Celebrating the Chinese New Year with Children!
Happy New Year!
2025 is the Year of the Snake!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
From my family to yours we are wishing you a prosperous New Year! 2025 is the Year of the Snake and I seized the opportunity to teach my family about other cultures while reminiscing about my time in Hawaii and Colorado.
Introducing Something New!
When introducing something new to our family, I usually include a book, an activity, and food. My oldest was too young to remember ceremonies and Dragon Boat festivals. We bought Year of the Dragon at a local vendor in Hawaii when she was born to help preserve her culture and heritage. Fast forward a decade later and I found myself looking for a book to introduce the Year of the Snake with my children.
Chinese Calendar sourced from Shutterstock Contributor Ola-ola.
Hello Thriftbooks!
In my efforts to be more resourceful and not wanting to purchase a new book. I took to the website Thriftbooks.com. I have heard good and bad things about purchasing a used book, so I was extremely hesitant. Like snakes, purchasing second hand often gets a bad rap. However, Thriftbooks.com has a good reputation as far as I am aware of. So I crossed my fingers and hoped the odds were in my favor of purchasing a used book in good condition.
Hard copy of The Year of the Snake Tales from the Chinese Zodiac
I was highly surprised when my book came in….
The book cover was torn!
There was writing in the book and a sticker!
I have a signed copy of the book!
Highly anticipated, I had been planning my blog posts in the month of December. I thought my book was super damage. But something seemed off…
This writing was next to the sticker that resembled the main character…
What I thought was inappropriate writing…was a message from the AUTHOR. I had unintentionally purchased a signed copy. In which had me jumping for joy (since I am familiar with the books author…we bought the Year of the Dragon book years ago) and consulting my receipt to make sure this wasn’t identified in my purchase. No signed autograph book acknowledged in the receipt. I had in my mind hit the jackpot. I now have a signed copy of a book that I hold dear to my heart. The author Oliver Chin wrote a book in which my daughter could be represented and now I can introduce with my family.
Activities to Amuse and Entertain!
My children are at the age where some need assistance and some do not. So, depending on how involved you want them to be (completely on you) depends on if you want them to help you pick out the activities or you pick and let them choose. In this case….I asked them and then did the activity before letting them be involved.
We did slinky snakes. This involved prep work then the kids put them together.
This is the YouTube Video from 123 Easy Paper Crafts.
This is ours!
Food Fun!
When introducing a new food I try to get the kids involved. When Kung Fu Panda came out it was the year of the Dragon. We made this recipe from Feast of Fiction. Does it work with gluten free flour? I don’t know. We didn’t try it. They wanted fried rice.
Was it an authentic Chinese New Year meal? NO. But we had fun and I call that a win.
Summary of the Activities
Did they have fun making paper snakes? Yes.
Did we have an authentic Chinese New Year meal? No.
Did they argue which zodiac animal was the best? YES, yes they did.
Did they learn about the Chinese New Year? Yes.
Overall, they said we should more activities like this for next year. Next year is the year of the horse. Who know what fun we can have.
Resources:
To be posted when I find the additional information used.
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