One of my favourite things about thematic units is the fact that we can make them so cross-curricular. Today we talked about China's Mid-Autumn Festival which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese Han Calendar. It is also know as the Moon Festival or Harvest Moon Festival because it is celebrated on a full moon.
Extended families typically gather together and eat dumplings, then moon gaze and eat moon cakes, giving thanks for the harvest and praying for prosperity and longevity.
Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made Chinese dumplings using mince meat, spring onions, sugar, soy-sauce, ginger and spinach for the filling.
I thought they were superb. They followed the recipe and instructions themselves with very little intervention from me. We will be making more of these.
Panda Girl is now the last family member to catch this dreadful virus everyone has been kindly sharing. She spent the day on the sofa being smiley, as always.
So it was just the boy who made moon cakes today. He did a smashing job too.
While we refrigerated the dough, he made a moon so we could moon gaze.
Filling the moon cakes with strawberry jam.
Glazing with egg yolk.
They were biscuity and crumbly and absolutely delicious. Why didn't we make more?!?!
After lunch (dumplings!), outside play and Lego play, I spent some time confidence building with Ballet Girl and then Monkey Girl with their maths. I predominantly spend my afternoons with the two youngest while the eldest two work independently, but it's good to spend some time with the eldest, catch up with their latest work and help where I can.
The Boy had a play-date with his best friend.
And this evening Monkey Girl went to Football Practice with the Sea Cadets and Ballet Girl went Rock Climbing.
