Our First Week of Christmas Fun

Christmas is in full swing here at our house. We have had tons of fun this week with all of our Advent plans!

To begin, here are a few pictures of our decorating fun! After the decorations were complete, we watched a Christmas movie and ate snowmen with marshmallow snow!

In the evening, we have been working through Truth in the Tinsel. With each lesson, there is an ornament to make. We hang our ornaments on a small wooden tree. Some of the photos were taken before our ornaments were hung.

On Day one, we learned that Jesus is the Light of the world.

On Day 2, we learned that Jesus is King.

On Day 3, we learned about Zechariah. At first, he didn’t believe God’s promise for a son. Because of his unbelief, he was unable to talk until after John was born. For our ornament, we used a button to close his mouth.

On Day 4, we learned about the angel Gabriel going to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of Jesus.

On Day 5, we learned about Mary’s obedience to God’s plan.

On Day 6, we talked about the excitement that Elizabeth and Mary must have had as they talked with each other about God’s plan. Our Elizabeth and Mary ornaments are pregnant! OOPS…I forgot to take a picture!

On Day 7, we learned about the song that Mary sang to worship God. We looked for the reasons she had to praise God and thought of our own reasons to praise God.

If that wasn’t enough fun already…along with our family devotions, each day we are unwrapping a Christmas book and doing a simple activity to go with it. The kids look forward to the book and activity each day!

Day 1 – Snowmen at Christmas – We made cute snowman handprint ornaments.

Day 2 – Mooseltoe – This was one of their favorite books. I didn’t get a picture of the finished product.

Day 3 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas – We made green milkshakes and watched the original Grinch movie.

Day 4 – Christmas Night Fair and Bright – No pictures, but after we read the book, they decorated the windows in their rooms with Nativity window clings. It amazes me how such a simple activity can be so exciting for a young child!

Day 5 – Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree – This was a very cute story. They made sugar cone Christmas trees. They had lots of fun eating while they were creating!

Day 6 – Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend. They woke up to find new slippers filled with goodies, their new ornament for the year, and a chocolate “Santa turned St. Nicholas.” After reading the book, they got to open a present to share – the Playmobil Nativity Set.

Later in the evening, they took an anonymous gift to a neighbors house just like Saint Nicholas used to leave anonymous gifts!

Day 7 – Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas – We made splendiferous Christmas cookies and had a Christmas tea party!

It has been a great first week of December, and we look forward to all that is yet to come!

To see what others are up to, be sure to check out the Preschool Corner and 5K too!

Advent Plans 2011

I am so excited to begin celebrating Christmas as a family this year! I have been working for several weeks coming up with ideas for our advent calendar. I basically have two parts to our plans:

Family Devotions

I searched and searched for ideas on what to do as a family to focus on the meaning of Christmas. We’ve done several different things in the past from advent chains with a Scripture and activity each day, Christmas symbols, What God wants for Christmas, and Hubbard’s Cupboards Christmas plan. I originally planned to do the Jesse Tree as a family this year, but never felt quite like that was what we should do this year. Finally, I came across Truth in the Tinsel and knew it would be just right for us!

Truth in the Tinsel is an e-book Activity guide for families with young children. Each day from December 1-24, there is a clue provided, a Scripture reading, discussion ideas, and an ornament to make that goes with the lesson. It also provides “extra” ideas each day! I am so excited to begin this experience as a family, and I pray that my children will know Jesus more fully through it!

Our Book Advent

Just for fun, each day we will unwrap a Christmas book from underneath the tree. I have collected 24 Christmas books from home and the library. Some of these books are spiritual and others just focus on other fun aspects of Christmas such as snowmen or gingerbread Along with opening and reading a new book each day, we will do a craft or activity to go with it. Here are the books and activities that I have planned:

1. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner – Make Handprint Snowmen Ornaments

2. Mooseltoe by Margie Palantini – Mooseltoe Creatioins

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss – Make Green Grinch Smoothies and watch movie

4. Mr. WIllowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry – Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

5. Christmas Night Fair and Bright by Julie Stiegemeyer – Printable Nativity make into magnets for play

6. Saint Nicholas – The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Jule Stiegemeyer – St. Nicholas Day Celebration! We will talk about who St. Nicholas was, what he did, and how the legend of “Santa” came to be. The kids will wake up to new slippers filled with goodies, a gift to share (playmobil nativity set) and their new ornament for the year. As a family we will leave a basketful of surprises on a neighbors’ doorstep, ring the doorbell and runaway. We will leave a copy of The Story of St. Nicholas on their doorstep and challenge them to bless a family, too! I found many ideas for celebrating St. Nicholas Day here!

