Fun

This Saturday, take advantage of your beijingkids Club membership to get 50 percent off the ticket price at Sanlitun SOHO’s outdoor ice skating rink. For one day only, families can get in for RMB 15 per person (regular admission: RMB 30) by showing their beijingkids Club card at the door. Skate rentals are included in the price of admission.

Please note that this is a promotion, not an event managed by beijingkids.

Photo by jayhay2336 via Flickr

• Read more

Growing up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, Rebecca Shatford was painfully shy. That started to change when she discovered drama classes at age 10. She liked the experience so much, she ended up going into acting in university. Since then, she has taught drama in countries like South Korea, Russia, and Thailand. Now, Shatford is the educational manager at Dreamaker (卓美教育), a drama education company based in Beijing.

• Read more

• Read more

New parents know that feelings of intense isolation can emerge when they bring home that “tiny, needy, crying, confusing” baby. Add a set of powerful language and cultural barriers, and that isolation can seem even more daunting. The good news is, the Internet can help. According to a research study led by a new father, blogging can help overcome those parenting blues.

• Read more

Chinese New Year is coming, so is Midweek Giveaway. This week we are giving away an afternoon tea set for a family at Crêpanini.

The tea set includes:

• 4 sweets: simple crêpes
• 4 hot drinks or soft drinks

To win, simply comment on the post below with the answer to the question: What is your favorite sweet treat?

• Read more

If you’re going to be in Beijing over the Chinese New Year holidays (like me), take the opportunity to visit a temple fair. Temple fairs (or miaohui) are traditional celebrations replete with religious ceremonies, folk performances, traditional crafts (such as paper cutting and scroll writing), vendors hawking toys and kitsch, and scrumptious snack stalls. They usually take place at temples and parks, but several international schools also organize their own. Click through for a rundown of 2012 temple fairs. Be prepared: temple fairs can get very crowded during the holidays.

• Read more

Before you embark on your holiday or before those fireworks start popping, stop by the Beijing City International School this Sunday for a sneak peek at Chinese New Year festivities.

• Read more

With some kids on holiday, and more about to take a break from school for Chinese New Year, the time is right to stock up on some educational, yet entertaining, math apps to help sharpen the skills of the young minds in the family.

The first app in our math roundup is Grow Your Garden by Learning Yard. This adorable app uses visual cues in the shape of water droplets to encourage kids to add and subtract the correct amount of water for each flower that they grow in their garden. Little by little, the plants get properly cared for and eventually fill your child’s garden. Reina (4.5 years of age) enjoyed solving the problems to get to the flowers, with only occasional assistance from mama and baba. Grow Your Garden is rated 4+ and is available for $0.99 for the iPhone and $1.99 for the iPad at the App Store.

• Read more

Midweek Giveaway is here for the coming year of Dragon!  This week we are giving away a box of Nian Gao from Novotel Beijing Xinqiao.

The box includes, as you can see in the above photo, a cute fish made by Nian Gao, a Yuan Bao to wish you good year luck of finance and some Chinese sweeties.

• Read more