Finger Counting

At least once a year, some class of Musical Mandarin does finger counting. Now I have found someone who has photos online.
http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2004/05/11-0001.html
We use the same hand gestures for 1 - 8. The '9' that I have seen is very different and I know at least two ways to show ten with one hand.

You may also want to check out this reference. To me it looks very much like what some of my Indian friends' mothers used to do when counting.
http://www.andysav.free-online.co.uk/multicultural%20China.htm

Chinese New Year Party

Come and see what Musical Mandarin can be like:
Friday, February 10th 2006, 1 - 2 p.m.
celebrate the Year of the Dog with us in Morris Plains, NJ.

For more information, just email mus-mandarin@wubison.com

4704 is Coming

Chinese New Year is January 29th, 2006.
The Kitchen God reports to heaven on the past year on January 23rd.
I hope this finds you & yours all well.

It's that time of year: Your child's teacher may ask you at any moment to come in and "do something" for Chinese New Year. Your children may start asking questions about the holiday - or you may wonder if it is time (again) to really start cleaning. I updated my Chinese New Year site with a bit about dragons, and most recently with a list of CNY activities for children which you can find at:
http://cny.blogspot.com/2006/01/childrens-cny-crafts-and-activities.html

I also posted some project-type questions for older children. If they just got the "write about some holiday" topic, this might come in handy:
http://cny.blogspot.com/2006/01/research-for-older-children.html

I have a pdf file of a lunar calendar for 2006 showing the phase of the moon for each day of the year. If you want one, just email me. It fits on one page and is always a big hit when I show it to children. (I just like the way it looks.)

Information on ideas for "doing" Chinese New Year at school remains at:
http://cny.blogspot.com/2005/01/chinese-new-year-ideas-for-school.html

As ever, if you have any questions on Chinese New Year, I will try to find an answer for them.

Solstice Picture

This Astronomy Picture of the Day for 21 December 2005 might be helpful in explaining how the daylight is longer and shorter. "Sunrise by Season" shows the sun rising in a Greece today at Summer Solstice, Equinox, and Winter Solstice.