With the holidays around the corner, here’s a helpful gift guide to help you pick the best gifts for your bilingual child learning Mandarin Chinese.
Included are some of our favorite educational and interactive toys for the little bilingual in your life.
This gift guide is also a great way to share with family members wanting to gift your child quality gifts that will get a lot of mileage.
These toys are ones that will engage your little learner and spark interest in not only the culture but also encourage them to speak Mandarin Chinese!
Keep reading to know all the fabulous toys I included in our gift guide.
1. Joey Dolls: cultural representation in play
Joey Dolls was created by a mom who didn’t see her own child represented in the doll selections that was available.
Her shop now carries so all types of Asian dolls to help your little one see themselves in their play!
Other Asian doll options:
2. Instant Print Camera
Our daughter loves her instant print camera. It’s been a great way for her to document fun and important memories for herself.
This is a great tool to encourage scrapbooking or journaling in the target language.
She got hers when she was six years old and still uses it to this day.
Another great option to look into that prints in color is the Kodax Printomatic or Fujifilm Instax Mini.
3. Chinese Bilingual Globe
Help your little explorer learn about the world in the target language with a Chinese bilingual globe!
I loved having a Chinese globe in our home to help my daughter learn about the world in our target language.
It really helped her learn the location of different countries in comparison to where we live.
4. Mochi Kids Apparel
Wearing clothes that represent an important part of our culture, food, is a wonderful way to cultivate pride in their heritage and the language we speak at home.
Mochi Kids has many adorable choices to choose from for your little foodies including this limited edition holiday dimsum top!
5. Cultural Play Foods
Another fun way to help kids engage in play and cultivate pride in their heritage is having Chinese play foods around the house.
Below are some shops that carry a wide selection of quality play foods to choose from.
6. Chinese Food Plushies
I don’t know about your kids, but my daughter can’t get enough of plushies!
Here are some adorable Chinese food plushies to create a Chinese immersion environment at home in an adorable way.
7. Mandarin Talking Microscope
Geo Safari’s talking microscope is such a fun way for the little scientist to interesting science facts with this interactive STEM toy.
I put this on our gift list years ago and my in-laws bought it for our daughter when she was four.
She still uses it to this day.
8. Label Maker: label items at home or translate books into Chinese
Having a label maker that’s able to print in Chinese is a wonderful tool to add to your bilingual home.
It’s an easy way to create a print rich environment where everyone is encouraged and immersed in the language.
Here’s a popular easy to use label maker that connects easily to your phone so you can start labeling items your child uses daily or translate books you have at home in a snap!
9. Chinese Board Games
Board games is a wonderful opportunity for children learning Mandarin (or any target language) to participate in multi-sensory learning.
Through board games, children can engage in speaking, listening to Mandarin in a fun and engaging way.
Below I’ve listed a few of the popular ones.
10. Chinese Magic Calligraphy Paper
I had to add this wonderful magic calligraphy paper to the gift guide!
We’ve had this for years and it’s still a fun way for my daughter to practice writing Chinese.
I love that this kit comes with a calligraphy pen and papers where they can practice common strokes and simple Chinese characters in a developmentally appropriate way.
Having a variety of tools and mediums like this for little ones to engage in writing Chinese in a fun hands on way makes writing Chinese less daunting and more fun for kids.
11. Chinese Puzzles for Kids
Puzzles is another great multi-sensory toy to engage kids in learning new Chinese vocabulary and increase character recognition.
Below are some great quality puzzles to check out:
- Parts of the Body Puzzle
- Names of Dinosaur bilingual puzzle
- Habbi Habbi Bilingual Puzzles (grassland animals, vehicles)
- Evolution of Chinese characters puzzle for kids
12. Chinese Magazines for Kids
Subscribing to a quality Chinese magazine is a wonderful way to encourage interest in reading Chinese.
Kids love getting their own mail. It’s like a monthly gift they can look forward to each month.
These magazines cover a wide array of topics guaranteed to pique your child’s interest.
Below is great selection of quality Chinese children’s magazines to choose from:
- Little Picnic Magazine from the creator of Big Cities Little Foodies
- Little Meteor 小行星 (one of our favorites, works with their reading pen)
- Ciao Hu 巧虎 （great interactive magazine for toddler and up)
- Kang Xuan 康軒 (from the publishers of Taiwanese textbooks, comes a highly educational magazine for beginning to advanced readers)
13. Personalized Board Books in Chinese
Seeing pictures of things your child is familiar with in a personalized Chinese book will help engage them in reading Chinese.
It’s a great way to spend some quality time in meaningful input in the language.
Pinhole press and Canva are two options you can look into creating a personalized book in the target language.
With Pinhole press, it’s not a clearly laid out option on the site, but they do offer the option of adding Chinese in the free customization option once you place your order.
Once you have placed your order, you will need to send them a word document with the page number and the text you want on the specific page.
I’ve created a personalized book in Canva using their book layout. It’s pretty simple and straightforward to use.
14. Interactive Mandarin Speaking Game from BookieKids
A bilingual gift guide would be remiss if I didn’t include this wonderful new interactive speaking game from BookieKids.
This game includes cards with QR codes you or your child can scan with either your tablet or smart phone.
It’s a fun way to engage kids in practice speaking Mandarine without feeling like they’re practicing.
This game comes highly recommended by parents who are not native speakers trying to encourage speaking Mandarin and also help equip their child with practical everyday terms in Mandarin.
BrookieKids has given my followers a special offer of an additional 10% off of their bundle by using my code: SUNNYXMAS. Offer is valid til December 31st 2023.
Click for BrookieKids website.
15. Chinese Cultural Legos & Duplos
Another fun way to incorporate the culture in your bilingual child’s play is with Lego and Duplo sets that celebrate special Chinese holidays.
That’s why I’m including these in my gift guide for bilingual kids.
Here are some fun ones to choose from:
16. Lego Dots Chinese Message Board
I used this Lego dots message board dupe to create a sign for my son’s room with his name. My daughter helped me put it together and had so much fun. She wanted me to get one for her room as well.
This is another fun hands-on way to introduce or review Chinese characters.
Lego Dots also has a message board.
17. Chinese Children’s Book Subscription
Having quality Chinese children’s books at home is a wonderful way to encourage the language at home.
Snuggling up over a good book makes language learning meaningful and a way to bond with your child instead of a point of contention.
But trying to figure out which books to buy can be confusing, instead subscribe to a Chinese children’s book subscription with Curio or Mr. & Mrs. Books.
Curio offers book subscriptions in traditional or simplified Chinese (use my code “spotofsunshine” to get 20% off your order).
Mr. & Mrs. Books use their expertise as the oldest online Chinese bookstore in America to curate wonderful selections in their Book Box Chinese.
More Great Resources to Make Chinese Learning Fun:
- 7 Secrets to Chinese Retention: How I’m Still Fluent Despite Immigrating at 8
- Great Chinese Shows on Netflix for Kids
- Must Have Apps for Kids & Families Learning Mandarin Chinese
- How I Improve My Chinese as a Busy Parent
Don’t Do It Alone!
Imagine your child becoming self-motivated, happy Mandarin Chinese learners.
Imagine knowing what to do and growing confident that you’re doing the right thing and this can really work!
Imagine what having a community of like-minded parents, an experienced and supportive coach to help you and your kids thrive in learning Chinese would change things for you.
Learn more about Sunshine Bilingual Village, my membership to help parents in monolingual contexts raise happy, self-motivated Chinese learners!
