Thinking Global in the USA #2: 7 US Cities to Celebrate Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year has been celebrated for more than four thousand years.  It's a two week festival marking the end of winter and beginning of spring.  Over a billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year.  For a fun geography lesson, mix holidays and locations;  challenge your kids to find 7 countries/territories in Asia that celebrate the Chinese New Year:  1) China, 2) Hong Kong, 3) Philippines, 4) Malaysia, 5) Indonesia, 6) Thailand, 7) Singapore.

Festivities at Chinese New Year; Evansville, IN

Before the event, practice a few of the traditions: 
1) Clean the house, sweeping out the ill fortune, making space for good luck
2) Decorate the house, place tangerines and oranges on display as a sign of luck and wealth
3) Give kids money in a red envelope, symbolizing happiness, good luck, and wealth

Ribbons and Beautiful Costumes; Evansville, IN

You don't need to travel to China for your family to enjoy the Chinese New Year celebration.  Chinese make up the 3rd largest immigration group in the US and they welcome you to celebrate Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. 
It occurs on the last day of the month of the Chinese calendar (Feb. this year).

Dragon in Evansville, IN; Photo by Krenda

A friend of mine at work asked if my family would like to attend Chinese New Year at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Evansville, IN.  My friend and his wife planned to perform a duet.  Of course I replied "Yes!"  We enjoyed the traditional dragon dance (photo above), violin and yo-yo performances, dances, costume show, and delicious dinner.  Dragons are a powerful symbol in China and believed to bring good luck.

Chinatown in Chicago

Dragon at parade

 When we moved to Chicago, of course I wanted to visit Chinatown.  I coordinated the timing to occur on the New Year's parade.  If you go, go early.  Parking proved more difficult than we anticipated.  After a brisk walk in the cool weather, we arrived and listened to government officials introduce the events.  The streets were crowded, making it difficult for the kids to see everything.  Glad the dragon bobs and weaves above and floats had scale and height.  The restaurants also had crowds and waiting lines.  Just another excuse for us to return on another day.


Look for parades and events in your town.  Here's 7 US cities offering festival events:

Float in Chicago parade

1.  Kansas City - $20 tickets include speech competition, cultural fair, piano and violin recital
2.  Chicago, IL - 2 parade - Argyle and Chinatown, concert at Symphony Center
3.  Philadelphia, PA - midnight lion dance at 11PM and parade at 11AM

Chinatown in Chicago

4.  New York, NY - parade in Chinatown and martial arts demonstrations
5.  Butte, Montana - parade and 10,000 fireworks
6.  San Francisco, CA - Lunar New Year parade and Miss Chinatown USA crowning
7.  Seattle, Washington - parade, costume content, Hawaiian dances, Japanese taiko drumming

Thinking Global in the USA #1: 8 Chinese Dragon Boat Races

Dragon Boat Races, Photo by Krenda

Dragon boat races, an ancient Chinese sport, began over 2,000 years ago.  Today it's an international sport.  Your kids can learn about a unique sport and culture at one event by taking them to a Chinese Dragon Boat race.  Before the race, get out the globe and talk about different type of boat races around the world including swan boat racing in Thailand and snake boat racing in India.  In the US, Dragon Boat races often provide free admission, so take all your family & friends!

Watching a race provides a feast for the eyes and ears with 40 foot boats, 20 paddlers per boat, and a drummer leading the pace and sychronizing the strokes.  The dragon head and tail attach just for the races.  The steersmans located in the back of the boat added fun and humor by wearing fancy and/or funny hats at the Evansville, IN race our family attended.  Dragon boats may be relatively rare, but all the paddling could inspire your family to try canoeing.
You don't need a passport to watch a race.  Races are held across the US in Spring, Summer, and Fall.  Here's 8 other Dragon Boat Races in the US:

1.  Dragon Boat Festival - Tempe, AZ, March - watch the lake light up at night when nearly 50 boats create the fantasy of lights boat parade
 http://azdba.com/Festival/

2.  Long Beach Dragon Boat Spring Race - Long Beach, CA - Marine Stadium also hosts martial arts and acrobat performances

3.  Charleston Dragon Boat Festival - Charleston, SC; May - celebrates cancer survivors and raised an impressive $150,000 for cancer survivors

4.  Portland Rose Festival Boat Race - Portland, OR, June - parade held same weekend

5.  Boston Dragon Boat Festival - Boston, Massachusetts, June - North America's longest running Dragon Boat festival, now hosting 60 teams and craft workshops including orgami and mask making.

6.  Colorado Dragon Boat Festival - Denver, CO, July- arrive early for the welcoming event "Awakening the Dragon Ceremony" including Buddhist monk chants and a 75 foot dragon

7.  Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival - Queens, New York, Aug. - a large race with 170 teams, opening day parade, dancing, music, and food

8.  San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival - San Francisco, CA, Sept. - events on Treasure Island include taiko druming, Tahitian dancing, and acrobat show

Gym Class #6: Little Yogis & 3 Yoga Festivals

North Star Resort, Photo by Krenda

Vacation gives you an opportunity to unwind and explore new places, meet new people, and try new things.  My friend had a gorgeous wedding at North Star California resort in Truckee, CA (near Lake Tahoe), so I looked into kid friendly events on the resort and found the Patagonia store offering a free yoga class. 

