This Chinese gift guide is based on many items we’ve enjoyed in our own home or have been highly recommended by friends with children of all ages.
While I believe that books are the best gifts for multilingual kids, toys and other resources can help create an immersive Chinese learning environment!
Scroll down to see what toys, music, movies, clothing, and educational products would make the best Chinese gifts for your family!
Gifts for children that nurture learning
This post is the third of a 4-part gift guide series:
- 5 Reasons Books are the Best Gift for Multilingual Kids
- Favorite Educational Montessori Inspired Toys from Etsy
- Ultimate Chinese Gift Guide for Kids Learning Chinese!
- 10 Best Toys For Children That Promote Creativity and Learning
Important disclaimer: Remember that parents and caregivers who speak to kids in Chinese consistently will have the best chance at learning Chinese. No amount of Chinese learning toys will ever supersede this!
This post contains affiliate links. If you click through an affiliate link and make a purchase, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for details.
Educational Chinese Gifts for Children
1. Chinese gift for children and teachers: motivational stamps
These Chinese stamps come in simplified and traditional Chinese! They make a great gift for Chinese teachers and students learning the language!
The following phrases are included:
- 你真棒！(Nǐ zhēn bang! / You are awesome!)
- 赞 / 讚！ (Zàn! / Awesome!)
- 棒棒噠！(Bàng bàng da! / Amazing!)
- 你进步了 / 你進步了！(Nǐ jìnbù le! / Big Improvement!)
- 极了 / 好極了 (Hǎo jí le! / Excellent!)
- 太棒了！(Tài bàng le / Fantastic!)
- 太好了！(Tài hǎo le! / Superb Work!)
- 加油！ (Jiā yóu / Add Fuel!)
- 再努力！(Zài nǔlì! / Keep it Up!)
- 再试一次 / 再試一次！(Zài shì yí cì! / Try again!)
- 请改正 / 請改正 (Qǐng gǎi zhèng / Please correct)
- 请完成 / 請完成 (Qǐng wánchéng / Please complete)
2. Chinese gift for children and adults: brush writing resources
Buddha Board
The Buddha Board is a simple and creative tool to practice Chinese words and enjoy drawing.
The board comes with a stand which you fill with water.
Then dip the included bamboo brush to create soft, beautiful images and calligraphy. When the water evaporates, the images fades, and then it’s time to create another masterpiece!
Recommended for older toddlers, school-age children, and even adults!
Magic Water Calligraphy Cloth
We have the MasterChinese reusable calligraphy cloth with which you use water as “ink” to dip your brush and practice Chinese writing. One cloth has blank grids while the other has important Chinese character strokes.
I would highly recommend this for school age children or adolescents, and I enjoyed practicing with it myself!
3. Chinese gift for children: Puzzles
Bilingual Puzzles
China Sprout has a collection of puzzles with photographs of certain objects and their name in simplified Chinese and English. The below photo an example of some of the bilingual puzzles!
Chinese Characters Magnetic Game
These magnets are a wonderful hands-on way to learn simplified Chinese characters. With the colorful pieces and book provided, children learn how to read by building characters on the grid. The spacial relationship helps prepare them for writing.
4. Educational Insights Geosafari Jr Talking Microscope
This is actually a toy and not an actual microscope, and it’s a bit unconventional for me to recommend a plastic product!
However, I love that the product has clear audio for Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Japanese as well as English! Since it exposes my children to 3 of their languages, I couldn’t resist getting it.
5. Chinese gift for toddlers and preschoolers: Wood Chinese numbers board
We love the 1-10 reversible Chinese numbers board from my favorite Etsy store, From Jennifer!! You can use the board for tracing and also fine motor counting practice. The wood is sanded smoothly and has no rough edges or sharp corners.
Related: 10+ Fun Ways to Use a Hundred Board!
6. Chinese gift for family members and teachers: Wood Chinese calendar
Growing up, I remember my parents bringing home a Chinese calendar from Chinese restaurants. My Korean in-laws also like to give us calendars at the end of the year! I’m not sure of the cultural significance, but I’m grateful for this beautiful wood perpetual calendar that you can use year after year.
The Etsy shop, From Jennifer, translates her products in many languages!
Chinese gifts: Cultural Toys for Kids
1. Chinese gift for children: Asian dolls
Since many children play with dolls, diversity is important to consider. Hape and Miniland have dolls of various ethnicities!
