Staff helped the children have fun when celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Photo Credit: Alex Birsh

The children were given bubble wrap to stomp on, signifying firecrackers.

Photo Credit: Alex Birsh

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y.— The Country Children’s Center celebrated the Chinese New Year on Monday, giving children a chance to learn cultural practices from the Far East.

The center, which has branches in Bedford Hills and Katonah, tries to put in place a lesson plan filled with multi-cultural lessons, said members of the Bedford Hills facility.

“We are very diverse here and we also expose children to different cultures," said Benan Ozkaynak, site director for the Bedford Hills branch. "Even if we don’t have the culture in the moment in the program, we still expose them. It’s part of our diversity care.”

Ozkaynak knows the value of appreciating a diverse setting, as she is originally from Turkey. While she hasn’t taught the children all about her homeland, she believes it is important to give them a taste of the rest of the world.

“This is the small model of the larger society," she said. "They’re exposed to it, and they will learn to except each other in a better way."

The children Monday were treated with a dragon train signifying the Chinese New Year, with the ability to participate by going underneath to be a part of it with an instructor.

“Some of them haven’t been to New York City yet, let alone Chinatown, who will be celebrating all day,” Ozkaynak said. “Some of them won’t be exposed to Chinatown or the culture for a few years, so we are giving them a bit of the experience.”

The children were soaking it in, Ozkaynak said, which let the staff know that they are beginning to understand that there are other cultures out in the world besides their own.

“We are all wearing red today, and when I asked the 4-year-olds why they are wearing red, they said,  ‘Because it’s the Chinese New Year.’”