Two more poems

We are memorizing two more poems this week.

One Chinese poem that virtually every Chinese knows.

锄禾

锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土。

谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。

James is having some difficulty with this one, even after I made some stick figure drawing to help him understand. I'm not asking them to recognize the characters. Sign. 

We all love the next little poem by Issac Watts. Of course Daniel had to modify the words to his naughty taste, but I won't share his version.

Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite

 Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 

For God hath made them so; 

Let bears and lions growl and fight, 

For 'tis their nature too.

But, children, you should never let 

Such angry passions rise; 

Your little hands were never made 

To tear each other's eyes.

Baby tooth, reading, and poems

I have neglected my poor blog lately, because of sickness and busyness. There are photos sitting in my digital camera, waiting to be uploaded and posted. There are stories and thoughts incubating and waiting to be birthed. Now some trivial updates of life.

James lost his first baby tooth on 2/7, 2 days before Chinese New Year. All the kids his age in his Sunday School class, including those who are a couple of months younger, have gaps in their mouths. That little tooth became loose weeks ago, and its falling was greatly anticipated. James got quite excited. "Yeah, I lost a tooth too!".

Oh, James has been making headway in phonics and reading since around Christmas. It's sheer joy to be the one with him the moment when the light bulb went on and to see the his eyes shine with excitement. This morning at breakfast table, while I was spreading butter on my muffin, he said, "it's butter with sea salt". "What? How do you know?" I asked in a absent-minded way. He pointed to label on the butter tub, "it says here." Sure enough, it does say so. Reading is indeed liberating! Even for a 6 year old.

Poems. I'm adding poem memorization into our homeschool. It's fun and painless. I use Poems Every Child Should Know from Gutenberg. Here is what we did  last week:

The Arrow and the Song
Henry W. Longfellow.

I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strongThat it can follow the flight of song? Long, long afterward, in an oakI found the arrow, still unbroke;And the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend.

This week it's The Little Things.

The Little Things

Little drops of water,Little grains of sand,Make the mighty oceanAnd the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,Humble though they be,Make the mighty agesOf eternity.

My ambition is to have my ABC boys memorize and appreciate Chinese poems. We will see how that goes.

A Trip to Muir Woods National Monument

Our initial plan was to go on a day trip with my sister's family during the Christmas and New Year break. My nephew Richard caught a cold before the planned outing date, so it was just our family plus Longlong, Guibo's nephew who was visiting and staying with us for his winter break from his graduate study at UC Berkeley.

We went to Muir Woods National Monument on December 30, 2012, a very sunny day. It was warm elsewhere, but not there. I knew that redwoods are very tall and big, but never made the connection between tall trees and their ability to block out sunlight so efficiently. It was cold and not sunny in the woods! Had I not been that cold, I would have enjoyed the walk more. But, the trees are truly magnificent .. Did I hear the melody of "This is my father's world" singing somewhere?

Lodi Lake Nature Trail

 

 We've been to Lodi Zoo a couple of times and I really liked that little yet fun place. The Lodi Lake Nature Trail is another gem that's only 30 minutes drive from home. 

The trail is easy--no slope and mostly paved. Besides the bigger Lodi Lake, tseveral smaller body of water scattered along the trail. The trail is lined with trees, cottonwood, valley oak, and a few redwood. There are more trees and bushes than what I can name. James picked up three "nice" acorns. I spotted two raccoons. At the other side of a pond, a dozen happy cows were grazing. 

The most fun part for the boys was the vine swing. It's wild grape vine, I believe. Those vines are incredibly strong. Even Guibo and Longlong (his nephew) got to swing on a vine swing and didn't break it. 

Advent and Christmas Break

The few weeks before Christmas were quite busy and even hectic, with Daniel's choir practices and performances, Daniel's Cub Scout caroling, James' Sunday school Christmas performance, shopping, baking, decorating, plus a party or two.  Having a relatively relaxed Christmas break is truly a blessing.

Daniel's choir performance at a nursing home. He was a shepherd. 

Our Advent: something old, something new

Because I couldn't find the paper ornaments going with our Jesse tree ( I did find them later), I made the names of Jesus paper rings to put on the tree. We did daily devotion based on twenty-five names of Jesus, starting at December 1 and ending at December 25.

I'm gradually adding to our family's Christmas decoration. The Advent wreath is also a nativity display. The paper nativity scene is not as good as I expected, but it looks O.K. on the piano.  The holy family craft was made at our homeschool group's Christmas party by Daniel and me. Isn't that cute? I paid material fees for James, but all he wanted to do was playing with his friends. Oh well...

We didn't do as much Christmas reading this year. Here're the books we read during Advent. I didn't read much "Christmas in My Heart" with the kids. It's a collection of short stories. I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

Family and Gifts

My sister Min's family came to our house on Christmas Eve. James had hollered a couple of times the week before Christmas demanding for his presents. Since my nephew Richard would be opening his presents from us, we allowed our kids each to open one present. We went to a really nice Christmas Eve service at a nearby church before my sister's family went home.