It takes a village of bloggers to really bring a subject to life, especially one as vast as Chinese New Year. That's why today, I'd like to share a couple of related posts from two of my favorite bloggers.
1. What's a cultural celebration without art?
When I first decided to write a series of posts relating to such a vast topic, I realized right away that there would need to be some kind of an art component to really bring the subject to life for children. Storytelling is wonderful, but when you can connect it with real life activities and projects, the words take on a life of their own...
So, I thought about who I could ask to create an art project and write a post about it. One person came to mind immediately, and that person was Tali Buchler of the Growing Up Creative blog. As a mom of two (with a third child on the way) who has a background in architecture, she loves to create all kinds of projects with her children.
I knew Tali would come up with something really special; and since 2010 is the year of the tiger, and the festival starts on Valentine's Day, she came up with a project that links the two in such a clever way:
I hope you and your children enjoy it. Thank you so much, Tali!
2. The importance of learning through a variety of methods and materials.
As much as I love children's literature, it cannot stand alone as the only learning and teaching resource. It can be used as a springboard to dive into so many other materials and activities, though, especially if a parent is not all too familiar with a given subject.
What I love about Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook blog, is that she searches high and low, near and far, for all kinds of resources. When she wrote a post relating to Chinese New Year, even I was amazed by the time and effort that she put into not only her research, but her writing as well. I'm happy to share it with you today:
There are many great resources here for families and teachers to share, whether or not they have any background knowledge about the topic or not. The video of the lantern festival is really a sight to see. I hope you enjoy it!
The world is the parent's classroom.
Teachers may not have time to immerse their students in any one subject in depth too often, and that's why it's important for parents to find creative ways to develop and share a love of learning along with their children. If we help our child to connect the dots, by exposing them to a wide variety of resources and real life activities, we can make the world a much better place.
The Olympics is about to begin, which presents the perfect opportunity for families to learn about other cultures and geographic regions together. It could be the spark that takes you on a spectacular journey with your child, and one that you'll never forget.
There's a lot going on this month, and the blogosphere is a reflection of all that's happening in the world! If you're blogging about the Chinese New Year, or culture in general, please let us know.
