Tag Archive | panda

Random Art and Crafts… From Days Gone By

Last modified in 2013… goodness! Well here goes… unedited but posted!

 

I am not sure if I have shared these or not but they are worth revisiting. Art for Kids has been so helpful, and I just love the art that has resulted from our stumbling upon this site.

Gavin and Zander’s Scarecrows

Gavin’s colourful turkey

ALIENS

Zander’s creative combo of Turkeys AND Aliens

We also have our moments of pure independent creation… anything to get them attempting to use that imagination!

Emanuel’s panda and bamboo scene

And of course some of my own work… craft wise…

A little bag

Crowns for two Canadian Princesses

And of course the list of sites the patterns came from!

  • bags from CrochetSpot HERE
  • princess crowns from Stitch11 HERE
Gavin's 2 page story written solely by him.

Gavin’s 2 page story written solely by him.

Tracing paper is so lovely...

Tracing paper is so lovely…

Gavin is really getting into the drawing himself…

From Walker Sculptural Garden

From Walker Sculptural Garden

China… a Family Study

We do love our Chinese New Year celebrations. All thanks to some of the family we chose… specifically the den Otters! So even here in Minnesota we do our best to hold onto the new traditions we added to our family while in Alberta. One of these is to spend a month on China, Chinese New Year and Chinese characters. This year we chose to do another poster… and of course with that comes a boatload of resources!

Books!

  • Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
  • Chinese New Year by Alice K. Flanagan
  • Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Chinese New Year by Ann Heinrichs
  • Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn
  • Children Just Like Me Celebrations by Anabel Kindersley
  • I Wonder Why Countries Fly Flags by Philip Steele
  • Kai-Lan’s Great Trip to China by Mickie Matheis
  • Pandas by Donna K. Grosvenor
  • Chinese New Year by Lola M. Schaefer
  • Max Celebrates Chinese New Year by Adria F. Klein
  • A Gift by Yong Chen
  • The Runaway Wok by Ying Chen Compestine
  • Chinese New Year by Fay Robinson
  • Asian Holidays by Faith Winchester
  • National Geographic Kids March 2014 issue (special focus on twin baby pandas)
  • Celebrate Chinese New Year by Carolyn Otto
  • Happy Chinese New Year, Kai-Lan! by Lauryn Silverhardt

Videos!

  • Celebrate With Kai-Lan! HERE
  • Ching’s Chinese New Year HERE

Our general helpful links!

  • Activity Village is the place to go for printables! First Chinese New Year itself list HERE.
  • The Horse of the Zodiac specifically HERE.
  • China specific HERE.
  • And of course the horse as an animal HERE.

Chinese Flag!

  • Gotta cover the flag right? You can find out printable HERE thanks to Rainbowkids.com.
  • If you want to find out some history on the flag check out this link HERE thanks to the site A China Family Adventure.

Dragon Dance!

  • GMA News Online’s image for 2014 HERE. What a gorgeous looking dragon!
  • And then there was the video we watched. I do so love watching the dances. This one was done in Hong Kong in 2013. The dancers are AMAZING and well worth a watch. Thanks to HongKongMap on youTube.

Chinese Music/Instruments! We did not cover a ton on the music. More of a surprise addition when I came across a neat picture of what is commonly called a guitar. So I grabbed a couple website, some music and an image to colour.

  • The YueQin on Confucius Institute Online HERE
  • Top 10 Chinese Instruments on China Whisper HERE. This girl was amazing. Thanks to NoodlesFaced on youTube. This is XiaoMu Ming.

    • Our second video was of some traditional Chinese music entitled Shepherdess’ Song. Thanks to MadePossible on youTube. 

  • Our original printable that started this train of interest is found on Rainbowkids.com HERE. They have a great list of resources on their site HERE. It is an adoption site with some great printables for kids. 

The horse itself!

    • Animal Facts HERE thanks to Science Kids.
    • More facts and breed information on Ducksters HERE.
    • A great video of wild horses thanks to National Geographic.

  • Zander wanted to know all about the world’s tallest horse so I had to help him out and check into that fact. HERE Guinness World Records site.
  • A great list of horse related crafts thanks to Activity Village HERE.

