Today amidst many grumpy family members (the mama included) I made the executive decision to quit the formal studies and hit the couch for some reading and playtime. Ms Frizzle's Adventures in Imperial China was selected. We started reading about the Chinese New Year and when we got to the dragon in the parade I just knew that was our ticket to some much needed light heartedness. We found a sheet and grabbed Grammy's Crocheted Dragon hat out of the closet. A quick search on youtube found some music to set the mood. A quick rehearsal proved to amp up some needed giggles. We took a short video (which won't upload here despite my many efforts) which ended with Wesley getting bumped, turning around and slugging Abi who in turn clunked heads with Lizzi. Thus my efforts ended in tears with three crying children. Miles proceeded to join in the display of sadness when I set him down to try and comfort the others. Thankfully, the tears switched to laughter once they saw the video of themselves as the Chinese dragon.
Later we made paper lanterns which surprisingly was a craft they all could do (located here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZKYGmuZn0 if you want to do it with your kids). We are currently brainstorming ideas on how to light them up without using candles. Some current solutions are hiding flashlights inside, borrowing Grandmas flameless candles, and christmas lights.
We are really enjoying our studies of China and are pretty excited about the geography fair we'll get to participate in later this spring. The kids are a fountain of ideas of what they'd like to do--serve tea, water, rice. Have the lanterns lighting up our table. Show the books that they have read. They are even hoping to know how to write some characters by then. I'm unclear as to whether they want to show others how to write the characters or just have it on display. The flurry of ideas was quite rapid fire this morning. It will be quite the adventure for us as we prepare for the fair!
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