Things for kids to DO!

Panwapa is a website for young kids to learn about different places in the world. It’s been put together by the Sesame Workshop, so you know it’s been baked with goodness. It’s heavy on the audio, so don’t look for it as a peaceful escape into computerland for the kids while you rock out in the living room or something. Anyway, there’s a penguin who teaches you a few words of Mandarin while playing hide and seek (as well as other languages, like Japanese and Spanish), in addition to a few other globally oriented activities. Conceptually, it’s fantastic.

If you’re feeling more active (and don’t mind a trip to Illinois next summer), you can participate in the Our Chinese Daughters Foundation 2008 Olympics. It bills itself as a “Chinese Culture and Sports Weekend” at the Illinois State University at Bloomington-Normal. (No word on whether some activities will take place on the the Bloomington-Weird campus.) (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.) There are acrobatics workshops, classes on making chops, Chinese music, Chinese dance, folk tales, philosophy, feng shui, acupuncture and a whole bunch of other stuff. It seems like the best classes (like acrobatics) are focusing on kids between 6 and 16, and there’s a line in the paperwork about nothing aimed for children younger than 3. But for those 3 and up, it does look like more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Registration due by March 8.

I’ve also just learned about something Matt Dalio (remember him?) organized over in Los Angeles. It’s a mentorship program for children adopted from China. Under the banner of UCLA’s China Care Bruins, college kids are hooked up with children adopted from China to, like, hang out. They’re supposed to serve as Asian Pacific American role models, which is an important function, if a bit of a long appellation. When I first read about China Care Clubs I didn’t really get that this was one of the things they did. If there’s a college campus near you, it wouldn’t hurt to get in touch and see if it’s one of the schools with a CCC – or even if the folks there would be interested in starting one.

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