Hanna’s St. Lucia’s Day Presentation

Hanna told me a couple weeks ago that on our last day of school she wanted to do a St. Lucia’s Day presentation for me and Joe to go along with our advent, Christmas Around the World, that we’ve been doing.

She put alot of preparation and planning into what she did. She came up with an amazing costume—all on her own—that was perfect! She made her own wreath for her head, and even had me make biscuits. She read to us from books about this day, and shared some of her own knowledge on St. Lucia’s Day from reading she’s done herself this month.

Hanna always goes above and beyond and has such enthusiasm when it comes to doing things for Joe in our school lessons. I love seeing what she plans and am so thankful for the young woman she is becoming.

Great job Hanna!

Homemade Nativity Ornament

I love all to do with the Nativity.  I like to get a new Nativity set and/or ornament each year.  This year I am having Hanna and Joe make our new Nativity ornaments.  I found each of them at Danielle’s Place with my new membership that I won a couple weeks ago!!

Each of them turned out very pretty.  Hanna made hers out of mini and regular sized craft sticks, acrylic paint, glitter glue, yellow and black construction paper and a template from Danielle’s Place for Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
   
I love reading books about the Nativity to Hanna and Joe.  We have favorites we read each year and I always try to find a few new ones too.  Here are some we are enjoying so far this Christmas season.
Room For A Little One—this book has beautiful illustrations and is told from the viewpoint of the animals in the stable.  A very sweet story.


The Donkey’s Christmas Song

Mortimer’s Christmas Manger—this is told from the viewpoint of a little mouse, Mortimer, who is looking for a quite place to rest.  This is my favorite.  It is so sweet and I look forward to reading it so much each year. 

There are so many books, activities and special quiet moments I love sharing as a family each year at Christmas.

The Cobweb Christmas Study

This week in our Itty Bitty Bookworm studies were based on the book The Cobweb Christmas, by Shirley Climo.

This book is about an elderly woman, Tante, who lives in Germany and is waiting on something magical to happen on Christmas. Tante generously gives to the village children and animals each year at Christmas time. On Christmas Eve spiders spin webs all over her Christmas tree, and then Kristkindel touches the webs with his finger making them sparkle and shine like tinsel. Tante awakens on Christmas morning to this magnificent sight.

We began our fun with this book by making edible Christmas trees from sugar cones.

Joe has enjoyed playing with our Connect Four game lately. I haven’t taught him how to play it, but he likes to use it for patterning. For the rest of his Math studies we used Kumon workbooks.

From Itty Bitty Bookworm, we did a really simple, but fun Science experiment about spiders. I got out two pieces of contact paper and a dish with a tiny bit of vegetable oil in it. I asked Joe to tell me what he thought kept a spider’s body from sticking to it’s own web as it crawled around on it. He did not know. I first had him walk his fingers up the contact paper without the oil, and of course they stuck. Next, he lightly dipped his fingers in the oil and watched his fingers “magically” climb the contact paper without any problems at all. We talked about how a spider’s body makes an oil that keeps it from sticking to it’s own web.

I made a sensory bin filled with tinsel, leftover Halloween spiders, Christmas confetti and foam pieces.

Joe used the tongs to find the hidden objects. He always enjoys our sensory bins.

We finished our Get Ready for The Code book “C”, and will begin Explode the Code book 1 in January. Joe is still sounding out words well and enjoys writing and drawing off and on all day long.

We will be taking the next two weeks off from school work completely and just enjoying time together. We will resume school lessons when our public school goes back January 5th. I am very much looking forward to this break! I love all that I do with and for homeschool, but it will be nice to have a break from all of the time that planning and preparing takes each week.

We will have fun being together, baking, crafting and visiting with family.

Shrinky Dinks Ornaments

We made ornaments for our Christmas tree using Shrinky Dinks paper last week. Hanna and Joe enjoyed drawing their pictures on the paper and LOVED watching it shrink in the oven. Joe thought the whole process was really cool. I’m sure we’ll be pulling out our paper soon to make something else.


What I did was cut one Shrinky Dink piece of paper in half and punched a whole in the top middle. Hanna and Joe used permanent markers to draw their pictures, and then I followed the baking directions. Afterward I strung them with red ribbon and hung them on the tree.

Hanna drew a Christmas tree on hers.


Joe told me his was a colored disco ball. We have a silver ball ornament on our tree that was a favorite of mine when I was a child. Hanna and Joe call it a disco ball, so I know this is where he got the idea.

We’ve also been having fun reading lots of our favorite Christmas books each night, and during the day as well.

Little Robin’s Christmas is a sweet story about sharing with friends.

Christmas With Teddy Bear is about fun things a teddy bear does to get ready for Christmas with his family.

We are having so much fun getting ready for Christmas in our home! I am especially enjoying having the kids make so many homemade ornaments for our tree. We’ve always done this in the past, but it’s usually been through school or at church. This year I am getting all the rewards of having them craft with me, and I love every minute of it! I love seeing them on our tree. They will be treasured memories in years to come.

