So Long China, Hello Vietnam!
Well as you can tell, I am not the prolific blogger in the family. However, I did want to add some schooling updates.
In China we focused more on reading and writing (you can see some writing examples on their blogs). We had five work books on China and lots of other resources. Unfortunately we will not have as much great material on other countries until we reach India. Some of the topics we covered included: Chinese Magic #Squares, Chinese inventions, poetry, Chinese etiquette, history of the terra cotta warriors, Chinese folk tales, the Zodiac, oracle bones, bronze production, the spread of Buddhism, Chinese science advances, and burials traditions.
The kids read up a storm. I had some fabulous fiction books set in ancient times and during the Cultural Revolution. From the Dragon to the Eagle traces a bolt of blue silk on its journey along the Silk Road from China to Rome. Chinese Cinderella, in addition to the usual saga, describes a girl who helps some American pilots who were shot down over China after bombing Japan. Tiger is a story both kids loved about young kung fu fighters set in ancient China. Gibson read TinTin in Tibet. I do not know if he learned much from it but he giggled out loud when he read it. I also had several non-fiction books about China including: culture, history etc. By the end of our China visit, we had either mailed or given away all our China books and we were able to delete one whole suitcase!
In Hong Kong the first place we went to was Victoria Peak. In the mall (there are malls everywhere in Hong Kong) at the top of the peak we happened upon a Children?s Educational bookstore ? with every book in English! We bought a whole new batch of work books that are wonderful. We got books on grammar, vocabulary (we had just finished the Wordly Wise books), comparative religion for children, phonics and reading comprehension. I never expected to find so many perfect books ? we really hit the jackpot. Then Gibson and Sterling found a snake facts and activity book that they have had fun doing together.
Our mapping project is progressing. They can map all the countries and major bodies of water in Asia. Tomorrow they begin the capitals and then we will move on to major land configurations. When we watched the Special Olympic opening ceremony on TV (we were actually in Beijing and offered tickets at the last minute but did not get the message ? It broke my heart not to be there live!) the kids were pointing to their maps all the places they knew, tried to find the countries they did not know, and figure which countries we will go to in the future. It was fun reinforcement.
A few of the educational activities we did were:
Tai Chi class by a master
Calligraphy lesson from an artist
Chinese writing lessons
Tour of Opera Training School, watching part of a dress rehearsal
Tour of Tibet Museum, General Stilwell Museum, Shanghai Museum, Ancient Postal History Museum, Ancient Chinese Pharmacy Museum
Sturgeon Fish Hatchery tour
Lesson on acupuncture
Tour of a silk embroidery boutique, showing all stages of production (from baby silk worms to finished dresses)
Tour of Three Gorges dam
The most intense and meaningful cultural exchanges we had were either from going to private homes, visiting schools or meeting baseball players. We are invited to see a number of people?s homes including an artist whose family has been in the same house for 400 years. We also went to the home of a very poor Tibetan family who barter for almost everything and live in extreme poverty. Other amazing opportunities were visiting a Braille School in Tibet, meeting a Beijing baseball team (for baseball and then a banquet at a neighborhood restaurant in our honor!), going to a Buddhist nunnery (the women were absolutely bald and incredibly kind and sweet to the kids, offering them their lunch, having them sit on their prayer mats, and asking great questions), meeting a group of Chongqing high school kids who wanted to practice their English (we invented a new type of Frisbee football with them), going to the new home of the matriarch of a relocated family along the Yangtze River, hanging out with some great Shanghai college kids who play baseball (I kept expecting the keg to come out).
I know Ted and the kids have written about many of these experiences but when you see the list all together and add the orphanage we went to today where a big group of the kids are maimed and crippled because of Agent Orange, you realize what a remarkable experience this has been so far, and how vastly different peoples? life experiences are. This is what we have wanted to show our kids.
Thanks for your interest in our continued adventures! I promise to write you back if you e-mail me at elizabethhazard@yahoo.com
Love to you all-
Elizabeth