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Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook -- Asian Pacific Heritage Month Series

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

It is May and that brings several things. In the United States it means Mother's Day, the end of school is near and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. This post is the first of mine in the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. (Scroll down for the giveaway!) Today I am sharing with you a new cookbook from Katie Chin. This book is Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother's Kitchen with photographs by Masano Kawana. Katie Chin is sharing some of her mother's everyday recipes just in time for Mother's Day!!

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The last few years have been tough on everyone. We have had a worldwide pandemic, racial riots and demonstrations, life basically shutting down and restarting and so much more. It has been hard on adults and imagine how hard it has been on kids. Then imagine how hard it is for Asian American kids. Today I'm going to share a middle grades novel that delves into just that. An Asian American family returns from Hong Kong just as the virus is beginning to spread out of China. The father however stays in Hong Kong to keep his job. The kids have to pick up their life here at a house they only usually visit in the summer. Plus, deal with the fact that anyone who looks Chinese isn't always treated well. The book is New from Here by Kelly Yang.

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And on Sunday morning we co-host a new Creative Kids Cultural Blog Hop. Be sure to join us at it!!

This week has been full of fun and activities. Hazel has had the week off from school and my 13-year-old nephew is spending his vacation week with us as well. I'm tired out, I must admit, but it has been fun to be with them. And it was fun to check out everything that was shared last week! Thank you to everyone who shared at last week's party!! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! The features this week are Holidays and More, Parenting and More, and Math and Science.

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Did you know October is Filipino American History Month? Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation. They are third largest ethnic group in California (after Latinos and Blacks). October was chosen because it commemorates the first Filipino to step foot on the continental United States. On October 18, 1587, Luzones Indios came ashore at what is now Morro Bay, California, from Nuestro Senora de Esperanza, a Spanish galleon. In 2009 the United States Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month. (Source) To celebrate I thought we would look at some books about the Philippines and their culture.

Another amazing week of things shared!! Thank you to all who shared with us. If you have not had a chance to check out the 85 wonderful ideas, please go visit them. And now for my features!! Please remember to visit Having Fun at Chelle's House for her features as well!!

1) From Buggy and Buddy: Butterfly Pencil Valentines
2) From Little Wonders' Day: Valentine's Day Family Fun Night
3) From Seeking Shade: The Teddy Bear Book Inspired Giving to Homeless
4) From S.O.S. Mom: Personalized Candy Hearts
5) From An Idea on Tuesday: Bringing Nature Inside
6) From Life on the Gravelly Road: Watercolor Thank You Notes

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: This week I shared an African Cinderella book and activity, some peg dolls after being inspired by a new book, some Chinese instruments to use at our Chinese New Year celebration (thanks Daria!!), and a strawberry heart muffin experiment.

Now for This Week's Party

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

All About Japan By Willamarie Moore -- Book Review

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to review for you the wonderful book, All About Japan by Willamarie Moore. I absolutely love this series of books from Tuttle Publishing. They are packed full with so much information and they teach so much about the culture and life in the country. (I reviewed All About Indonesia by Linda Hibbs in July.) This book helps us center our exploration of Japan. It shares traditional stories, holidays, life in the city as well as the country (told by children who live there), recipes, crafts, dance, music, poetry, and so much more.

With any book that has a recipe or craft in it, Hazel wants to try it, so we did. The book has three recipes in it and we tried two. I did not try to make Onigiri since I couldn't find the ingredients and I didn't really think Hazel would like them. We did try Okonomiyaki. It is described like a pancake with fillings but reminded me more of an omelet. I do not think I cut our fillings up enough and they fell apart on us when we flipped and removed them. Steve and I both thought they were all right and Hazel liked to eat the chicken filling instead. The pancake batter had cabbage in it which is why they are green.

