The Chinese New Year is a truly magical time for adults and kids alike.  It’s a long celebration that begins a month before the actual date and ends 15 days after (Lantern Festival).  The Chinese New Year is a great way to spark your kids’ interest in the Chinese language because of all the creative stories and symbols built around this holiday.

It’s all about making things relevant for your kids when it comes to learning Chinese or any subject. If your kids already love the movie Frozen, give them Frozen [冰雪奇緣] activities in Chinese. They will be eager to participate because they already love anything Frozen. It will be as easy as pie to introduce your kids vocabularies and Chinese characters from the movie. And next time you watch the movie together, ask them to find those words they learned for a little repetition practice. The same technique can be applied to other areas of interests. If your kids like dinosaurs, look for Chinese learning activities and games on dinosaurs.

This mooncake papercraft is the perfect introduction to the world of origami!  I made this origami with my nephew of 3 and half and it was a piece of cake for him or mooncake I would say.  It’s definitely the easiest mooncake paper craft you can make with preschoolers and kindergarteners.  Not to mention that they get to learn about the Chinese character “month/moon” [月 | yuè] while they are at it!

Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day) is a very important holiday in China and Taiwan and Chinese ethnics in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It’s a holiday that honors the dead relatives and ancestors. In a way it’s similar to Memorial Day in the US, but instead of commemorating those that served in the military, it commemorates those that passed away in your family. On Qingming Festival, families all gather at the graveyard to sweep the tombs of their ancestors and deceased relatives.