Chinese Calligraphy and Finger Painting

The boys recently tried their hands on Chinese calligraphy and finger painting when we were invited to preview FOX’s new CNY collection in their store. Oh boy, they both had a lot of fun! By the way, if you have yet to do much clothes shopping for your kids this CNY, do keep your eyes peeled to the end of the post. You might just win an outfit for your kid!

I never saw my hyper kids so attentive and so glued to their seats before, so it was really refreshing observing them throughout the class. The class instructor brought them through the basics, the couplets and paintings on display, a bit of history, as well as showing them the four treasures for Chinese calligraphy – ink stick, brush, ink slab/stone and paper. They also had the Chinese seal. All the kids just listened attentively! It also dawned on me that I haven’t held a calligraphy brush myself for over 20+ years!

Jerry was so eager in getting his hands dirty.. he literally laid his fingers on everything within his reach. He was leaning in a lot to touch the treasures as the teachers were explaining them.. It was also really quite cool that he get to grind the ink stick on the ink slab/stone like in ancient times.

I gave up trying to get him to hold the brush correctly because he is too young for it. Growing that interest for it is more important, I reckon. He would learn the correct strokes when he is older and interested in it. That day was more for having fun!

The ‘paper’ that they were writing on is pretty cool and a brilliant idea. All you need is water, and the paper turns dark where the wet brush touches.. and it will slowly dry up making a breeze to practise on the same sheet again. The only thing I think I didn’t like was that you can’t ‘retain’ the words that you have written to try and improve on. These days.. convenience really is everything.

The kids went on to finger painting next. Jerome looked so happy while at it.

When Jerome was done, I thought it was quite nice! He really followed through the concept and just dot using his fingers.. and drew some branches. Jerry on the other hand…

… was busy mixing up all the colours on his paper! We ended the day dressing the kids in their CNY outfits for a photoshoot! They weren’t exactly very cooperative. They just kept using the props to cover their faces on the set and I didn’t get any decent ones! I only managed to capture some quirky ones though when they were just fooling around the store.

We ended the day with a rare family photo. We really need to take more family pictures!

And, if here’s how Jerry & Jerome looks in the CNY outfits that we picked for them. You can now win a set of either outfit. Simply like & comment on on FOX’s FB post HERE and tell us which outfit you like to win & why! There will be 2 winners, 1 for each outfit. For example. I like Jerry’s outfit because it is red enough for CNY!  (Anything goes, you just need to like and comment! And help share it if you could.)

The giveaway will be till 6 Feb, 12 noon (that’s tomorrow!) and winners will be announced before end of the day 6 Feb, Friday. Go now, because there isn’t much time left and good luck!

Disclaimer: The Choo family was invited to a preview of the FOX Kids Spring Summer 2015 Collection, along with a fun class of Chinese Calligraphy and finger painting. The boys got to choose an outfit for CNY to bring home! We were not obligated to blog about it, but I did because the boys really had quite a lot of fun and I wanted to share all that!