To celebrate China’s Mid-Autumn Festival in 2019, Aide et Action staff member Ai Da Xun organized a community event in Jiagua town, Qiong Lai city, Sichuan province, to improve people’s awareness of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as well as enhance child-caregiver interactions.
On 12 September 2019 after a morning of music and a mid-autumns’ blessing, two instructors from Jiaguan Children Center invited 47 families to join in some finger-painting activities and other games. The purpose of the activities was to not only have fun but to train the children’s fine motor skills and teach parents new games to play with their children.
Environmental Fashion Show
The main activity of our mid-autumn community event was our environmental fashion show. Across the world, climate change is dominating conversations and this is also the case in China. To build more knowledge about environmental awareness among children in the community, we invited children and their caregivers to make clothes from reusing materials, such as plastic bags, paper waste, leaves, etc. The results were showcased on stage for all to see and really enjoyed by participants and spectators alike.
Our last activity of the morning was a ring-toss, using various fruits, vegetables, boxes of play dough and picture books. “I want that radish”, “I want a mango” and many other demands could be heard as children reminded their caregivers to focus on specific objectives. The activity which was a lot of fun also taught young children new words.
Overall, the games and activities had enriched children’s mid-autumn festival, increased bonding between children and caregivers, and to some degree, facilitated children’s cognitive and social-emotional development. Everyone left with a smile on their face and we look forward to seeing caregivers and children playing more of these games in the future.