Sunday, April 27, 2025

Sundays

 I'm reading through the Charlotte Mason book School Education. I read it a few years ago and am re-reading it. Yesterday I came across a passage about Sundays. I love her ideas of Sundays- to have a break, to do something different. "Sunday stories, Sunday hymns, Sunday walks, Sunday talks, Sunday painting, Sunday knitting even, Sunday card games, should all be special to the day– quiet, glad, serene. The people who clamor for a Sunday that shall be as other days little know how healing to the jaded brain is the change of thought and occupation the seventh day brings with it." (Page 144). She also talked about kids in church during her time. "...in church, when they are old enough to attend" (Page 144). Churches were different in her time. Babies, toddlers, and young kids stayed home with their moms, a servant, or a governess during church and didn't go. Today, most churches have kids programs and Sunday Schools...from babies to toddlers and on down up. It's very different today. She continued: "In connection with children's behavior in church, the sentiment and forms of reference cannot be expected if they are taken to church too young, or to too long services, or are expected to maintain their attention throughout. If children must be taken to long services, they should be allowed the resources of a Sunday picture book, and told that the hymns and the "Our Father", for example, are the parts of the service for them." (Pages 141-142). On Page 143 she mentions that sometimes for children to look up where they are in the prayer book..."but perhaps it would be well to tell children, of even ten or eleven, that during the litany, for example, they might occupy themselves by saying over silently hymns that they know." (Pages 143-144)

Last fall I worked on putting together something for Sunday Schools for kids. It includes famous, old paintings from the Bible stories, cultural and historical backgrounds, nature study, poetry, and some hymns. One week is in the New Testament and the next in the old and it switches back and forth. It uses the Bible to tell back the story, instead of a re-telling...and includes a memory verse (or verses) that are meant to be learned over a whole month or longer so they really learn it and learn to recite it well. One of my goals is to make Sunday School interesting, alive, and something different than they have a school during the week. Instead of the take-home-throw-away coloring page, they have nature drawings, and other pages in a book that's kept at church and taken home as a keepsake at the end of the year. It also includes maps and ideas to inspire the children and know that these stories really did take place- they really happened. Looking up the stories in the Bible is also something included every few weeks. If you want to take a look at it, it's available at lulu.com (Look for "Through The Bible For Sunday Schools"). There are also free summer series and lessons for the holidays. 

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Kids in Ancient China (Part 6): The Fake City Part 3

   The garden in the woods became one of the boys favorite places to hang out in. They saw the old man a few times and he would tell them stories about when he was a kid. 

“I remember when I was kid, just as old as you older boys are now. There was talk in the town that the emperor was going to come and visit. At the time not a lot of people liked Emperor Ling. The Emperor became emperor when he was 12 years old- just a little older than you older boys are. However, when he grew up everyone found out that he wasn’t the best leader this country has had. 

“By the time he came here, many people didn’t like him because he had the people pay a lot of taxes. He wasted a lot of money and the leaders that worked with him took money from the people. Actually, when he came here no one really wanted him to come because it cost so much money. They made a huge area with walls around it and houses inside of it. You kids might have seen it outside of the city.

‘I remember that he stayed for 3 weeks. My family worked here, in this garden, although at the time there were no walls around it like there are now. We had to give most of the apples we were growing to the emperor and the people with him. My parents hated it, but they didn’t have a choice. Other people that grew vegetables and fruit had to do the same thing- give away a lot of what they grew at that time to the emperor. 

“As a kid, I was excited to see how the emperor looked like. We had never had someone famous come to our town before, so it was a big deal. My friends and I talked about how we thought he would look like. My best friend thought that he would have long hair in a braid and a long beard. I thought he would have short hair and a long beard. However, none of us kids could really get a good view of him that day because the streets were small and there were too many people. 

“A few days later, my parents had to deliver some apples to where the emperor was staying. I went with my dad because I though I would see the emperor. I ended up being very disappointed because it was just one of the servants that opened the door.” 

