Celebrate AAPI month with these fun family games

🔴 Play I spy...RED

One of the first things you notice when learning about Chinese culture is the prominence the color red has. The flag is red, the little envelopes given during Lunar New Year are red, and the lanterns hung up for festivals are red! Red is a lucky and auspicious color in Chinese culture. Red is associated with the fire element, which represents life, vitality, and light. Because it’s viewed so positively, red symbolizes happiness, success, and good fortune.

Introduce your child to the history of the color red in Chinese culture and play I spy with my little eye trying to spot red things in your surroundings. 

📔 Write a Haiku! 

Haikus are short poems about nature that are originally from Japan and have three lines with respective syllable counts of 5/7/5. The tradition of these poems extends back to the late 1400s and have since spread to be adapted all over the world in several languages. Poems that are structured like haikus but are not about nature are called senyūs. 

For example: May is now springtime, Flowers and Follies around, Summer is up next

Try counting syllables and writing your own haikus with your kids about how their day was at school or how they are feeling right now.  

In this very simple Korean game all you have to do is face the other player and then point left or right.If the other player turns their head in the same direction you have pointed, you win. Simple as that! Just make sure to turn your head in the opposite direction to keep winning!

🧘🏽‍♀️ Practice a Yoga animal pose

Yoga is a group of mental, physical, and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India and are currently used in a variety of contexts for a variety of purposes. Yoga has practices that extend from Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism. The purpose of the practice is to still the mind and gain an understanding of consciousness and suffering. 

Focusing on the purpose of relaxation, try a simple yoga practice as part of your kids’ routine. Start with some yoga positions named after animals like “Downward Dog” and “Cobra” and ask your child to come up with their own animal positions.

🦢 Make Paper Cranes 

According to ancient Japanese legend, anyone who folds 1000 origami cranes, called senbazuru, will be granted a wish, eternal good luck, or healing from illness. The origami symbol for this offering is the crane, a symbol for peace that is also considered a mythical creature said to live 1000 years. Ask your kids, if you had to put in a lot of time and effort to earn just one wish, what would you wish for? 

Then, try it out for yourself! Check out this great tutorial and see if together, you can make enough to earn a wish! Also, check out Sadako and the Thousand Cranes for a literary tie-in!