For our Silk Road and Marco Polo units, we did several hands on projects. One of them was to make a model yurt or ger. For the second time in seven years, we are doing this project. The first time we did it, we did a more simplified version that my then 8 and 12 year old sons did on their own with little help.

Recently my 6-year-old girl was playing with silk cocoons. She was curious what was inside the cocoon as it rattled while she played with them. I thought, "why not open one up and show her?" We were all surprised and slightly grossed out at what we saw.

I had high hopes for this project. Sure, assembling the puzzle was fun enough and the bonus was the three dimensional plastic pieces that fit perfectly into holed out pieces on the puzzle, but we did this puzzle for one reason...to see it through our iPad using the app suggested on the box.

When we do our history units for homeschool, I aim to include a craft book or kits. I love hands on activities and feel it enhances a curriculum. For this unit (including China, Ancient China and the Silk Road), I found this gem of a craft book.

This project was a success and it turned out 100 times better than I expected! I can't believe we made stunning faux Chinese Porcelain from the Ming Dynasty using Sculpey Soft Oven Bake Clay and acrylic paints

We've made Mandalas before as part of our geometry unit, but this was our first time making them with sand...or in our case, salt. I have a bag of sand in the backyard we have for various projects and when I went to collect a beaker full I found it soaking wet.

I love this kit!! We've done our fair share of build kits and what I love about this one is how lovely this looks in the end. But that's not all. This Great Wall of China kit by Wise Elk considers the project, the storage and multiple uses of it by providing versatility with this kit

We've been adding dig kits to our lessons for years and they never get old. While each company has its own unique way to do an archaeological dig kit, I especially liked this one called Discover China Ancient Dig Kit by Explorer by Tedco because the artifacts were high quality and the clay/plaster was just the right balance been hard and easy.

These terracotta warriors replicas were one of the best projects we did for our Ancient China unit. They are quite large measuring about 8 inches (21 cm) and look impressive once painted. Actually the end project looks nothing like what you see in photos depicting the Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty.

I forget that before machines did much of the work for us, we once learned how to do things by hand. Over time, we honed and improved our skills. The Chinese square knot, made using a small square template about 1/2 an inch square with four holes punched on each side, is a beautiful and unique knot that decorates clothes and lanterns.

We've done a number of Great Wall of China project kits and while this one was the most affordable and quickest of them all, it was also our least favorite. This one is made of high quality printed material over a foam core.

Today's project is another she can do on her own, but I decided to share this super easy origami tutorial on how to make chopstick cases. I'm using Folia Origami Paper from A Child's Dream which measures 6"x6" which is slightly small for this project but you'll still get great cases.

Chinese brush painting was my favorite of all the hands on projects we did for our Ancient China unit study for homeschool. We got this Chinese Brush Painting kit from Barnes and Noble. It comes with basic supplies of which I don't know of the quality. Being that we were beginners, it appeared the supplies we used were good enough for our endeavor, but you can find high quality professional supplies from Oriental Art Supply.