“I did, however, get a glimpse of the emperor one day when he was walking down the street. This time there weren’t as many people with him so I was able to stand on one side of the street and see them walk by. Emperor Ling looked tired and worn out. He didn’t have a full beard, just a small one and a mustache. His mustache was big- the only thing I remember to this day about him.

“By the end of two weeks the emperor’s visit was boring and none of us liked it. I wasn’t allowed to eat any of the apples from our trees while he was here because “They all have to go to the emperor” as my dad would say. I wondered at how much one person can possibly eat! Then my parents reminded me that it wasn’t just him, but the whole group of people that always traveled with him.

“We were all glad to see the emperor leave after three weeks. Year later, after the emperor died, the whole country changed. People started fighting and groups of bad people went from town to town taking things that didn’t belong to them and hurting people. I’m assuming that’s why your families moved here- to be safe.”








Monday, March 24, 2025

Kids in Ancient China (Part 6): The Fake City Part 2

 Part 2

Shortly after moving in, Xi Jing and her mom were busy making their house feel like home. Although they didn’t have a lot of money, with some creativity and with the belongings they brought with them, it felt like home by the end of the week.

Mr. Xi and the dad in the other family started looking for work and ended up working as carpenters in the same shop. Xi Wei, Xi Bing, Chen Min, and Chen Yang met up every day and started exploring their new city. By the end of the week they knew every little street in the city. 

After they explored the streets of the city, they set about exploring outside of the city.

“Hey, have you noticed that there are no big gardens here? Where do they grow their food?” Xi Bing asked his brother and friends when they were out one day.

“Maybe they are hidden underneath the city,” Xi Wei suggested.

“No, don’t be silly, they have to be here somewhere,” Xi Bing said,

“Our old city had lost of gardens outside of the city. Each family took care of at least one, sometimes 3 or 4 fields,” said Cheng Yang.

“Yes, ours did too,” put in Xi Bing.

“My favorite thing to grow was the tomatoes. It was so fun to pick them off!” Xi Wei said with a smile on his face.

“Yes, I know! We hardly got any tomatoes because you used to pick them off when they were still green!” Said Xi Bing.

“The gardens must be somewhere outside of the city. For a city this size, they must have a lot of gardens- somewhere!” Said Chen Min. 

“Let’s explore!” Xi Wei said excitedly. 

The four boys left the city just after lunch and started walking around the mountain. The mountain was full of trees, which was great for the city: it made it hard for any army to find where the city was! This also meant that the boys had to be careful to remember where they walked so they could find their way back.  

“Let’s do something so we won’t forget out way back. I’m afraid we might get lost,” Xi Bing suggested.

“I know, what if we take this stick here,” Xi Min said as he picked up a stick. “We can make a mark on the trees that we go by so we can find our way back. Or if we find the right rock, we can use that to mark on the trees.”

“That’s super smart! We can take turns marking the trees,” Xi Bing said.

Xi Bing became the unofficial leader of the four of them. They walked about ten minutes until they came across a small patch of spinach growing by some trees. 

“Wow, this is strange. I wouldn’t expect to see spinach here,” Xi Yang commented.

“Look over there,” Xi Wei said as he pointed out to an opening in the trees. There seemed to be things growing in the opening. 

“This is what they must do,” Xi Yang thought out loud. “They must grow food in openings in the forest like this.”

“But what about the spinach?” Xi Min asked.

“I don’t know,” said Xi Bing. “We’ll have to have a good think about it. Why is there spinach growing way out here?” 

“Well, we’re not that far out of the town. What if someone purposely planted spinach here?” Xi Min suggested.

“Hmmm, now that is an idea,” Xi Wei said with a smile on his face. He liked to smile. 

“Let’s keep walking,” Xi Bing suggested.

The group came across more places where other vegetables like carrots and potatoes were growing in between the trees. Finally, Xi Wei saw some tomatoes growing!

