With Chinese New Year just around the corner -- this year it falls on Valentine's Day -- I thought we should get started soon! The Lunar calendar is too complicated for me to follow! I just wait and ask someone Asian... this year I asked the cashier at the Asian Supermarket.
A few quick facts --
1) Although I am Chinese (born in Cambodia)... I know very little of my culture -- Becky, you may begin your hysterical laughing now! (Since you, miss all white girl know more than I!) I know, I know, I should be ashamed! Well, I am trying. Each year I try to learn something new to teach the children. Like last year,I learned about warding off the evil spirits with incense. The children helped my mom burn incense and joss paper. They thought it was fun to set papers on fire in the backyard! I was hoping that burning the incense would ward off Morgan's Kindergarten teacher from teaching ever again! (I must not have burned them correctly since she came back this year to teach yet another dreadful year!)
2) Eating noodles is meant to represent longevity -- the longer the noodles, the better! So, Ed and Uyen, stop cutting those noodles! :) Ha ha! My children are going to live for.ev.er! They love eating their noodles as long as possible -- mostly Matthew... he likes to slurp them up and make LOTS of noise! (He is what Jim lovingly calls the noise maker. It's his title to keep.)
3) Money must stay with us on New Year's Day. We cannot give out red envelopes on New Year's Day because if we do, we may not have a prosperous year as money will continue to leave our hands. So, red envelopes can only be given on New Year's Eve or days after. Heck, I can keep that tradition the rest of the calendar year if others will follow suit!
So... today, even though I was not feeling 100% (due to lack of sleep with Morgan being sick and more needy) this is what we did to begin the Chinese New Year's celebration:
We started with coloring the 12 zodiac animals -- each person was responsible for his or her own sign (Matthew is a rooster, Morgan is a goat, and Ethan is a pig). After his or her respective animal was done, each person chose whichever animal was left.
After the animals were colored, they each cut out the animals and I helped them mat their animals onto their color choice (I only gave them 3 to choose from!) so we doubled matted the pictures. Pretty colorful, don't you agree?
After the zodiac animals, we made our traditional lanterns, but this year we opted for a smaller version!
Ethan got a bit bored after a few animals so he kept himself busy. Not to worry, he ended the activity with all 10 fingers! Yes! I am an awesome mom! :)
I think they did a great job and their room is now quite festive! Too bad we are going to be in Dorrington playing in the snow this Chinese New Year. (Oh, they have been waiting for this snow trip since the day we came back from Dorrington last year!)
These great ideas came from here.
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