homeschool curriculum

Exercise is part of the culture here–from school children who line up every morning to march and do junior calisthenics, to the elderly who take a morning walk and/or one after dinner. In addition, until quite recently, the primary mode of transportation for everyone in China was by foot or bicycle (although in our city, bicycles are scarcer because it is quite hilly), so walking was a part of daily life in China. Elevators used to be reserved for buildings over five floors, and small “exercise parks” like the one pictured below are common–every park and apartment complex has at least one.

exercise_park — Seniors exercising at one of the many exercise parks

Exercise in China park ladies dance — Seniors do aerobics in our apartment complex

Groups of ladies like the ones pictured above meet every day to do aerobics together. Someone brings a radio or CD player and with a leader–usually an older lady who used to teach some kind of dance classes–they all dance together. When we lived in the south, a group of ladies met in our complex every night to dance holding beautiful red fans. From time to time, I’ve been tempted to join them, but have been held back by the certainty that my participation would not go unnoticed and a large crowd would gather.

kindergarten exercise — Our kids do morning exercises at their kindergarten, 2008

There is a proverb in Chinese that says, 饭后百步走活到九十九. “Walk 100 steps after dinner and you’ll live to be 99,” so it’s a way of thinking deeply engrained in the culture.

The car, however, is changing all this. Certainly, there are still people who exercise regularly, but the most visible group exercising are the elderly. Perhaps it is simply that they have more leisure time to do so, but I do believe this is a part of Chinese culture that is slowly disappearing.

This article shows just how much car ownership is pervading the new China as a status symbol, and changing this aspect of Chinese culture. We are sad to see it go.

So what are you doing after dinner this evening?

{Tomorrow I’ll be participating in 5 Days of Teaching Creatively along with other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway
for almost $1000 worth of homeschool and family-friendly products.}

With Christmas just around the corner and an eReader on many Christmas lists, I’m joining the blog hop over at The Broke and the Bookish for Top Ten Tuesday to list the top ten reasons I love my eReader. I am a traditionalist in many ways. Probably, if it weren’t for our move to China, I would be less ready to jump on the eReader bandwagon. But now that I have, I see so many advantages to my eReader.

Although I’m an incredibly visceral person–I love the feel and smell of a book–once I’m lost in the story, it frankly doesn’t matter how I’m reading it. The words carry me away and I don’t notice the package the story is in, just the story itself. So here are the Top Ten reasons I love my eReader.

Space Conservation – The main reason we purchased our first eReader was so that we could pare down on what we’re shipping to China when we head back. I chose books for our curriculum that we could download via audiobook or find in ebook format. I even purchased a lot of homeschool curriculum in PDF format.
Convenience – The core of our curriculum this year is the Story of the World. I purchased the PDF version and moved it to my eReader. Now, when I do a lesson, we read the story, I print out any relevant activity sheets, but read comprehension questions and other instructions straight from the eReader.
Intimacy – I would have purchased things in PDF form anyway, and possibly ebook format as well, but I would have been forced to read them from our computer. Now, with our eReader, I still have the feeling of sitting down on the sofa with my children gathered around to read a book.
Cost-effectiveness – Admittedly, there is the initial outlay of funds on the eReader, but now that we’ve purchased two of them, there is a tremendous savings. Aside from the savings of purchasing curriculum in PDF form (which tends to be cheaper than paper-and-print versions), we can now purchase one copy of a book and have two children reading it at a time. Pumpkin and Sweetpea are both reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, each on a different eReader. We paid for the book once.
Novelty – This may wear off, but right now the idea of the eReader is making reading more attractive to my kids. And now that I’ve signed with Trestle Press, I’m realizing there is a world of story out there that doesn’t even exist in print! After my kids finish the Narnia series, I plan to have them read Mark Miller’s Emypirical Tales.
Ability to organize books for my kids – I’m able to set up shelves, one for each child. Even when they share a book, they can each have it on their own “shelf,” easy to find, and with their own individual bookmarks, so they never lose their place. In fact, even if they forget to mark their place, the eReader will open up to the place they left off. Wonderfully convenient, particularly if you’re prone to falling asleep while reading!
Adjustable print size – Occasionally, when I’m tired, I have difficulty reading smaller print. I can change the print size in a couple of strokes and make things easier to read.
Easy to read in bed – This might be minor to some, but when I’m reading a paper-and-print book in bed, I’m constantly moving around in the bed. If I’m reading on the right hand page, I lie on my left and vice versa. With an ebook, the page is always facing you, easy to read.
I like the e-ink. It really is easy on the eyes and makes reading so much easier to do compared to reading on an LED device.
Ease of finding new materials to read – The shop online feature on my eReader is wonderful. I just finished part two in a trilogy. I can switch over to the store and purchase part three and begin reading right away. (Granted, this feature can challenge the self-control of a bibliophile.)

If you’ve been considering an eReader for Christmas, but don’t know what to buy, here are some useful links:

Top ten ebook readers of 2012
How to choose the right eReader for your needs (considerations of storage, display preferences and connectivity, etc.)
the eReader Configurator – answer questions about your eReader needs and receive recommendations about which one to buy

Don’t forget today’s stop on the Virtual Book Tour. Rebecca of Mom’s Mustard Seeds writes a glowing and touching review of After the Snow Falls:

Our China: Exercise

Top Ten Reasons I Love my eReader