School is out, Christmas and the New Year is approaching and you’re wondering what to do with the kids. Not to worry! If you want to avoid having your little and not so little ones hibernating at home the following winter camps have got you covered. Keep the kids active through learning and play this cold season!

BSB Shunyi Early Years Winter Camp, Dec 17 – Jan 4

This year The British School of Beijing Shunyi (BSB Shunyi) will run an Early Years Winter Camp from December 17 2018 until January 4 2019.  With early bird discounts for sign ups before November 30, the camp is designed for parents who would like their children to brush up on their English or Mandarin while having fun.

BSB Shunyi will offer two programs for children aged between 2-6, one that focuses on English as a second language and the other on Mandarin. Age- and level-appropriate language lessons will take place in the mornings and a range of activities, including arts and crafts, sports, and story time will be offered in the afternoons.

Registration is now open and available to foreign passport holders for BSB and non-BSB students. Ages 2–6. Early bird discount RMB 4,500 (1 week) RMB 7,500 (2 weeks) RMB 9,500 (3 weeks). Normal Fees RMB 5,000 (1 week) RMB 8,000 (2 weeks) RMB 10,000 (3 wks). 9-3pm. British School of Beijing, Shunyi. Register before Dec 8 at wintercamp@britishschool.org.cn.

The SLab 101 Winter Camp, Dec 17 – Jan 4

Sign the up kids for learning and experimentation at The SLab. There will be something for all ages and interests over the winter break with four unique three-day camps which will range from sewing to movie-making classes. Join Jen and her team in a space that will ignite the imagination and build upon and introduce new skills, as well as provide a sanctuary for creative minds.

Kids can take their pick from some awesome workshops. These include Sewing 101, Metalsmithing 101, Movie-making and Movie Editing. In the first of the camps, students of eight and above will be taught how to prepare, cut, sew and creatively embellish their own drawstring bags. In the Metalsmithing workshop, kids of 12 and above will be given the opportunity to learn how to pierce, saw and finish metal pieces using brass and silver to create their own accessories.

If the subject of movies is more likely to get the kids’ creative juices flowing, both the movie-making and movie-editing workshops will provide ample time for students of 12 and above to hone movie industry skills such as scripting, planning, and producing, to learning foundational tools of editing techniques. All camps are inclusive of materials and lunch. Sewing 101 (Kids 8 +) RMB 1888. 10- 4pm. Metalsmithing 101(Kids 12 +) RMB 1,888.  10- 4pm. Movie-Making (Kids 8 +) RMB 2,400. 10- 4pm. Editing in iMovie (Kids 12 +) RMB 2,400. 10- 4pm. The Slab, 102, 15 Dongzhimen Outer Street. To register add on WeChat: JenPohland.

Flip and Kicks Plus Sports Winter Camp, Dec 17 – Jan 4

Flips and Kicks Plus, in collaboration with the Kerry Sports Center, are offering kids plentiful options to keep active this winter with fun multi-sports camps. Kids get to jump, hoop, and plunge their way into sporty fun with activities ranging from Martial Arts, Gymnastics, Swimming, Fencing, and much more!

All classes will be facilitated by expert sports coaches and split into age-appropriate groups; one for 4-7 year olds and one for 8-12 year olds.  Ages 4 – 12. RMB 3,200 (Half day) RMB 4,500 (Full day including lunch). 9am – 12pm (Half day) 9am-2:30pm (Full day). Dec 17 – 21 (Block One) Dec 24 – 28 (Block Two) Dec 31 –  Jan 4 (Block Three). Kerry Sports Center. For more information or to register please contact Kerry Sports at hbkc@thekerryhotels.com or call on 8565 2460.

Atelier Fablab & Art Christmas Winter Camp, Dec 17 – Jan 5

Atelier Fablab will host two awesomely creative Christmas holiday camps this winter for students aged 6 and above. The first, inspired by the iconic Star Wars franchise, features a lightsaber building class, and the other introduces students to the Wild West through discovery of the American Railroads, a journey into the conquest of the West and the learning, coding, and designing of their very own Wild West virtual world!

These are some unique opportunities for kids to engage in topics they perhaps have not yet discovered while having fun and being creative. Morning classes will take place for the older kids and afternoon sessions for the little ones. Included in their extravaganza of winter offerings are three art camps, exploring Der Blaue Reiter(The Blue Rider), A Journey to the World of Native Americans, and Venice and its Carnival. Students will be given the opportunity to work on such techniques as sketching, collage, painting using watercolors and acrylics, and 3D modeling using cardboard; an in-depth look into the world of Art and all its color.

Ages 6 +, RMB 2000 – 4500. 9:30-12pm (morning session), 1-3pm (afternoon session.) December 17-January 5. Atelier Sanlitun Campus. For more information go to www.atelier.cn.com or call 6416 1614. WeChat: atelier_apas.