Oknomiyaki

The other recipe we tried was mochi cakes. We made them the day after we read "The Grateful Statues" in Japanese Children's Favorite Stories by Florence Sakade. The story is about a kind, poor couple. The old man does something kind for some statues and his kindness is rewarded with a large mochi cake. Therefore making mochi cake right afterward was perfect. Now are mochi cakes did not turn out pretty. We should have looked at pictures of them first, but Hazel was having fun making shapes out of them. We also could not find sweet rice flour or mochiko and used regular rice flour. They were not as sweet as they probably should have been. I like them though.

Mochi is often a treat for O-Shogatsu (New Year), so it seems appropriate to also show you our Nenga-jo Greeting card. Since 2015 is the year of the sheep, we used a sheep rubber stamp and Hazel wrote on the numbers. Nenga-jo are usually postcards that are sent the first three days of January.

Nenga-jo

This book also discusses some history of Japan including the samurai warriors. They have instructions to make a samurai helmet out of newspaper. Hazel of course wanted one and then modeled it with a sword.

And what exploration of Japan would be complete without some origami? The book shares a wonderful song about frogs and gives the instructions to make an origami hopping frog.

Hazel loves making origami and wanted to make lots of frogs. You can find similar frog's instructions here.

She also loved that they could hop.

She made one of every color and then pulled out her zoo mat to put them in water. She then gathered more zoo animals to go with her frogs. I love crafts that lead to her creative play!

All About Japan is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn more about Japan, its history, culture, etc. There are so many activities throughout it from learning about haikus to writing Kanji. We would have done more of the Kanji if we hadn't had the other books. The other activity we did do was trying the Bon Dance. I however did not get any pictures since I was doing it with Hazel. I am also almost done with a kimono for her doll. She picked a fabric that reminds me of sakura (cherry blossoms), so I'll wait until it is finished and share it with our cherry exploration! Stay tuned!!

For more books and activities to learn about Japan check out:

Also check out some of our other reviews of Tuttle Publishing Books:

Baba's Peach Tree

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Last week we shared a book about a Chinese American who fought for her right to go to school. This week we are sharing a new picture book (released today) about a father and daughter in rural China. It is Baba's Peach Tree by Marie Tang and illustrated by Seo Kim. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Every Tuesday new books get released. Today I am sharing three new picture books released today. These books timely for current events and Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as well as one about inclusion with information about lifeboats too. The first book is Daniel and Ismail by Juan Pablo Iglesias Yacher and illustrated by Alex Peris. It was translated into English by Ilan Stavans; translated into Hebrew by Eliezer Nowodworski and Frieda Press-Danieli; and into Arabic by Randa Sayegh. It is being released into paperback today and is recommended for ages 3 to 6.

What an amazing party last week!! Thank you to everyone who shared with us!! Our features are just a sampling of the wonderful things shared, so if you haven't checked out the rest you should!! The features for this week include Snow Features, Valentine's Day & Family Features, Educational Features, and few art and interesting ideas. I have also host a craft link party (the crafts just have to be family appropriate and not necessarily kid related) and it is a place to share crafts, reviews of patterns, craft books, etc. and patterns. I hope you will come check it out Sunday. This month's Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is continuing for all your posts that are culture (multicultural) related!

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

So last month our plan was to have a Japanese tea party for Tea Parties Around the World, but life interfered and our tea party happened in May instead, but this is perfect since it is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. So through April and into May we have been exploring Japan. Now Japan is known for its tea ceremony. It sounds so fancy and has an interesting history. To learn more about the tea ceremony we read Tea Ceremony by Shozo Sato.

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Having the right school really means so much to a child. I am glad we have finally found the right fit for Hazel. One of the things she loved at her previous school was the Father Daughter Snow Ball. Her new school did not usually have one, but this year we started that tradition!! Her old school called it a Snow Ball but decorated for Valentine's Day. Our planning committee decided to decorate like a winter wonderland and I turned to Oriental Trading to help us do this. With white Christmas lights that I bought after Christmas when they were on clearance and decorations from Oriental Trading as well as few borrowed from people's Christmas supplies we transformed the school into a winter wonderland. As the girls and their fathers walked in they were greeted with "falling" snowflakes.

