Children take trip to China; their parents get a night off

Mommies and daddies get a night to themselves. The kids are immersed in cultural learning through fun activities. Sounds like a win-win.

The Chinese Language Learning Center offers its "Parents’ Night Out" event on the third Saturday of each month, with the next one set for Feb. 15.

Parents drop off their children at the center, located at the Historic Hoo Choo Chinese School, at 6 p.m. and pick them up at 9 p.m. While Mom and Dad are out, the kids participate in activities related to Chinese culture.

"(Parents) really like it, especially the moms," center educational director Ting Shao said. "They say they can just drop off the kids, either they can go out for a movie or dinner, or they can go home and clean up."

Next week’s session will focus on the Yuan Xiao (lantern) Festival, celebrated on the 15th day of the new year.

Children will make and eat tangyuan (mochi rice dumplings) and construct paper lanterns decorated with pictures of animals, which they will learn to identify in Mandarin. There will also be lantern riddles for older children to solve and win prizes.

"Parents’ Night Out" sessions are open to children ages 3 and older, as long as they are toilet-trained. The cost is $22 for the first child and $18 for each additional sibling.

"For $22 for three hours and dinner, it’s cheaper than having a baby sitter," Shao said.

This year’s first "Parents’ Night Out" — which was moved from Jan. 18 to Feb. 1 at parents’ requests — centered on Chinese New Year and the celebration of the Year of the Horse. Activities included making (and eating) traditional New Year foods such as jiaozi (dumplings filled with meat and vegetables) and gao.

To RSVP, call Shao at 358-3507 or email nihao@ cllchi.com. Reservations must be made at least one day in advance.

The Chinese Language Learning Center is at 1342 7th Ave. in Kaimuki. Visit cllchi.com.

Stefanie Nakasone, Star-Advertiser

‘Junkyard’ offers a lesson to treasure

Big Island resident Mike Austin delivers a book with universal appeal for keiki in "Junkyard" ($16.99, Beach Lane Books). The heroes of the story are two cheerful, oversize robots who for the first half of the book consume mountains of garbage — from rusted school buses to tubs of toxic waste. 

After the Munching Machines have devoured all the garbage left behind by society, they move on to the task of planting hundreds of trees and flowers where the mess had once been. Once the landscaping has been done, the robots build a playground and throw a party to welcome back children to the area. It’s an environmental message of renewal that will resonate with fans of the Disney/Pixar film "WALL-E."

Donica Kaneshiro, Star-Advertiser

Diverse animated movies will lure kids 

See some of the year’s best animated kids’ films Feb. 16 at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

"Paint Me a Story: Animation from Around the Globe" features a 71-minute collection of short films chosen by the Children’s Film Festival Seattle, the largest family film festival on the West Coast.

One of the featured films will be "My Strange Grandfather," by Dina Velikovskaya of Russia. Frustrated by the lack of interest in stop-action animation in Russia, Velikovskaya taught herself to make the puppets she used to tell the charming story of a girl and her nutty grandfather, who collects trash on the beach. The film does an amazing job depicting wind and waves, as well as people at play on the beach.

Another featured film is "High Above the Sky," by Kim Noce and Shaun Clark of the United Kingdom. It tells the story of a father taking his son on a journey through the sky. The filmmakers used only cardboard and paint to create the scenery, props and characters. 

Many of the films will be subtitled, so parents are welcome to read aloud — quietly — to their children. 

Steven Mark, Star-Advertiser