Christmas Advent Activities 2012

It's my most favorite time of the year! I adore Christmas time where everything seems more magical! This year, we are have quite a few fun things planned. There are more than twenty-five, but some we will do on the same day! Here is just some of the fun we will be having this Christmas season: (italics are the ones completed)

1. Decorate the Christmas tree 
2. Play in a Christmas sensory bin 
3. Bake Christmas cookies
4. Build a gingerbread house
5. Welcome our elf 
6. Host a Christmas themed play date
7. Make salt dough ornaments 
8. Go to a light parade 
9. Walk around and enjoy Christmas lights
10. Make reindeer food
11. Play with Grinch Goo
12.Make ice cream cone trees
13. Play with gingerbread play dough
14. Drive around, look at Christmas lights, and drink hot chocolate
15. Attend a special event at a local attraction
16. Sing and dance to Christmas carols
17. Have a Christmas movie night
18. Make a reindeer hat
19. Make and decorate Christmas trees in the bath tub
20. Play with candy cane paint
21.Have a special Christmas eve party at grandparent's house
22. Wear Christmas socks
23.Go to a festival of lights
24. Dress up in a Santa hat and take pictures!
25. Make a cinnamon snowflake as a yummy snack
26. Leave out cookies for Santa
27. Make shape Santas
28. Read Christmas books before bedtime

Dot Painting

This past week we read a book called The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. It is about a girl whose art teacher tells her she must put something on her paper at the end of class. She makes a tiny dot. The next class, she comes back to find that the teacher has framed that tiny dot. The little girl thinks she can do better and soon she has a gallery full of all different types of dots. 

After reading the book, I asked Logan if he would like to make some dots. Using pipettes and liquid watercolor, Logan squeezed all different colors and size dots onto his paper. 

Soon, he too had a gallery of dots of all kinds.

We hung them on the fridge once they had dried. I always enjoy finding ways to extend the reading of books. It is way to expand the experience of reading the book. In this case, it allowed Logan to experiment with dots the same way the main character did. This activity really made the story seem relevant and come to life. I find that doing activities like this do not take much time to set up, but help to solidify Logan's love of reading.

Beautiful

I must admit, I don't like having pictures of myself. For a while, I found myself avoiding the camera. I was always with my kiddo, but I was always behind the camera. 

 Then I realized, that it didn't matter if I didn't feel beautiful, my little guy deserved to have lots of pictures with his mom.

 He thinks I'm beautiful just the way I am.

 I think he is completely great too. Our relationship is beautiful.

.And that is what I want to remember.

Gift Guide Advice from a Four Year Old

These next couple of weeks, just for fun, I am going to share a couple of different gift guides. It is a departure of sorts from the usual business around here, but since we are busy writing letters to Santa, I figured I would share. 

First up this week, here are just some of the things my kiddo requested from the man in the red suit. 

1. Music! Logan has a wide variety of likes when it comes to music. He loves everything from Katy Perry to Bob Marley. He also adores all sorts of kids music. One album I won't mind playing during car rides is The Fresh Beat Band, Volume 2. We have seen them in concert twice. The tunes are catchy, and you might find yourself humming their songs!

2. Playmobil- The kiddo is on a horse kick. He adores anything pony, horse, or unicorn related. I really like how detailed Playmobil toys are and they can provide for hours of pretend play. There is a gigantic selection of toys and you are very likely to find a toy that sparks your child's interest. 

3. Squishy Baff- Any type of sensory play is always a win with the kiddo. He's hoping for the pink version, since it's his favorite color and pink makes everything better times a thousand. 

4. Horses, horses and more horses! As I mentioned before, Logan adores horses. If he had his way, Santa would be bringing him a real horse, but I'm afraid that might be too big for Santa's sleigh and our yard. Instead, he is requesting the Melissa and Doug horse stable, and to add to his collection of My Little Ponies. 

5. New building stuff. My little guy loves to build with blocks. I love the versatility of the toy as they can truly be anything you want, but he doesn't have enough for his elaborate building plans these days.

6. Hot Wheels- My kiddo developed a very sudden interest in Hot Wheels. He has a couple of wall tracks that he received for his birthday, but he would like to have some that he could build himself and bring to places when we visit. 

7. Littlest Pet Shop- My little guy adores animals, and he can play all day long with his Littlest Pet Shop toys. He is always adding these to his sensory bins and play dough play. These little toys make a great stocking stuffer. 

Other things that are still hot ticket items for my guy are anything Smurf or Minnie related, books, and art supplies.

 What toys are your kids wishing for these days?

Spaghetti Painting

Do you ever have plain left over spaghetti? I always over estimate how much uncooked spaghetti I will need and I end up with a pasta explosion. Rather than chuck the spaghetti or let it sit in my fridge for a couple of days, and then throw it away, I decided to set up a painting experience for Logan. I simply used the squeeze bottles of paint and squished some into the bowls and swirled it around. 

I thought Logan would be timid at first, but he dug right in and placed the spaghetti on the paper. At first he carefully placed a few strands here or there, but by the end he was grabbing handfuls and squishing the pasta down onto the paper.

He made numerous prints and each one was unique. Next time I think we will use this technique to make our own wrapping paper. 

Stuff my kid says #23

Logan: Mom, when you come back in from taking Teddy outside, we can talk about how much I love you!

Pumpkin Face Game

Halloween's over, but we can still talk about pumpkins, right? On Halloween, Logan had a friend over and they played a game to create these jack-o-lanterns. They simply grabbed an eye, nose, or mouth out of the bucket and then glued it onto their pumpkin. 

For some reason they each chose a pumpkin and stuck with it. You could also play the game so that they can stick a feature on any pumpkin or complete one pumpkin at a time.

Some came out quite silly, and the kids loved the game!