Foregin Country: China

I am behind on my posting!! but I am going to make an effort to catch up this week.

As part of our history, geography we spend time learning about foreign countries. This summer we have been learning about China. The kids have long been interested in China, starting when they were 2 and 3, and Kurt was traveling there frequently. I think Hong Kong was the first city they were able to point out on a map.

Here are some of the resources we used to learn about this GIANT country!

CHINA

Wild China - BBC documentary series with 6 one-hour long episodes. These were wonderful, very similar to Planet Earth in format. Austin and Nyah both enjoyed watching all of these.

Library Books:

Once Upon a Full Moon by Elizabeth Quan

China: the Culture by Bobbie Kalman

Welcome to China by Caryn Jenner

Chinese Children's Favorite Stories by Mingmei Yip

We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road by Laurie Krebs

Cooking the Chinese Way by Ling Yu

(I lost the list of books we read, so these are the ones that I remember)

Activities:

Cooking!!! You can't study China and not try to cook chinese. We used the above cookbook to make dumplings using won ton wraps. They were . . . edible, but not great. I was thinking the dumplings would be more noodle-y, but the won ton wraps mostly just fell apart. We filled ours with chicken and a variety of veggies- carrots, peas, corn, green beans, etc. My kids also love to eat with chopsticks, which is torturous to watch because they get such a little amount of food with each bite (especially with rice), but they keep doing it. And after dinner they use their chopsticks for wands or swords or whatever.

We have used the Sunbird seasoning mixes for a long time, and (amazingly) everyone eats dinner when I make it, which make me wonder why I don't make it more often. Lately I haven't been able to find the Beef & Broccoli mix, which is my favorite, but the Stir Fry mix works with any kind of meat and veggie combination you want to use. I rarely make the Fried Rice because most of my kids don't like fried rice.

My kids have also long been fascinated with the Chinese Lunar Years and Chinese New Year. We did check out a couple library books about these subjects, but I don't remember their titles. We sort of celebrated the Chinese New Year in February by going out to eat, my post about it is here.

Here are our Chinese Lunar Years:

Austin - Year of the Snake

Nyah - Year of the Horse

Olivia - Year of the Dog

Jolie - Year of the Rat

Kurt - Year of the Snake

Kelsey - Year of the Monkey

A couple years ago when my dad was in Taiwan (I think?), he brough Austin, Nyah, and I little charms of our Chinese years. Austin and Nyah's are currently missing in action because they like to play with them (and then lose them until I find them and put them away again). But here's a picture of mine:

That is pretty much all we did for our China study. We all had a good time.