Tag Archive | Scaredy Squirrel

Gingerbread Men

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

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas…a Book Review

Thanks to one of our favourite librarians (Karyn) we are huge fans of Scaredy Squirrel (by Melanie Watt) in this family. We currently own two books – Scaredy Squirrel and Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party (signed edition thanks to the same lovely lady). So the opportunity to read an advanced copy of a CHRISTMAS themed book in the series was just right up our alley.

Now I will warn you, our Kindle app edition was a difficult read. Scaredy Squirrel books ooze his neurosis and are full of charts and images. The way our app broke up the pages made for some difficult reading and some doubled images. BUT all of that may be fixed in the final print edition. I would suggest purchasing the paper version anyway for ease of perusal and enjoyment of the pages over and over again. But don’t take my word for it… here are the kids’ opinions of Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas. Beware there ARE spoilers!

Trinity: It was pretty. I loved it. The squirrel was funny.

Emanuel: I wonder how the abominable snowman got into the party. I think the monsters were not real. It was a little funny.

Gavin: Scaredy Squirrel was really funny. The pictures were funny and cool. I liked the part when Scaredy Squirrel showed you how to play dead best. Scaredy Squirrel is really really weird when he figures out what he has to do for Christmas. Cuz it is really weird when he does stuff.

Zander: I think it was cool that Scaredy Squirrel is really good at making funny stuff. And I love him. He was a really good actor in this book. It was a really good book.

And as the reader/teacher/Mommy…. well I loved this book. It feels longer reading it on the Kindle app but it has the same high level of giggle factor as the previous books. Scaredy Squirrel’s neurosis have the kids looking at Christmas traditions in a completely different and much more hilarious way! So if you are interested in Christmas traditions and can totally get on board with a Squirrel with a bucket full of fears and plans… this is a must read! I would suggest the Scaredy Squirrel series for ALL ages honestly!!

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas

This entry was posted on 18/12/2012, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

As the Week Progresses

After discussing our local squirrel population and putting pencil and crayon to paper to create an image of one what better is there to do than read about ANOTHER squirrel… Thanks to Karyn for the wonderful SIGNED copy of the book, Scaredy Squirrel continued our furry critter trend. A much more… neurotic squirrel we join him with his party planning and come along as he celebrates his very own birthday. I had the boys ALL draw a picture and then the twins and I went through the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the story. Emanuel opted to write the name Scaredy Squirrel all by himself and then we talked about what HE remembered from the story. So much fun and some really creative pictures! The actual book is called Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party. I need to unearth our other book in the series and maybe hunt down the cartoon Wiki talks about HERE

What with Ken’s folks on their way out of country and continent early tomorrow morning I kept it rather basic with the schooling so that we could just go with the flow… so instead of a lot of written work the boys set to work on some special Perler bead patterns… the Canadian and US flags by Zander and Gavin a lovely Hello Kitty for Trinity. You can find these patterns and more HERE. Emanuel opted to go through one of the idea books and made his very dinosaur. 

Beading

The boys came across a new tv series they seem to really enjoy – Wild Kratts. The combine animation and real life portions to create a wonderfully educational show about animals and environmentally sound behaviour. With gadgets and such to boot! This is right up there with Dino Dan. A terrific Dinosaur themed live action (and computer graphics) show. This one is created with the assistance of the Tyrell Museum (remember our Jimmie birthday??)

Even more amazing… Echo’s newest word, while she refuses to say BABA she went so far as to say BUBBLE when pointing at our ocean in a jar! She is growing up so quickly! 

Wednesday was Trinity and Emanuel’s turn to play Clue Jrwith Daddy… I think in this case it was more of an educational lesson for Daddy on keeping his temper and not getting frustrated even though he won in the end. I think they all had fun! At least they wanted to play again though we ran out of time and couldn’t do so. 

Clue Jr.

Thursday marked the start of Nana and Baba’s 3 week vacation and our day of do nothing. Well nothing but the basics… no organized schoolwork (which is hilarious as it seems like all our friends back home are STARTING this week), no massive cleaning, no errands… just sit about and enjoy the day. I actually found it harder than I thought… this doing nothing is a definite art! So of course a nap was in order… the kids just loved being inside playing, outside playing and of course watching some educational tv. 

Wearing Nana’s shoes

I did break my goal of doing nothing in the evening and with good reason! Shandai (my best friend all the way back from high school if you can believe it) is a pro at knitting and crocheting AND as an added bonus, like me SHE is left handed!! We sat at a table and chatted and caught up and worked on our projects… met some new people and were a part of the SWATCHcommunity. The bag Shandai made while we were sitting there will go toward Saturday’s installation. I am really excited that we will be able to take the kids to that!

A start!

It feels good to find a new interest… and luckily my mother in law already had the necessary supplies so I could dive right in. I need to practice for consistency in the tightness of my stitches but I am enjoying it so far! Something new to do that is portable is ALWAYS a good thing… now I just need to learn how to turn!

Today we worked hard on having fun… the kids all did a bit of workbook work as we are still working on review work… this ended with Zander FINISHING his review math! He was so proud and now I have a good idea on what ideas and concepts he needs cemented.

Sudden Workbook time

Completion!!

Then it was time to pull out the original spirograph! They even remember that Uncle Wayne was the one who gave it to them! I love that the things we HAVE saved in our move are so treasured. Though only ONE of the kids actually had something to show once they finished with it this time. I think I need to take advantage of the sales and get some more gel pens. 

Busy hands

A few attempts

Our weather is still absolutely brilliant. I booted the kids out in the afternoon to run and climb and burn off energy and apparently race Trinity around in a stroller with giggles following along with them!

They’re off!

I have found our fun USA book to add to our Minnesota unit and a box full of stickers now collected together. We are definitely a work in progress on the planning, but my desk is uncovered and I have high hopes of getting a chair in front of it and the laptop or netbook or both booted up on there for the kids by the end of what I am NOW remembering is a long weekend! Regardless we will start our September with our Back to School books, continuing the unfinished from our previous year and of course MINNESOTA! I got wonderful news this morning that I won a draw for our very own Wonder Box! I am sure people who check back here often know of my love of the site Education.com… well I cannot wait to receive our box and blog all about it!!!

Hug the dolly

This entry was posted on 31/08/2012, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments