Introduction to Chopsticks

Today we read A Pair of Red Clogs and just like the other books we've read so far as part of our Five in a Row curriculum, we all enjoyed it immensely. It is such a sweet story about honesty, and a wonderful introduction to some Japanese culture. So today for lunch we sat in the den and ate at the coffee table. That in itself is nothing extraordinary - we do that all of the time! But this time, we sat on pillows and we ate steamed white rice with chopsticks. It was so fun to watch the boys attempt to get the rice between the two chopsticks and carefully direct them into their mouths. Alex did fairly well, even though he used two hands. It takes a lot of practice to master the one-handed method! Nathan finally reverted to his trusty fork to enable bigger bites. But Alex never gave up. He ate and ate, even if he was getting only a couple grains of rice at a time. We had so much fun with this, that when dinner time rolled around, we pulled out the chopsticks once again. It was quite the multicultural meal as we ate our spaghetti with our chopsticks!