Truth in the Tinsel: The Christmas Story

This Christmas I wanted to share something special with Harmony.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to create a new "advent calendar" tradition or to just experience something unique and enlightening with her.  For the Holidays, my husband and I have decided that we want to teach patience, giving, sharing, and appreciation.  So much of these qualities diminish throughout the holiday season because we all get so caught up in gift giving and seasonal purchases.  It is too easy getting lost in the clutter and crowds, isn't it?  My goal is to establish the sense of loving our belongings that we have now, instead of constantly begging for more, and taking the time during this holiday season to have fellowship amongst our families.  Fellowship is something that always gets left on the back burner when it's the gifts and wrapping paper that should be.  Well, not literally of course! 

Our Snowflake Advent Tree that has "clues" on the back leading us to the next part of the story..



In my search of advent calendars and other family traditions, I kept hearing all of these wonderful things about this book called, "Truth in the Tinsel: An advent experience for little hands."  This book includes daily activities that share the story of Jesus and his birth, as well as an ornament a day to go along with each part of the story.  Although our household is by far a religious household, I want Harmony to experience The Christmas Story firsthand, rather than guessing or wondering what the differences between Baby Jesus and Santa Clause are. 

Day 1:  Candle Ornament: "The Light"

This book is an absolute depiction of the Christmas Story, detailed on explaining most of the story through the creation of a daily ornament.  Harmony and I have had fun making our ornaments.  It has been rather hard keeping her "involved" in the story long enough to really explain what everything means, as some of elements and passages read in the bible are not too accommodating for a younger child but we read the scripture's none the less and discussed what it is we think the meaning of it might be. 



Day 5:  Mary

So, what have we learned?  I figured if Harmony didn't take anything else away from this fun experience than at least I could use it as a moral lesson on teaching kindness, giving, forgiveness, and to appreciate what we have.  "We should share our spark and our light to the entire world."  This is something that we have been saying a lot in our house and I don't mind that positive encouragement and enlightenment one bit.  :)

If you're interested in doing it with us and thousands of others, feel free to stop by and get Amanda's book here.  I promise, it is not time consuming unless you want it to be nor is it tedious.  You can use the materials you have on hand to create your ornaments and spend as little to no time everyday before or after your kids go to school.  The book is beyond worth it!! 

Happy Holidays!

Candice S

Gobble Gobble

Happy, Early Thanksgiving!!  I am thankful for my beautiful kids and loving husband.  For our health, happiness, and the roof over our head.  I am thankful for so many things this year!

.. I wanted to share some of the fun that we've been crafting around in our house lately.  We've made hair bows, decorations, and have gone on nature walks to collect pine cones and rocks.

Simple Turkey Hair bow:  Ribbon, cheap $1.00 clips, hot glue gun, and some sequins.  :)  I've since made more to wear to Thanksgiving and NOT to the school playground ...

Fun Fall Wreath:  Harmony did this in school, but it's fun none-the-less!  Simple supplies are leaves, real or fake, ribbon, and a paper plate.

 This little festive guy is adorable!  Definitely one of my favorite crafts by far! 

 Hand Turkey's!  All you need is paper, crayons, and your little one's hand! 

This is a picture of our family.  :o)

 We made this cornucopia craft last year out of torn up construction paper.  Harmony really enjoyed tearing it and pasting it together.

 This turkey is our newest addition and was made with dollar store clothespins, paint, crayons, glitter, googly eyes, and lots of scrapbook paper.  Harmony is on a mission to find the perfect "girly" accessory to clip on her. 



I am looking forward to attempting more Thanksgiving themed activities over the weekend that I can't wait to share with you! 

Candice S

Linking to...

Bird and Sun Art (Inspired by Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed")

 Thee last month we have been working on learning about flowers so we have read so many brilliantly and beautifully written books that have inspired our preschool lessons and our craft time. 

We have re-read The Tiny Seed (World of Eric Carle) several times.  I adore the beautiful illustrations.  

I sat down this evening after putting the kids together and wanted to put some of my idea's to work.  The sun piece is actually very similar to what I saw Vanessa from Silly Eagle Book's put together.  I am still aw-struck by her stunning piece and her ability to portray images so uniquely as she selects them from her books. 

So, I decided it was time to get creative.  I took two mirrors that were purchased at a garage sale a couple years ago and cut scrap book paper to fit.  The bright pieces that I used in the sun image are from a magazine.  I also used scrapbook images to decorate the frames along with tempura paint.  My original idea was to spray paint the frame's red, but then decided it would be too much contrast.

So, what do you think?  :)  I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and I cannot wait to show Harmony in the AM!  I'm pretty sure she'll tell me that she is "impressed" .. Happy Friday!

Candice S.

I'm linking my bird art to...

Jumbo Toddler Crayons

The last time we made jumbo crayons was when Harmony was about 2 years old, so we have quite a bit of small piece of broken crayons that can be repurposed. 

