Christmas

Earlier this month I was asked to speak at our local MOPS group about Christmas with young children. While I was praying about what to say, two words came to mind: Purposeful and Intentional. Being Purposeful and Intentional During the Christmas Season There’s a lot vying for our attention during the holiday season. It’s so […]

Are you wondering what you can do to make Christmas enjoyable (and build cherished memories) for your family? Here are some cool ideas for how you can celebrate Christmas with your kids. Whatever you choose to do, remember to have fun and enjoy spending time together as a family. Decorate the Tree Together One of […]

I have been setting aside games, puzzles, craft ideas and recipes that I would like to do with my children, or have available for my kids to use during the Christmas season. One activity that I have on hand are Christmas I Spy Bottles. I have several versions made ahead of time that I can […]

It’s never too early to be thinking about Christmas, especially about the reason my family celebrates Christmas—celebrating the birth of a king. Every year I like to add special Christmas books to our Christmas book box. One of our newer books is A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker. A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker Summary: […]

I have so many wonderful childhood Christmas memories. When I became a parent, I started looking for ways to create Christmas memories and traditions with my children. One thing we have done through the years is have a birthday cake for Jesus. This year we’re going to kick it up a notch and have a […]

Here is an easy craft that goes along perfectly with the Happy Birthday Jesus theme. “Light of the World” candle holders are able to be completed quickly and also reinforce the gospel story. Materials: gumdrops white Lifesavers birthday candles white glue plastic knife Procedure: 1. Place a birthday candle in the top of the gumdrop. […]

It’s only a few days until Christmas. Here is a simple easy gift you can make in no time at all, and it makes a great stocking stuffer or just a small gift for a friend. Here I will show you a simple  way to make sugar scrubs. First you will need to gather the […]

This Christmas season we will be doing Truth in the Tinsel advent with my 3 girls ages 7 – 3.  This morning my older daughter and I worked on getting the supplies ready for the month. I know that if I don’t have the craft supplies on hand then it won’t get done. For some […]

One tradition we have during the holidays is to read a Christmas book each day in December. Over the years we have added to our collection, but we still have our favorites. One of our favorites is Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Using Picture Books During Christmas: Song of the Stars I cherish […]

It is now a family tradition to pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child! My children look forward to purchasing, picking out what to put in the boxes, and packing them! Did you know that National Collection week is Nov. 18-25? You still have time to gather supplies and plan a party! For our 2013 boxes, […]

As I mentioned, for our “school” we are doing various art projects. Right now we are working through the Christmas/winter chalk pastels tutorials from HodgePodge. Today we worked on creating a fireplace. After doing these art projects, I realize that I need to get at least one more set of chalk pastels. The girls are […]

I have been envious of Tricia from HodgePodge for awhile. You see, her mom comes over and teaches her grandkids how to use chalk pastels. How cool is that? An in-house art teacher! You see I have great intentions of teaching art to my kids, but never seem to get around to it in a […]

We are on day 3 of Truth in the Tinsel for Advent. I love the simplicity! We are doing the daily devotions plus printable ornaments. There is an option to make crafts, but for this year, we’re going with what is easiest for us. In order to keep the ornaments straight, I am storing them […]

The Nativity:  the story of Jesus birth described in Matthew 1:18-2:12 and Luke 2:1-21. I remember when I was a child, my mom had a porcelain nativity set that we set on top of the t.v. It was a fragile set so we couldn’t play with it, but it was one Christmas decoration that we […]

I’m just a wee bit preoccupied this Christmas season. I’m in my third trimester of pregnancy, and though I feel pretty good, there are limitations on my energy and patience right now. Add to that a couple of emotionally-draining situations, I find I’m running on empty way too often. Going all-out and celebrating the holidays […]

This coming week I’ll be gathering our Christmas books together to get ready for our annual Christmas-book-a-day tradition starting in December. We have a mixture of Jesus-focused books and other fun Christmas-themed books. Here’s a list of some of our Christ in Christmas books for toddlers and PreK: Don’t forget to stop by the Christmas […]

This week is Operation Christmas Child Drop-Off Week! Gather your boxes, pack them in the car and drop them off at the nearest location! Thanks to all my local friends– I have 74 boxes to drop off this week!  Today our Children’s Church helped pack over 60 of them! When the children arrived at class, […]

I know, Thanksgiving hasn’t even come around yet and here I am talking about Christmas. This post is for those who like to plan ahead. I occasionally fall into that category. 😉 Christmas Books for Preschoolers: Last year I did a series on Christmas books and activities for preschoolers. Most of the books were geared […]

This past week a local  group of Girl Scouts invited me to come to their Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party. They had decided to do boxes for girls their own age. The first thing they did was sort through the gifts and divide by type– school supplies, hygiene, toys etc.   I brought the […]

As I expected, my little girls have loved smelling the stickers in The Sweet Smell of Christmas book. I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid. I thought it would be a great idea to mix the scratch-and-sniff idea along with our Names of Jesus advent chain study. So I gathered supplies […]

