Japanese Garden Children's Festival

This weekend, the Chicago Botanic Garden presents Japanese Garden Children's Festival, a unique festival that lets kids learn about children's celebrations in Japan. Activities run from 10am - 3pm each day, and families can listen to koto harp and shakuhachi flute music, enjoy traditional folktales, observe a karate demonstration, watch a tea ceremony and make special projects at hands-on stations.

The schedule:

10 a.m. – 3 p.m. — Family Activities
10:30 a.m. — Tea Ceremony Demonstration by Dr. Seiko Nakashima and Students of the Urasenke School
11:30 a.m. — Shakuhachi Flute Performance by Michael Chikuzen Gould
12:30 p.m. — Karate Demonstration by Karate Can Do Dojo
1:30 p.m. — Storytelling by Anne Shimojima
2:30 p.m. — Koto Harp Performance by the Chicago Koto Group

The Chicago Botanic Garden is a great place to introduce kids to the wonderful world if plants. My daughter Mia had her first experience there just a couple of weeks ago, and she had a great time checking out all the colorful flowers (she just turned 2) They offer lots of programs and events for kids (and adults!) of all ages.

Here's Mia enjoying the tulips:



Find more information online at http://www.chicagobotanic.org.