Last Minute Chinese New Year Unit Study

Well, Chinese New Year is suddenly upon us, faster than I realized.

I wanted to include the holiday as part of our homeschool studies, but wasn't on top of things the past couple weeks, and now here we are, the new year almost upon us, and I'm scrambling to pull something together.

I stopped by the library today to see if I could pick up some books, but there was only 1 book left about Chinese New Year! (This is what happens when I wait until the last minute to get materials!) Thank God for the internet, though!

So, on super short notice, this is what I came up with, covering social studies, math, science, cooking, foreign language and art.

• Discovering China - Chinese New Year Video: 

•  The Emperor Who Built the Great Wall - e-Book by Jillian Lin(mention in my previous post), that tells the history of the first Emporor of China (and how China got its name).  Available on Amazon for $2.99, but for the first 2 days of the new lunar new year, February 19-20, it will be free! 

• Western and Chinese New Year's Celebrations  - This was the only book left at the local library about Chinese New Year. It's got way more than Chinese New Year, but we'll read the parts that are relevant, and maybe also inspired to find out how other cultures celebrate their new years.

• Symbolism of traditional Chinese New Year foods  - Great summary of traditional food items eaten for Chinese New Year celebrations.

• Homemade dumplings (this is a basic pork filling, but uses pre-made wrappers), with homemade wrappers with my dad's dough recipe. We'll tie in math here, probably making a 2/3 or 1/2 portion of this recipe:

6 cups flour

2 ½ cups water

½ tsp salt

Mix, let sit, knead some more. Using a Kitchen-Aid mixer with dough hook makes this super easy! 

Here's a video that includes how to make the dough.

• Chinese zodiac animals video - Overview of Chinese beliefs about the zodiac.

• Draw Chinese zodiac animals - Cute Step-by-Step printouts for art and foreign language, I'll have the kids label them with the Chinese words for each animal.

• Chinese lunisolar calendar video  - Cartoon that talks about lunar and solar calendars that the Chinese use, this is a brief overview. 

• Chinese calendar - This is a more in-depth description of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, but alot of this will be too complex. To incorporate science,  I'll focus on the orbit of the moon, the solstices and equinoxes, and tilt of the earth in relation to seasons. 

And of course, lucky money in red envelopes for the kids!

"Once Upon a Time in China..." Series by Jillian Lin

These look like such a great series of e-books coming out! Each book tells the story of a famous figure in Chinese history. We love using living books to study history and culture, rather than textbooks, because textbooks are so dry! These look to be a wonderful addition to any collection of living books on China.

Jillian Lin has one book available on Amazon, and a series of upcoming books. You can find out which ones at: http://www.jillianlin.com/p/my-books.html. I signed up for her mailing list and got the second book ("Miracle Doctor") free. It was such a delightful read, telling the story in an exciting and 'storybook' manner, perfect for elementary-aged kids. Honestly, there's SO much of Chinese history and legend that I don't know (which is pretty sad, since I'm Chinese), and I think this is a great way to learn. At the end of a story there are additional facts, plus a mini-quiz.  We'll be adding these to our homeschool resources! It will be especially great because we'll be covering Ancient China at some point in the next few months.

"Fresh Off the Boat" TV series

I'm certainly glad to see Asians represented in the media, but at first, I was apprehensive. First, Eddie Huang's memoir was certainly atypical of the Asian American experience.  This is not a 'tiger mom',piano-playing childhood, it was alot of violence, drugs, partying, gangs, rap-music, cursing, etc. Yes, there was certainly relatable moments-feeling ostracized at school and the bullying...but in general, the book and Eddie's life wasn't something I could relate to. So I worried about the TV show, Of course, being on TV, it had to be cleaned up, and also because it portrayed the younger years, it would avoid some of the more 'rough' parts, including the rough parts about his dad (the TV dad is soft compared to the dad portrayed in the book).

That being said, after the first 2 episodes, I can say, I think it can do well, and it even made me laugh out loud. I haven't watched sitcoms in quite a while, and when I do, I find them overly-contrived, forced, and unnatural. I was a bit disappointed after the first episode, and it made me cringe at times because it seemed too over-the-top, but once I embraced the 'over-the-top' antics, I thought it was laugh-out-loud funny!

The title of the second episode "Home, School, Home-school", admittedly, made me a little nervous. Not only was I now worried about Asian Americans being misrepresented, but also homeschooling! But I really do know so many Asian moms who made their 'A' students do extra tutoring programs outside of school and workbooks at home, that it was spot on! It's not really 'homeschool', as I do still think that a huge majority of Asians would never consider REMOVING their kids from school (at least not first generation Asians),

As the series continues, I hope this can really be a show that will launch Asians into the 'norm' of our culture. There's been so many blog posts and articles about this, there are so many expectations, and so many misgivings. I don't know how it is going to be received by non-Asians. Will they be offended ("Are you all sisters??", celebrating Cs on the report card)? Will they now form a NEW stereotype of Asians? Only time will tell, but I hope it will open the dialogue for more understanding of Asian culture.

