December 17-18

What can be better on a Monday than videos… and one of them a CRAFT video? My loyal fellow crafter Gavin and I were right on top of that! I like this project as it gave him a start at braiding with something that holds the shape. He got a little frustrated but did a GREAT job! And the supplies – pipe cleaners, SIMPLE! then I folded two he twisted together to make our bow and attach it and BANG tree ornament and proud crafter!

My crafting buddy

Our second video was a Trinity favourite and I think another that Activity Village (both of our videos are from the site) posted LAST year. It really is short but soooo cute!

Gavin continued his artistic trend with the newest Art for Kids instructions – BABY JESUS! Absolutely ADORABLE!

A beautiful Baby Jesus with artist (Gavin)

The close up

Trinity and Emanuel channeled some artistic talent as they worked on what we are calling our “gingerbread house” since we started our gingerbread man unit with the traditional story and some workbooks. We figured foam would be easier (though this kit not much!).

Working on the house

With gingerbread men comes many many printable pictures… Trinity was all over that!

Colour by numbers thanks to Activity Village – link on right for the site

We also read the boardbook we have for gingerbread men… coloured our Advent stuff, worked on finishing any unfinished previous week sheets and of course practiced our songs. I am hoping to do up the video by Friday and post it on youTube!

The Gingerbread Man

I had a special evening OUT of the house. We had all miss remembered Joe and Faith’s flight return (thinking it Tuesday when it was Monday) so Nana and Baba and cousins headed to the airport after I left leaving Ken solo. But yours truly was out for the evening with Shandai (a besty from my high school days in Canada) and her roommate Emily. Both of them are SUPER crafty ladies and an inspiration.

We went to Applebee’s for dinner (thanks again Shandai) and the 5.00 burger and sat and chatted forever. Then we went to JoAnn’s and shopped for ages, just trolling the aisles talking craft and seeing what there is to see. I picked up some super soft purple yarn for a special project and since I had coupons got a couple dollar Christmas items for the kids to craft with and TRACING paper for a project for later this week.

New yarn!!

Poor Ken finally succumbed to the cold that has been kicking ALL our bottoms on Tuesday. Sore throat, sore body, you name it… so our errands consisted of the two of us heading out late afternoon with Ken driving and me doing the rest. I think I am finally done sending what packages I can before Christmas. Oh and a run to Target to ALMOST finish the random items. I REALLY need to find that Christmas dress for Echo…

So much to do we are tired out!

I had that new package of pipe cleaners so Gavin and I created wreaths of many shiny colours. I love the braiding practice. Gavin even got EXTRA fancy with his bow piece!

More wreaths

The tracing paper has come in handy AGAIN… a method learned from their cousin Gabriella of tracing pictures is VERY popular around here. Gavin decided to go with a page out of our Christmas colouring book. With the Pringles I picked up at Target we can make our pin hole cameras this week as well… Probably by Thursday since we still have a tube to eat.

Tracing paper!

The gingerbread men pages continue as does our book reading. We had an advanced copy of the Christmas themed Scaredy Squirrel book – Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas… you can find our family review HERE. We absolutely adore this series and are so blessed to have a signed copy of one of the books thanks to Karyn. Our binder is filling up.

Hard at work

December 3-4

I loved the longer video on the Activity Village site… we had over 20 min of happy and quiet kids! But, watch for yourself!

We started our first themed week Monday… CANDY CANES! I combined a lapbook I got for free and as many Candy Cane themed print outs as I could find… mostly on Activity Village. Trinity was overjoyed with the chance to colour any and all candy cane images. And the boys listened to their educational story about the origins of Candy Canes before they filled out a short worksheet. The plan is to take TUESDAY to make the candy cane crafts I found online.

With out countdown… also Activity Village

What we DID do was start on our Christmas ornaments. I am afraid a lot of stuff is going to make it to people late this year due to shipping costs but the kids are making special foam ornaments for everyone. We took the kit I bought with the littles on Saturday and combined it with our foam and glitter glue and let them go NUTS!

Completed with pictures

There are so many ways to represent Santa. The kids thought the Art for Kids site had one of the best ideas yet! Such a goofy Santa how to! 

Zander’s running Santa

Tuesday was a bit of a shattered day… I honestly have no excuse but to admit that I let the worries and lack of knowledge in regards to my need to change my status here in the US catch up with me. I despise it when I do that, I feel that I fail the kids when I let the outside world destroy the organization, learning and… fun of our homeschool day. With Ken not employed and our living here with Nana and Baba homeschooling is really insular for us. It is the rest of the time that is friends and extended family, errands and free events. Right now, right here we don’t have the homeschool connections so I have created a plan around our space here. But anyway… Advent is here and we are embracing each day with crafts and family together time. So though I WANT Ken employed and out busy, I am so happy with this special time we have.

We had a special how to on Art for Kids on Tuesday… a FAIRY! So Gavin was sweet enough to draw one for Trinity! We do get a little out of order on the updated instructions from time to time, but Gavin had some spare time so he was such a sweetheart and drew it up. 

For Trinity

We had picked up some great Christmas colour themed pipe cleaners from Joann’s previously so Trinity and Echo and Gavin all made special twisted candy canes. You can find our instructions HERE on the Activity Village site. 

Echo and her Candy Cane in TRINITY’s nightgown!

Gavin’s more complicated version

As a “T” day, of course we had to have some Minecraft time! 

Designing a masterpiece

We made CANDY with Nana from a simple candy cane recipe and while they did not exactly hold shape or harden (we hope for better results next time) ALL of the kids got involved and had a blast.

Measuring the sugar

Pulling the sugar

Lots of busy, sticky fingers

The shape did not hold but was it ever FUN

We are really loving a themed week… though I am sure we could cram more stuff into a day, this pace seems to have the boys retaining TONS. And giving us time to make those special gifts for godparents, cards for people back up in Canada and of course Art for Kids how to drawings. 

Echo and her own little piece of Candy Cane to work