Lunar New Year for Homeschoolers

Gong Hay Fat Choy! It's almost time to celebrate the Lunar New Year - and what better way for homeschoolers to explore new cultural traditions than by preparing a fun family celebration? Lunar New Year is a great way to introduce the study of the different Asian countries (China, Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, amongst others) in which it is celebrated, or to open a discussion about different holiday traditions around the world.

One way you can learn together is to read a book about the holiday. "Sam and the Lucky Money" by Karen Chinn is a good book to read aloud with younger children, as is Janet Wong's "This Next New Year", the story of a Chinese- Korean boy who celebrates the Lunar New Year with his two best friends, a German-French boy and a Hopi-Mexican girl. Demi's "Happy New Year! / Kung-Hsi Fa-Ts'ai!" will give you a lot of information about the holiday, and you can get plenty of ideas about fun activities from "Chinese New Year for Kids" by Cindy Roberts or "Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book" by Hingman Chan. Older kids might enjoy the book "Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes" by Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz and the Children's Museum, Boston. You should be able to find these books or others like them at your public library.

Another fun learning activity for kids of all ages involves finding out about the Chinese Zodiac, as each new Lunar year is named after a different animal in a twelve-year cycle. (This coming year, beginning Feb. 18, 2007, will be the Year of the Boar.) You can learn the origins of the different animals by reading a book such as "Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac" by Ed Young or "The Dragon's Tale: and Other Animal Fables of the Chinese Zodiac" by Demi. Older kids might enjoy Theodora Lau's "Children of the Moon", which analyzes different personality and character traits according to Chinese astrology. Perhaps the simplest (and one of the most enjoyable!) ways to introduce the subject of Chinese astrology would be to go as a family to a Chinese restaurant - one that has paper placemats printed with the Chinese zodiac.

And speaking of food, why not celebrate the Lunar New Year by preparing a special holiday feast? If there is an Asian grocery store in your area, you can plan a fun trip there to buy some of the things you will need to prepare your special meal - what could be more educational than learning about different cultures by looking at and even tasting new and different types of food? Even if you can't get to an Asian grocery, however, you can still buy items at your supermarket that have special significance for a Lunar New Year's celebration. Oranges or tangerines are traditionally eaten to bring good luck and wealth in the coming year (their color is thought to resemble gold), noodles (whole ones, not cut or broken) are eaten to ensure long life, a whole fish may be served to represent togetherness and abundance (especially appropriate for the close-knit homeschooling family!), and chicken represents prosperity.
If you live near a large city such as New York, San Francisco, or Washington, DC you may be lucky enough to go and see a traditional Chinese Dragon dance! Even if your city does not have a large public Lunar New Year celebration, though, you may well be able to see the smaller Lion Dance performed by a local martial arts school, or there may be some type of celebration at a community center or public library. If you can't get to see such a dance, you can still read about it in a book such as "Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year" by Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low or Marcia K. Vaughan's "The Dancing Dragon".

However you and your family choose to celebrate Lunar New Year, it will be sure to be an enjoyable lesson for your kids - and a memorable one, too.