Kids' Chapter Books With Asian Americans as Main Characters

When I was a kid, there were virtually no books about being an Asian kid in America.  I grew up reading Sweet Valley Twins, Ramona, Boxcar Children, and the like, and I enjoyed them. However, there was never a character that I could really relate to, growing up as the only Asian in my grade at my school - looking different than everyone else, celebrating different holidays than everyone else, eating different food than everyone else, speaking a different language at home than everyone else.

Fast forward 20-30 years, and there's some great choices now available for elementary-aged kids, with main characters who are Asian American. Here are some of my favorites:

Grace Lin's Year of the Dog and sequels Year of the Rat and Dumpling Days. Young Pacy is in elementary school and grows up in an suburban America.  She lives her life as a clear minority in her school, but feeling for the most part like other American kids. As the books progress she notices that she's not as American as the rest of her friends. As she struggles internally with being Chinese on the outside, yet American on the inside, she learns about Chinese traditions and she learns to embrace her heritage and her unique situation of being Chinese, growing up in America.

Lenore Look's Alvin Ho series is a written from the point of view of a Chinese American elementary-aged boy. Alvin has many fears to overcome and the books cover a wide range of situations. It is very kid-friendly to read, with humorous lists, and many 'kid-comments' strewn throughout the book. It does not focus on his identity as an Asian, but he does struggle with not having many friends and being different from kids around him, which is a common situation among Asian American kids. We've read 2 of the books so far.

Lenore Look's other series Ruby Lu stars a 7-year-old Chinese American girl who has her share of antics. She reminds me alot of Beverly Cleary's Ramona-has her set ideas about stuff, gets into trouble, learns some lessons along the way, etc. There are little bits related to being Chinese woven throughout the book, but it is not the main focus. She goes to Chinese school and Chinese words are mentioned here and there(using Cantonese and Taishanese dialects), and the first book sets it up for some relatives from China to come live with them, but for the most part, it's the story of a little girl growing up in America.   I have not read any other books beyond the first book yet.

In the Year of the Boar and Jacking Robinson by Bette Bao Lord follows a 5th grade girl who immigrates from her comfortable, familiar life in China to New York City. While she deals with culture shock and being the outcast, she feels a connection to Jackie Robinson, as an example of someone of another race who lives the American dream, and discovers that she too can embrace America as the land of opportunity.


 Year of the Book is the first of a series of books by Andrea Cheng about an elementary-aged Chinese girl growing up in America. Being Chinese is secondary to the storyline, where Anna struggles to make friends and navigate the social dynamics at school. In the other books, her Chinese heritage comes more into play








My kids are mixed race, and that is a whole other ballgame. I haven't really seen many books for kids that deal with being bicultural, so I only have these to mention:

Half and Half by Lensey Namioka tells the story of a middle-school aged girl who is half Scottish and half Chinese. She faces comments made by various people who assume she must be more of one culture than another and she wrestles with what it means to be bi-racial. While she explores both of her heritages, she ends up with a dilemma where she is double booked and seems she must choose between doing 2 events, one highlighting Scottish culture, and one highlighting Chinese culture.

Shanghai Messenger by Andrea Cheng follows a half Chinese girl of 11 who is invited to visit her extended relatives in Shanghai.  At first apprehensive about her visit, she discovers a wonderful new world in China among her relatives who welcome her.  This isn't actually a chapter book, but it's not quite a picture book either. It's written with poetic prose, with short glimpses of moments throughout this journey, and as you read about each event, you can see her letting go of her worries (of not being accepted for not being fully Chinese, of being among people who speak a language she doesn't speak, etc) and embracing her Chinese heritage.  Being half-Chinese plays a role in her insecurities, but I think even those who are full-Chinese, but grown up in America, would be able to relate.

Finding our Chinese Heritage in an American Home.

My kids really don't look Asian (e.g. Monkey has hazel eyes, and Bunny was born with almost blond hair, which has now darkened to brown, but still gets blond streaks sometimes). We speak English at home.  I only cook Chinese food maybe once every 1-2 weeks. We rarely eat with chopsticks (unless it's just 'for fun'). We don't go to Chinese school. The only Chinese holiday we celebrate is Chinese New Year.

How are my kids going to connect with their Chinese heritage? 

I started out speaking Chinese to Monkey for his first 1-2 years of life, until he started speaking, and then the 'Why?' questions started, and my limited Chinese vocabulary could no longer keep up.  He could actually understand it during those years, but has since lost that ability.  It's definitely harder to keep up when one parent doesn't speak the language.  I'm not a frequent speaker of Chinese myself, as I don't have anyone else in the household to speak with. When we started homeschooling though, we made an active choice to teach him Mandarin as his foreign language.

The kids have had a on-again-off-again interest in Chinese culture. Over the years, they've asked to learn Chinese or learn how to use chopsticks. Unfortunately, the interest usually subsides soon after. Sometimes I wonder if they even think of themselves as Chinese. At one point, I tried to read a book to Bunny with a main character who was Chinese, hoping she would get a glimpse of someone else who is Asian, growing up in America, but she made a comment about how she couldn't relate, because she 'doesn't feel Chinese'.

That was a wake up call. 

