Advent Calendar

So because our move was a complicated one, we lived with family for the entire month of December with our entire life in a storage unit . . . Including our Christmas decorations which included our advent calendar.  So I used what we did have (large pad of white paper, construction paper and a marker) and made this advent calendar with my daughter.  I cut out 24 rectangles with different colours and then my daughter made the pattern.  Once she was ready, I wrote on the back of each rectangle and then glued lightly the top of each card.  Every day, the kids ripped off the special activity and we were off.

For the most part, we stuck with Christmas themed activities like visiting Santa at the mall and eating a red and green supper.  We also wanted to use this as an opportunity for the kids to say goodbye to their old city and go places and see people that we knew they would miss, so we enjoyed some suppers with friends and swimming at the local swimming pool.

Here are a few other things that we did . . .

Wrote letters to Santa 

Made a gingerbread house

Decorated the Christmas tree

Went to Chuck E Cheese

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter!


Hope you are all enjoying the holiday with your family!

St Patricks Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!


Last week we talked all about the colour green and St. Patrick's Day!  I love these "holiday" type themes because they get my little guy really excited about upcoming events!  We always decorate the house for the holidays and special days, so that is always a part of our weekly adventures, even if I don't always take pictures of it.

Math: I found Build a Shamrock Activity printable and created a counting game for my little guy.  He is learning how to identify groups of items without counting and he can do so up to 3 so far.  This activity also helped him with his one to one correspondence of numbers, which just means counting a dot and saying a number.  Sounds easy enough to us, but it's a tough skill to learn and a lot of little ones struggle with it.  This activity ALSO works on identifying numerals.  For older children, you could adapt by using tally marks, roman numerals, ten frames, etc.  The list goes on and on!

Cooking: Our snack this week was very simple, but involved measuring and mixing of colours.  We made some instant pudding and then talked about mixing colours.  What makes green?  So we experimented first with water and once we found what made green, we added blue and yellow to the pudding and mixed!

Literacy: My son LOVED this activity when we did it a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would bring it back with green paint for the holiday.  If you missed it last time, check it out.  He is practicing his printing and drawing skills in a whole new way . . . and it's not messy!

Art: Now this activity was not quite as clean as the last one.  We just did some very basic fingerpainting with black (our colour of the week) and green (for St. Patrick's Day).  I use a shower curtain from the Dollar Store to cover the table and the just wipe it off and reuse again and again.  I like it better than a sheet or newspaper because it is washable and stays on better.  Less wasteful as well.

Literacy: Letter recognition at it's finest!  Playing a game of BINGO.  Check out all the printables (dominos, BINGO, flashcards, memory games, etc.) at the MES English website.  I used old letter magnets as my call letters.  There are also lowercase BINGO sheets as well if that is what you are looking for.

Last but not least, the super fun St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt!  This year St. Patrick's Day falls on a Monday, so I wanted this activity to be quick and to the point so that we had time in the morning.  I plan on leaving the first note (on the left) downstairs for the kids to find.  My daughter can read it and they can find what they need then I will give them the second note.  There will be a laundry basket in the living room full of towels for them to fold and at the bottom will be a bowl of treasure!  I plan on working on my sons sorting skills during the day and then when my daughter gets home, she can practice her adding and math skills before we take it to the bank for cash.  BEST way to get rid of all those unwanted coins in mommy's piggy bank.

Home Made Valentines

1. Find the Valentines to print out here!  What a great template!  Black and White or Colour available!

2. Find some glow sticks from the Dollar Store.

3. Cut out the Valentines and hole punch where the circles are

4. Put the other child's name on the line and sign your name on the back!

Super easy, super cheap and lots of fun!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from my family to yours!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Our house is decorated and have been waiting for this day for a while now!
We always get pumpkins from my grandma who still grows them in her garden on the farm.  The kids love Thanksgiving because that means that the pumpkins are ready and we get to bring some home!

Last year my husband helped me make these cute Haloween blocks!  You can go to this website to get the printables and to get the dimensions for each of the blocks.  It's really simple.
1. Cut the 2x4 to the correct dimensions.
2. Paint each of the blocks what ever colour you wish.  I painted mine orange and black.
3. Print off the letters from the website above (or I'm sure you could make your own) and them out.
4. Once the paint is dried, use Modge Podge to glue the paper letters onto each of the blocks.
VOILA!  You're done!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

Fall is here and our house is decorated!

