Christmas Tree "I Spy" Jars

The girls love The Little Christmas Tree which was their book of the day on December 4th.


Our super fun and simple activity to go along with this book was to make Christmas tree "I Spy" jars.


To make the I Spy jars, we filled glass tree jars with green split peas and Christmas buttons and/or miniature ornaments (with the strings taken off).  Before putting the buttons/ornaments in the jars, I took a pictures of the objects so we would know what to search for.  We've had a lot of fun twisting and turning the jars to find the tiny objects hidden inside!

This original jar is an old one that my mom gave me last year (I had this idea then, but waited until this year to actually do it).  The gift jars came from Walmart.  The miniature ornaments and Christmas buttons came from Michael's.

The girls and I had fun making these fun jars for their friends and cousins.  I decided to not glue the jars shut because I thought people might want to change the objects out or use the jars in some other way.  I'm pretty sure this was a mistake because the tops come off the jars fairly easily, and we've already had a couple of spills at my house.  At least the girls will get lots of sweeping practice :)

The Night Before Christmas- Day 17

The Night Before Christmas was our book of the day on December 17.  Both girls love this book, and we have several versions of it. I think they'll probably have it memorized soon!

The go-along activity was making Santa and reindeer puppets from 2 kits that I bought a few years ago.


Both girls LOVED making the puppets, and E(3) has had fun playing with them and "talking" them ever since!

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Felt Gingerbread Village with Playmobil Guests

I love our felt gingerbread village (that I made when O was 2...I think). Typically, the girls don't love it nearly as much as I do, but they have had fun incorporating their Christmas playmobil figures into the village!









E(3) especially loves to set up "scenes" and spends a lot of time playing with all things tiny and pretend :)

Christmas Waterbeads Sensory Bin

The girls and I had fun putting together a sensory bin full of red waterbeads, bowls, spoons, and bottles.  They had a great time playing with it!


E(3) loved using measuring spoons to put the waterbeads in a bottle!


I love this kind of activity, and luckily, the girls do, too!  (Btw, I planned to have red AND green waterbeads, but all of the green waterbeads turned red while they were growing!)

Cookie Count - Day 11

Cookie Count by Robert Sabuda was our book of the day for Dec. 11.  This book is always a favorite, and the last pop-up of a gingerbread house is the inspiration for the go-along activity.


As the go-along activity, we built and decorated a gingerbread village!  As I've mentioned in past years, I like to buy gingerbread cottage kits after Christmas (when the are 75% off), so that when we build them the girls are not tempted to sneak and eat the candy and icing (and I only pay about 2 dollars for the whole kit...candy, icing, cookies, and all!).  I love that we can concentrate on being creative and having fun building and decorating without the temptation of eating the candy.  The girls had no problem with this AT ALL (surprisingly), but Elliott was disappointed that the candy was too old to eat.  (He made me promise to never buy old gingerbread house kits again because he wants to eat the house next time...we'll see).





To us, these houses are beautiful!





Being able to spend a Tuesday morning building and decorating gingerbread cottages, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to Christmas music really makes me appreciate the flexibility of homeschooling and of Elliott's flexible work schedule!

Jolly Old Santa Claus - Day 12

Jolly Old Santa Claus was our book of the day on Dec. 12th.  I was very sick on this day, so we didn't read the book or do the activity until the next day.  Luckily, I'd put a playmobil Santa Claus in  the bag with the book, so setting up the Santa and angel and playing with it was a perfect independent activity for the girls while their sick mama wallowed in misery :)


The go-along activity for this book was making a felt Santa Christmas ornament.  I bought this craft kit from Michael's last year after Christmas ....so it was about 75% off the original price...my kind of sale!

The girls really enjoyed making their Santa ornaments.  O(6) was determined to make her Santa look EXACTLY like the picture on the package, and she did a great job!


E(3) was adamant that Santa's beard was actually his hair.  She was also certain that his eyes were his eyebrows, and the holly berries were his eyes.  I love her creative version of Santa!

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