Hape Asian Family doll set
We have had this set for a few years, and my kids have fun playing pretend with this family!
Miniland Doll
This is an anatomically correct doll with clothes that you can order separately.
We do not have this doll as we currently have too many toys, but many of my friends, including Montessori families, recommend this doll due to its relatively realistic features.
Please note that there is a faint vanilla scent to the doll.
2. Chinese gift for children: pretend playfood
Heartfelt Makan is a Singaporean shop that specializes in beautiful felt food toys for children! Both of my kids love to play pretend restaurant and cooking with these authentic Chinese toys!
3. Chinese gift for children: embossed wood blocks
Uncle Goose blocks
Wide variety of educational wood blocks, including languages such as Chinese. These are some of the first Chinese toys that I bought for my children!
Chinese dominoes with Pinyin and English
Amazon and Taobao have a few variations of Chinese dominoes in simplified Chinese. We currently have these wood dominoes which my kids love to line up and/or stack and knock over. They help prompt me with speaking Chinese words, but I actually think the Chinese characters are suboptimally displayed.
Instead, the single-sided version of this set appears to be for character recognition, because the Chinese character is black and more clearly visible.
For those learning traditional Chinese, check out this scrabble-like Chinese word game!
Chinese gift: music for kids
1. Music Players for children
CD Player
My kids love the Jensen CD player. We have 2 that have been in great condition for over 2 years.
CD Cases
Case Logic is my favorite brand for CD organization. My kids can easily find our Chinese and Korean CDs with the Case Logic CD cases.
MP3 Player
For Christmas, I am gifting my nephew this MP3 player so that he can listen to music and songs independently.
Related: Montessori Inspired CD Organization and Accessibility for Kids
2. Chinese music CDs for children
A Little Mandarin
A Little Mandarin is one of the BEST Chinese children’s music albums. The lyrics are clearly sung by a woman with a beautiful voice!
This was the first album I downloaded when we began our Chinese learning journey a few years ago. Because of these fun songs, my toddler became very interested in learning Chinese!
Little Dragon Tales: Chinese Children’s Songs
Little Dragon Tales is a fun, upbeat rendition of classic Chinese children’s songs that my children love dancing to. The music is sung by children with instrumental, catchy background music.
Related: 100+ Popular Chinese Songs for Kids!
3. Chinese music soundbook for children
Pinkfong Chinese Story Sound Book
My daughter has fun singing and dancing to the fun Pinkfong Chinese music book! The sound book has 10 Chinese songs with lyrics that are easy to understand, and the book has bright cartoon images. The lyrics are clearly written in Simplified Mandarin Chinese, pinyin, and Korean Hangul. You can buy it in this link.
Chinese gift for the family: Movies dubbed in Mandarin Chinese
Many popular movies have been dubbed in Mandarin Chinese.
Here are just a few on Amazon listed in alphabetical order:
- Aladdin
- Beauty and the Beast
- Cars
- Cinderella
- Finding Nemo
- Frozen
- Lion King
- Mulan
- Pinnochio
- Toy Story
- The Incredibles
- Trail of the Panda – This movie is highly recommended as it features real Chinese people, not a cartoon
- Up
- Wall-E
Related: 讚美之泉 Stream of Praise Chinese Christian Music + Printable Lyrics
Chinese gift: children’s books
Books are our favorite gifts to give multilingual children! The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy is not a Chinese book, but the wordless picture book is a visual treat and true conversation starter.
This page is why I have included it on this list – the strokes of the Chinese words are deconstructed and arranged neatly by size!
Here are our favorite Chinese children’s books:
- Chinese books for babies and toddlers
- Chinese books for preschoolers and elementary school children
- Detailed reviews of all Chinese children’s books
More educational gifts for children
- 5 Reasons Books are the Best Gift for Multilingual Kids
- Favorite Educational Montessori Inspired Toys from Etsy
- 10 Best Toys For Children That Promote Creativity and Learning
What are you planning on gifting your family for the special occasion?
Did you find something on this list that they would like?
Please share in the comments below!
Advice on raising multilingual children
- Teach Your Child a Second Language at Home with 5 Key Steps
- How To Get Your Child To Speak the Minority Language
- Raising Multilingual Children as a Non-Fluent Parent
- Encourage A Child to Love and Speak the Minority Language with 5 Strategies
- How to Find a Foreign Language Teacher for Your Child
- 15 Ways to Get Your Child to Read Throughout the Day
Leave a Reply