Now, given, she is only half-Chinese, so the stories about growing up looking different, or having parents who don't speak English, are not going to resonate with her, but I would've hoped she felt a *little* Chinese at least.  Even if she didn't experience the same emotions, to be able to connect with experiences that her mom or grandparents went through, would have been nice.  So. I've decided to actively incorporate more of Chinese culture in our lives.  I'm trying to speak to them in Chinese more often.  I'm trying to cook more Chinese food and introduce more Chinese vegetables and foods to them.  I'm going to persevere in teaching them to use chopsticks, no matter how much food is dropped.

I realized that some of our lack of Chinese culture in our home stems from my own lack of interest in Chinese culture growing up. I was too busy trying to fit in and be as 'American' as possible. Unfortunately, that means I don't know much about Chinese holidays or traditions.  So this is a wake up call for me too. I'm going to start learning about holidays, traditions, history, and people, so I can teach my kids, in hopes they will appreciate and embrace this heritage from which they come. As a start, we did a unit on China and expanded it alot more in depth than what was in our My Father's World Curriculum.

Being in the Minority

All my life, I've been in the minority.

• As a Chinese American: I was the only Asian in my grade during my elementary school years. Middle school and high school improved a little, I was one of 3 Chinese people in class of 250+ students. There were probably 10 Asian Americans total in my grade. Our town is pretty diverse, compared to where I grew up, but still, going to PTA meetings when Monkey was in school, I was often the only Asian in attendance. 

• As a conservative Christian:  In college, being an Christian in a secular school was often met with disdain. Where we live now, there's just a general feeling that Christianity is irrelevant. People don't go to church.  Sports games and birthday parties are regularly scheduled for Sunday mornings. People don't really talk about Christian values.

• As a homeschooler: Well, clearly, we are outnumbered, although the number of homeschoolers is estimated at over 2 million now, and is growing fast.  In my state, and my town, there just doesn't seem to be that many.  At our various extra-curricular activities, we are the only homeschoolers.  Our state doesn't have any reporting or requirement laws about homeschooling (which is great!), so there are no records of how many kids are homeschooled. 

• As a Christian Asian Homeschooler:  I'll be honest, I haven't met that many that are in this category. It doesn't matter what race anyone is, and I love connecting with people regardless of race or religion, but sometimes it does help to have someone with a similar background or way of thinking to relate to. I've met a couple of Asian homeschoolers(like, only 3), but I hear there ARE some out there!  My guess as to why there are not too many is the whole Asian culture that almost idolizes school. Stepping away from formal school is probably unheard of in Asian countries. I'm glad to hear that there are pockets of Asian homeschoolers, even in my state (just not near me).

Anyway, sometimes I just get discouraged, feeling isolated and 'different' from everyone else. But I have to remind myself that God created each one of us uniquely.  He doesn't want us to be the same, and maybe, being different is God's way of sending ambassadors to others so they understand people from a different perspective.

Breaking the News to my Parents

Choosing to homeschool is a choice that many people may not approve of.  I've heard countless accounts of people whose parents or siblings or friends or even husbands, don't approve of their choice to homeschool. I think EVERY homeschool parent faces this to some degree. There's a need to defend or prove themselves, but those with the most confidence just take their path and ignore the naysayers.

Coming from an Asian perspective, there's even more stigma against not attending school.  School is a HUGE part of Asian culture. Lives are made and lives are destroyed by test scores and grades in Asian countries. Performing poorly in school doesn't just reflect badly on the student, but causes disgrace for the whole family. Parents pay for extra tutoring for kids to go from an A to an A+.  Kids spend many hours above and beyond the homework hours on extra test prep for standardized tests. They are enrolled in academic summer camps, rather than sports camps. Teachers are to be revered and honored. Going to school is the only path out of poverty and parents often sacrifice a lot to get their kids in the best schools. It's a culture that is hard to escape. 

So with this background in mind, telling my parents we were going to pull our son out of school to homeschool was terrifying to me.  Before breaking the news, for weeks I'd mention how unhappy my son was in school, how bored he was, and the difficulties he was having feeling accepted at school.  When the word "homeschool" was finally mentioned, casually over a Thanksgiving visit, it was met with complete dumbfoundedness. "What does that mean?" "Does the teacher come to the home?" "Is he getting kicked out of school?" I answered the questions, clarified what homeschooling entails, and dropped the subject.  I (and they) were not yet ready for this. 

A few weeks later, over the phone (we don't live near my parents), I finally said it. "We decided to go ahead and homeschool". Again, more questions. "Will the school give you material?" "How will you know what to teach?" "Does he have to go to the school to be tested?" "How will he graduate and get into college?", "How will he get social experience?" But getting my parents to the point where they are OK with this, never mind thinking it's a good idea, will probably take years. They are not hostile to the idea, yet they aren't really on board either.  They've accepted that we're doing it, but it's an awkward topic to discuss, as they have their own biases against it.  Sometimes I tell them about things Monkey is learning and sometimes we completely avoid the topic.

But no matter what, I'm grateful we started on this journey. Monkey is so much happier now, which is the best confirmation that we made the right choice for our family.