Chinese New Year

[mumofone]

Is anyone doing any activities to mark the Chinese New Year with their mindees?

[mama2three]

I had planned to , but my mindees are so involved in bearhunt activities and play that we are extending it to half term. It has really captured their imagination and Im not going to change themes just for the sake of it.

[AliceK]

We always have fun eating Chinese food with chopsticks. The children love it and so do I. Not sure yet what Monkey related things we will do though. The older ones have already had fun last week making fortune cookies, a bit early I know but they wanted to do it.

xx

[mumofone]

We always have fun eating Chinese food with chopsticks. The children love it and so do I. Not sure yet what Monkey related things we will do though. The older ones have already had fun last week making fortune cookies, a bit early I know but they wanted to do it. xx

How did you make your fortune cookies AliceK? :-) x

[bunyip]

I'm tempted to run a culinary field trip to the local noodle-and-MSG establishment, then kick back and wait for the complaints about unhealthy fast food from the horrified bourgeois-mummies.

[Maza]

I'm tempted to run a culinary field trip to the local noodle-and-MSG establishment, then kick back and wait for the complaints about unhealthy fast food from the horrified bourgeois-mummies.

Haha, yes I dare say some parents would comment in a negative way. Having said that, I have seen children munching away on veg on our little field trips who wouldn't normally go near the steamed plain veg, or over boiled veg that they get offered elsewhere. Which is worse? I honestly don't know.

[Dragonfly]

I don't think I'm going to do Chinese New Year this year. Exspecially after reading/ rereading some of bunyips posts.
My mindees too young to understand anything about it and the 9 year old is only interested in eating noodles.

[Maza]

So basically mumofone, it's up to you to decide whether you do anything or not. It's not been relevant to any of my past mindees but it is a festival which calls out to me and so I always mark it. I mentioned earlier that one of my oldest friends is Chinese and I remember when her dad took us both to China town in Manchester. I hated it. I was a bit unnerved because we didn't go to the Westernised side of it and so everything was totally foreign (pardon the pun) to me - the smells, sights, sounds, tastes etc. Now I love it. Before then, all I had experienced was going to the local Chinese Chippy to buy...chips. My friend (and another friend's husband) have helped me to build up my bank of resources and as we have great facilities only a short bus or train ride away it would be a shame not to use them.

At the end of my mini topic I don't really mind if my children know anything about Chinese New Year or the culture (that can always come later) - but I do know that they will have had their senses stimulated by listening to a different style of music, looking at a different type of design on various objects, being gentle with crepe paper decorations, picking up some things which are as light as a feather and some things which are a lot heavier than they look etc. Stimulating the senses and curiosity is my fundamental goal with young children. Older children always ask questions or make comments about my resources - another skill I am always keen to develop - which in turn gives me the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary.

In short - decide 'why' you would mark a certain festival and if it is more than ticking an Ofsted box then go for it. We can't mark every single festival with the children, so pick out the ones which appeal to you for some reason. If you are enthusiastic about it you are likely to pass on your enthusiasm too. If no festivals/special days appeal to you then don't worry.

There are a few little videos on youtube too which show families celebrating new year. Your children may love them or not be interested at all.

[mumofone]

I had planned to , but my mindees are so involved in bearhunt activities and play that we are extending it to half term. It has really captured their imagination and Im not going to change themes just for the sake of it.

Aw what bear hunt stuff have you been doing? X

[natlou82]

I'm planning to, not sure exactly what yet but I'll definitely do themed food.

[Kirstylob]

Mine are little, 16 &13 months, a 3 & 2 year old. We are going to be playing with noodles as they a bit too young to really appreciate anything to much. In the past i have found each child's Chinese animal and printed a picture along with their characteristics. And last year I got some Chinese newspaper for the children to look at and we cut out their initials from the paper.
I have got some chopsticks but we'll probably use giant tweezers. X

[bunyip]

Is anyone doing any activities to mark the Chinese New Year with their mindees?

Absolutely, definitely, positively not.

Do I have to launch into my annual rant?

[mumofone]

Absolutely, definitely, positively not. Do I have to launch into my annual rant?

