a blue-eyed blonde little girl. They have play dates with a little Indian girl and our singalongs we attend are very diverse. I know she's already noticed the differences in her hair vs. her friend's hair. (All the little kids love to pet her hair because it's puffy like a cloud and she doesn't like that).

I honestly feel like the best way to teach kids not to discriminate is to set a good example as parents. Parents are responsible for a lot of what their kids learn to do and say, and they watch how we adults treat each other. Children may not listen to what their parents say, but they do imitate their actions.

Thanks to some suggestions by @Mrs. Jacks: I've starfted having conversations with DD about race. We read stories with characters of different races and discuss how people we know in real life have different skin tones, hair colors/textures, etc... It feels so awkward, at first, to point out someone's skin color, but it becomes easier with practice. The trickier part, to me, is not having the conversations with your children; it's explaining your conversations to other people who overhear your 3 year old discussing "that lady's beautiful skin".

Subscribing! I've bought a few books specifically seeking out either their discussion of race

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0823423050/ref=oh_details_o00_s03_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Skin-You-Live-In/dp/0975958003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374261267&sr=8-1&keywords=the+skin+we+live+in

or books that are simply stories with non-white characters.

I have been thinking often lately about how to make sure LO doesn't only see white people as he grows up... we live in a very homogenous area

Maybe it's time for another blog post with some more resources!

@sloaneandpuffy: I would just say that I was surprised that my daughter was noticing race, but not knowing how to talk about it much earlier than one would realize (18 months).

Another good book is Global Babies. It's really simple, but has close up photos of babies from a bunch of different countries. It's one of my kids all time favorite books, and I think the exposure to different features is good for them too.

Our family is very multicultural, so I think a lot of it will just come through daily life. But @Mrs. Jacks: I would love to hear more of what you're doing too!