Author 丨 Coke Mom
The source | Boy Pie Original
Two days ago, my son suddenly said to me, "Mom, can we not be old?" ”
I was surprised and asked him, "Is the New Year bad?" You can wear new clothes, eat delicious food, and how nice it is for the family to be lively. ”
The son shook his head:
"New clothes are often worn, and the food is also the old ones, and the New Year is really boring."
His answer reminds me of a passage from "New Year's On the Tip of the Tongue":
"The taste of the year is getting weaker and weaker, only because with the improvement of living standards, Chinese New Year's Eve meal has lost its appeal...
Every New Year's Day, my mother complained: What to eat? What do you want to eat? Sons and daughters say whatever you want, you do whatever you want. It has to be the same every year. ”
If it is the material richness that makes us tasteless; then the lack of ritual is the most fundamental reason why we no longer look forward to the New Year.
At this time, if we want our children to make good memories of the New Year, instead of thinking hard about what to eat and wear, it is better to create a small ritual to give special meaning to the day.
01. Take your children to buy New Year goods together
Writer Pan Chunhua wrote in "The Past of New Year Goods 36 Years Ago": "At that time, buying New Year goods can be called a lively.
Queuing up to buy New Year goods, often children take the lead, because at this time it is the winter vacation, children are not afraid of the cold, can rush forward to fill the vacancy.
When the queue is almost in place, the adults will carefully cut the stamp-sized New Year tickets in advance, carry them in their arms with the banknotes, and replace the children before buying. ”
Today, there is no longer a need to queue up to buy New Year goods, just a tap on the phone is enough.
However, such a quick and simple way has gradually turned the purchase of New Year goods into a hurried and perfunctory task.
This year, we may wish to take our children to the supermarket and market together while shopping online to warm up for the spring festival.
The taste of the year does not have to be rich in New Year goods.
The process of buying and purchasing New Year goods with children often makes children truly feel the arrival of the New Year.
Many times, as long as you change a little, the boring life will become sound and colorful.
02. Prepare gifts for everyone in the family
In the family, it is a very happy thing that someone is willing to prepare a gift for the child.
I remember when I was a child, every year before the New Year, my aunt and uncle would buy my cousin a toy corresponding to the zodiac sign: in the Year of the Rat, it was a cute Mickey Mouse; in the Year of the Ox, it was a big cow with a pink nose...
This is the case every year, and it is the envy of our children.
Years later, my cousin grew up, and she often prepared surprises for her family and friends, and spent every important or ordinary day seriously.
A gift prepared with the heart can make children feel the love of their parents and can also give them the ability to love others.
This year's Spring Festival, we can also create a surprise for the child and ask the child to prepare a gift for each family member.
This gift does not have to be expensive, it can be a flower or a greeting card.
But the intention behind the gift is enough for the child to understand: no matter what, we always love and cherish each other.
03. The whole family cleans up together
The 24th day of the lunar month every year is the traditional Chinese dust sweeping day. Many families clean up on this day.
But today, we clean not only to clean the utensils, remove the bedding, dust off the dirt, but more importantly, to teach the children to tidy up and store, so that the children have the awareness of "breaking away" from an early age.
Only in this way will they understand that many times, true happiness does not lie in how much material things are possessed, but in how much happiness is possessed.
04. Invite your child to cook Chinese New Year's Eve meal together
When I was a child, what I was most looking forward to was Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
The adults started to be busy early in the morning, making dumplings, croquettes, stewed ribs... The children gathered around the kitchen in the name of "help"—
Drink a bowl of dumpling soup for a while, and then eat a freshly fried ball and a piece of ribs wrapped in soup while blowing hot air.
The east and west bites, before the Chinese New Year's Eve meal was put on the table, had already eaten a half full.
But today's Chinese New Year's Eve rice, but can not find the taste of the past: now, adults and children sit in the hotel, in front of the exquisite dishes, but a few chopsticks, no one is willing to move again.
Later, I found out that what was really worth looking forward to was never the food itself, but the process of busy family together.
This year, let's invite our children to prepare Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
Take out our long-cherished tableware, ask the children how the food should be laid out, and look for the temperature of home and the traces of love in the smoke and fire of chai rice oil and salt.
05. Write the couplet yourself
The sense of ceremony of the Spring Festival often does not need to be so formal and complicated, it can also be simple, for example, write the Spring Festival in person:
"Rats go to cattle to bid farewell to the old year, dragons fly phoenix dance to celebrate the new year."
