Character Artwork With Tissue Paper

This is a supplementary post for "Getting Your Young Child to Write."


To decorate a character start by creating an outline of the character.  I created mine using Microsoft Word.  After typing the character, I enlarged the character and then (by going to the font tab) I selected "outline".  This created a hallow character my kids could fill in with tissue paper, buttons, beans, or fill in with crayons and markers.

If you are less tech-savvy, you can simple draw out an outline of the character.

For this art project, we glued tissue paper onto the outline.  I recommend that you do this with kids ages 5 and up.  I tried it with my four year old and she tried and had fun, but it didn't come out so well.  My five-year old was more successful.

Remember the point of this project isn't to make a beautiful picture (although that is nice, too).  It's to help the kids focus on the parts of the character.  As you will notice above, we used different colors for the different parts of the character, which really allows us to see the different components (such as 艹 and 人).

Getting Your Young Child to Write

Getting Your Young Child to Write- So your kid pays no attention to the labels you've made in Chinese all over the house and couldn't be paid to care about how to write the characters or pinyin/ㄅㄆㄇㄈ.  Now what do you do?  Because you want your child to learn Chinese.*  Think like a kid.  Try the ideas below and see if you can encourage your children to practice their characters this way.

*I've been told by a friend that schools in Asia don't require character writing

until children are 6 years old in order to prevent problems with dexterity development.

If your child is still in preschool or younger, please take this to heart and 

have fun with the suggested games below.  

Please, don't require perfection or intensive writing times.

• Use tub-safe paint and practice in the tub.  (You can buy this at Target (just look for "tub paint") or make your own (see below).
• Use window paint (do a search online) on your car windows or home.
• Show your kid how to write with invisible ink (Use a water-paint brush or ear swab and lemon juice!  Apply heat to turn the writing brown.).
• Write with a finger on a foggy mirror after a bath or on a cold, frosty window in winter.
• Make your own crayons!
• Sidewalk chalk.
• Chocolate pudding and white construction paper (think "finger paint").  Ummm, I suggest you save this for outside during the summer and turn on the sprinkler for easy clean up!  Remember to wear clothes you don't care about- chocolate stains!  Or use vanilla pudding with food coloring- be careful; food coloring stains, too!
• Shaving cream and black construction paper (think "finger paint").  You could also use whip cream, but they might not be interested in writing much the first time they get some in their mouth!
• Use play-dough and mold the dough into different characters.  For beginners, you can have an outline on the paper for them to follow.
• Glue small pieces of tissue paper onto a glass jar or onto a piece of paper to make characters.   For beginners, you can have an outline on the paper for them to follow.
• Try making Chinese characters with Legos (this works best with boxy characters).
• Make Chinese characters come alive by growing them!  In a disposable pan, place 2-3 inches of soil and moisten the soil.  Trace the character or characters you want to make in the soil so that there is a depression in the soil.  Place grass seed in the depression and gently cover with a thin layer of soil.  Don't forget to moisten the soil one more time.  Keep soil moist for 7-10 days and you'll see your characters come alive!
• Glue dried beans to a piece of paper to form characters.  For beginners, you can have an outline on the paper for them to follow.
• Instead of slits in the top of that cherry pie, write Chinese characters.
• Decorate the outline of characters!  More details here! 
• Lacing Cards!  Print out or write the character on a piece of heavy stock paper.  Then punch holes at the beginning and end of each stroke (some characters will be easier to do this with than others).  Then have your child use a long shoe lace or ribbon to lace the character!

You are only limited by your imagination!

Got a good suggestion, post it in the comment section below!

Tub Paint Recipe

• 1/3 cup of clear liquid dish detergent (use a mild detergent that won't hurt if gotten in the eyes/mouth)
• 1tablespoon of cornstarch
• Food coloring; see caution below
• Ice cub tray

1. Mix detergent and cornstarch.
2. Pour into ice cube tray
3. Add a few drops of food coloring to individual cubes
4. Place in freezer until hard (a couple hours). 

Tub Crayon Recipe

• 1 cup of white bar soap, grated
• A few drops of food coloring, don't use more than 5-6; see caution below
• 1/4 cup of water warmed in the microwave for 20 seconds.
• Ice cub tray

1. Mix soap, food coloring, and water.
2. Scoop into ice cube tray
3. Place in freezer until hard (a few minutes).
4. Pop out of tray and set them on counter to harden and dry overnight.

