Just a quick check in!

I just thought I'd share a fun New Year's activity that I never got a chance to share. My kids are studying Japan, so when we came back to school from winter break we made these fun daruma dolls. I told the kids the story of Bodhidharma, and then related the tradition of coloring one eye of a daruma doll when you set a goal. 

The kids enjoy the story of Bodhidharma, who is a buddhist monk that legend says sat still in a cave for decades. When he accidentally fell asleep one day he cut his eyelids off to ensure he wouldn't fall asleep again! That's dedication towards a goal...So now it is a Japanese tradition to color in one eye of a daruma doll when you set a goal and then color in the other eye when you reach the goal. In Japan it is also tradition to throw your doll into a bonfire at the shrine you bought it from at the end of the year.

We colored our paper daruma dolls, and then set goals. I had the kids write their goals on the back, and then I hung them up on the clothesline in front of our windows. We won't be burning ours! ;)


We FINALLY replaced our hot air balloon glyphs from the beginning of the year!

I also made some fun clip art to go along with Valentine's Day. Can you believe that's just around the corner?! It's just 3 bucks for the set in my TpT store!

There's lots more going on of course, and I'll be sure to chime in with some of that soon!