Felt Christmas Tree Craft

Hanna made a cool felt Christmas tree craft for her room. It looks great in there with her Nutcrackers. She made this tree using 3 different shades of green felt, green and brown acrylic paint, a TP roll, various beads, rhinestones, hot glue and mini-present ornaments (optional).

First, she painted the TP roll green, and the bottom of it brown to serve as the trunk. While it dried she cut felt pieces into graduated sizes of circles making an X-shaped slit in the middle of each circle. After the TP roll was dry she stretched the felt circles over the roll, largest circles first and ending with the smallest one to serve as the top of the tree. Finally, she hot glued beads and rhinestones all over the tree and placed mini-present ornaments around it at the bottom. It turned out so cute!


Hanna has also had a Christmas tree in her room since she was about two. My mom got it for her along with the ornaments. Hanna's tree is decorated with Nativity ornaments. Every couple years I get her a few new ones to add to her collection. We are having so much fun making crafts and decorating our home together this year.

Olive, the Other Reindeer and Reindeer Fun

This week in our Itty Bitty Bookworm studies we had so much fun!  Again, I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this curriculum!  Our studies this week were based on the books:

Olive the Other Reindeer

The Wild Christmas Reindeer

The Night Before Christmas

We studied all about reindeer this week.  Joe used story sequencing cards from my Itty Bitty Bookworm printables for Olive, the Other Reindeer.  We talked about the similarities/differences of reindeer and dogs. 

We made reindeer food by combining oatmeal and assorted Christmas cookie sprinkles that we’ll put out on Christmas Eve.  There was a cute poem in my Itty Bitty Bookworm lesson plans that goes with the food.  I’ll read it to the kids before we put it out.

Joe made an adorable reindeer ornament for our tree using craft sticks, a brown marker, Elmer’s glue, a red pom pom, googly eyes, yarn and brown pipe cleaners.  He colored the craft sticks brown, then glued them together.  Next, he added eyes, a nose and antlers.  I helped him with the antlers, and I attached the yarn hanger on the back. 

Joe made a cookies for Santa plate after we read The Night Before Christmas.

He also made a simple Christmas stocking out of red construction paper, cotton balls and glitter glue.  This was his favorite craft of the week!  He could have used those glitter glue tubes all afternoon. 

We did workbook pages this week for Math and writing practice.  We didn’t do any Code lessons though.  We will begin with the next set of books, Explode the Code, in January.  We are still doing our daily Language Lessons. 

I can’t wait for all that I have planned for next week.  Then, we are taking off the last two weeks of the month totally!  No school at all!!!!  I can’t wait.  I hope I can really do it:-).  Of course, we’ll still craft.  Before homeschool we hardly ever crafted, now I can’t imagine not crafting with my kids!

Reindeer Sandwiches

Hanna and Joe have been begging me to do Muffin Tin Monday for them for weeks.  I feel so guilty for not doing it.  I saw these adorable reindeer sandwiches on my friend, Christy’s blog this morning.  I realized I had everything on hand to make them, so I made them today for part of their lunch. 
 
They were SO excited when they saw them—they even considered it to be Muffin Tin Monday because it was something fun and cute.


Now, I have a real  Muffin Tin idea to make for them this weekend!

Christmas Orange Pomanders

Tuesday night we watched one of our Christmas tradition movies—Christmas Oranges. This movie is originally a book. We’ve watched it for 5 years now, and each year I like it just as much as the first time I saw it. It is a touching story about an 8 year old orphan girl, Rose, and a Christmas she spends in an orphanage run by a mean spirited man. It is a story about true friendship, love and sharing. These children have nothing--no material possessions and no family, all they have is each other. Each year this movie reminds me of what is most important and how special each of my children are, and how much they all need unconditional love.


I have wanted to make Christmas Orange Pomanders for a couple years and just never have taken the time to do it. I thought it would be a great thing to do as a family after watching this movie. We gave it a try and I’m so glad we did. We all had fun making them. As we made our pomanders we listened to Christmas music and talked. It was a great family time.

Joe was so patient to put the cloves into his orange. He did about half of his and then Jamie finished it up:-). I was proud of him for getting as much done as he did. It was cute too, he kept saying, “These clovings sure take a long time to push in.”


Hanna did a great job on hers. She made another one yesterday for her room.


While I was editing pictures, as I looked at this one of Jamie, I totally saw Jack! Those chubby cheeks and that little pointed nose.


I hung our orange pomanders from the light in our dining room. They smell so good and look pretty too.


I know this is something we will do now each year after we watch this movie. I am glad to add another memory to our Christmas time together as a family.

Twas’ the Night Before Christmas Cookies for Santa Craft

My favorite Christmas book is The Night Before Christmas. Hanna started to love this book when she was almost three. She fell in love with it that year at Christmas time and the following year we ended up reading it almost all year long. Ever since, I have gotten us a different version/edition of this book each year.

