{"id":406,"date":"2022-02-06T19:58:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T19:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buoyantbloomer.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2022-02-06T19:58:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T19:58:52","slug":"celebrating-lunar-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buoyantbloomer.com\/celebrating-lunar-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Lunar New Year Meaningfully with Toddlers and Preschoolers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celebrating Lunar New Year as a second generation American is something I find tricky, especially because both my parents have passed away and my husband’s family isn’t of Chinese descent. Of course I want our son to understand why celebrating the lunar new year is important and to have that as part of his memories growing up, but I also find that I am still in an experimental phase. Having wholly assimilated into America, I struggle with doing things in a way that doesn’t tie in logically with our day-to-day life, so I know I have a ways to go before I feel 100% comfortable about how we approach celebrating lunar new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The magic of holidays for littles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Early childhood is a time that we know the kids don’t remember very well, which is I think one of the reasons why I’m still giving myself grace to not go all out on all the parties. I’m also a value-oriented person, so I typically find it wasteful to invite whole classrooms to a kids’ party when they don’t all get along anyway and there might be some kids that my kid wouldn’t want to see (#SorryNotSorry for the #TruthBomb). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there’s definitely a gamut in celebration forwardness between grinch-like (i.e. not celebrating at all) and maximalist (i.e. going all out). While I acknowledge that the littles in early childhood won’t remember all the things we’ve done for them, I know they remember the feelings, so I still encourage families to celebrate and mark the days in some way that makes sense for them and their lifestyles. They’re only little once, and anyway, especially during these past two years of groundhog days, it’s important to break up the monotony!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, early childhood learning should contain geographical exposure! Celebrating holidays and festivals that aren’t American gives you an opportunity to talk about other countries and show your child that the world is much bigger and way more diverse than their current home\/neighborhood. Especially in terms of diversity and inclusion, I think it’s critical to start this dialogue early. Foreign travel might not be in the cards for all families, but learning about other customs and putting one’s self in other cultures is a worthwhile exercise in opening up eyes, hearts, and minds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I consider the bare minimum for celebrating lunar new year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a few things I consider essential to celebrating lunar new year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n