Archive | April 2016

Year of the Monkey

Well, it is that time again… Chinese New Year and our yearly revisit to all things Chinese. This year I decided to go a slightly different route and combine a look at the country with light worksheets with a monkey theme. Instead of doing a notebook like last year (which was a blast HERE), the younger ones voted for a binder like they did for Christmas, and the twins continued their special event book they also began at Christmas. The centerpiece of our unit is a lovely large map of China that Ken created and printed out for us – 9 pieces of printer paper in all. With some star stickers I lucked out and found at the Dollar Tree last year we were well on our way.

We started with the Great Wall of China. I found a video documentary on youTube and some wonderful books. We really lucked out with a series of entertaining and educational books, for the Great Wall we used For some other helpful books!

20 Fun Facts About the Great Wall of China by Therese Shea HERE
Great Wall of China by Elizabeth Raum HERE
You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China HERE

One of the activities I came up with for the kids to do was make postcards based on famous landmarks in China. I basically Googled those terms and let the kids scroll through the list and images at the top of the search engine. I love it when they have that freedom to make their own choices. Granted we vetoed The Forbidden City and The Great Wall since we were covering those as a family in detail.

Trinity chose the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Their official site HERE is adorable. Trinity got her fact about the beginning point of this amazing place off Wiki HERE. It all began with 6 panda!
Emanuel chose Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin. So called for its shape that mimics an elephant with its trunk in the water. We went to a travel site for amazing pictures and some great information HERE. Thanks to China Travel Guide.
Gavin chose Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian City. There is a lot about this Buddhist temple and some good history to cover, so he got picked to do a mini report on it as well. But for starters, we went back to the China Travel Guide HERE.
Zander chose Mount Sanqin in the Jiangxi Province. One of the top mountains for tourism it was chosen strictly on the amazing google search picture he found next to it HERE. We went back to our travel guide site for help with facts and numbers. Talk about and animal and plant rich mountain! HERE.

We do love our colouring pages and beyond the bounty that is Activity Village, we found some other gems… the twins love the stained glass style year of the monkey page at The Imagination Box HERE.

Sparklebox has some great stuff on their page, we specifically printed out the full list of animals and their Chinese characters HERE.

This year we spent a good week on the Forbidden City. There is so much to see and learn about, I think we could have spent a month. BUT here are the links we used:

Ducksters HERE
China.MrDonn.org HERE

We found two amazing books… You Wouldn’t Want to Be in the Forbidden City! by Jacqueline Morley HERE and In the Forbidden City HERE

Guangzhou is a relatively new topic for our family, but important all the same. This is the city that our dear friends and family came from. So this year I figured we needed to know more. And boy is there a lot to know! A massive place there was a wonderful official site to look through HERE. But we used so many more links, all to get a handle on the size… the lifestyle and the amazing uniqueness of a place that must be so different from anywhere we have visited ourselves.

Trip Advisor HERE
Kidz Search HERE
Top China Travel HERE
Travel China Guide HERE, HERE
Science Kids HERE
Wiki HERE
Connect the dots with Connect the Dots 101 HERE
Maps of World HERE

We covered a few cities in a relatively brief overview… Hong Kong was a rather complex concept with a few helpful links at Crayola.com for a colouring page with information of their flag HERE, Academic Exchange HERE, About Travel HERE, Travelling East HERE, Ducksters HERE, Kidz Search HERE.

One of the kids’ favourite activities this time round was to try out origami… especially once the twins figured out they could make THROWING STARS!

Kids Gen has videos HERE
Origami with Rachel Katz HERE

As something relatively new to our China unit we covered two people important to the shaping of China – Confucius and Chairman Mao. It was our first foray into this deep of a conversation for the twins and as interesting. Things like Communism and philosophy came up as did the concept of a rather brutal leadership. Here are some links!

Kids Philosophy Slam HERE, A China Family Adventure HERE, Biography.com HERE, My Interesting Facts HERE, Ask.com HERE,

General China sites that were helpful:

Science Kids HERE
Take a peek at language differences though I warn you there is a missing resource with Discovery Education HERE. We contacted our friends who are the true pure resource for this one.
Kai-Lan’s official printables thanks to Nick Jr. HERE

Of course we had to look at inventions. This was an exercise in the twins actually choosing inventions and searching for them themselves online to find out things like who, when, where… so I will just link the main ones used.

China Whisper had a list of top 20 HERE
Wiki has their own list HERE
Did you know toilet paper was first used by the Chinese??? Today I Found Out explains HERE

And Chinese New Year itself:

Asian Holidays by Faith Winchester HERE
Happy Chinese New Year, Kai-Lan! HERE

Videos:

Stone Soup… and other stories from the Asian Tradition HERE
Beijing Travel Guide DVD 2002/2004
Food With Friends! (Dora) HERE

Additional Books:

A Gift by Yong Chen HERE
China by Michael Dahl HERE
Beijing and Shanghai HERE
China by Christine Juarez HERE
China a Question and Answer Book by Nathan Olson HERE
Ancient Civilizations China by Valerie Bodden HERE
China phrasebook by Lonely Planet HERE
The Magical East HERE
D is For Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compestine HERE
Wonders of the World by Colin Dibben HERE
Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim HERE
Celebrate Chinese New Year by Carolyn Otto HERE
Chinese New Year by Alice K. Flanagan HERE
The Runaway Ricecake by Ying Chang Compestine HERE

Two books I am dying to add to our collection:

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue HERE
And a family favourite… The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine HERE

To add to our unit we focused on monkeys that live in China. I won’t link all the pages we used, but I had the kids check out the list on Wiki and then we did our research online. We had the Slow Loris, Golden Snub Nosed, Black Crested Gibbon and. It is always fun to add an animal connection to a unit.

