Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Last week, it was our last Lichfield Mandarin Club lesson of the year and it was my turn again to take the class on crafts. Besides doing crafts, I also incorporated learning to read and write Chinese characters in the lesson. Last year, we had to cancel the lesson due to heavy snow and I decided to re-use the lesson plan that I had in mind.
This week, we are getting crafty with two Tiger Tribe craft sets: 3D colouring set (Sci-Fi) and stained glass set (Sunbeam Dreams). Before I show you these two fun craft sets from Australia, first let me introduce the brand Tiger Tribe to you.
Tiger Tribe was started in 2007 in Australia with the vision to design children’s gifts and toys that were creative, engaging and affordable. They wanted to create products that children would play with, that tapped into a child’s imagination and sense of fun. They design compact and portable activity sets that are ideal for café play and travel. Now they are expanding their products in the UK and are available to buy from good stores and Amazon.
It was the Dragon Boat Festival again, which is also known as the Duanwu Festival. This year it fell on the 18th June 2018 which is the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar.
As some of you may remember, I help run Lichfield Mandarin Club which started six years ago and we often do arts and crafts with the children, especially with themes based on Chinese festivals. So this school term, one of the mummies Ailin organized some party games for the children.
Do you like origami and love to learn about Chinese culture? Then this is the right place for you – check out this awesome looking ang pow origami dog! The first day of the Chinese New Year 2018 falls on the 16th February which is the Year of the Earth Dog. The Dog is the eleventh of all zodiac animals. It is one of the most important days for Chinese culture. It marks the new year and we welcome the good fortune into the home by hanging lots of decorations!
This week, I have been set a Halloween Pumpkin Carving challenge by my favourite brand Ryobi to carve our pumpkins with a twist! We were asked to use any ONE+ tool to carve a pumpkin! As regular readers may know, we have taken on various projects from building Pallet Playhouse, Pallet Climbing Frame and testing out the 36V Fusion Cordless Lawnmower. We are no strangers to Ryobi and are thrilled to be part of this project.
Last year, Ryobi had carved their Ryobi pumpkins using a ONE+ multi-tool and this year they want their followers to try their hand at carving a pumpkin using any ONE+ tool. You can either download the design from their pumpkin carving templates or it could be an original design! Remember to follow @RyobiToolsEU and tweet using #RyobiPumpkinChallenge hashtag to showcase your awesome pumpkins!
After looking around on Pinterest and Google for ideas using drills, I decided to carve a Tinkerbell pumpkin and a Flowery Pattern pumpkin using the Ryobi ONE+ drill.
Make your own R2D2 Costume for World Book Day! In time to celebrate the World Book Day on 2nd March 2017, Egmont is challenging us again (very excited!) to create a Star Wars themed costume and also sent us a range of Star Wars books for review.
I am so pleased to welcome the month of February which means spring will be here soon. I can’t wait for the weather to change! We often have craft kits at home which are great to do together during rainy days and in a kit form, it’s nice that all the relevant materials are included.
As part of the team of Baker Ross bloggers, we often receive great craft kits from them and this month, we have received a range of spring themed craft kits. We were provided Peacock Crinkle Decoration kits, Flower Suncatcher Decorations, Bug Pom Pom Decoration kits, Flower Creative Colouring Wreath Decorations and Craft pens.
This coming Chinese New Year falls on the 28th January 2017 and is the year of the fire rooster. To celebrate, we decided to make use of our leftover papier mache animals from Baker Ross.
This is a very simple Chinese New Year Ang Pow Fish tutorial, especially suitable for younger children. For this coming New Year celebration, I am going to host the craft lesson for my Chinese club and to make it easy, I am going to teach my students this simple ang pow fish. If you don’t have square ang pow, then you can use any ang pow packets and cut them into a square shape.
This is my Chinese New Year ang pow fan tutorial. If you would like to learn about other lantern designs I have made previously, do take a look at my Pinterest board for Chinese New Year.
How to build a Pikachu Pet Bed for your pet! This week, we have been busily involved in the Energizer® Secret Life of Pets challenge to build our own ultimate pet bed for our cuddly pets! Both my children are mad about Pokémon so we decided to build Pokémon theme pet beds for our little furry friends – Gidget and Duke.
Can you believe the summer holidays will be here in just a couple more weeks! Have you been planning what to do with your children? Why not stock up on summer crafts, to spend time during the break with your children? We often have craft kits at home which are great to do together during rainy days and in a kit form, it’s nice that all the relevant materials are included.
As part of Baker Ross bloggers, we often receive great craft kits from them and this month, we have received a range of summer themed craft kits. We were provided sea life spiral notebook kit, paracord bracelet kits, glitter sand bags, seaside sand art pictures, dinosaur wooden photo frames, farm stampers and rainbow unicorn charm bracelet kits.
Why should kids send happy mail..?
…why not?
Everyone loves receiving happy mail!
It’s wonderful for kids to be able to send happiness to their friends and family. Happy mail encourages creativity. It’s a super fun way to practice reading and writing outside of school, especially over the Summer holidays.
And the more happy mail you send, the more you receive!
Create beautiful pom-poms with Pom Pom WOW! This is a new way to beautify your world by placing pom-poms on anything to create unique displays, messages and many more. This is so easy to use and a great craft kit for children aged six and above.
This decoration station comes with 75 pom poms, adhesive dots, adhesive roll dispenser, glitter glue pen, markers, paintbrush, watercolours, removable pom trays, pipette, removable water tray, stamper pads, blotting cloth and instructions.
Thanks to Baker Ross, we often receive great craft kits from them and this month, we have received a range of Father’s Day themed kits and summer themed craft kits. We were provided wooden keyrings, wooden toolbox desk tidy kits, papier Mache farm animal pack, wood clay, giant bamboo leaves, lotus heads, powder paint fluorescent colours and scoubidou strings.