“Di Di, (“little brother”), don’t pull any of those tomatoes! They don’t belong to us! Someone must’ve planted them here. They obviously don’t naturally grow here in the midst of trees like this!” Xi Bing said.

“What if they just plant their vegetables here and there in the forest where they can. So, instead of each person having their own field, they just plant some things where they find room and sunlight to grow their food.” Xi Yang said.

“Yes, that’s probably it. However, we saw fruit in the market and I think it must be hard to grow fruit in the middle of these trees! They wouldn’t get enough sun! Where are the fruit trees?” Xi Bing thought aloud.

“What if they just buy them from other cities and have them sent here?” Xi Wei said excitedly. “Ohh, a good, juicy apple sounds great about now!”

“Yes, you’re right, Di Di. We should start heading back,” Xi Bing said.

“Can we come out here again tomorrow?” Xi Wei asked. He always loved exploring and adventure.

“Well, we still haven’t figured out where they’re growing all the fruit yet, so I think we should explore some more tomorrow,” Xi Bing said. They followed the trees with the marks back to the city.

The next day they went out again, marking the trees as they went. Xi Wei got this job because he enjoyed it so much! They walked a different direction and ended up climbing more up the mountain. They came across a wall. 

“What do you think this is? It doesn’t look like a city. Can it be another city so close by?” Xi Yang asked. 

“No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t make sense,” Xi Bing answered. 

“Quick, hide. There’s someone coming,” Xi Wei said.

Although they didn’t know why they should be hiding, but their instincts told them to hide. They each hid behind a tree. Sure enough, they saw a man walking by and disappear behind the wall. 

“There must be something there. Why else would he go there?” Chen Min asked.

“Let’s check it out!” Xi Wei said.

The four boys slowly walked to the wall. Oddly enough, this wall was just as big as the wall that surrounded the city. However, the more they walked around it, the more they thought that it couldn’t be a city because it was so quiet. Finally, they found the door. It was a simple wooden door that was closed, but not locked. 

“Di Di, wait,” Xi Bing said to his brother as he was about to open the door. “Remember, we just saw the guy go this way, probably inside! Let’s wait a few minutes.”

The few minutes seemed to go at a snail’s pace, but finally they agreed  that was it was ok to go in. They were surprised when they opened the door to find fruit trees! There was one or two small buildings, but inside the walls were rows, and rows of fruit trees. 

“This is where they grow their fruit,” Chen Min said. 

“Yes, look at those apples!” Xi Wei said.

“Di Di, they are not our apples and they aren’t ripe!” Xi Bing told his brother.

“Ok, fine,” Xi Wei said. 

They walked around for a few minutes until they heard a voice.

“Hey, what are you kids doing here?” Said a man’s voice. 

Fear seized them. 

‘What do we do?” Chen Yang said.

“It’s ok. I don’t think we’ll be in trouble. Let’s just try and be friendly,” said Xi Bing.

“I’ve never met you kids before. Do you live in the city?” The old man asked. “Well, you’d have to live in the city because there are no other towns that close. You might be from families that are moving to the town.” He started to say to himself. “There are so many new faces and I don’t particularly care to get to know any of them.” 

After a minute of silence, Xi Bing said, “Yes, we are. We are from the city.”

“Did you just move here? What families are you from?” He asked.

“Yes, we did just move here,” Xi Bing answered. The four boys took turns introducing themselves. 

“What exactly is this place?” Xi Wei asked.

“It’s a garden, of course,” the old man answered.

“But why are there walls around it and why is it so far from the city?” Chen Yang asked.

“We’ve lived in this area a long time. In the last ten or fifteen years there have been many new families, like yours, that have moved to our town, which means that we have to be careful and make sure that we can protect ourselves. Having food to eat is one of the most important things, so we made a wall around this garden to make it a little harder for bad people to come in and take the food.”