This year I found the best edition of this book I’ve ever seen. I love it!

It is a hardback book that resembles a family photo album. Inside it is filled with all sorts of pull-outs and pop-ups such as a naughty/nice list, letter from Santa, history of Santa Claus, Santa traditions from around the world, recipes, crafts and so much more. The illustrations are beautiful. I know this will be a treasured book for us for years to come. The kids were so excited to see me pull it out and we enjoyed reading it together so much.

Joe made a really neat craft this week inspired by our Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum that goes along great with this book. A Cookies for Santa Plate. I used cookie cutters and cut out 3 gingerbread men from tan craft foam. I let Joe use glitter glue, beads, rhinestones and such to decorate the cookies. Next, I glued the finished cookies to a heavy duty red chinet plate and wrote on it with a black sharpie, “Cookies For Santa”. Joe loved decorating the cookies and he was tickled with the finished plate.

Santa Ornament Craft

This year we have made all of our new ornaments for our Christmas tree. The kids and I are having fun making a new one each week this month. Hanna made a really cute Santa ornament using a TP roll, flesh colored acrylic paint, white and pink pom poms, googly eyes, red and white felt, white streamer paper, red ribbon and hot glue.

She cut the TP roll in half and painted it flesh colored. While it dried she cut the streamer paper into fringed sections for Santa’s beard. She cut a semi-circle from the red felt to make the hat, and a long strip from the white felt to make the hat band. Next she glued the beard, googly eyes and pom pom nose to the TP roll. After that she assembled and glued the hat to the top of the TP roll. She used the red ribbon to tie off the top of the hat, and then finished it off with a white pom pom. So cute, and it only took her about half an hour!

I love having homemade ornaments on our tree. We have quite a few, many that I made when I was Hanna’s and Joe’s ages. I enjoy pulling them out each year and recalling the memories behind each one.

The Doorbell Rang

This week Joe's favorite activity from Itty Bitty Bookworm was cookie division based on the book The Doorbell Rang, by Pat Hutchins.

After reading this book about sharing cookies with guests that just don’t stop coming, I pulled out some paper cookies I had from one of our lapbooks, and had Joe divide them evenly among plates. Joe really enjoyed this activity, so much that we did it several days this week.

Besides our daily Code lessons and various workbooks, I had Joe use our magnets and cookie sheet for phonics and math. Using it for phonics he spelled words, made up his own words and filled in missing vowels in three letter words. He is still not reading on his own—he has no problems making words if I call them out or filling in missing vowels, however, he is still not at the point of reading a word that I write or show him. He will get there. I do not believe in pushing him. I did try and push Hanna when she was his age and it got me nowhere. I am pleased to say I have learned from this, and will not go this route with Joe.

For math Joe used the cookie sheet to make numbers that I called out, as well as doing basic addition equations. For example, I would put up 2+1= ?, then have Joe use manipulatives to find the answer and fill in the missing number in the equation. I am trying to get him used to understanding what the symbols in equations mean.

Joe read poetry and dictated several stories to me in our Language Lessons for Little Ones.

We had a great week of school. Not only did we get in learning, but we read so many fun books, made lots of Christmas crafts and decorated our home for Christmas as a family.

Snowman Ornament Craft

I love making homemade ornaments for our Christmas tree each year. Our tree is filled with sentimental ornaments that have been made over the years by my mom, my husband, our children and myself. My mom always got us new ornaments each year when we were kids, and now, she makes one for each grandchild. She gave me all of our family ornaments years ago—some are 36 years old—ornaments that began the collection the year she and my dad were married. Our Christmas ornaments hold special reminders for me of special times, special places, births of my babies—I love pulling out our ornaments every year. I also love making new ones. We have already made several new ornaments this year, and I hope to make several more.

Hanna and Joe both made a snowman ornament after we read several snowman books. We read:
What Do Snowmen Do At Night—this is one my mom gave to Joe two years ago, and it is one of our favorites now.


Snow Family—a story about a boy who creates a snow family to take care of each other the same way his family takes care of him. This is a very, very sweet book.


Snowballs—I love reading all books by Lois Ehlert.


The Biggest Snowman Ever—another of our favorites.


The Missing Mitten Mystery


To make our ornaments I bought a box of medium sized Christmas balls. I chose red. I had Hanna and Joe paint only their four fingers (not their thumbs) and top part of their palms with white acrylic paint. Next, they grabbed the ball as if holding it and made a partial handprint on it. After it dried they used various colored acrylic paints to give their snowmen hats, scarves, faces and arms.

Here is Hanna’s:


Here is Joe’s:


They turned out adorable! I love these, and love the fact that they are made with handprints. I already have them on our tree and we are enjoying looking at them along with our other ornaments that bring back so many memories and fun times we’ve had together.