Cheryl, I’m so glad that you shared your tips and memories — thank you! I especially appreciated the advice about ways to evolve your presentation from year to year to remain age-appropriate. Well done, those kids were lucky to have you! ~Wes

I am mother to two daughters from China. From the first year of pre-school through fourth grade, I offered to do a Chinese New Years lesson each year in their classrooms. The lessons grew and changed each year to stay age appropriate. One of the most fun activities was to learn how to use chopsticks by practicing with popcorn (popped, of course). Each year I approached either Panda Express or a similar restaurant and asked for donations of chopsticks and the plastic helper clips. I gave my daughters the option to dress in traditional Chinese dress if they wanted to, but never forced it.

In the younger grades, we would start by finding China on the globe, counting to ten in Mandarin a few times, explaining the Lunar calendar and then reviewing the importance of CNY, the individual meaning of each of the 15 days of CNY and talking about the typical traditions observed. We made red banners for the kids to decorate their own homes, made red lanterns and showed video’s of Lion Dances. As they got older, we had the class make CNY cards for their parents with Mandarin script taught by my daughters.

My girls are both in High School now, where they continue to learn Mandarin . They started attending Saturday school when they were two and continued until they wanted to stop which was near the end of grade school. This gave them the opportunity to perform in a CNY show every year as well as hear the language from a very young age. I treasure those memories and I’m so happy to have found your site.

Cheryl