Lol yes please because I've not heard it before! ;-)

[bunyip]

Lol yes please because I've not heard it before! ;-)

OK, don't say I didn't warn you.................. (I'll try to do the cut-down rant. )

I hate Chinese New Year for the Early Years with a passion. It is a sanitised piece of anti-historic pseudo-social tosh that has cluck-all to do with Chinese culture and achievements and brings out the lazy in everyone without ever mentioning the revolution once.

I've asked a whole heap of CMs, nursery/preschool people...................WHY are you doing it?

The answers are all too often bad ones:

• we're expected to.
• it ticks a box with Ofsted.
• it's a sort of vague diversity thing (even if it's entirely inaccurate, counter-productive, and not the least bit relevant to any child at the setting.)
• saw loads of cheap tat in the Bakermooncrocs catalogue
• everyone else is doing it, etc.......

Drives me nuts.

Takes me back to the ancient Confucian wisdom of "if every other bu88er jumped off a cliff, would you be doing it too?"

Worst of all, I think it is patronising and potentially insulting to the population of China - though I do draw the line at committing the ultimate popular pc act of insult: I refuse to be offended on another individual's behalf.

I think my whole opinion of it is summed up by the conversation I had with a child (my granddaughter IIRC, though it might have been a mindee) coming out of preschool with yet another poxy dangley lantern. We chatted about what she'd learnt and it became clear that her perception of China and its extraordinarily diverse peoples amounted to 3000+ years of high culture and scientific progress being distilled into the firm belief that they all lived in houses with funny roofs, spent their entire lives making crappy tat out of red paper and subsisted entirely on fried food.

But if it "ticks a box" and the craft sh1t is easy to obtain, h3ll.......go for it.

(Here endeth the rant. )

[bunyip]

Lol yes please because I've not heard it before! ;-)

I do think the moderators should've got in first and warned you.................that is never a good reason to get an old bunyip started.

[Kiddleywinks]

I do think the moderators should've got in first and warned you.................that is never a good reason to get an old bunyip started.

Oh I don't know

I actually look forward to seeing a Bunyip rant lol

We should start a new thread, make it a weekly feature...

***###@@@ Bunyips Rant Of The Week @@@###***


:laughing

[smurfette]

Oh I don't know I actually look forward to seeing a Bunyip rant lol We should start a new thread, make it a weekly feature... ***###@@@ Bunyips Rant Of The Week @@@###*** :laughing

Oh bunyip do.. We would love it!!

[FussyElmo]

Oh I don't know

I actually look forward to seeing a Bunyip rant lol

We should start a new thread, make it a weekly feature...

***###@@@ Bunyips Rant Of The Week @@@###***

:laughing

You missed Citizen from the title😂😂😂

[crumpet54]

OK, don't say I didn't warn you.................. (I'll try to do the cut-down rant. )

I hate Chinese New Year for the Early Years with a passion. It is a sanitised piece of anti-historic pseudo-social tosh that has cluck-all to do with Chinese culture and achievements and brings out the lazy in everyone without ever mentioning the revolution once.

I've asked a whole heap of CMs, nursery/preschool people...................WHY are you doing it?

The answers are all too often bad ones:
[*]we're expected to.[*]it ticks a box with Ofsted.[*]it's a sort of vague diversity thing (even if it's entirely inaccurate, counter-productive, and not the least bit relevant to any child at the setting.)[*]saw loads of cheap tat in the Bakermooncrocs catalogue[*]everyone else is doing it, etc.......


Drives me nuts.

Takes me back to the ancient Confucian wisdom of "if every other bu88er jumped off a cliff, would you be doing it too?"

Worst of all, I think it is patronising and potentially insulting to the population of China - though I do draw the line at committing the ultimate popular pc act of insult: I refuse to be offended on another individual's behalf.

I think my whole opinion of it is summed up by the conversation I had with a child (my granddaughter IIRC, though it might have been a mindee) coming out of preschool with yet another poxy dangley lantern. We chatted about what she'd learnt and it became clear that her perception of China and its extraordinarily diverse peoples amounted to 3000+ years of high culture and scientific progress being distilled into the firm belief that they all lived in houses with funny roofs, spent their entire lives making crappy tat out of red paper and subsisted entirely on fried food.

But if it "ticks a box" and the craft sh1t is easy to obtain, h3ll.......go for it.

(Here endeth the rant. )

Ha! Love this!

[greenfaerie]

I actually do enjoy to read a well researched rant. Gave me some good things to mull over.