The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up later this month on Sept 17. It’s a time of joy, family reunions, and rich cultural traditions but for many expat families, the only thing that comes to mind about Mid-Autumn Festival is mooncakes. But there’s so much more to the holiday. Let’s take the time to create some fun family bonding time at home with the kids while teaching them all about one of China’s most popular holidays.

Let’s start with the obvious – making mooncakes together. Gather the ingredients and let the kids help measure and mix. They can roll out the dough and fill the mooncakes with their favorite fillings. This not only teaches them about the traditional food of the festival but also allows for some creative fun. Making mooncakes is actually a lot easier than you’d think. Check out our previous article on a delicious Ferrero Rocher mooncake that they’re sure to love.

Then tell them the story behind the holiday. Share tales of Chang’e flying to the moon, the Jade Rabbit, and Wu Gang chopping the laurel tree. Kids will be fascinated by these ancient stories, which helps them connect with the festival’s cultural significance.

Then it’s time for some crafts. Chinese New Year isn’t the only holiday where lanterns make an appearance. Mid-Autumn Festival needs them too. You can buy simple paper lanterns and let the kids color and decorate them. Hang them around the house or take them for a walk in the evening. This adds to the festive atmosphere and gives the kids a sense of participation. There are plenty of options for DIY kits online. Check out our picks:

Have fun creating memories with your kids and teaching them that there’s more to the Mid-Autumn Festival than mooncakes! Do you have other creative ideas about the holiday? Let us know in the comment section.

Images: Taobao, Pexels

I may be shooting for the stars here, but this year, I put up my bare Christmas tree on Nov 1 and I have every intention of filling it with hand-crafted ornaments made by my three-year-old by the time Christmas comes around.

Is it ambitious? A bit… All I can say right now is that I’m glad I didn’t get a bigger tree…

From dangly things made from Luckin Coffee sleeves to a snow globe filled with sugar, so far the one we had the best time making is the little winter house.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• cardboard
• scissors or exacto knife
• hot glue gun
• glue
• colored clay (for decorations)
• paint (for decorations)

Instructions:

1. Measure and cut out the shapes for your frame. Voilà. The majority of the work is done!

2. Roll out little balls with light molding clay to use as decorations later.

3. Let them go crazy with the paint

4. Fire up your hot glue gun and put your house together. Careful, I burned my fingers multiple times during this part.

5. Brush a layer of glue on the roof (or anywhere else you want add decorations to) and let your kid take over.

You’re basically done! Let it dry overnight before drawing on the details. I ended up poking a small opening at the very top, poking a balloon string through it, and sealing it up with more hot glue so that we can securely hang it on the tree. 

The whole process took only around 40 minutes and there was barely anything to clean up. It’s a great afternoon holiday project for some quality time with the kids at home. Enjoy!

Minimize screentime at home. Search #JingkidsCrafts for more ideas.

Images: Mina Yan

“Bleat, bleat, bleat!” Here comes the adorable penguins made by Carmel Watson’s Pre-Nursery, Seahorses Class. All you need are some basic craft supplies and, voila, the kids are in for an afternoon of crafting that lets them explore their own creativity. British School of Beijing, Sanlitun students Evelin Hlusickova, Gemma Zhu, Nihit Singh, Austin Su, and Mia Marangone show you how it’s done.  

Materials:

•  Craft paper (white and colored)
•   Black felt
•   Scissors
•   Cotton wool
•   Glue
•   Googly eyes

1.  Cut 1 large oval shape (black). This step can be done with craft paper or felt.

2. Cut 5 pink medium size hearts of the color of your choosing.

3. Cut 1 large-size heart.

4. Cut 2 small white circles and 2 small black circles.

5. Cut 1 small triangle of the color of your choosing.

6. Glue the large heart at the bottom of the oval to make a penguin’s tummy, glue the cotton wool onto the white heart to add texture and to make the penguin’s tummy cute and fluffy.

7. Add the triangle for the beak.

8. Glue the two white circles for the eyes and the small black circles on top of the white circles to complete the eyes.

9. Glue 2 hearts on the sides of the penguin’s body to make the wines and 2 hearts on the bottom to make the feet. 

This article appeared in the jingkids 2023 Graduation Issue

They say that toddlers soak up the world around them and that their brains are developing at the fastest rate they’ll ever be at. With that bit of information, I never want to miss a single moment to help them explore and discover something new.