Friday, March 14, 2025

A visit to the beach

 We are so thankful to live so close to the beach...at least for this season of life. We might be moving someplace else in a few months...but for now, we are a 10-15 minute walk from the beach. This particular beach has lots of beach glass, seashells, and tide pools. Yesterday we had a short break in the rain so we went to the beach in the afternoon. It was lovely and a great time with the kids (who climbed the rocks and looked for crabs under the rocks). 









Friday, February 28, 2025

Beautiful Sunsets

 We went to the beach two times this week and met up with another family there. The kids had lots of fun. We moved earlier this month to the other side of town and this beach is the closest one to our house (about a 10-15 minute walk away). We'll probably go often to this beach. There's another beach that's about a 20 minute walk away as well. It was low tide so the kids got to explore the tide pools and the rocks. They found lots of tiny crabs, seashells, beach glass, and other marine animals. 




The sunrise down the street




Thursday, February 27, 2025

Kids in Ancient China (Part 6): The Fake City Part 1

Here's another story in our "Kids in Ancient China" series. This story is really long and is in parts.


The Fake City 

 

Part 1

“Where are we going now?” Xi Bing groaned to his parents.

“Up to the mountains. We’ve told you this many times before.” His dad answered.

“How much longer?” Xi Bing’s little brother, Xi Wei, groaned.

“We’ll get there when we get there,” His dad answered again.

“We should take a short break,” their mom suggested.

“Yes, and I’m hungry!” Xi Wei smiled and rubbed his tummy.

The family sat down on the ground and enjoyed some steamed bread. By this time, it was a bit old, but it was all that they had. 

“I wish I had some honey to put on top of it,” Xi Wei complained.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. We should be at the city soon and I’m sure they’ll have some honey,” their mom said.

“Try to imagine that there’s honey on it. Here, I’ll give you some of my own honey,” Xi Bing motioned with his hand. It was only pretend honey, but it worked to lighten up the mood.

“Hey, mom, I think I see someone. Wait, there’s more people. It looks like a family,” Xi Jing said. Xi Jing was the boys’ older sister. She was usually quiet and shy, and she understand the reason why there were moving: to be safe. 

The country was in chaos. The Han Dynasty was almost finished, but there was no real government set up in its place yet. If you were lucky enough, the city you lived in had its own army to protect the city from all of the other small armies going throughout the country. However, the city that they lived in had none. With each passing day, it got more dangerous. Their whole town could be destroyed. Over the year, the family had seen many of their neighbors move to other cities, leaving the town largely deserted and empty. The family knew that they, too, had to leave in order to be safe. 

The city they chose to move to was up in the mountains with a wall around part of it because it was thought to be safe. They had already been walking for 2 days and had another day or two to go until they reached the town.

“Yes, I do think it’s a family, dear,” said their mom.

“Look- boys! There are 2 boys!” Xi Wei said, excitedly.

“They look like they’re the same age, so they might be twins.” Xi Bing said. 

The family waited to see who these people were. 

“Hi, my name is Chen Min,” said one of the boys to introduce himself. He held out his hand to Xi Bing. 

“And I am Chen Yang,” said the other boy as he reached out to shake Xi Wei’s hand. 

“Are you both, twins?” Xi Bing asked hesitatingly. They didn’t look like twins, but they looked like they were the same age.

“No, I’m actually his cousin,” Cheng Yang explained. “My dad had to fight in the local army. Our town and the town next to ours had an army. Every man had to fight in this army for at least 5 years. Sadly, my dad died fighting during these 5 years. A few months later my mom got really sick and died. I, too, got sick. Thankfully, my aunt and uncle lived in the same city and took care of me. By this time, a lot of the families moved out of the town and they, too, decided to move. So, here we are.”

“Sounds like us,” Xi Bing and Xi Wei’s dad explained. “Our town doesn’t have an army so many people were moving out. We were one of the last few left in the town and finally decided to move out as well.”