For my final 2016 post for Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month I thought I would combine it with our Global Learning for Kids exploration of Singapore and kick off our Ramadan for Kids Blog Hop. Did you know about 15% of the Singapore population is Muslim (according to 2010 statistics)? There are 69 mosques in Singapore. (Source) The Sultan Mosque or Masjid Sultan is considered one of the most important mosques in Singapore.

Nightfall at Sultan Mosque By Erwin Soo from Singapore, Singapore [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Disclosure: We were sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This year I thought I would focus on Japanese crafts. I have written a few posts about Japan and Japanese culture over the years. If you want a general overview of the country and its culture you should check out my review here. When I looked at my shelf of books to review I saw a bit of a pattern and realized I had a collection of books about crafts in Japan. Part of what I love about these books is most of them also teach a bit about the culture.

Announcement: Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party (and Giveaways)

Please join us for our Multicultural Children's Book Day

Win 1 of 12 Book Bundles! Giving away Book Bundles every 6 minutes!

Twitter Party

Friday, January 27th

9 pm to 10 pm EST

Hashtag: #ReadYourWorld

We will be discussing the state of children's book publishing and giving away diversity book bundles every six minutes! We invite EVERYONE to join us: authors, publishers, parents, caregivers, librarians, KidLit lovers. You don't have to be an author or publisher sponsor to join us! Let's talk about our favorite multicultural and diverse children's books, authors, and illustrators!

How do you join the Twitter party? Just use hashtag #ReadYourWorld to find us. When you tweet, use the hashtag so everyone can find you!

Register below to be able to win!!

Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month. All month long I will try to share books, crafts, and activities to help celebrate this fun heritage. Today I get to share the newest book from one of my favorite series about Asian countries. It is All About Vietnam: Projects & Activities for Kids: Learn About Vietnamese Culture with Stories, Songs, Crafts & Games by Tran Thi Minh Phuoc and illustrated by Nguyen Thi Hop and Nguyen Dong. It is a middle grades reading level but can be shared with younger kids if you do the reading!

It is time again for Sharing Saturday! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all your diverse/cultural posts be sure to share them at Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. (A new one starts on Sunday!)

So yesterday I was considering posting some of our crafts for the Chinese New Year or Valentine's Day, but when I came home from my Christian Education meeting at church, I didn't feel like formatting pictures and doing it, so I put it off until today. Then I was checking out some of my favorite blogs (which I have not been doing as regularly as I would like) and noticed that The Magic Onions is holding a giveaway of Margaret Bloom's new book, Making Peg Dolls.

Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom book cover

Source

Now I remember awhile back when Margaret mentioned to me in email that she had just gotten the deal for the book, but she was still keeping it low key. I am so excited for her and am so inspired for her. So my next stop of course was to check out we bloom here (Margaret's blog). Well on Monday, she kicked off her blog book tour and the post on The Craft Crow included a book review and a tutorial on love-bugs. I felt inspired, so I went and found some peg dolls and some clothespins as well as my paint markers and some flowers I had been saving for making flower fairies, felt and a few of our leftovers from different Valentine's Day crafts. I made two peg dolls--one a love-bug inspired by The Craft Crow's and a little flower fairy that I'm calling a snow drop fairy.

For the love-bug I painted the body red and cut pink felt stripes. I used a pink felt heart for wings. Then I cut a sparkly pink pom pom in half and it sort of fell apart, but I used it to cover the head. I painted a face on making the mouth heart shaped and then used a pipe cleaner as antennae.

For my little snow drop fairy, I painted the body light blue. Then used a fabric white flower (probably a daisy) as a skirt. I thought the light blue did not show up well so I went over the part showing with a more turquoise color. I used a white felt heart for the wings and painted on a face and hair. Then glued the same type of white flower together to form a hat.

From the clothespins I made a chrysanthemum fairy and a queen of the flower fairies.

For the chrysanthemum fairy, I had flowers that were almost the same in two sizes. I used two large flowers on the bottom for the skirt and then used about five small ones for the top of her dress. I cut a pink felt heart in half and glued them together point to point for wings. I gave her a face and hair with paint markers and then put a sparkly plastic flower sticker for a hat.