Yoga, like vacation promotes relaxation.  Kids have stress too.  Schools feel pressure to reduce recess and gym class and add more tests.  Yoga helps teach focus, self-control, respect for others, and inner-strength.  Little Flower Yoga and Yoga Ed work to incorporate yoga into classrooms.

Physically yoga helps strength, balance, coordination, and body awareness.  Kids have natural flexibility, so my kids beamed as they found doing the postures called asanas easier for them.  Plus the instructor kept praising their skills, calling them future little yogis.

Yoga class emphasized mind and body working together.  We concentrated on breathing called pranayma to calm and refresh.  Breath deeply and fully, stretching on the inhale and relaxing on the exhale.

The poses also have names that help kids imagine.  You usually hear about downward dog, but yoga has so many more poses.  The kids especially like the animal pose names like cat, cobra, cow, lion, locust, fish, butterfly.

Yoga began in India.  It means "union" in Sanskrit, an Indian language.  It means coming together of mind and body.  Check out your local gyms for classes.  Many offer prenatal and baby yoga classes.

If you want to sample yoga at home, consider YouTube videos like Cosmic Kids which has kid specific yoga videos at no charge if you accept advertising.  Consider a yoga mat, but all you really need is comfortable clothes.

If you want to sample yoga with live trainers, consider a yoga festival with kid activities:

1.  Commongrounds (Loring Park, Minneapolis, MN) in July
All day pass $80, morning or afternoon only $45, single class $25
Bonus - "kids camp" free with event ticket and pre-registration for 4-12 year olds, a full day of fun (8:45AM-5:15) including activities such as hula hooping, circus yoga, peaceful ninja show, storytime, and yoga games like mat tag)

2.  Tuscon Yoga Festival (Gene C Reid Park, Tuscon, AZ) in October
free registration, free yoga
Many types of yoga including Yoga Nidra, Vinyasa, Acro, Yin, Yoga in Spanish, plus meditation

3.  Yoga Fest (San Jose/Bay Area, Christmas Hill Park, Gilroy, CA)
free for children under 12 and kids clases
Main stage includes a variety of yoga classes (gentle Hatha, Sri Sri, Sukshna), meditation for world peace, and multi-cultural performances (African drums, Mexican dance, and Chinese dance)

Kite Science and 8 Festivals in the US

In attempt to find a new theme for each birthday, we held a birthday party at a kite festival (West Chester, OH Voice of America park).  The party included a kite shaped cake and a kite for each kid to fly.  On this day, we felt grateful for wind.  There's a science lesson in kite flying, the need for wind pressure or force to keep the kit in the air.  It's called lift and it counteracts the force of gravity.  Kids understand gravity or the force that pulls things towards the earth well.  Have them jump up and down.  Kites garner more physics terms:  thrust, drag, angle of attack, and tension.

You may also tie history into a kite flying demonstration.  Kites have served as so much more than just toys.  During the Han Dynasty, a Chinese general flew a kite above a town to calculate the distance his army would have to tunnel to reach under the city walls.  Scientists and inventors experimented with kites.  Benjamin Franklin experimented with kites and electrical energy.  Alexander Wilson compared air temperature.  The Wright Brothers flew kites to test their wing-warping control system.

Kites play a key role in certain sports; power kites pull fliers on surf and land boards.

If you have small children, check out a book about kites such as Curious George Flies a Kite, Let's Fly a Kite, Kite Day A Bear and Mole Story, and Kite Flying.



Kite creation can bring out the artist in your child.  Years later we attended a kite making class at a naval base and the kids had just as much fun creating as flying.

Kick off your child's interest in kites by attending a kite festival.  Here's 8 other kite festivals in the US:

1.  Frank Mots International Kite Festival, Veterans Park, Milwaukee, WI, launches nearly 600 kites plus demonstrations from professionals
2.  Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (National Mall, Washington DC), visit the exhibit indoors and go outdoors to fly kites
3.  Ziller Park Kite Festival (Austin, TX), over 85 years old festival, one of the oldest in the US
4.  Outer Banks Stunt Kite Competition, Wright Brothers National Museum (fitting location!) Kill Devil Hills, NC
5.  Bug Lite Kite Festival, Bug Light State Park, South Portland, Maine
6.  Soar into Spring Kite Festival, Floxglenn Park, Flagstaff, AZ
7.  Sunfest Kite Festival (Ocean City, MD) festival on the beach, location considered "The Kiteflying Capital of the World" with it's wide beach and regular winds, host site of The AKA (American fliers Association) convention
8.  Marblehead Festival of the Arts Kite Day, Deveroux Beach, Marblehead, MA