Tag Archive | toilet roll candles

Advent Continues

Mondays always seem to be a bit of a struggle. I think we need to walk away from having weekends so obviously different  from our weekdays. We have had to face printing practice for Zander today. It was one of the things the facilitator noted… a backslide in the legibility. He is resistant (of course) but we are making progress. I limited our workbook time to a page of math and a page of either printing practice or sight book work. Amazing how even that little bit was a bit of a struggle. HOWEVER we did make it a little more fun with CHRISTMAS stickers from the Dollarama to mark completed pages in the math books. 

Sight word book work

We finished our Day 4craft today – toilet roll Christmas candles! Super simple and lots of fun, though we did have some paint drips and some stickers that did NOT like the paint surface. Gavin put some of our glitter stuff in his paint to give it a shiny look and they all were happy with the end result. I am so glad I picked up some shiny Christmas pipecleaners with Kristen. They just look so nice! Up on the mantel they go! 

Our completed candles

Today’s theme was the Christmas robin… we did the colour by numbers, the connect the dashes… but we decided not to make ourselves some robins out of paperplates. Instead we read some fun stories about sleds and Christmas. Did you know that Fancy Nancy is full of interesting Christmas knowledge? 

Fancy Nancy

Sledding

Storytime for Petite Sheepette

I wanted to remind everyone that we have moved… and our mail is NOT being forwarded… I cannot remember who usually sends out cards but if you contact me I can get you our new address!! Please do NOT send mail to the old address! 

One of today’s videos is a step by step walk through on how to draw a Christmas robin. Gavin took inspiration from the process (pencil first, then pen over lines, erase and we added colour) to make his own picture. Christmas themed of course! 

Gavin's completed drawing

Zander is becoming quite the checkers player. We had a game this afternoon and ended on a draw (we each had one king left). I only had to remind him once or twice that it is a VERY boring game if you just keep moving back and forth to avoid doing anything. I need to find someone who is good at chess to teach him chess next I think… who knows, this could be his “thing”!!

Checkers

So the kids were supposed to go sledding with Ken today and work interfered. With good reason, he stuck close to home to answer the phone and work out the details of a possible contract… but that means tomorrow is THE day – sledding after lunch! I think I am almost looking forward to it more than they are! 

The laminator and my cluttered table had a run in, luckily no jam but a slightly bent puzzle piece and house… thankfully owner of said house was fine with it and I think the puzzle will still work… but I need to have words with that machine. It is NOT playing nice! 

We have a busy day tomorrow with the proposed sledding, Trinity and Emanuel’s library adventure solo with Karyn and Ken, Echo and myself meeting up with Kristen and Fydo. Thankfully He Chris will be here to help with the other two. Our villages are growing, as is the boys’ Polar Express lapbooks. I still have the rest of the week to complete my goals and I plan on taking advantage of ALL of my spare time! And some of my not so spare as well! 

Her top says Silent Night... I don't think so!

My kiddos

Ending the Weekend

It is hard to believe it is Sunday already… but here you have it! AND I got to go out for a while (without kids!) with Kristen and do some much needed Christmas outfit shopping. Karyn started me on the path of loving Winners and today’s trip cemented it! I did try to find a shirt for under 10.00 (would have been a real coup) but had to “settle” for a 19.99 sweater style dress. And then I splurged and got 9.99 tights, lovely thick ones in black. So red is the theme this year and I am thinking my Holly brooch made into hairclip will be my accessory. 

I am down to needing only 3 more pairs of pj’s for Christmas… I picked up Trinity’s set at Old Navy on sale for 12.00. The boys are always the hardest, they tend to go up in price so quickly, the larger sizes… and I am going slowly to ensure my budget stretches! BUT Kristen helped me come up with an idea for one of the kids I have left that I can do here at home AND she helped me make sure I picked up my gold pipecleaners for today’s craft! Again back to Activity Village’s Advent Calendar, Day 4! The little houses are starting to add up and our 4 separate collections are marvellous! 

We painted today… and decorated our toilet rolls… the rest of today’s craft will be done tomorrow, when we are SURE everything is dry!

Painting

It was craft day at Sunday School and all 4 kids came home with a beaded snowflake. Just like real snowflakes no two were alike… AT ALL! Very pretty and they were all very proud! Next Sunday is the pageant and we all should be going to practice, service, lunch and then concert! It will be a rather short concert but the boys are working hard on their verse! 

Snowflakes

I can share a craft I just finished personally! Trinity’s birthday buddy is a HUGE fan of Ponyo so between Ken and myself (and the helpful advice of some anime savvy friends) we created a feltie pattern. I am told she is wonderful! I have yet to watch the movie but Ken did watch some bits and we both searched through pictures. She is a very interesting character with a lot of changing features. 

Ponyo!

I had a minor laminating machine issue that had to be resolved by opening the darn thing and removing a rather tight and stiff roll of plastic (oops). Thankfully it seems to be ok as I need to use the thing daily for the month of December! The only casualty was Trinity’s day 4 house and she is always up for more colouring so we were not overly upset. 

My list is getting shorter but so are the days until Christmas! ACK But we are enjoying the creating and crafting together. I think tonight instead of a picture I want to leave you all with this video. Please listen to the children who seem like they need a shoulder…