The Chinese culture has had a big influence around the world for centuries and it’s an interesting country for children to learn about. Today we’re sharing with you a great book: All About China, which is filled to the brim with interesting information.
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Tuttle Publishing kindly sent us copies of All About China: Stories, Songs, crafts and Games for Kids, and the children have been spending the last little while reading through and enjoying the activities.
All About China
All About China: Stories, Songs, crafts and Games for Kids is in keeping with Tuttle’s ‘All About’ series, which is incredibly informative. Take a little trip into the past and learn a little about several of the dynasties and some fun facts about them.
The children found learning about traditional Chinese homes was interesting, and decided that they are indeed happy that we have indoor plumbing as in the Hutong areas of cities like Beijing, the homes may be small like ours, but the residents may have to walk a couple of blocks and wait in line to use the toilets when nature calls! I have told them this many times when I’ve spoken about a short trip I took to China in 2003, but I’m not sure they totally believed me.
As with all of the All About books, there are plenty of activities for children to do to get hands-on with Chinese culture. A couple of the activities in this book are:
Paper cutting is an ancient art form and is still practiced today. You can try your hand at cutting out a double happiness symbol to hang up.
Food is always the way to my children’s hearts and memories, so they were happy to make the Kid-Friendly Long Life Noodles. We had all the ingredients in the cupboard already, and the kids grow their own green onions, so they were happy to use that, too!
The kids learned about the Qing Ming Festival and how often people will make kites and fly them as a way to reach the heavens and their ancestors and pass along good thoughts to them . This had Tristan thinking about the kite he and Phil made earlier in the summer from the Asian Kites book.
Northern Ireland isn’t a big hub of festivals, but they have been to Chinese New Year festivities and have watched Dragon Boating a few years back…and of course have heard many tales of my time back home in Regina and participating in the huge Dragon Boat Festival there!
Of course, there’s more than just history to China; it’s a vibrant and bustling place today! But with that, comes air pollution, which is causing some damage to the health of both people and historical artifacts. In addition, there are some endangered species in China such as pandas, tigers, and Chang Jiang River dolphins. This brings up a good topic of conversation about how we can help the environment both here at home as well as have an impact half way across the world.
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