Check out some Zodiac predictions for 2014 HERE. (Huffpost Living Canada)

Links for the three places of interest covered by Ken and the kids:

  • Terracotta army thanks to Ducksters HERE
  • Great Wall of China thanks to Science Kids HERE
  • Shanghai Tower thanks to Wiki HERE
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This entry was posted on 19/03/2014, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

January 2014… Successfully Enjoyed, Experienced and Now Remembered

January 23-30

And now we get into the end of the month. The FIRST month of 2014… And the final countdown to finalizing our decision to stop with 5 kids. I can honestly say that I feel no regrets, sending Ken to the doctor on the 24th for the in office procedure (I will spare you the picture he took of it). If we do feel the need in the future for more children there are those already in existence that need us more. Having the procedure on the Friday did mean an at home weekend. Not that the kids complained as it culminated in the cousins coming to visit as well!

But first the Thursday (23rd)… I decided that since this year we weren’t going to make our own fortune cookies that we could still make our own fortunes! Jumbo fortunes. Even Echo made her own (translated loosely by myself).101_5965

I went out with Ken to an appointment and stopped at a more local small Asian market where I lucked out with super affordable red envelopes and lucky candy for our Chinese New Year celebration. The kids and I are rather excited about our celebration. We even sent off envelopes for the den Otter 3.101_5966

We had a half day on the Friday.101_5995

101_5996With some time squeezed in with Daddy learning more about magnets. These kits from Christmas are REALLY coming in handy! We used the last of the kids’ Christmas money to pick up some strong magnets at Lakeshore which has made them even more excited about it. (and had us sit them down and discuss where we do NOT put these magnets – laptops, electronics, Daddy’s computer!!!!)101_6000

Nana went and collected the cousins before she headed off with Daddy to the doctor. It has become a family tradition here… she also took Ken’s brother for his. It went smoothly and they were home before we knew it… though then Ken headed right to bed to sleep off the medicine, stress and hopefully through the first of the pain.101_6001

The weekend was quiet… with lots of potty attempts. We are still rather hit or miss and I sense a long road ahead with this one.101_6007

Saturday was a whole day of cousin time.101_6002

Sunday was the beginning of what we now see as Echo’s “Helping” phase, which often is not so helpful!101_6008

We skipped Sunday School so that the kids could spend the time with their cousins before they had to head home. Emanuel and Daddy took a few minutes to finish a Scout task. They had to figure out where to go when there is a fire.101_6011

And then on Monday it was back to school and Chinese New Year as usual. This time with some panda learning. You simply cannot learn all about China and such without touching on one of our favourite animals!101_6014

101_6015101_6033On Tuesday the kids finally sat down and worked on their rubberband loom. So many pretty (though still very basic) bracelets. Enough to add some to the package to the den Otters and give some to me! I need to take some time and try this thing out for myself! We do not have the rainbow brand version that is one you can change the set up on, but if it catches on with the kids it will go on the list for the next holiday!101_6017

We had a minor but consistent argument about electronics that night, so I called an hour of no batteries and pulled out games and toys… we started with dominoes, first the traditional line them up and knock them down with moderate success.101_6019

101_6021And then doing a matching version. I think I played MOST of the rules right with the kids, but we had fun regardless.101_6022

And then onto the I Spy game with a BELL! That was noisy and crazy and totally enthralling to all.  Operation back to the basic fun — SUCCESS!101_6025

Mid week and we are back to the books. Education.com and Activity Village have been amazing resources for us! Though remember, now with Education.com you only get TEN worksheets free a month.101_6028

101_6030101_6031The twins headed outside to add to Nana’s ice garden. Simple water, food colouring and cold weather… we freeze ours out in the sunroom.101_6029

Miss Trinity and Miss Echo have been learning together lately. Big sister must impart that wisdom on her little disciple. Everything from school stuff to online gaming!101_6032101_6035

And to top it off… Emanuel had his first extra field trip for Cub Scouts — to the police/fire station! Baba took him as Ken got stuck at a dental consult. But Darcy shared pictures with me and I was told by himself and Darcy that it was SOOO much fun!IMG_5966

IMG_5992IMG_6010IMG_6016edAnd with that we are left with ONE day of January to see through and the start of Chinese New Year – year of the horse!! What a whirlwind month!101_6026