If you want to make learning Mandarin Chinese exciting for your children, try some engaging games and activities that introduce them to the language in a fun way.
Games and activities have long been considered one of the most effective ways of teaching a new language. For instance, activities that involve the use of Mandarin Chinese alphabets and words can be helpful to teach your child the language in less time. In addition, games make learning a language more interesting and fun.
Take, for example, Chinese board games, which are an excellent way of teaching language to children of any age. Every game has its potential as an effective language learning tool. It can be a long, time-consuming strategic game or a quick tactical one.
This article discusses some Mandarin Chinese games for children that will make learning the language easier, interactive, and, most importantly, fun.
1. Using sticky tapes to teach children Mandarin Chinese characters
You can use sticky tapes and write some characters and the Pinyin of them separately and then place them randomly. Now, ask your child to match them.
2. Scribbling Mandarin Chinese characters on a tray, sand or salt
Just spread enough sand or salt on a tray and make them trace the Mandarin Chinese characters on it.
3. Playing golf with Mandarin Chinese characters
You can write Chinese characters on pieces of paper and stick them on the floor randomly. Then, you can call out a character and ask your child to target the golf ball with a golf club and see how they score identifying the characters.
4. Using Lego to build Mandarin Chinese characters
You can provide Lego pieces to your children and ask them to make a Mandarin Chinese character using them. Don’t forget to reward their achievements.
5. Using envelopes to teach them Mandarin Chinese
Write the same sentence in English and Mandarin Chinese. Now, put the Mandarin Chinese ones in envelopes. Then, give your child one envelope at a time and allow them to match it with the English ones.
6. Word Soccer
Use bricks and attach small pieces of paper with Mandarin Chinese words written on them. Now, ask your child for a specific word and see how they perform.
7. Jump activity
Draw boxes on the floor and write a Mandarin Chinese character inside each box. Now, ask your child to jump using one leg on a specific character you call out. This can be a fun game to play with other children as well.
8. Teaching Mandarin Chinese words with stick and ring
You may use sticks or wickets set near Mandarin Chinese words written on paper and then ask your child to throw a ring at respective sticks bearing the word of your choice.
9. Using wax crayons
You may write Chinese characters with a pencil on a white sheet and erase them, which would leave an impression of it on the paper. Next, you ask your child to trace those characters with wax crayons and identify those characters. Children will be surprised to see how the characters appear after coloring and will remember.
10. Using watercolors
This is a similar activity to the previous one. Here, instead of a pencil, you use a white wax crayon on a white sheet and ask your child to trace the character using water-based color instead of wax crayons.
11. Using tic-tac-toe to teach Mandarin Chinese words
You can use a tic-tac-toe grid to teach your children Mandarin Chinese. Just replace the usual ‘X’ and ‘O’ symbols with Mandarin Chinese characters.
12. Using a fishing rod
You can write Mandarin Chinese words on small paper cut-outs like fish and stick a magnet to each piece. Next, you may ask your child to fetch a specific word with a fishing rod having another small magnet.
13. Hunting Mandarin Chinese words
You can write specific words on pieces of paper and hide them inside a room randomly. Then, you can give your child a sentence, which can be constructed using those hidden words.
14. Playing darkroom
This is a similar game to the previous one. Here also, you hide words in a room, but this time the room will be dark, with all lights turned off. Your child can use a flashlight to find out those words and construct a sentence.
15. Creating 3D Mandarin Chinese characters
You can encourage your child to use glue or maybe a hot glue gun and ask them to create Mandarin Chinese characters. Later, they can be colored, and they can admire their set of Mandarin Chinese characters.
16. Using pebbles
Perhaps one of the easiest, yet most effective Mandarin Chinese games for children: ask your child to make use of pebbles to trace out Mandarin Chinese characters.
17. Using dot stickers
Trace the outline of Mandarin Chinese characters on a large sheet and ask your child to fill up the empty spaces with a medium of their choice.
18. Playing "who knows this:"
This game can be a good activity when teaching a group of children. You can read out certain Mandarin Chinese sentences and ask the children if they know their meaning. See how and who responds to your questions.
19. Playing the guessing game
You can describe the characteristics of a particular thing in Mandarin Chinese and see if your child can correctly guess it. This will help you understand how well your child can translate Mandarin Chinese to your native language.
20. Karaoke
Karaoke is a great activity to have fun with. Encourage your child to sing karaoke in Mandarin Chinese so that they can learn the language even quicker.
21. Playing true or false
State random sentences based on the Mandarin Chinese language and ask your child if it is true or false. Make sure to include a few wrong questions as well.
22. Letter or postcard writing
Encourage children to write letters to friends and family in Mandarin Chinese. This will create excitement among them and improve their understanding of the language.
23. Translation of songs
Encourage your children to listen to Mandarin Chinese music and translate the meaning into your spoken language. Help can be taken from the internet whenever needed.
24. Playing Weiqi
Weiqi is one of the most ancient Chinese games for children. It is played between two players on a 19×19 board with the strategy of occupying more territory. Encourage your child to play more such games that will help them identify Mandarin Chinese words.
25. Using Mandarin Chinese books to ask questions
Beautiful Mandarin Chinese books are also a fun way to enhance your child’s Mandarin Chinese reading skills. Moreover, Mandarin Chinese comprehension skills will also improve if you encourage your child to read such books. You can use a Mandarin Chinese book to point out a particular word and ask them the meaning of it. Reward them when they can identify the right answer to encourage. Also, they will take more interest in such games and thus, spend more time with Mandarin Chinese books.
Learning a new foreign language can be beneficial for your children. It is not always necessary to include textbooks and notebooks to learn a new language. There are several exciting and fun ways of improving your child’s Mandarin Chinese language skills, other than reading, copying, and writing the same characters again and again.
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