One of my resolutions for the year is to speak more Mandarin with my children. Granted I’ve broken that resolution before, and not just once 😂 I’ve also been researching the best way to learn Mandarin without drilling it in or killing their budding love for the language. My methods may be slower than spamming flashcards, but hopefully by the end of this year the children simply grow to see Mandarin as part of their lives. Language is inseparable from culture, so before I even begin any of the written activities, there needs to be lots of cultural exposure and spoken language. Which makes Lunar New Year the best time to start!
Here are some ways to naturally introduce children to the cultural celebration of Lunar New Year (while introducing some Mandarin language).
Tray Work
A lantern-making craft using old red packets.
This is an extremely popular craft which I’ve grown up doing. I’ve put a Montessori twist on it by
-having all items on one tray, including a sample lantern (which I demonstrated how to make)
-including an empty box to hold the cuttings
-writing the Chinese numeral that corresponds to the number of black lines that need to be cut (you can skip this step if your child hasn’t exploded into writing yet)
Notice that I’m giving her the least amount of assistance and letting her do as much of it as she can. The point of crafts is for refinement of motor skills, even if the end-product is not “perfect”.
Shopping at Chinatown can also yield some surprisingly good buys that bring your culture into your home, such as this foldable satin basket and lipstick holder. This is my Asian version of a basket with items that a toddler can practise opening and closing with; even the basket’s Chinese knots can be untied — challenging for me too. If you have visitors to your home during this festive period, they might be pleasantly surprised to find their toddlers drawn to this work.
Mandarin Books
I find this book extremely poignant, about a father who works away from home in China and returns for Chinese New Year.
This book portrays a father who is involved around the home and attuned to his daughter’s needs. We need more representations of positive masculinity like this, especially in Chinese books!
Its context and depictions of scenery however, is quite removed from the Singaporean context. I’m glad we’ve found this local book as well featuring one of the children’s absolute favourite CNY rituals:
For a 6-9yo child, Chinese New Year can be about gratitude. Rice is a staple food and it’s nice to find out more about how it’s harvested, thereby increasing their appreciation of something that they may otherwise take for granted:
I’m particularly liking the informative pages at the back with diagrams of traditional tools, types of rice, etc. I can see this feeding nicely into a biology or history project.
Practical Life (Food Prep and Serving)
Nothing will welcome children into one’s culture more than participating in it, especially when so much of Chinese New Year centres around eating. Children could peel a mandarin orange, grate ingredients for a louhei, or sift out their own portion from the steamboat…
Pour sauce…
Or throw in as much vegetables as the hotpot can take (that’s me applying positive thinking trusting they will be more willing to eat what they put in)
Springcleaning
The children help regularly chores like washing the dishes, folding laundry, mopping and vacuuming, but springcleaning gives us a reason to tackle the cleaning of the fans. The children are alot more meticulous than us in cleaning every blade!
And lastly..
Lunar New Year Lego
The children and I built this Lego Lunar New Year reunion dinner set.
This set features Oriental architecture, like the fretwork windows and red lanterns (which really dangle!), but we don’t really have such buildings here in Singapore. I will be mixing these Lego pieces up with the classic Lego collection at Grandma’s house, perhaps the children might build structures that are more typical to our surroundings.
2021 update: Lego has released more Lunar New Year sets, including one for Duplo for toddlers!
Part 2 of this post, focusing on oral language activities, below:
Supporting Your Child’s Explosion into Writing – without worksheets or “academics”