Ok another WAAAAAAY delayed post, no images just resources. (I fib, one image of a sari skirt I splurged on for this year’s wardrobe. The colours of India are AMAZING!) I am determined to get my bum in gear and get these posts up in a more timely manner. But for today, humble pie. I should have had this up half a year ago!!! Check back tomorrow as I continue to prove to my kids that even MOM finishes EVERYTHING (within reason…) she starts! 

So we had these grand plans to do a family project on India in a timely manner, oops. But we did spend a summer and then some learning about a very distinct and colourful country and I will try and share the links, books, etc that we used. And then I took a lifetime and a half to post this post

First off. Google is your friend. We spent a lot of time searching for pictures for topics to colour. Mandalas, saris, the Taj Mahal. There are all sorts of colouring pages out there.

Since my resource list is a bit weak this time around, here is the list of topics the kids chose from. I gave them the option to pick and chose and varied the expectations of report content and length according to each child. So Trinity would do a list of facts vs. Zander having paragraphs or Echo colouring a picture.

• Globe location
• Government – levels, type, capital, voting rights
• Country – independence, languages, time zones, founding, state/provinces
• Landscape – mountains, water bodies, landmarks, position on map
• Climate – seasons, one week of comparative weather, snow, natural disasters
• Animals – unique to country – we chose one to do a report on
• Plants – unique to country
• Agriculture – most prevalent and where
• Food – famous for
• Symbols/emblems – flag, official symbols
• Religions – main religions
• Currency – what is used, exchange rate to USD, when it came into use
• Main groups of people – who are they, caste system, poverty vs. rich numbers
• School – minimum grade required, types
• Inventions
• Imports/exports/economy – what are the main ones
• Sports – most popular
• Holidays – major holidays
• Music and crafts – most common, popular, make some
• Tourism/Famous people
• Choose a topic

Books were an important resource. Here is my short list. Libraries really are life saving

• India by Manina Chatterjee
• Focus on India by Bojang Brownlie
• Taj Mahal by Linda Tagliaferro
• India ABC’s by Marcie Aboff
• Welcome to India by Patric Ryan
• India by Don Nardo
• India by Joanne Mattern
• The Mauryan Empire and India by Ellis Roxburgh
• India by Julie Murray
• India by A. Kamala Dalal
• Living in India by Chloe Perkins

For a fun activity we tried out making Henna decorations on paper hands as explained by Activity Village HERE. Education.com is always a help HERE.  Beyond the Henna activity Activity Village has a whole selection of resources HERE.

Chinese New Year has great meaning for our family. Please enjoy my resources and recounting of our yearly celebration a few months late.

It is that time of year again, when we celebrate as we were taught by our dear friends who are family back home. I have already sent off my red envelopes and this year special knots to my god daughters and their sibling. This is actually one of the big events that brings me right back to that homesick state of mind.

Neko-Chan got in the groove with Kai Lan as well.

We cleaned the house and sorted out many containers of clothes and toys that we donated this year. We decluttered and made some big choices about broken or half forgotten items. Nothing motivates this brood like the realization that we need to clean for the lunar celebration. It is a reminder of home and love and tradition that the whole family enjoys.

Each of the kids had a trim or haircut, and received new clothes. I lucked out hugely on Amazon with a momentary sale on Qing Dynasty dresses for the girls’ 18 inch dolls. Echo’s new dress matched her doll nearly perfectly. There are other Dynasty reproductions the girls have hinted at wanting. (not hugely subtle hints)

Gavin on left

We had a lovely home made lunch. Zander basically put together the festival rice solo (Gavin helped him with ingredient prep the night before). He used the recipe out of the Runaway Wok book which is a family favourite, minus nuts.

Trinity tried making rice balls from a recipe off Educaton.com, though it struck us more as a Japanese rice ball and was too heavy on the rice wine vinegar for anyone to fall in love.

I made a sweet glutinous rice cake from a recipe shared by All About Ami. I think I will make it again in a larger pan to make thinner slices. I enjoyed it, the kids are only half sold.

After lunch we had our sweets, as usual I tried to branch out to new options. I couldn’t find moon cakes so I picked up something called Wife Cakes.. nope, and the almond cookies didn’t quite cut it.

Don’t forget the red envelopes.

I have been working on my knotting skills and made lucky knots for my god daughters back home using Chinese cord and had the kids make their own very simplified braided version with a charm that represents their Zodiac symbol.

We did our t shirts the day before since the day of we also had homeschool friends coming for a visit.

