Tag Archive | year of the snake

Chinese New Year Resources

So I figured I would make a companion post of links and such for our poster and its contents. I mainly took from Activity Village and Education.com. These are amazing sources that I would recommend every time.

General information about China

Zodiac

Year of the Snake

Books:

I got our Happy Chinese New Year Characters from THIS site. I got it verified by Xinny so I was sure it was the correct ones. For all ideas crafty check Activity Village HERE. For our fortune cookie recipe go to the Food Network. The collection I have for Chinese New Year on Education.com is HERE, I will review all the resources and leave comments on some. I plan to every year add to these collections so I will try and link them.

This entry was posted on 16/02/2013, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Painting hmmm

January 29-30

You know you have had a good time painting when at least ONE kid gets paint in their hair! Guess who? Yup, the long locked Trinity. Thankfully it was water paints and a scrub with a wet paper towel and a post paint bath did the trick, but for a moment she was channeling her inner rockstar with pinky red hair!

Time for painting

We were busy with our red and gold paint prepping the first part of two Chinese New Year related crafts this fine Tuesday. We made sure Echo was in nap before we began to limit the mess… I think in the spring when it is warmer I will throw them in old clothes, get a roll of paper and send them outside to paint and mess around!

Our completed items

I finished a quick but interesting project for the girls – cupcake BAGS! Little ones, but so cute, and while a little more complicated then say my slippers… they really are fun to make. Of course the pattern is up for purchase on CrochetSpot… HERE.

Cupcake bag

The reading continues with a daily book. I am very happy with our results!

Another book

Our Chinese New Year book for the day was a wonderful story with a terrific message of sharing and compassion. Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn not only shared some traditions from the holiday but also the actions of a child that were selfless and kind. Add in some beautiful illustrations and the kids were enthralled. Of course we made sure to make our mini book to add to our poster. I am really looking forward to the final assembly on that one.

Sam and the Lucky Money

The boys decided the snow was PERFECT for snowmen and made TWO along side the house. One of which I am told is TED!

The tall one with the hat is Ted apparently

Of course the MAIN point of excitement was not me making anything or any of the books we have read but REALLY the arrival of Ted for his week and a bit visit!

UNCLE TED!!!!

So I did NOT make the 30th a heavy day school wise. I mean, Ted vs. learning with Mommy… I know I would choose hanging with Ted so why wouldn’t they? It is so good to have him here with us again. Out of all there is to miss it really IS the people.

Hanging with Uncle Ted

With Uncle Ted came some special gifts from Alan and Xinny all the way from Japan!

Hello Kitty for Trinity and Echo to share

3 mini remote control cars

I also got some Gintama cell phone fobs. I have one on our phone right now!

I love these

There are definite benefits to being subscribed to feeds. Because we follow Art for Kids we got a free book of 10 monster instructions. Of course we had to hop right in. You can subscribe to them as well by clicking on their link on the right side of the page here.

Gavin and his

Zander with his supervisor

The kids were determined to have Uncle Ted come out and see their snow creations… the igloos and the snowmen were all examined!

Out in the snow

Of course we had to continue with our painting. Ken, Gavin and I had to paint on the symbols for the snake (thanks to Xinny). Gavin was a go getter and even took a piece of paper and painted them for us to add to our poster!

Our happy painters

Such a card

The kids also wanted to show Uncle Ted their Minecraft… It was definitely a show and tell sort of day all round.

So much fun

We rounded off the evening with the guys back the way they used to be… on the computers together laughing and hanging out. It feels like home!

Together 🙂

I am just so proud of Gavin’s brush work!

For the year of the snake

Look what Ken’s dad bought in honour of the tv show Moonshiners that we enjoy watching together!

Real deal, just less potent

So Ted is here… and it is AMAZING!

Looking at these pictures just makes me feel so… happy

The Next Week

January 24-25

Well we survived our post Aunty Karyn visit week. I don’t know that we accomplished too much that is interesting to others on Thursday but we had fun together and that counts for a lot.

Blocks!

Trinity and Echo worked on their educational games on the iPad… sharing is getting easier and easier for the girls and electronics.

Hard at work TOGETHER

I tried something slightly different with the kids and their birth year animals… we copied out each mini booklet from Activity Village and their Zodiac books… then, like the official year of the snake one HERE… I had each of the kids come up with one nice trait about each of their siblings. We wrote them down along with mine and Ken’s. We even did Echo’s (not pictured)… there was the perfect number of pages for each kid (except Echo who we had to put Daddy’s on my page too). It was a great way to consider positive elements about their siblings and still do something with a Chinese New Year theme… though I had to explain multiple times that “they play Lego with me” is NOT a trait!

What year are you?? Check the chart at Activity Village!!!

With a little regular daily learning and some cuddly time with Cabbage Patch dolly and a bean bag chair… well we did rather well!

So comfy

Friday was supposed to be a library book day but our branch apparently does not open until noon and we were out around 11. Oops! But we did make it to Target to get supplies for our visit to the Novak’s on Saturday. We are now ready to get our read on for Chinese New Year! 

But first – for our Friday dinosaur fun we drug out the Melissa & Doug stamp set… Trinity, Zander and Emanuel made the best pictures! 

Dino-riffic

It is an overnighter with the cousins here as well. I love when the kids get along and play… though 7 IS louder than 5 I can tell you!

Picture these 4 over a decade from now, replace sippies of juice with beer bottles.

Supper

Gotta end the evening with a movie right??

They did NOT watch Barbie… just the promo!

Of course we did MORE than that… Gavin got a 100% on his spelling test, Zander only one wrong… Lego time continued for Gavin and Zander made a birthday card for his god-mommy. All in all, the day was good!

Thumbs up

This entry was posted on 01/02/2013, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment