Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Hey hey hey … Chinese New Year is just round the corner!

To get our kids involved in ‘something chinese’, I thought our crafting sessions at home should also be ‘chinese-related’, hehe.

And this was what we did.

We did some simple chinese paper cutting!

REALLY really simple ones.

[If you’re not familiar with what Chinese Paper Cutting is all about, click HERE to see some samples of what they could look like!]

It’s going to be the year of the tiger, so Anya cut out a ‘tiger’ picture (which errr … due to my so-badly-need-to-be-improved ‘drawing skills’, it looked more like a smiling PIG!)

And Vai did a butterfly.

[To help Vai better distinguish which areas he’s supposed to cut out, I drew stripes on those areas]

Vai can’t cut quite like his sister just yet, so I chose to draw for him this simple design (intentionally ‘ignored’ the butterfly’s antennas to make it simpler for him to cut)

To start cutting the paper from the ‘inside’, I asked the kids to ‘pinch’ and cut bits of the area that’s supposed to be ‘removed’ (see picture above). This way, they could start to cut from that ‘inner cut-out hole’.

Anya got the whole idea of cutting ‘from the inside’ and had no problems with the task.

I had to frequently help and hold the paper for Vai though while he concentrated on cutting the ‘inside part’ of the paper (ie. without chopping off the frame and the butterfly itself).

I had to remind him to NOT cut from the four outer sides of the paper, because we wanted the keep the butterfly picture ‘intact’ (with all sides touching the ‘picture frame’)

After they’re done with the cutting, they used crayons and drew on them.

Anya added some stripes on the ‘tiger face’ (and made it look a little more like a tiger, and less of a pig! Good on you, Anya! Haha)

Vai scribbled different colours on the butterfly (to make it all ‘nice and colourful’, he said)

…

So there you go.

A really simple ‘Chinese New Year’ activity idea for your little ones *smile*

Happy crafting!