Today’s book is What is Christmas? by Michelle Medlock Adams. I picked up this board book as a way to discuss various Christmas traditions with my young children. Summary: Using rhyming patterns and colorful illustrations, this book shares various Christmas traditions such as putting up a Christmas tree, seeing Christmas plays, Santa Claus–but are those […]

Today’s book is Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Though not a traditional Christmas book, this book fits in the season by explaining abstract terms and vocabulary often used during the holidays. Summary: Who knew that baking cookies could lead to explaining abstract holiday vocabulary? Ms. Rosenthal uses the theme of baking to define words […]

Today’s book is The Donkey’s Christmas Song by Nancy Tafuri. Summary: A shy, little donkey is afraid that his bray is too loud and will scare the little babe in the manger. All the other animals welcome the little one with their song. Finally the babe looks at the donkey. The donkey lets out his […]

There are so many fun activities and studies to do at this time of the year that it can be a little overwhelming to choose. So for our Christmas studies this year, I’ve picked easy-to-implement activities that focus on Jesus. We learn a name of Jesus each day via our advent chain, we usually read […]

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is another family favorite. This picture book has a message applicable to all ages. When I read this to my children, all of them ages 3-13 were engaged with the story. Summary: Mr. Gloomy Toomey as the children called him, was a sad, grouchy man. He was however, the […]

Today’s book is The First Christmas by John Wilkie illustrated by Jodie McCallum. This is an iPad app book by PicPocket Books. Summary: Written from the perspective of Mary’s donkey, the rhyming text tells about Christ’s birth. It starts on the journey Mary and Joseph had to take to Bethlehem and ends with the visit […]

Today’s Book is The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree by Mike and Jan Berenstain. We read this book on our iPad but you can also purchase a traditional copy. Summary: A cute lift-the-flap book perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. The Berenstain Bears work together to decorate their Christmas tree. The traditional book and the Trim […]

I just think the illustrations in Christmas in the Manger  (afflink)are too cute! This sturdy and cute board book is perfect for babies through preschool and was our book of the day. Summary: The simple, rhyming text and cute illustrations are a perfect way to share the Christmas story with very young children. First the […]

I fell in love with Humphrey as soon as I saw his face on the cover of Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Heyer. Something about his smile and eyes just drew me in. When I finally read the book, I was so glad I picked up this book for our Christmas book reading. This story […]

The first book starting off our Christmas book reading is Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I purposely picked this book to be our first book of the season, which we will read on Dec. 1st. Summary: All of creation is filled with anticipation of the coming newborn king. The woodland creatures stirred, the […]

Yesterday I mentioned how I worked on a new Christmas book system for my family to use this year. I liked the surprise element of wrapping books, but I don’t like to wrap. I also have a hard time doing a specific activity for 25 days straight. Some days we like to read through 3 […]

I remember my favorite Christmas book when I was a child. My brother and I would fight take turns scratching the smelly sticker on the page. Anyone remember which book I’m talking about? The Sweet Smell of Christmas  (afflink) is a cute book that brings back many memories for me as a child. Though it […]

  I know, I know I just posted about Thanksgiving sneaking up on me and here I am writing about Christmas! Yes, I am currently working on Christmas posts. I wanted to share this one early just in case you are planning some of your December activities already. I have wanted to go over the […]

This Christmas season we’ve been reading books from our Christmas book box and doing activities relating to the books. One book I had been eyeing was Little Star by Anthony DeStefano. I received this book to review and it was a perfect way to end out holiday celebration. Summary: Little Star, often over-looked and ignored, […]

We did a hodge-podge of Christmas and learning activities this week and had lots of fun. Grandma came over and brought cookies for the kids to decorate.  More frosting made it into her tummy than onto the cookies {grin}. The little ones used craft sticks to spread the frosting on their cookies. And this is […]

My Birthday, Jesus’ Birthday by Holly Davis – (afflink) Summary:  This book shows children how Jesus’ birth was very similar to theirs—and yet very different.  Children are drawn to the colorful illustrations as they see why Jesus birthday is so special. This week we made a “Happy Birthday Jesus” banner to hang on our wall. It […]

Book Read Today:  Baby Jesus by McGraw Hill Songs we learned:  Away in the Manger and Luke 2:11 from Songs for Saplings I told the girls that they could open a gift today. Inside the green gift-box were mini nativity figurines (See myCHRISTmas Toddler Nativity Box for more details.)   I ended up putting two […]

Wow! It’s December already! This month we’re taking things easy and centering our fun and learning activities around Christmas. Books we read this week:  Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck; God’s Christmas Gift by Nell Navillus, The Mitten by Jan Brett Songs we learned:  Away in the Manger and Luke 2:11 from Songs for […]

We’ve done a Jesse Tree in the past, but after reading Ann Voskamp’s beautifully written Jesse Tree devotional, I knew we needed to do it again this year. The Jesse Tree represents the family tree of Jesus. It tells the story of God’s salvation plan, starting in Genesis and continuing through the Old Testament to […]