Sort the crayons by color, or have your super smart/super sorter toddler/preschooler assist.

Take the paper off of each crayon.

Put in a muffin tin or mold.

Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes or until the crayon pieces have melted into one beautiful crayon!

I want to get some molds to make various shapes.  Any good idea's on where to get these molds from?

Have a rocking Tuesday!

Candice S.

Linking to: 

 Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative :)

Summer Family Fun Activities

Here are a few summer fun idea's that I have compiled together.  I plan on doing these with my family before Harmony starts school in August.  :)

1.  Play a game of hopscotch
2.  Have fun with ice cube painting
3.  Make puff paint
4.  Collect nature objects, rocks, twigs, flowers and place them into a display basket and use them for props or story time
5.  Make a nature book
6.  Blow bubbles
7.  Dance in the rain (a light drizzle- not recommended for dancing in thunderstorms! hehe)
8.  Go Hiking
9.  Go to the park
10.  Have a picnic!
11.  Camp out in your backyard
12.  Take a family bike ride
13.  Watch a movie under the stars (usually events like this are at your local theater, library, or within your community)
14.  Go to your local library and sign up for their children's programs- story time, family craft time, music, and art programs.
15.  Plant a garden or a tree
16.  Fly a kite
17.  Make homemade ice cream
18.  Make a puppet theater out of cardboard boxes
19.  Take a walk and explore your neighborhood
20.  Make homemade lemonade
21.  Eat lots of watermelon
22.  Start your own reading program.  Read a book a week with your kids to keep their minds fresh.
23.  Go to the beach
24.  Play in the water, pool, or water hose
25.  Start writing a pen pal
26.  Read a classic
27.  Go to your local flea market
28.  Make a sensory tub for your toddler/preschoolers:  You can make a garden sensory tub with seeds, soil, and a shovel.  :)

29.  Play tag outside your house and run aimlessly after each other (that's what we plan to do!)

30.  Have a family sleepover in your living room 

31.  Make homemade play dough

32.  Make smores

33.  Create a sun picture (place lemon juice on paper and place in sun)

34.  Use up your scraps from your art collection (example:  use extra broken crayons for making jumbo muffin tin crayons)
35.  Read the news
36.  Play a board game
37.  Play kickball
38.  Have a water balloon fight!
39.  Observe the clouds for rabbits, squirrels, and other fun shapes!
40.  Register for Lowe's or Home Depot's building program for kids (usually held on Saturdays and are completely FREE)
41.  Learn (or teach your child) how to jump rope, roller skate, or swim
42.  Make a sockpuppet
43.  Donate toys to your local charity
44.  Start a kids club for community clean up
45.  Play I-Spy
46.  Have a treasure or scavenger hunt
47.  Have a tea party
48.  Make tissues flowers
49.  Make a magazine holder
50.  Create a shadowbox
51.   Learn to sew
Most of all...stay safe, use sunscreen, and have fun!!

Candice S.

Linking To:

Color of the Rainbow: Preschool Schedule

051711 Preschool Week Rainbows

Click on the "Fullscreen" to see it in larger print.  Any questions, feel free to ask.  Most of my resources are included as hyperlinks, which I will have to test to see if they work for you.  Also, I will be posting on the crafts, projects, and videos that are utilized during the week as we learn!  :)  Stay tuned!

Candice

Elegant Tissue Paper Bouquet

I came across a brilliant post from Ms. Vanessa over at Silly Eagle Books, of a beautiful arrangement of tulips.  Vanessa portrays the amazing world of books, beautifully, and creates such unique crafts that allows a parent and child to portray the story in such a brilliant way.  Silly Eagle Books is inspiring, informative for new ideas for children/infant books, and beyond elogantly innovative.  You must check out her work! 

These are just a few pictures of our bouquet that was inspired by Vanessa's work.  I wanted to take a minute and share our's with you. 

 Harmony wanted to see "bugs" in her bouquet so we created a catepillar with dowels, pom pom's, googly eyes, and a pipe cleaner.

These make a perfect addition to our table.  The bouquet would also be a wonderful Mother's Day present!

Enjoy!

Candice

Easter Egg Counting Game

Our household has not had too many preschool activities going on.  I do apologize for not posting as often as I would like.  We are in the process of relocating and have started packing arts and crafts tools.  My husband and I also just started a small break from school so with all of these things in mind, I have slacked in maintaining Harmony's preschool schedule and sticking to it.  That being said, we are slowly getting back into the swing of things and will hopefully be creating some Earth Day, Easter, and Spring crafts and lesson plans within the next few weeks after we have successfully moved.  Until then, bare with our disarray of posts.

  Sorting, matching, color coding, or spelling- Harmony pretty much enjoys all of these things.  With this fun game, you can match the numbers to the eggs or you can have an egg hunt outdoors or indoors.  ..You can even just toss them all over your living room and have an egg party like our house did this afternoon. 