While letting them free play is great (and necessary), sometimes pastimes call for structured, adult-led activities to help them discover something new and spark some newfound interests. Be sure to subscribe to #JingkidsCrafts for more.

Today’s craft is perfect for springtime. With flowers and trees blossoming all over the place, the city is filled with all sorts of colors again.

The Color Box takes about 20 minutes to make and is surprisingly entertaining for kids to use for a color scavenger hunt in the park.

Here’s what you’ll need:

cardboard box
hot glue gun
paint
markers
toilet paper rolls

To make a Color Box, all you need to do is cut the toilet paper rolls into pieces that’ll fit into your box and paint them. I went with a simple flower design since I was taking my little girl to search for flower petals, but you can do it in any shape you like.

This simple craft was so much fun for my toddler and a great way to practice her colors as well as learn a bit about nature.

Images: Mina Yan

They say that toddlers soak up the world around them and that their brains are developing at the fastest rate they’ll ever be at. With that bit of information, I never want to miss a single moment to help them explore and discover something new.

While letting them free play is great (and necessary), sometimes things call for structured, adult-led activities to help them discover something new and spark some newfound interests. Be sure to subscribe to #JingkidsCrafts for more.

My little girl has discovered how much fun science experiments can be, and one of her favorites is now the volcano. On rainy days when we can’t go outside, she excitedly pulls me to the kitchen table to make her favorite volcano together.

This fun experiment takes very little prep time.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Things You’ll Need for Volcano Experiment for Kids:

• 100 ml of warm water
• 10 ml of dish soap
• 400 ml of white vinegar
• Empty bottle
• Red food coloring (optional)
• Super light molding clay
• Shoe box (to use as the base plate)

Step 1: Start by building your volcano with your empty bottle in the center. The kids can help build the volcano nice and tall and check if their structure is secure by adding more molding clay to the base.

Step 2: Make a baking soda slurry by mixing the baking soda, water, and dish soap. You can add a few drops of red food coloring to give your lava some color. Keep mixing until everything looks completely dissolved.

Step 3: Carefully pour in the vinegar and watch the volcano erupt! I highly recommend building the volcano in a shoe box as it can get super messy.

Want an even easier way to do it? Taobao sells the simplest volcano kit I’ve ever seen. It comes with all the ingredients for the eruption as well as a pre-made volcano if you’d like to skip right to the eruption step. Click on the link below to purchase a kit.

Images: Mina Yan, Taobao

I don’t know why, but every year I always wait until just days before Christmas to get a tree. When the holiday season starts to roll around I’ll tinker with the idea of getting a tree, then always end up convincing myself that it’s not worth the effort and that my kid is too young to remember it. But then, every year without fail, days before Christmas I’ll be on Taobao desperately searching for someone who can deliver it on time or spending a day at IKEA to pick up a dinky plastic tree and the most generic ornaments you can find.

This year, I did it again. I ordered my tree on Meituan (yup, they deliver more than just food) and am going to spend the next day desperately crafting ornaments for my Paw Patrol-themed tree.

For those who have yet to order a tree still, fret not! Red (the Chinese equivalent to Pinterest) has been taken over by the latest DIY Christmas tree that’s made of kuaidi boxes, tape, and construction paper.

Start by collecting the big kuaidi boxes and giving them a nice thorough wipe. Then cut them into the sizes of the following circles.

These will serve as the base for the multiple sections of your tree. Then stack up your tree with smaller kuaidi boxes until you get the height that you want for your tree.

Then, cut out long pieces and make a supporting structure for the frame of your tree. Finally, roll a piece of cardboard into a triangle for the tip of your tree and you’re pretty much done.

Now, on to the fun part! Cut pieces of colored construction paper (most people are opting for two shades of green). Gently fold them without making a crease, staple them together, and tape them onto your tree piece by piece.

Enjoy upcycling all those delivery boxes!

Images: Red, XXJO331, 106297675, pexels

I know you just finished your back-to-school shopping, but believe it or not the holidays will be here before you know it. If you are like me you have already started making your to-do list, and right now you can preorder some of the funniest expat-centric cards around and help not one, but two good causes! Let me introduce you to Snowland Art.

In 2010 a Canadian expat named Kristel Ouwehand – aka Tenzin Dolma – established the Tibetan Artists’ Development Company.

It is a five-year art and handcraft training school devoted to maintaining the integrity of the art of Thangka, and students come to the school to live and study the Buddhist art form. According to the website, “The school only takes a small number of students, focusing on quality rather than quantity… Kristel and her students go through all the exam papers, and each student gives his/her view as to which two or three applicants they would choose to accept.”

