Tag Archive | red envelopes

Happy Chinese New Year!!

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.

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

Gavin on left

20180216_113439We 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.20180216_122241

20180216_120250Trinity 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.20180216_120915

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.20180216_123844

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.20180216_101643

Don’t forget the red envelopes.20180216_124301

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.IMG_20180203_002402_423

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.20180216_191205

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.20180216_110922

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

Our Chinese Characters work.

Our Chinese Characters work.

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