The possibilities are endless and enjoyable for children who are learning how to recognize numbers 1-18.

Happy Spring!

Candice S

Thumb Print Shamrocks :)

I know that they aren't perfect but they were fun!!  Harmony and I had fun making these thumb print shamrocks and St. Patty's Day decorations while Baby Brother was sleeping.  We used oil paint (huge no no apparently) because it wasn't coming out the way we wanted it so we decided to draw some.  The dollies made them look classy.  Love it!

Candice S

Lucky Ladybugs

My pretty princess has been begging me to create these with her for two days so we collected our rocks and Harmony led the way in illustrating our project.  Harmony and I started this project by painting the rocks red and then giving them their ladybug appearance.  I hot glued the pipe cleaners and googly eyes but you can use Elmer's Glue and I'm sure it will work just as well.. 
Didn't our Lucky Mommy and Daughter Ladybugs turn out adorable?  :) 

Candice S

February Sensory Box

Balloons

String and buttons (needle not included)

Art Toys

Pencil

Cookie Cutters 

Homemade Playdough 

Cupcake Liners

Confetti and Hot Pink Rice

Seashells for scooping

I wanted to share our sensory box with you.  I actually was running WAY behind on getting all of its contents together, seeing as its only a few days from Valentine's Day. 

Our sensory boxes usually end up with My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake Miniature Dolls, and other small gadgets that Harmony enjoys playing with.  It promotes fine motor function and coordination, as well as compliments imaginative qualities and artistic means.  I love it!

(Does anybody else end up picking up quite a bit of rice from all areas of YOUR house?.. hehe)

Happy Friday and Enjoy Your Weekend!!
Candice S.

Valentine's Paper Weight

Aren't they pretty?  They're paper weight's that Harmony and I made for Valentine's Day. 

Ingredients and Supplies:

Baby Food Jar

Corn Syrup

Food Coloring

Construction Paper

Mod Podge

Brush

Scrapbook Stuff

Hot Glue Gun

Total Time: 10 Minutes

I so love the fact that I found another great use for those baby food jars (and my husband LOVES to see them go!).  Fill the jar up with corn syrup, have your little one add a few drops of food coloring, and then stir away!  Mod Podge some construction paper (tray a larger lid for size) to cover the baby food jar lid.. and then add some jewels or accessories to spruce it up.  I also used some hot glue to seal the around the edge's of the lid so you can't remove it. 

On the label I wrote, "Your love weighs down my heart."  Super adorable and perfect inexpensive gifts for your loved ones!

Happy Early Valentine's Day!

Candice S.

I'm linking this to....

Reading List for February

Here's our nice fun pile of books that we are pursuing for this month!  Usually we keep our books anywhere between 1-2 weeks (an average of 12-20 books) and read most over and over again.  There are some books that are geared towards our thematic units for preschool, while other's we read a chapter or two on a daily basis.  

Charlotte's Web is a "big girl" book that Harmony and I have been reading during storytime in the day and in the evening before bed.  Although, as I read I ponder if the realistic farm life is a little too difficult for my little mini-me to grasp.  She's intrigued, none the less and loves hearing about Wilbur's adventures.  

Harmony loves the Fancy Nancy Series.  We recently checked out Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day (I Can Read Book 1) and Fancy Nancy at the Museum (I Can Read Book 1).  We have read almost all of the Fancy Nancy Books, and I cannot find one reason why every preschool girl who enjoys dress up and succumbing to the princess inside of them cannot enjoy the pleasurable experiences of these books.  

If You Give a Pig a Party (If You Give...)

Too Cute!  We have "If you give a pig a pancake"..It discusses the adventures of pigs and the "fun" ..and some trouble that come along with them.  Such a fun book!

Our thematic units for this week are birds and how to tell time.  I do not go strictly to every single aspect of our lessons having geared towards our "theme" but I do try to keep the direction pretty clear, as to not confuse us.  The following books will help us with coordinate with our lesson plans.

Little Red Hen Big Book

Grumpy Bird

My First Book of Time

Owl Moon

It's About Time! (MathStart 1)

Valentine's Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays)

The Graphic Alphabet (Caldecott Honor Book)

Little Wolf's Song

Arthur's Teacher Trouble (Arthur Adventure Series)

Charming Opal (Toot & Puddle)

Will You Still Love Me?

I can't wait to see how amazing these books are!  

..And last but not least.. Some awesome baby books that Mark Jr. and I have been enjoying from our own personal library.

Baby Faces (Look Baby! Books)

Pooh First Songs (A Play-A-Song Book)

One Bear in the Bedroom (Leap Frog Little Touch)

If you know of any great Valentine's Day books or more books on learning how to tell time, please share!!

Have a great Wednesday!

Candice S.