Then that evening I went to my class as usual, so much fun! And then Ken and I got take out from our favourite Chinese restaurant, Rose Garden. A great way to end the day.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!! Welcome year of the dog!!! 新年快乐 / 新年快樂 (Xīnnián kuàilè)

Resources for this year were varied and fun, but since I have shared a lot in the past years this year I am going to give you the best books we found! No links just titles so give them a search and enjoy!

• Fortune Cookies Fortunes by Grace Lin… I loved this book because she discusses how fortune cookies are an Asian American food in her educational blurb at the back. We also read as a family her book The Year of the Dog. Grace Lin includes fun illustrations along with her entertaining reminisces in this one.
• The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine… we loved this one enough to purchase it brand new. We also have his the Runaway Rice Cake which was a lucky library find in their booksale.
• We had 3 Magic Tree House books this year… A Perfect Time for Pandas (for Emanuel and his panda report), Day of the Dragon King and the companion to this book China Land of the Emperor’s Great Wall. Our landmark report lined up beautifully with our unit study – The Great Wall of China was fun to research.
• You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China! By Jacqueline Morley was helpful, of course.
• We briefly talked about Mulan with the book Mulan by Li Jian, I was gifted the book Mulan by Shiamin Kwa and Wilt L. Idema which I am determined to make a summer read. I have really been in the research and expand the mind feel lately.
• Another family favourite that is on the to buy list is The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang.
• Videos…  Celebrate With Kai Lan and Nature Pandas (an older film by NATURE) were fun. I am sure we used a second Kai Lan dvd but it isn’t coming to mind.

I hope these inspire you to check out the library. Researching and enjoying other cultures is such a privilege.

Our Chinese Characters work.

This summer I got the grand idea to have us go through nursery rhymes and learn more about them. This is a great way to expose Echo to them all and in turn refresh the rest. Additionally the twins are looking into the history of the rhyme (if there is one) and we are doing lots of little side reports.

We had 2 books initially. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes by Iona and Peter Opie HERE which was a bit too dry for the kids but a good (though pricey) resource for me. Our second book was easier for the kids to comprehend – Pop Goes the Weasel by Albert Jack HERE.

Zander picked our first rhyme – Itsy Betsy Spider.

For our historical significance we used the site All Nursery Rhymes HERE.

Our second choice was Hickory Dickory Dock.

For our historical significance we went beyond our books with the site Nursery Rhymes With Mother Goose HERE. Also check out All Nursery Rhymes HERE

Our third rhyme got two weeks as Emanuel had a week of camp. We chose London Bridge is Falling Down. A fun nursery rhyme AND game.

For historical significance we went beyond the book to All Nursery Rhymes HERE and Nursery Rhymes Lyrics and Origins HERE. An explanation of versions of games connected to the rhyme (and the extended version) we used Encyclopaedia Britannica HERE.

We worked on a short write up about what is actually the London Bridge vs what is sometimes mistaken as the same bridge in the song – Tower Bridge. The best place for statistics on these bridges was Wiki. And colouring pages are all over the place (though be careful, often Tower Bridge pictures are mislabeled as LONDON BRIDGE).

We had an extended run at that one with Emanuel gone for camp for a week, then its was onto Little Miss Muffet.

Super Coloring has some great vintage style colouring pages for many of the common nursery rhymes HERE. Since we already did a spider report for Itsy Bitsy we chose a couple spider crafts instead. One with First-School.WS HERE and the other on Red Ted Art HERE.

For further historical past our book… check out Treasury Islands HERE, Rhymes.org.uk HERE or All Nursery Rhymes HERE.

From Little Miss Muffet to Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill.

If you want some fun printables that practice spelling, printing, even handwriting head over to Free Homeschool Deals HERE.

We supplemented the books on hand with a few sites for this nursery rhyme – Rhymes.org.uk HERE and Funlinks Daily HERE. Gavin found this a more complicated nursery rhyme to explain as one possible interpretation requires some knowledge of taxes and liquor and kings, but he has taken on this aspect of the program with great enjoyment.

For a lot of our crafts and printables head over to Education.com and my Nursery Rhymes collection HERE

At this point I originally intended to end our summer program and wrap it all up for a September reboot, but the kids are loving the rhymes. This means extension time. Especially since we lost about 2 weeks of half days to a surprise cousin visit. So… I will end this post with our 5th rhyme. Watch for the second half of our foray into the history of popular nursery rhymes!