7. The Crippled Lam by Liz Bonham – Watch Crippled Lamb DVD

8. Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O’Connor – Make Fancy Christmas cookies and have a Christmas tea

9. Dream Snow by Eric Carle – Make a paper snowflake chain to decorate with

10. Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins – Jingle Bell Snowmen and Movie

11. The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats – Watch DVD

12. A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe

13. The Christmas Baby by Marion Done Bauer – Make Christmas Cards

14. Christmas in the Big Woods from My First Little House Books – Make Christmas Pancakes like in the book and watch the Christmas Little House episode from season 1

15. The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola – paper poinsettia

16. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg – When the children go to bed they will find a ticket for the Mini Van Express on their pillow. We will bundle up and have Hot Chocolate and snacks in the van as we drive around to see Christmas lights. During the day we will make a graham cracker/candy train.

17. Josie’s Gift by Kathleen Long Bostrom – Using wooden dolls from a craft store, we will make our own nativity

18. The Christmas Story – Christmas Play at Church!

19. Memories of the Manger by Michelle Medlock – Manger Craft

20. The Pine Tree Parable – Watch the Parable of the Three Trees

21. J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman – Candy Cane Craft and print off candy cane poems to give with candy cane to friends

22. The Gingerbread Man – Holiday Baking!

23. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – Reindeer Treats

24. The Real Night Before Christmas – Activity Book

25. My First Story of Christmas by Tim Dowley – It has been our tradition to read this book before opening gifts as a family

That’s It! I can’t wait to get started and look forward to making many memories this Christmas season. I’d love to hear your advent plans!

To see what others are up to with their preschoolers and kindergarteners, check out Preschool Corner!

Our Advent Tree - Days 1 and 2

Over the years, we have tried different things as a family to keep our focus on the birth of Christ during the Christmas season. We've used the colored rings, taking off a different Scripture and activity each day during our family devotions. Last year, we decided to make an Advent Tree. We had our activities on strips of paper to take off each day. This year, we've decided to switch it up again. Instead of taking strips off our tree each day, we are adding to our tree each day.




Many of my ideas came from It's OK to be Weird, The ADVENTure of Christmas, and some files that I received from my mom. I like the idea of heart reminders each day. I used many of the same ones found on It's OK to be Weird, but I changed some things around. I also made up my own cards to add to our tree. These cards are my first ever download...be sure to check them out! The cards all have numbers (1-25) on the back. They draw a card off of our bulletin board each day and add it to our tree. Then, for the rest of the day, we focus on that symbol/verse/story. The culmination of that symbol is at our family devotions around the Christmas tree each evening.
Here is a look at our tree after two days.


Day 1:

Symbol: Heart
Reason: God Loves Us
Verse: John 3:16

We started the day off with making heart pancakes. I couldn't find our heart cookie cutter, so they didn't turn out so well. The kids still enjoyed it!


Craft: We made this Heart Christmas tree found at Danielle's Place.





During Lexy's School time, I added some heart activities to her workboxes. These included:


1. Fine Motor: Drawing and Cutting out hearts. I showed her how to fold the paper in half to make a heart. We talked about symmetry.

2. Heart M&M Addition from ChildcareLand



Day 2 -

Symbol: Apple
Verse- Genesis 3
Reason - Jesus Needed to Come


We read and talked about the story of Adam and Eve and what sin is.


Craft:

Fingerprint Apple Tree from Hubbard's Cupboard

Workboxes included:

1. Apple Math from Hubbard's Cupboard
2. Apple Sequencing Cards (Review)
3. Apple Number Ordering

And, of course, we had to have apple slices for snacks!



To see our advent activities from last year, read this post.


I hope everyone enjoys this Christmas season!