“It’s nice to meet you all. It’s great to see a friendly face,” The mom said as she shook the hand of the mom in the other family. This was to be the start of a long friendship between the two families, who were both moving to the same city in the mountains. 

It’s a funny thing, but when you travel with friends, even new found friends like these, time goes faster. The 2 days it took them to finish their journey to their new city went by so fast. 

“Wow, dad, is that it? I see something over there, between the trees,” Xi Bing pointed out to his dad. 

“I suppose it is,” he answered. 

“I wonder if there’ll be lots of girls my age. It would be great to have more friends. I’ll settle for friends that are younger or older than me too, of course,” Xi  Jing said.

As they got closer to the city, Xi Bing said his thoughts out loud. “What kind of a city is this? It’s so disappointing. I only see big walls. I don’t even see the gate to get in? Where is it?”

The city was much larger than the towns either of the families came from. Walls surrounded the city and the gate was slanted on the hillside. This was supposed to make it hard for any army to come and attach them. The gate was open all day and closed at night. The whole mountainside was full of trees, which was a great help in keeping the city somewhat hidden and hard to find for any army that might come against it.

“Wow, this city is huge!” Xi Wei said. 

“Let’s go in,” Xi Bing said. “I’m sure there’s a market where we can get something to eat- I’m starving!”

“You’re always hungry!” His mom said.

“Tell me about it. These two are also always hungry! It must be something about boys,” the other mom said.

The market place was the first thing in the city. Stalls of vegetable and fruit  sellers, meat sellers, and a myriad of other small shops lined the sides of the main street. They got some snack food and found a place to sit to eat. 

“Right, the next job is to find a place to live. Would your family like to live close to ours if we can? I don’t know if we can find two houses next to each other available to rent or not, but we could try,” Mr. Xi (Xi Wei, Xi Bing, and Xi Jing’s dad) suggested to the other dad. 

The two fathers started walking around the city while the rest of the families stayed and finished their snack. Although they wanted to walk around and explore their new city, they didn’t because they didn’t want to get lost! Also, if they stayed put, the two dads would know where to find their families. Finally, after two hours, they came back.

“No luck. It’s getting late. We’ll have to sleep outside the city. There aren’t any hotels or logging for guests available. We’ll try again tomorrow.” Mr. Xi broke the news to them.

They set up camp outside the city walls. This was the fourth night they slept like this- under the stars. The first night or two were exciting for the kids, especially the boys. However, by the third night it had lost its newness and they longed for home. Their bags (with the one change of clothes they each brought) were used as pillows and they had a blanket or two as well to keep warm. It wasn’t that comfortable, but after a long day, sleep came fast. 

The next day they explored the city’s streets together. The boys loved their new city, but Xi Jing didn’t. She was quick to point out how the city lacked all the trees and flowers their old town had. Actually, overall, there weren’t much gardens around. Where did they grow their food? 

People were generally welcoming to them, but assumed they were just travelers because they all still carried their bags with them. Finally, after another full day of searching, they were able to find two homes. Although the two families weren’t going to be neighbors, but would live only a few streets away from each other instead.


Saturday, February 22, 2025

Chinese Magazine

 It's almost spring...or feels like it should be! The Spring edition of the Learning Chinese in America magazine is out. You can find it here

Here's the description: 

This is our first issue of the year: Spring 2025. This magazine is meant to help families who are learning or trying to keep up their Chinese while they live in America. In this issue we’ll learn continue learning about ancient Chinese history, a famous Chinese poem about the sound of the birds, and finish a famous story (the fox and the crow, part 1). There are also several Chinese characters to learn, a story entirely in Chinese characters, and an interview about someone who lived in Xi’an, China. The animal we’re talking about this time is the ladybugs and the food we’re looking at is eggs (Chinese style).



Sundays

 I'm reading through the Charlotte Mason book School Education. I read it a few years ago and am re-reading it. Yesterday I came across ...