Christmas Pattern Blocks Activity

Ever need a little something extra for your kiddos to do while you finish the dishes? I found these through internet exploration last year and brought them out again for the kids to do this afternoon. Its just a simple way for your kids to play creatively with pattern blocks besides using them as a math manipulative! I printed them out and laminated them to keep for future use.

Marshmellow Treat Ornaments

Yum-Yum-Yum-O

I love trying new recipes for the holidays but bringing out the classics as well! This is a delicious combo of both. The classic rice crispy treat but with a new holiday twist. I found this recipe from the Pampered Chef cookbook Festive Holiday Desserts, if you're interested.

Here's the recipe:
6 tbsp butter
2 1/2 cups miniature or 18 large marshmellows
2-3 tsp red or green food coloring
5 cups crisp rice cereal
16 pieces of thin licorice (twizzlers/red vines)
16 gummy ring candies
3 tbsp decorating sugar or sprinkles

Christmas Card Activity

Christmas Card Craft:
Using craft holiday paper let your kids create a few Christmas cards for their closest friends and family. Let them pick out the paper, then trace a shape, cut it out, then decorate however they wish using glitter, marker, whatever they wish. And add a drawing or personal note on the inside. Junior even suggested adding a little picture.

Sharp concentration of the cutting :)

Use whatever shapes you have. This is a scrapbooking stencil but you could use cookies cutters or play dough cutter shapes.

Didn't want the lovely glitter all over the table so we used plates. Then let them sit to dry for over an hour.

Add a hanger or pipe cleaner so the recipient can hang it on the tree, if they wish.

Happy Holidays!
Jenna  

25 Days of Christmas Book Countdown

Hi Family and Friends!
For 25 nights (1 book/night) the kids will take turns opening a pre-wrapped Christmas book ending with the Biblical story. We only had about 16ish books so the rest I checked out from the library. Some are classics, others a newer, all cute and all special simply because its family time! And yes my kids wanted to unwrap them all as soon as they saw them, so for now they're sitting on a shelf, a tall shelf, haha.

Here's a list of the 25 Christmas Book countdown, plus a few extras since some are super short.

• Frosty the Snowman, a Little Golden Books
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a Little Golden Book
• The Night Before Christmas, a Little Golden Book
• Christmas is a Time for Singing, a Little Golden Book
• ABC is for Christmas, a Little Golden Book
• Jingle Bells, a Little Golden Book
• Grandfather's Christmas Tree, Thomas Locker
• Yuletide Ice Cube Fair, Veggie Tales, Wonder Kids
• BOB, and 6 more Christmas Stories, Sandra Boynton
• If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Laura Numeroff
• Come and See; A Christmas Story, Monica Mayper
• The First Night, B.G. Hennessy
• We Three Kings, Gennady Spirin
• The Donkey's Christmas Song, Nancy Tafuri
• The Little Drummer Mouse, Mercer Mayer
• The 12 Days of Christmas; A Pinata for the Pinon Tree, Philemon Sturges
• Christmas Cakes, Francesca Bosca
• A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles M. Schulz
• The Hat, Jan Brett
• The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams
• In Case you Ever Wonder, Max Lucado
• The Real Night Before Christmas, Mike Gay
• Snow, Roy McKie and PD Eastman
• The Christmas Story, Patricia A. Pingry
• Luke 2 Bible reading on Christmas night

Still have a few more to get to.

A Few other materials we will use are soundtracks:

• Veggie Tales, 25 Favorite Christmas Songs
• The Muppets, The Muppet Christmas Carol

And DVDs:

• The Toy That Saved Christmas, Veggie Tales
• Childrens Treasury: The Crippled Lamb, Jacob's Gift, Alabaster's Song, by Max Lucado
• The Little Drummer Boy, Veggie Tales
• The Three Wise Men, Reyes, Magos
• The Cat in the Hat Know A Lot About Christmas

This is a new tradition we are starting this year and only two days in the kids are excited to go to bed because it means a cool Christmas story, this makes me feel so happy!

Merry Christmas,
Jenna

Night Sky Adventure In ACTION!

Hello Readers! Well if you didn't see my invitation post before here's more about the great fun our eldest son and husband had on their "Night Sky Adventure" trip learning about stars, constellations, and beavers. AND because I wasn't actually the parent who went to the event I'd like to give a warm welcome to my guest blogger on THIS POST for the first time ever! Here's what my husband and Junior learned.

Nature Center

Junior and I headed over to the North Chagrin Nature Center this evening to meet up with some other homeschooling kids and their parents to learn about planets, stars, and constellations.  Inside the nature center we got to crawl into a portable planetarium.  In the planetarium we got to see how stars travel across the night sky, and we learned about the northern and southern hemisphere.  Junior learned that there are 88 constellations in the night sky and the "Big Dipper" is actually not a constellation but rather a small part of the Ursa Major (The Great Bear) constellation.

Cutting out the Constellation Finder

After the planetarium it was time for our constellation finder craft.  Basically it's a wheel that rotates from month to month.  Based on the month the finder will show you the position of the constellations in the night sky.

Heading to the trail

Next it was time for our nature walk around the Sanctuary Marsh to see what kind of planets and stars we could spot in the sky.  I must say this was the coolest part. When we arrived at the nature center the sky was cloudy and I didn't think we'd see anything, but sure enough when we headed out the clouds had rolled out and we got to see Jupiter, the Little Dipper, and the North Star.

Google map screen shot

Junior loved the Google Sky Map that I downloaded to my phone.  We where able look up at the night sky and see all of Gods creations.









Hot chocolate to finish the night was a great treat.


My first real homeschooling adventure with Junior and it was a success.  I look forward to the next one.

Junior's Dad