Long Overdue - Christmas "Break"

During the holidays, we took a break from our normal routine to focus on celebrating Christmas. There was still plenty of learning going on in the midst of all our fun. We continued with our Advent activities each evening. We enjoyed doing this and will repeat it again in the years to come. Here are some other highlights:

Lexy had her first mini music recital for the music class she has been attending. She was proud of herself.



We went to Christmas at the Zoo. They enjoyed looking at the lights, decorating a Christmas cookie, and petting the sharks!



Both Lexy and Josiah were in the Nativity for the Christmas play at church. Lexy was an angel. Josiah was a dog. Lexy also played Silent Night in the preschool handbells group. Unfortunately, I do not have a good picture of it. Hopefully, Grandma and Grandpa do.



We did LOTS and LOTS of baking! Both kids enjoyed helping in the kitchen.



We made a couple of differnt kinds of homemade ornaments. This is a picture of them decorating the salt dough ornaments.



We read many Christmas stories. Here is Lexy reading to Joisah.



On Christmas Eve day, we went to Jolly Days at the Children's Museum.



On Christmas Eve, we went to the Christmas Eve service with Alex's family. No, we didn't take the kids in their pajamas. This was taken right before we left. We changed them into their pajamas in hopes that they would fall asleep on the way home...It worked!



Lexy made a Birthday cake for Jesus with Grandma.



I just had to add it, because it is so cute. I think he liked Christmas Day, and I love that smile!



What a great end to a great year. I'm looking forward to more great memories in 2010!

N is for Nativity - Christmas Fun

For some reason my crazy computer is not letting me upload any more photos. So, once my wonderful husband figures out why and fixes it for me, I'll go back and add the photos where they're missing.

We've backed off from a lot of our normal preschool activities this week and focused on celebrating Christmas. We still got our letter for the week in. We focused on N for Nativity. Alexis still completed her alphabet page for her book and worked on words that start with N. Here's a snapshot of some of the fun we had.

We covered our train table with a blanket and set nativity scenes on it for the kids to play with. They've spent HOURS standing at the table playing. They really enjoy the little bit of straw I added to it. A little bit of a mess is worth the hours of entertainment it has brought them. I've even seen a few visitors at the nativity.



We are making some homemade gifts for a lot of our extended family this year. Each of us has a different job to do. The kids worked on their portion a lot this week. I can't post specific pictures or descriptions until after next week because of all the family that reads the blog. Once our family Christmas party is over, I'll give details!



We hosted a Christmas playgroup at our house for my MOPS small group. The kids made a jingle bell craft and then used them to ring while we sang songs. One mom brought a Christmas story to read to the kids. They did a lot of playing and then had lunch together. Afterwards, they each got to decorate a cookie to eat. Lots of fun!



We had our first snowfall for the season. Actually, it was barely a dusting, but the kids were still excited about it. So we bundled all up and headed outside to play in the dust. They LOVED going down the slide with snow on it. I had to work really hard to come up with more snow each time to put on it. We even managed to build our own minature snowman.



Life School: Alexis was a huge help around the house this week. Cleaning the kitchen is up at the top of her list of exciting things to do. So, I'm taking advantage of this while it lasts. She helps me wash the dishes and then sweeps all the crumbs from the floor into a pile. She also takes a wet cloth to wipe up any spots that she sees. She also helped with laundry, cooking and dusting. She says, "I'm a worker, Mommy! What can I do next?" I hope she's still saying this in 10 years!


Advent activities: We've continued with our family time together in the evening. Lately, Josiah has been staying through the Bible reading, songs, and story. Then he heads to bed while Lexy works with one of us on her craft/activity. Next week there will be some activities that he'll get included in on...like making wrapping paper, caroling, etc.



To find more ideas for Christmas fun, check out Preschool Corner!

Our Advent Tree

I finally finished my preparations for our advent activities this year...just in time. I used the ideas found at Hubbard's Cupboard. She has all the scriptures, books to read, and activities all typed up to print off. I decided against making a chain and opted for putting the strips on this tree instead, due to the fact that a chain wouldn't survive my 21 month old. It turned out cute. Each strip has a number on the outside. Lexy will find the number according to the day and open it up. We will read the scripture and discuss it. Then we will read the Christmas book that goes along with the Scripture or idea and do the activity listed each day. I was pretty happy with the activities listed because it had all the major things that I wanted to accomplish...baking cookies, caroling, making gifts, crafts, etc.