Spring Scroll.

春到了!
Spring is Here!
At the close of the holiday season, we are moving into the start of Chinese New Year...
One of the ways to welcome in spring is to write Chinese Spring Scrolls.
These are usually done on red banner type paper with black or gold brushwork.  A large variety of "well wishes & blessings" for the new year are commonly seen on these scrolls, which are then hung on doors and walls to share these blessings with all.

This morning, Zozie wanted to try his first Chinese Spring Scroll.  We opted for a washable black marker instead of the usual brush and ink.  Hey, black is black.  One of the most basic one is of the character "SPRING" or "春".  I wrote a sample for him to observe and copy onto his own red paper.

By displaying the banner "upside down", or "dao" (到), it is visually & phonetically the Chinese word for "Here" or "Arrived"...so thus, "Spring is Here" or "Spring has Arrived".  So you may frequently see these character being hung inverted for this double meaning.

Zo tried another variation of "春 ".

And of course, any mention of the Chinese New Year makes Zozie draw Chinese Lions.  The obsession is deep, it doesn't take much for him to draw Lions and Dragons these days!

What's after Christmas, mama?
Zozo kept asking what month are what things happening once the new year comes.  So we decided to write out a pictoral monthly LIST, breaking down what is to be expected in the next couple of months in the new year.  You can see his own Chinese number writing down the right side of the pictures on the chalkboard.

Jan:  Chinese New Year (Dragon Face)
Feb:  Zozie's 4th Birthday
Mar:  Moon is full
Apr:  Beanie's 0th Birthday

And with that, he was satisfied.
See Zozie scroll away in the clip below, followed by his all Chinese New Year Chant to offer blessings to all in the second clip!  Then, his blue lion drawing in action...
Our Home Chinese New Year Celebration has begun.

BoPoMo.

Presentation:  Chinese Character Matching.

Our first attempt at "reading" Chinese.
I noticed a similar tool at a recent tour of a Montessori Preschool.
Not knowing where to start, I have been meaning to find a simple way to introduce Chinese written characters to Zozie.  The sheer numbers of Chinese characters is quite overwhelming:  47,035.  
Full literacy in Chinese requires knowledge of 3 to 4 thousand characters.
Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world.

But before taking bites into the characters, we need little nibblets.

BoPoMo is a loose equivalent to the English "ABC's" in that it is a building block to phonetically sound out the way a Chinese character (or word) is spoken.  As if it's not already hard enough, we have to learn the characters to the SOUNDS in order to sound out the written final characters...the alphabet before the alphabet?

So...Our first letter is "Bo", shown in the green square in the photo.  
This is the preferred way to learn to read Chinese when I grew up in Taiwan.  Learn your BoPoMo's, then learn your words.  Perhaps a similar introduction to English can be done in this manner as well?

The Goal
Sight Recognition
Memory exercise
Hand eye coordination

The Set Up
1)  Tray
2)  Photocopy a page out of a book
3)  Clear sheet protector or laminate the page
4)  Photocopy a second page and cut out the various words or sentences
5)  A container or small basket

The Presentation
1)  Bring the tray to the work table or mat
2)  Take the basket of loose letters out
3)  Start with the main character/letter being introduced
4)  Continue with the other sentences
5)  Hover each new sentence over the base sheet in a linear and systematic fashion, doing an exaggerated motion of comparing, shake head if not a match and move on till a match is found.  Can even start with a sentence up-side-down, then reversing it upon hovering over the key sheet
6)  When a match is found, place the loose sentence over the existing one, then keep going until all sentences have been placed
7)  Have the child try, when done, place all pieces into container and return tray to shelf

This is both a typical memory matching game and a basic Chinese lesson.
Our boy seems to be playing it like a picture puzzle, not yet really reading the characters.  But since Chinese characters are considered Sinographs, it's basically a bunch of little pictures anyways.  Although Z did note that the target BoPoMo character was highlighted in pink to the right of the Chinese word.  So he's noticing that these parts make up the sound.  We'll need alittle more exposure and practice on this front, but a (free) and good start on pre-reading.