Toddler Theme: China

This week, we added a new country to our Children of the World series -- China.  My Instagram friend Sam (find her on IG here) is an expat with 5 kids who's been living in China and she helped me piece together a really fun week for Mia.  She suggested the book Through the Mist by Jan Abbott and we found that along with a few others at the library to get us started.  We also pulled out our trusty copy of Maps to see where in the world China was located.  Sam & her family live in Hong Kong which is very densely populated and the majority of people live in tall tower apartments.  Mia could relate to this because she also lives in a tall tower apartment.  We learned that the Buddha is very prevalent in Chinese (and Asian) culture, so we spent some quiet moments this week in meditation, thinking about things that make us happy.  And on Sam's suggestion, we also practiced some yoga stretches.

Kids in China commonly eat congee -- rice porridge -- for breakfast, so we made some, too.  I found an easy recipe on The Kitchn (find it here).  Mia's favorite breakfast food is cheddar garlic grits so as a nod to that, I made our congee with chicken broth and then topped with a poached egg and green onion.  You could also make it sweet with fruit and other toppings.  Sam also suggested we try dried seaweed.  I found some at Whole Foods and also World Market.  Mia wasn't so sure about the seaweed but Millie liked it!  Other dietary staples are soups, fish, vegetables, and noodles.  Did you know that eating noodles on your birthday is considered good luck?  As a little fine motor skills activity, we practiced using chopsticks to pick up pom poms and put them into a bowl.  Mia was actually doing a pretty good job figuring out the chopsticks but I also found a set of the spring-loaded kid ones from World Market.

I found a website that has country flag coloring sheets (find it here) so Mia was able to watercolor China's flag.  We talked about the shapes and colors on the flag as she worked.  Sam told us that the dragon is very important in Chinese culture and suggested that we make dragons out of play dough.  Another fun idea is creating a dragon out of cardboard boxes and household items.  This is the one her kids made.  Isn't it cool?  If you live in Denver, a fun themed outing would be to go to the Dragon Boat Festival at Sloane's Lake.  It's in early July each year.

And lastly, we learned a few words in Chinese.  Hello is ni hao (pronounced "nee how").  Goodbye is zàijiàn (pronounced "si chen").   Mia isn't really writing English letters yet, but as a fun activity we collaborated on a few word banners with Chinese characters.  Mia painted the backgrounds and helped me find the correct Chinese characters to use based on the letter.  Can you tell what we spelled?   

Thank you, Sam!  This was a really fun week and we learned a lot.  If you live in another country and want to help us plan a Children of the World theme week, please let me know (I promise, it's very little work on your end). 

A summary of all Asia week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Used chopsticks to sort pom poms by color as a fine motor skills activity, Learned a few phrases in Chinese, Learned a few basic yoga moves and practiced a few meditation techniques

ART PROJECTS: Tried painting our names in Chinese characters, Painted the Chinese flag (find free country flag coloring pages here), Sculpted dragons with play dough 

OUTINGS: Dragon Boat Festival at Sloan's Lake (usually in early July)

SNACK: Dried seaweed snacks, Congee for breakfast (get the recipe here)

BOOKS: Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, The Dancing Dragon by Marcia K. Vaughan, Tikki Tikki Timbo by Arlene Mosel, Through the Mist by Jan Abbott

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).