*** Test your tub for stain resistance before letting your child use this paint.  My tub is fiberglass and it came off easily, but I'm not responsible for your tub!***

Gauge It and Celebrate!

Gauge It and Celebrate!-  All too often we, as parents, make the assumption that if we teach something, our kids will remember it.  But how many times have we needed to remind our children to put away their toys, eat their meal, and say please & thank you?  If we thought about it like this then it might be obvious to us that showing them a character or a ㄅㄆㄇㄈ/pinyin sound once is not enough.  The teacher might be you or someone you have hired, but the universal truth is that kids don't learn things the first or even the second time they see it.  They need multiply exposures over a period of time and the more places they are exposed to the idea, the better they will be able recall the idea.  So, below is a good idea for gauging how many characters your child knows and a great way to reinforce memorization.


What you will need:

• Something to decorate (T-shirt, canvas bag, etc.)
• Fine-tip Permanent Markers
• Cardboard or Newspaper (so the marker doesn't bled through)
• Square stencil that is large enough to write a character in but not too large (you can make this out of cardboard).  This is the "grid" your child will write the character inside; so make sure it is an appropriate size for your child to write in and for the project you have in mind.
• List of characters to write
• Optional:  scratch paper and pencil for you child to practice writing the characters

Directions:

• Decide what you want to gauge/measure.  Is the goal for your child to identify the ㄅㄆㄇㄈ/pinyin sounds, to recognize characters, or to write characters?  Once you've decided on the goal, figure out a way to evaluate your child's progress.  This is important because it helps you identify if there is something your child needs extra help with.  Evaluating periodically means you don't spend 6 months trying to teach the next step before an earlier one is mastered.  An easy way to evaluate is to use flashcards and ask a child to say the sound/word for each card.  If this is difficult for your child, break up the cards into easier pieces.  Check their mastery of only 5-10 cards a day and then do the other cards a different time.  Note:  Each child is different.  You may need to find something more engaging to hold a child's attention and to see their best performance.  Check out the blog titled "Balloon Extravaganza" to see a fun and innovative flashcard solution.
• After the evaluation is done, let your kid know that you are proud of their achievements so far.  Now they get to display their success to their friends!  Set up the T-shirt/canvas bag with a piece of cardboard or newspaper between layers so the permanent marker won't bled onto the other layers.  Lay the square stencil on top and have the child write the character they've mastered inside the square.  If they have mastered identifying it, but haven't written the character yet, you can choose to write it or give them a chance to copy the character.  You can also choose to write the English underneath the character; this presents a fun conversation starter around the community.
• As your child masters more and more characters based on the goal you set-up, add them to the shirt/bag.  Seeing their progress as they add new characters every week will encourage your child and show them that they are making progress.  Remember to celebrate each success and keep practicing the characters that are mastered as well!   They'll love it! 

 Extension Activities:

• If your child has already learned ㄅㄆㄇㄈ/pinyin and is learning to recognize characters, you can write the character for him/her, but then see if s/he can tell you the ㄅㄆㄇ for that character.  Then you can write it next to the character.
• If your child has learned how to say the colors, practice asking for different colored markers as s/he writes the characters.  Parents can ask, "你要什麼顏色的筆?"  (Nǐ yào shénme yánsè de bǐ? What color do you want?)
• If you choose to have students copy the characters, first show them the stroke order and challenge them to write the character in the same order.

Art of Glow

Art of Glow- is a free iPad and iPhone app that allows you to make mini art movies.  I've used this app to make movies of common characters being slowly written.  When my kids view the movie, they see the character being written slowly (using the correct stroke order*).  I ask them to guess what character is being written and to shout it out when they think they know.  You could also use this app to practice recognizing ㄅㄆㄇㄈ or pinyin ("Shout it out when you think you know what sound it is!").

You can make and save several movies on this app.  When making the movie, be sure that you change the settings so that each stroke remains visible (I max-out the Life Time, minimize the Speed and Blink settings, Size should be in the middle of the range, and Amount somewhere between the middle and the maximum).  If your kids don't read the Mainland Chinese pinyin system, you can save the file using this naming system and then they can randomly pick a movie and play the game by themselves. 

*To see the correct stroke order for a character visit YellowBridge.com, locate the character in the dictionary and then choose the "Stroke Order" tab.