"Years and years of kites and cattle, the country and mountains splendid embroidery year."
……
Spring League should not only be a form, but also hide our expectations for the new year.
Even if life is still full of challenges, because of this common expectation, the whole family has the direction of effort, and every family member will be full of morale and happiness.
After writing the Spring League, we can give it to the child to paste.
When the spring league written by the parents was firmly attached to the wall by the child, the original faded taste of the year quietly appeared again.
06. Make lanterns with your child
In order to protect the environment, more and more cities have banned fireworks.
Perhaps for this generation of children, their memories of the New Year are a little less pyrotechnic, but we can still add a little color to the child's childhood in a different way:
In our family, every year before the New Year, the father of the child will make an orange lamp for the child.
The method is actually very simple: first open a lid on the top of the orange, then peel off the orange flesh inside, and then put a candle in the middle.
On Chinese New Year's Eve day, the child lights the orange lamp and makes a New Year's wish.
A child will grow up one day and leave his parents, but I believe that the memories of orange lanterns in his childhood leave him with a love of life and a positive and interesting attitude towards life.
Many times, those careful thoughts that seem worthless are just an antidote to ordinary life.
07. Take a family portrait
I remember that in the BBC documentary "Chinese New Year", there was such a clip:
A mother who lives in the UK takes her family back to Beijing for the Chinese New Year every Spring Festival. Before leaving, she will also ask the children to draw a family portrait for their parents.
Looking at the children's childish brushstrokes, her parents always couldn't help but burst into tears.
This sense of ceremony in family rooms often has a strong cohesion.
Even if they are thousands of miles apart, even if the years pass, the members can still feel the continuous love emanating from the home and gain a sense of belonging.
In fact, we can also take a family portrait at a fixed time and place every Spring Festival.
The photo album composed of family portraits may not be expensive, but it is the most precious memory of a child.
The sense of belonging and connection symbolized behind it lets children know that in the future, no matter what kind of situation they have, home will be their retreat and backing, and the love and intimacy between family members will never disappear.
08. Write a letter to your child
An atlanta-based daily study found:
The happiness of "collecting stories and memories" at home is far greater than material satisfaction or even academic success.
Especially family traditions, the memories it leaves and the happiness it brings to all family members are endless and will not change due to changes in life.
Writing letters is a great way to "collect stories and memories."
This way can not only let us tell our children about our understanding of life without reservation, but also close the distance with our children and enhance our feelings.
09. The whole family plans a trip
For children, travel is the beginning of curiosity and the driving force behind the expansion of the limited world.
During the New Year's holidays, instead of three people at home holding their mobile phones, it is better to plan a trip, the destination may not be very far, it may just be a nearby attraction or park.
But the experience of taking a child to see the world is enough to be the best gift a child receives in the New Year.
Wearing new clothes, anticipating and discussing destinations with parents will be one of the best moments in a child's childhood memory.
10. Watch a movie with your child
Usually, we are busy with work, and it is inevitable that we will neglect our children.
At this special time in the New Year, we may wish to take our children to see a movie he likes. In the process of enjoying the feast of light and shadow, we gradually enter the heart of the child, understand the child, and get close to the child.
After watching it, you can also discuss the plot and characters with your children.
Only in this way, in the child's memory of childhood, we can leave a clear and beautiful figure, rather than a shadow that "does not even know what the child likes".
11. Write at the back
The New Year is a special moment for every Chinese.
"China has a great deal of etiquette, so it is called Xia; there is the beauty of the dress chapter, which is called Hua."
In fact, we have always lived in a country that values rituals, which is why we have set up various festivals.
And the Spring Festival is the most grand one.
On this day, we post couplets, sweep away dirt and grime, celebrate the New Year... It is not only an external form, but also has a rich connotation, that is, to bid farewell to the past and meet a new round of sowing and harvesting.
Today, we have an obligation to pass on the meaning of the festival to our children through a sense of ceremony.
As the writer Wheat Qianqian said, "What kind of ritual you give your child, what kind of values he will get from it."
The sense of new year's ritual is to let children feel that even if time goes by, your parents still love you as before; no matter where you are, home is your way back.
In this way, even if they encounter more difficulties, children can walk through their lives with gratitude and fear of hardships!
Editor: Yijie Shen Simin
Review: Yijie Zou Liping
Early education
A Jie family education