Since summer, Jia has been obsessed with a present she received from my friend Echo. (The present was actually sent to Willa after her arrival, but you know how that goes.) Echo immigrated from China when she was twelve (and speaks Mandarin), and sent us Sing 'n Learn Chinese. It is designed to introduce Chinese with favorite children's songs. The songbook has characters, pinyin and English. It features such titles as "Old Mr. Wong has Farm Field," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Feet" and "Little Sister had a Little Lamb."
It also has some that are new to us (and possibly reflect some worker party ethics) such as, "Little Working Bees." Its lyrics include, "Buzz buzz buzz. Let us work together. Let us hurry up. ...We love to work. If we don't work hard while the flowers bloom, the winter will be hard. Don't be a lazy bug."
We've had fun learning that bees say "weng", dogs say "wong," pigs say "gong," and chickens say "zhi." Jia can't get enough of these songs. She constantly requests "my Chinese music" and makes us sit and study the book over and over and over. She is determined to learn each word to every song. It definitely is a fun way to learn!
One of my favorite new publications is Family Fun magazine. I love it for two reasons: (1) it suggests simple, fun and educational games, crafts, foods and other family activities and (2) it features regular families that share their ideas for family fun and solutions to family issues. And what I love most is that they feature families like ours doing typical things. In the latest issue they showed two multiracial families, and one of the families appeared to have been formed in part via transracial adoption. But the articles were about tips for keeping a clean house and hiking. Love that.
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3 comments:
Sounds like such fun! Head, shoulders, knees and feet? : ) Your sweet girls are lucky to have a mommy who teaches them to love their heritage!
Those CDs sound great! I think I will put them on Eiley's Christmas List. I have getting our Mandarin CDs ready to send to you on my "To Do" List this weekend! And thank you for the heads up on the great magazine with pictures of families like ours. I was just thinking how disappointed I was we never see families like ours on commercials or in advertisements...
You know what is so funny about that issue? I didn't even notice the kids but I do remember reading the stories. I will have to go back and find that issue, it's somewhere around here:) I also love that magazine and just subscribed to it.
I also love that Jia is so excited about her heritage! Makes you proud, doesn't it?!
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