Today was Chinese New Year Day at preschool. Everyone was right when they told me to chill a bit on worrying too much about not be authentic enough since well, what the heck do I really know about Chinese culture?
As it turns out I know a heck of a lot more than the average 4 year old at preschool. Here is how it all went down.
Lots of shhhhh pleeease. Lots of lights being turned on and off to gather the attention of people in the four year old age range. Lots of me remembering to nominate preschool teachers for canonization, does anyone have the Pope's cell number?
I shared my perfect pronounciation of Ni Hao, since if you remember I did sit through a 2 hour session on just the perfect way to say it in order to sound like I am from Beijing in a recent Chinese class. Mostly, I got the "Whatever" look from 14 four year olds. Ok, moving on.
The book. Mostly everyone wiggled and giggled. My darling one set a perfect example by ignoring her teacher and insisted on wanting to sit on my lap. Which couldn't be accomodated since I was reading the book. Alyssa did entertain me by popping pink fuzz balls into Andrew's hair without him even noticing for 5 whole minutes, and the kid sports a crew cut!
The chop sticks relay game...not a race, due to liability issues. Can't have any little darling poking an eye out while racing to get the cotton ball in the bowl first. Overall, a high point.
Eating the lotus puff snack. Mostly nibbled not truly eaten. Ava scarfed down two, that's my girl. Those lotus puffs ROCK! Samantha got a little snippy and tossed hers into the trash before taking one bite. Then asked me for another one. Sorry, Samantha...poor starving children in China and all...just c-a-n-'t d-o i-t. Better luck with the craft activity, Sam.
Cut out a lantern craft. Let's just say no one got a new hair cut and I am pretty satisfied with that.
Chinese music activity. Lots of swaying and mouth synching. Little Milli Vanilli's. Call New York for the record deal.
And finally, the Fu upside down good luck coloring page. Color red, inside the lines. Lots of red...not so much inside the lines. At this point, I'm opting for the Montessori philosophy perhaps they just did not need to see red crayon lines INSIDE the lines. Who really cares?
And finally, the Chinese zodiac take home coloring book. A rousing discussion of year you were born and corresponding animal. We figured out that Noah's dog, Louis, is not a year of the dog but rather a monkey. This was apparently a little confusing, but once the hong bao was distributed the indepth discussion about how a dog could be a monkey was promptly dropped.
How do you say naptime in Mandarin?
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