While Christmas holidays should be a time for fun, games and family, there are ways to keep up Chinese skills over without it feeling too much like homework! Ms Franny Guo, Year 3 Chinese Teacher, shares her ideas for Chinese language practice.

1. Make Christmas Cards

Making Christmas and New Year cards is a fun creative activity and a good way to pass time during the holidays. Ask your child to write Christmas and New Year cards in Chinese, using some of the vocabulary they have learned from school. If there is a character they do not know, they can replace it with pictures and pinyin. This is also an opportunity to write something special and meaningful in Chinese.

2. Make a Holiday Album

We love to see photos from school holidays and learn about the different things that students get up to while they’re away. Some students use apps such as Book Creator or iMovie to create these holiday albums. This Christmas, ask your child to add Chinese descriptions and titles to their album. When they return, they can share their memories with teachers in Chinese!

3. Download “Art of Chinese”

Art of Chinese is a beautifully designed app that helps students memorise characters in a visual way. It has a good range of basic characters so I recommend this app for reading beginners. The app also shows the evolution of the Chinese characters from oracle bone script to the present day, helping deepen understanding. Once your child has learned to recognise the characters, there are also writing exercises to complete.

4. Learn Your Chinese New Year Songs!

Now the Christmas concerts are over, we have already started rehearsing our Chinese New Year songs! The Chinese New Year performance is just two weeks after the holidays, so there more practice over Christmas the better. Learning the words to the songs and practising with parents and family will also help with vocabulary!