I’ve been printing, cutting, laminating and organizing toddler and preschool CHRISTmas activities to start next week. I thought I’d share some of my prep. work just in case you’d like to get some of these activities ready too. I laminated these print-outs from Confessions of a Homeschooler with my Xyron 900. I have found that […]

I mentioned in a previous post that I was thinking about how I wanted to share the meaning of Christmas with my toddler and preschooler this year. I’ve decided to do CHRISTmas Tot school and have our own CHRISTmas Tot school box of activities (actually it will be several boxes!) I put together our nativity […]

I’m starting to think about how I want to share the meaning of Christmas with my little ones. I’ve decided to create a CHRISTmas Tot School box for them for the month. In the box will be Christ-focused Christmas books, learning activities, creative activities and songs.   I went ahead and made a couple of […]

1. Printable Advent Paper Chains. 2.  Snowman cards to color with a Christian twist. Also check the link out for other snowman printables. 3.   The Old Schoolhouse 2010 Holiday Supplement: Lots of articles, recipes, and more!  4.  Printable Nativity cards 5. Free Christmas Around the World Unit and  Lapbook 6. Lots of J is […]

(This is a post from last year that I thought would be appropriate to highlight again.) Week 1: Sharing Organizational Tips I made this Family Traditions notebook several years ago. My goal was to plan special family times throughout the year. Some were the big holidays— Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Birthdays. I also had planned […]

This post has been updated! See A Christmas Prayer for book ideas and activities.

This past weekend my family attended an event called “Imagine Christmas.” It was put on by my parent’s church. All around the church there were different stations. There was a spectacular music presentation by a choir, orchestra and dancers. There were small ensembles serenading visitors with Christmas carols. There were cookies and hot chocolate, cake […]

This month I added a bunch of new blogs to my blog reader. One blog was Bake at 350. She recently posted how she made her own sugar scrubs. They looked wonderful and it didn’t look too hard to make. So two of my friends and I got together to this week to mix up […]

We’ve been busy around here—lots of pictures on my camera waiting to be uploaded. Tomorrow our homeschool co-op will be making Christmas cards for a local nursing home. I inherited a bunch of already folded blue cardstock (big blessing!) so I made a snowman cover and poem to cut out and place on the front […]

This is one of my favorite recent photos of my youngest DD. It felt good to finally scrap a page. A couple of ladies invited me to scrap while they worked on quilts today. It was nice to be able to get out of the house and have some time to talk with other adults […]

I meant to mention this earlier, but I wanted to remind everyone that there is a free Christmas Around the World unit available at Homeschool Share. It is huge! We will only be spending a week on it as an overview, but you could spend the whole month learning about how other countries celebrate (or […]

Today my 11yr. old daughter is posting for me. One of her assignments this week was to write a “how to…” article. Since she loves to cook, she picked out a new recipe to try. She took all the photos, uploaded everything and did the whole post herself. It was a win-win situation for me. […]

Today was the first day that we removed a link off our Advent Chain. The theme for today was sharing. The verses read were John 3:1-21. God shared his son with us even though he knew we’d hurt him and turn our backs on him. God shared his son as a gift to us with […]

Last year I hosted a craft and cookie party at my house for my older daughter and her friends. I wanted my daughter to be able to hang out with her friends and create something that they could give away to neighbors. The craft and cookie party ended up working fabulously! Materials:cookie totes or shirt […]

Last year a group of ladies from the Designer Digitals creative team collaborated on a cookie recipe album. We each designed a digital layout of our favorite Christmas cookie recipe and compiled the pages into a photo-book. The book is gorgeous! I handed several out as Christmas/hostess gifts last year and they were so well-received. […]

One Christmas craft that my family has done in the past was to create a paper chain to keep track of the days until Christmas. The paper train had 25 links and each day the children removed one link. Well, my friend Cassie, yes the same one with the IKEA sheves for the workboxes, sent […]

This week I am featuring Christmas crafts that help tell the story of the Savior’s birth, or have some significance in making your Christmas meaningful. Several years ago my children made Jesse Tree ornaments for our tree. A Jesse Tree or Jesus Tree, has ornaments that retell the story of Jesus’ family tree. The picture […]

One childhood Christmas memory I have is of me laying under the Christmas tree,watching the bubble lights bubble, while playing with a plastic canvas train set. My brother and I would take turns rearranging all the houses and the trains while under the tree. It was a Christmas decoration that we could use over and […]

One of my favorite December traditions is our Christmas book box. Each year I try to purchase a couple new Christmas books to add to our collection. On December 1st, I pull out all our holiday books, place them in a special box, and the children pick one to read each day. We don’t quite […]

This post contains all the links from our 2009 Making Christmas Meaningful series on Spell Outloud. I have always said that I won’t think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I like to handle one holiday at a time. Well guess what, I’m talking and thinking about Christmas and it is only November 1st! December is […]

There are so many people whom I have never met who have helped me with my homeschool journey. They are the people who have created unit studies, lapbooks, forms, link lists etc. and shared freely. So when one site, Homeschool Share , announced their Blast contest, I knew that I wanted to join in order […]