And the tuition has remained low. Students pay only RMB 500 for the entire 5-year program. All other operating costs are supplemented through donations and the sale of student work via Snowland Art Studios.

And what they produce in the studio are incredible one-of-a-kind, sustainable art pieces that make wonderful gifts. Unique and customizable puzzles, ornaments, pillows, and water bottles are just a few of the items that support a great cause and will be treasured souvenirs for you to gift or use to decorate your own home.

Even with all of this said, perhaps the most impressive thing about the program is its sense of civic responsibility. Most of the students come from humble backgrounds and they work hard to build a better future for themselves. But despite having far fewer resources than most of us are lucky enough to access, they still find ways to support other community programs through their work.

This year their famous and funny expat holiday cards are doing more than just giving us a laugh. A percentage of the sales from the cards will be donated to local animal shelters that have been hit hard over the past few years with relocations and building costs.

To order cards that will make your friends’ holidays a little brighter and help a furry friend find a warm place to sleep during the cold Beijing winters, scan the QR code in the flyer below.

KEEP READING: Don’t Leave Beijing Without These Unique Souvenirs

Images: Snowland Art

Have you ever wanted to improve your art skills or just wanted to express yourself with a creative outlet? Here are four art studios in Beijing to go to!

多尚画廊 Duo Shang Gallery

This is an international-friendly art studio with a calm and relaxing atmosphere. Come here if you are serious about art or just want to have some fun. During class you have a wide variety of activities to choose from, such as drawing, painting, pottery, jewelry-making and much more.

Find it:
2F Shine Hills, 9 Antai Road, Shunyi District
顺义区安泰大街9号中粮祥云小镇2层
Tel: 8041 4058

纳比画室 Na Bi Hua Shi

If you’re serious about art and want to take it to a higher level, this may be the right studio for you. With a team of teachers from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, your art skills will improve by leaps and bounds.

Find it:
MEN Building Block A Room 502, Chaoyang District
朝阳区场街朝外MEN写字中心A座502室
Tel: 159 1106 1237

OneStudio 自助画室

This art studio is very adult friendly. Instead of lessons, this studio lets you draw what you want with professionals to help guide you. To go, you must make an appointment and choose what type of art you’ll be creating so they can help prepare everything beforehand. Whether you are skilled or a beginner, you can go and unleash your artistic talent.

Find it:
Gongti North Road Sanlitun Soho 5th Mall 3rd Floor 339
工人体育场北路三里屯SOHO五号商场3层339
Tel: 185 1062 3794

朝 Forward Arts 

This is another studio that is very international-friendly. With great teachers to guide you, you can improve your skills quickly and have fun at the same time.

Find it:
Xiang Jiang Bei Lu Ma Quan Ying 4 Section Li Yuan Compound Number 82
香江北路马泉营四区丽苑小区82号楼独栋
Tel: 183 0120 0732 or 186 1002 4929

Images: Dianping，Cindy Luo, Unsplash

Of the many things parenting has taught me, one is to always be prepared with games and crafts in case creativity strikes, or we’re in the throes of cold winter days when leaving the house for some outdoor activity is the last thing I want to do.

In each issue of jingkids, our Maker’s Corner column asks a teacher from one of Beijing’s international schools to give our readers step-by-step instructions for making one of their favorite crafts. Most can be made with common household supplies, meaning Maker’s Corner is one of the greatest resources a parent can keep on the back burner for a rainy day.

This month, Ms. Malu Villafane from the International School of Beijing and her Early Years 4 students Phillip P., Adelie N., and Janessa J. show us how to make paper puppets.

Here’s what you’ll need：

1. Brown paper bag
2. Glue
3. Scissors
4. Stick on eyes (can be found on Taobao by searching 手工眼睛 shǒu gōng yǎn jīng)
5. Yarn or crinkled colored paper (for the hair)
6. Thin red ribbon (for the tongue)
7. Markers for decoration *optional

Here’s how to build your paper puppet：

Step 1:

Take your paper bag and glue your puppet’s eyes on. Be sure not to add too much glue!

Step 2:

Add your puppet’s hair. Make it long or short!

Step 3:

Cut a piece of ribbon to add a tongue!

Step 4:

Make it your own! Draw some clothes, glue on extra eyes, add stickers, customize your puppet however you like – let those creative juices flow!

This article appeared in the jingkids 2021 November-December issue