For my queen of the flower fairies, I used a large felt flower for her dress and a small fabric flower for the collar. I gave her a green heart for wings and painted on her face and yellow hair. Then for her crown I used zig zag decoration and wrapped it around to be a rosebud. It takes quite a bit of glue and holding to get it to stay but you can also just pass a few stitches through it. My sewing stuff was not near me and I was being lazy. Then I just glued it on.

It was so fun to be inspired to craft again. Hazel is very excited to have some surprises this morning as well. How have you been inspired by something lately?

Sharing Saturday 15-7

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! There were so many amazing ideas. I had a hard time limiting my features, but I came up with some Valentine's Day Features and Other Features. By the way with Valentine's Day tomorrow, I am going to write a bonus post about our Valentine Doll & Me Play Date. I hope you will come check it out. Then on Sunday I will co-host the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (link live 2/15 at midnight). If you are sharing anything cultural/multicultural please come back and share again there! Now onto our features.

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many wonderful ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, please go visit a few and leave some comment love (since we all love getting comments)! This week my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House has the most clicked and many sensory box features as well as a sensory box giveaway! Make sure you go check out her post as well!

My Features

So for my features this week I picked 8 ideas which each had a bit of a personal reason for me. Here they are.
1) From Ginx Craft: Little House on the Prairie (First I love that show, and second I love finding a use for old telephone books!!)
2) From Triple T Mum: Gelatin Heart Suncatchers (I love the idea of using gelatin!!)
3) From Happy Whimsical Hearts: Pigs (Ok, I love these and will have to make some once I finish my knitted farm playmat. I love that Kelly made them for hers. I'm still waiting to see a picture of her completed playmat!!)
4) From Learning and Growing the Piwi Way: Kids' Sewing Lesson--Teddy Bear Dresses (I have been playing with teaching Hazel to sew a bit, so I love seeing other ideas! I don't think she is quite ready for this, but will be soon.)
5) From We Made That: The Naked Egg Science Experiment (Yes, I really want to try this with Hazel!)
6) From Wesens-Art: Rotating Pencil (Ok, it might be the geometry teacher in me, but I love this activity and it is so easy and makes such neat designs!)
7) From Making Boys Men: Salt Painting (This might be because we did a fun painting activity this week, but I love this idea!)
8) From Play Trains!: DIY Felt Valentine Train (Oh, such a fun creative idea!! I know Hazel will love it!)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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My Week in Review: This week I shared our Chinese New Year Celebration, a Chinese Cinderella book and activities, peg doll animals, painting experiments and of course we had the blizzard so lots of shoveling and sledding. We still are catching up from the storm and that is why I have not been around too much oh and Steve's birthday and Valentine's Day!

Now for This Week's Party

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1) Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).

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4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest as well as Having Fun at Chelle's House at Facebook and Pinterest

Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook -- Asian Pacific Heritage Month Series

New From Here -- A Look at Life During the Pandemic through the Eyes of an Asian-American Kid

Sharing Saturday 16-8

Books to Celebrate Filipino American History Month

Sharing Saturday 13-6

All About Japan By Willamarie Moore -- Book Review

Baba's Peach Tree

Timely New Picture Books Released This Week

Sharing Saturday 16-4

Our Japanese Tea Party -- Exploring Japan with Tea Parties Around the World

Father Daughter Snow Ball and Valentine's Day a Crafty Weekends Review and Link Party

Ramadan in Singapore -- Ramadan for Kids, Global Learning for Kids & Asian Pacific American Heritage Blogs Series & Giveaway

Japanese Crafts -- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Announcement: Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party (and Giveaways)

How do you join the Twitter party? Just use hashtag #ReadYourWorld to find us. When you tweet, use the hashtag so everyone can find you!

Register below to be able to win!!

All About Vietnam -- Book Review & More!

Sharing Saturday 18-6

Sharing Saturday 18-8

Fairies and Love Bug Dolls

Sharing Saturday 15-7

Sharing Saturday 13-7

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