🌸 Chinese New Year: A Perfect Opportunity to Learn Chinese at Home!
- Fun Kids Chinese
- Feb 8
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and it’s truly one of the best times of the year for children to soak in the richness of the Chinese language, naturally, joyfully, and meaningfully. If you enjoyed our previous post on fun learning activities (you can revisit it here: https://www.funkidschinese.com/post/chinese-learning-hack-games-and-fun-activities-for-children), you’ll be happy to know that many of those same play‑based strategies work especially well during festive seasons like this!
Learn Chinese Through Festive Family Connections
CNY gatherings give children the perfect chance to practise family member vocabulary. If your child is in Primary 1, they may find this page from the textbook familiar. It shows the family tree (家庭树) featuring terms like:
爷爷、奶奶
外公、外婆
伯伯、叔叔、阿姨
哥哥、姐姐、弟弟、妹妹
… and so on!
Primary 1A, Chapter 2 - 你家有几个人
To make this even more meaningful, you can create your own personalised family tree at home. A free, and easy‑to‑use website you can play with
https://www.familyecho.com/ (Free, no downloads, and widely used for simple visual family trees) or you can play around with Canva templates to build one too.
Once you have plotted your family tree with photos, try the “Real Objects Hunt” activity from our earlier post! Call out the family member 称呼 in Chinese and let your child point to the correct person. It’s fun, silly, and perfect for strengthening vocabulary through real-life context.
Explore the Chinese New Year Bazaar (Online!)
If you don’t have a chance to visit a CNY bazaar in person, or simply want to extend the learning, watch this child‑friendly clip together:
Pause the video and highlight festive vocabulary such as:年货、灯笼、红包、春联、舞狮、零食、糖果、饰品, etc.
Then let your child test their understanding through these Fun Kids Chinese Wordwall online games:
These games reinforce vocabulary through fast‑paced play.
Learn a Simple CNY Song
Round off the experience with a festive Chinese New Year song! Sing along with Teacher Regine and learn the meaning behind the lyrics here:
Singing is one of the easiest ways to help children build rhythm, pronunciation, and memory in Chinese.
Easy & All‑Rounder CNY Greeting for the Year of the Horse
With so many Chinese New Year greetings out there, it can feel overwhelming to choose the right one—especially for children who are still learning Chinese. Here’s a simple 5‑word greeting booster that works for all ages and all recipients:
马年行大运 (mǎ nián xíng dà yùn)
Meaning: Wishing you great fortune and smooth success in the Year of the Horse. This greeting is warm, auspicious, and universally appropriate—perfect for children to say to grandparents, relatives, teachers or friends. You really can’t go wrong with this one!
Hear how it’s pronounced:
Final Thoughts
Festive seasons are full of warmth, culture, and togetherness, making them the perfect backdrop for natural Chinese learning. With a few simple tweaks, your home celebrations can double as rich language experiences your child will remember.
Have fun!
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