I am sure I could continue on with more and more links. We really went ALL OUT on this unit this year. But I figure I will just add those to the random resource post I plan on adding to the site later in May. I would suggest, if you have not looked into China as a homeschool or personal research project, do so! The culture, the people and the country itself is AMAZING! We are so blessed to have friends who are family who are directly from there. They have opened our eyes and our hearts to an amazing new world!

Our Special Snack Platter with the newest addition to our decorations.. lucky orange tree!

Invisible But Life Changing

Apr19

Invisible Illness… it is honestly something I never thought I would have to deal with. How can something so life changing, so detrimental to not only the sufferer’s well being but the family and friends around them be INVISIBLE? How is there no outward beacon screaming my body, mind and spirit are in pain and suffering?

I am sure that by now most of our friends and family and visitors to this blog are aware that Ken has suffered from depression for a large chunk of his life. He is termed CLINICALLY depressed which for our family means he is not simply situational (that is, if things get better outwardly… home, job, faith, etc it clears up) but chemical as well. This means that while counselling is CRUCIAL for Ken it needs to be combined with a carefully created and supervised cocktail of vitamins and medication. Thankfully more vitamins and counselling than medication but it is present in his routine regardless.

Throughout our marriage I have experienced Ken hitting what we term rock bottom more than once. That point in his life where the thoughts of failure, anger and sadness and even suicide are louder and more persistent then the knowledge that he is a good and loving success of a man. As a person looking in who has never truly experienced depression these are scary and life altering moments in my life. It is so difficult to see the one you love, your closest friend, confidant and rock be unable to truly enjoy the little things… knowing that no matter how loudly you tell them you love them and that they are a success in your mind they see failure and disappointment.

Our saving grace was communication (between us and later his therapist) and finding the most amazing therapist we have ever met. Jokingly we have said if she leaves county we go with her… but in all honesty she has helped Ken create such change in his life patterns and thought processes that I cannot seriously say we would not follow her to the ends of the earth right now.

We are lucky; Ken has always had the need to live and be with our family be louder and more persistent than the belief that we would be better without him (which for the record… he makes our lives AMAZING always has, sick or not, always will). Not so for many other people. It breaks my heart when I hear stories from friends and family about how close they have come to making a decision they could not take back, when someone tells me they or someone they are connected to has been hospitalized to get help.

We joke that Ken seems to collect people with like illnesses like a club… so many of our beloved friends and family are also battling this disorder or one like it… bipolar, anxiety… these are no longer abstract concepts but diagnoses I have discussed with more than a few people. And you know what? I am ok with that! We pride ourselves in being an open home. The kids know that Daddy has been ill, that he has been sad and it is NOT their fault. Our home is a place of safety for anyone to talk about their issues, their medication, their successes and failures. So you see a therapist? Well.. GREAT! You are on anti depressants? Thank goodness you are doing what is needed to become healthier and happier. You feel alone? Please don’t, I am here. Even if I can only be a person on the other side of the screen or a hug once in a blue moon! Come to us!

Lately I have been thinking more and more about how depression has shaped the lives of our family. Life had to stop a couple years ago so we could be there to help Ken truly get well. I don’t see this as a sacrifice but more as incentive, because at that point in our lives we were given a gift, an opportunity to work with Ken (and his therapist, psychiatrist, etc) to introduce him to a world of joy. Things that we take for granted… the highs of accomplishment, the joy of the new… these have been deadened for him. So when we stopped the world (as I like to term it) we improved life for all of us.

While it is difficult to say WHEN Ken will be considered HEALTHY on all counts, the joy I see in his process and journey has me optimistic for not cure but… remission? The voice in the back of his head telling him all those negative things will never quite be silenced, choices that are simple for me… just doing a chore I hate for example… will always require a different thought path for Ken, but we are in it together. I see my children being more understanding when someone talks about feelings or can’t describe their illness clearly. I find myself wishing I could just do a little more for those people in my life who could use the support.

This post is my way of reaching out. There is no judgement here, need an ear to listen? A shoulder to cry on? Someone to simple accept you are ill and reaching out for help? If it can’t be me or mine I hope that there is someone in your life who can be your cheerleader and support network. Depression and these other mental illnesses don’t make you less of a person, they make you just that little bit more multi faceted. And while I don’t have my fingers on a cure or a magic fix I do have the knowledge that no matter who you are you are AMAZING, you are LOVING and KIND, you are capable of SO MUCH and with the proper help and mind set so much is possible. It is for Ken, it is for my family and it is for me… We love you!