The Children’s House Montessori Kindergarten Winter Camp, Dec 17 – 28

The Children’s House Montessori School is offering a winter holiday filled with science experiments and winter animals. Kids will find out all about penguins, how they keep warm and why squirrels gather food. The immersive two-week camp will involve students following an array of winter animals and learning how they survive freezing temperatures in the first week and learning how to make a rainbow or rain cloud in a jar in the second.

During the two exciting weeks students will use hands-on techniques and experiments to indirectly learn about physics and chemistry and engage with stimulating new ways to learn through play and investigation. Will it be Winter Animals or Science Experiments? Or both? Time for the kids to go on an adventure that explores both nature and science! Ages 1.5 – 6. RMB 3,500 – 6,500. 9am-3pm. Dec 17-28. The Children’s House Montessori Kindergarten. For more information contactinfo@montessoribeijing.com or call 8556 4122.

First Adventure Winter Camp, Dec 24 – 28 

British run English Language School, First Adventure will hold a five-day Christmas Winter Camp with all the trimmings. Students will participate in two-hour daily sessions that will include learning and play with drama, science and English classes.

Kids will have fun creating flower arrangement handcrafts and Christmas cards. There will be a number of team building activities for the students to participate in along with an itinerary that’s stacked with cool and fun happenings, including, performing arts, Christmas party games, mad science (excavating dinosaurs), Christmas Stocking making, letters to Santa and more. Oh what fun!

First Adventure will provide all of the materials and resources for all aspects of the program and snacks. Kids are encouraged to attend the winter camp in red or green. This Christmas themed Winter Camp is a full of festive fun and one to keep the kids occupied throughout the holiday period. Get the kids out on Christmas eve to have fun and make new friends and if you fancy it, you can also drop them off on Christmas day! Whatever the case First Adventure has got the parents and kids covered this season. Ages 3-8. RMB 1,980. 9am-11am. Dec 24-28. First Adventure, Upper East Side. For more information contact WeChat: firstadventurehr

.Photos: courtesy of organizers

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.

Almost simultaneously, Sina Weibo and WeChat now allow users to edit already-sent messages. iPhones will now be able to handle WeChat voice calls the same way as phone calls and WhatsApp calls with lock screen integration.

WeChat updates

WeChat version 6.6.0 has several new features that improve its own core functions. For now, the updates are only for iOS.

Users will be able to tap on the recalled post notification to open the edit function

As the clumsy-fingered among us know well, it is possible to call back a mistyped message within WeChat. This update allows it to be quickly edited and resent.

Messages can also be saved as images in Favorites and then shared with friends via Moments. The whole domain of the Favorites is being tweaked. New functionality will allow users to label messages and then make them sticky in conversations.

WeChat voice calls will now come through to the lock screen on iPhones if the phone is locked. This ends the maddening sequence of having to unlock the phone and open WeChat to accept the call before the caller hangs up.

This integration has been available via CallKit, a developer kit for iOS, since iOS 10. WeChat’s stablemate QQ was the first Chinese app to integrate the kit, in September 2016. As our Chinese sister site reported, this functionality disappeared for seven months and the speculation was that there was a disagreement between QQ owner Tencent and China’s mobile networks over lost revenue. This could be the reason why iPhones bought in China do not have the FaceTime audio feature.

iOS lock screen integration for WeChat calls

Over 200 million WeChat calls are connected every day. We expect this update to see that figure rise steeply.

Payment transactions will be searchable within chat searches and overall search-ability of chat histories will be improved, though as yet we are not sure how this will work. Users can now set a reminder function attached to messages (our testing finds that this works less well when using the desktop version as it silently appears just on your phone). Other improvements for iPhone X users and iPad users are also part of the update.

Weibo updates

Sina Weibo has also released an edit function for sent messages. Instead of having to delete and resend a message, with the knock-on impact on discussion and sharing, the update allows a posting to be updated where it is. A notification will show that a message has been updated and it will also be possible to see a history of revisions to a post via the drop-down menu.

已编辑 or ‘Edited’ will appear on posts that have been altered

Text and images can be edited, but not videos or attachments. Editing does not republish the post in the writer or readers’ feeds. The time will also stay at the original post’s time.

Weibo users can view all the revisions to a post. Both the text and image have been altered in these examples of eating brains as late night snacks

Bonus: iOS updates

In other updates news, the latest iOS, 11.2, enables Apple Pay Cash which allows people to send money via messages and through Siri. But only in the US. How long until we see a hongbao equivalent? Christmas crackers perhaps.

The 11.2 release has finally updated the Podcast function so that it can automatically play the next episode of a Podcast meaning you can seamlessly enjoy our Tech Talk and Node Worthypodcasts.

Images: TechNode, Sina Weibo