We enjoyed learning about China and celebrating the Chinese New Year! The kids loved finding out about there animal and were excited that the new babe will be born in the year of the ox! :)
This was a great book we found at our library, it is put out by the Boston Children's Museum which is suppose to be fantastic! We have also been reading The Story about Ping, and we found this old VHS tape at the library and had a blast watching it!

So Sunday night we had our New Years Eve feast! We had dumplings which represent gold bars and prosperity!

This was our prosperity platter (little fingers had already gotten into it) and I forgot to pull the tangerine and honey dew melon out to put on there! Opps! Starting on the left and going clockwise, dried black mission figs, dried pineapple, dried dragon fruit, dried edame, dried pomelo, and the center are multi grain crackers with soy sauce!

Sorry I forgot to get a picture until we had dug in!! Here are our noodles and veggies, you eat noodles on New Years for a long life! I'd hate to have rice that night! :)

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The next day we enjoyed a bit more fun!

We were awaiting guests so we had the front door decorated!

We made lamps Sunday night after dinner and hung them up!

Then with our friends we watched a dragon dance video and them made our own dragons! Riley's on top, then Jake's, then Fern's! You tube has some great dragon dance videos! :)



Here is our own for your enjoyment, and yes Riley is my ham!

So while my Dad was here last month I asked him one day to read this book to Riley, we found it at our library and was pleasantly surprised at the great illustrations and even the explanation was pretty good! BUT, there was a reason I asked Daddy to read this to him! In the middle of the book while reading about wiring a light switch and all, Grandpa jumps up and says where is a screw driver!?!
And then the science lesson moved to taking apart my house!! This really helped Riley understand what the book was talking about and he and Grandpa have built an awesome memory too! THIS IS WHAT HOMESCHOOLING IS ALL ABOUT!!! And even better I stalked them a got a photo so Riley will always have it! :)
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I am sure you all have noticed but I have our new artist, composer, and scripture memory up on the side bar. Just a couple notes about all of it, I have since found (much to my dismay) that the pictures are not good enough quality to print out, so if you were going to use them you will have to wait and I will search the internet for better quality ones. So sad because it is a big time taker and I thought I was done with it! :( Second, if anyone near or far has a recording of Ravel (does not have to be the one pictured) and wouldn't mind ether making me a copy or letting me make a copy I would greatly appreciate it! :) CD is preferable but cassette is just fine too! :) And third for those of you who are not LDS, I am sure you have no clue what scriptures we are using! :) We are using The Doctrine and Covenants which is latter-day, or modern revelation. Mostly received through the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith, but also from a couple other latter-day prophets. You can read more about it HERE and HERE! :)
I hope the new year brings new fun and incite to your homeschool!

*Pictures have been fixed for the artist study! :)