 

 

Leaves, vase and the orange/brown sticks from the Dollar Store

 

Subway art from this site, AUTUMN blocks bought on clearance last year

 

Orange/brown sticks, fake berries and jars from the Dollar Store.  Play sand from the kids sand table (bought at Walmart in the summer)

 

Close up look at the berries and sand

 

More Subway Art from this site, pumpkins/squash and vase from the Dollar Store

 

Found this idea on Pinterest!

 

Frame: Walmart
Click here for the FALL Printable
Leaves: Dollar Store

 

Canada Day

I know it's a little late, but Happy Canada Day everyone!  And I guess a Happy 4th of July to our neighbours today!  We spent the day at the park with the kids taking in the celebrations.  It was SO hot out, I think we only stayed about 90 minutes.  But that night, we did go back for the fireworks with my parents, aunt, uncle and cousin - it was the best light show ever!  Mixed fireworks and lightning - intense lightning - I was glad to be in the vehicle/house once the storm REALLY got started.

Mothers Day 2012 Presents

Our Story:
Mothers Day this year was a little bitter sweet.  We lost my grandmother last summer to cancer and so this is our first Mother's Day we've had to spend without her.  Plus, her birthday was May 9th, so it was always such a special time of year.  I know that my mom was going to be having a rough time, so I also knew that the only gift she would want would be to be surrounded by her family.  I made her this frame just as a little note to let her know how much she means to me - and my family.  She loves homemade things and she loves cute little sayings, so I knew it would be perfect for her.  We didn't get to celebrate Mothers Day with a supper until this week, and I know she's on here every now and again and I wanted this to be a surprise, so that's why this post is a little later getting up!

To actually print this, I had planned on sending it to Staples Print Center.  However, I could not for the life of me to get that black background.  Whether the black just didn't show in the preview or what, I wasn't going to risk sending it and wasting my money.  So I just changed it up and printed it from home.  Here is the final product!

Also, my kids made me plants this year for mothers day at preschool and daycare.  I ended up with three of the best flowers ever!  I shared them with my mom and my grandma, so now each of us has one.  Here is a picture of one of the flowers I got from my kids this year!  I love the Croc idea!  Coincidentally, I made it with my preschool class as well.  Super fun and cheap because you can get the crocs from the Dollar Store.

Mothers Day 2012

Happy Mothers Day to all of your Mom's out there!  Relax, take a bath and order in supper - don't do anything, cause I know I'm sure not!

Easter 2012 - Part Two

Original Posts: Easter 2012 Part One

Our Story:
Activity #1: String Egg
This was a complete failure.  The website tells you how to roll the balloon and wrap string around it, but does not give you the recipe for the liquid starch that they used.  At the bottom in the comments it says you have to buy it.  I thought I would look up a recipe online and use that.  Well, that didn't work AT ALL!  I have since then found a different recipe/activity on Pinterest (same idea) and I plan on doing that next Easter.  Because I think it would be a lot of fun!  But oh well, we learn from our mistakes.  Some things work and some things don't.  Whatever you do - don't mix cornstarch and water - or maybe we just didn't use enough cornstarch.

Activity #2: Family Fun Eggs
This was an activity that I made some changes to, but I liked the idea of decorating an egg with the kids.  So I cut out an oval from cardstock and each of the kids made their own egg.  My son used markers and made a beautiful rainbow any my daughter (from strips of construction paper) cut out small squares and made a collage.  It was wonderful!

Activity #3 and #4 (S'Mores and Paint Chip Eggs) we didn't do because of lack of time.  This is a busy time of year.  But we did do some egg dying with the kids.  Just regular colour on the eggs and then dye them.  And we also did some wax eggs.  First we shredded the crayons (use the big side of the shredder) and then we added boiling water to each cup.  The water melted the wax and then we dipped the eggs in and brought them up through the melted wax.  They turned out really neat, but I'm not going to lie - they were a pain to make - especially shredding the crayons.

And at the end of the day, we left out an egg and a cup of milk for the Easter Bunny (we were GOING to leave grass but old mother nature wouldn't allow us to with the 10 inches of snow we got the night before).  The next morning, the kids had fun on their indoor easter egg hunt and couldn't wait to get to Easter Supper with the family!

Easter 2012 - Part One

Original Posts: The Boutiqe Girls, Eclectic Recipes, Family Fun, Sweet Designs, Subway Art

Our Story:
We took down the St. Patrick Day decorations last week and brought out the Easter Decorations that we have.  The bunny family was made for us last year by my grandma, she loves doing that kind of art, she has made us many things!  And the decals - well, they're just from the Dollar Store!  Last week we just used decorations that we already had in the house - plus we printed off an Easter Page for the 8x10 frame downstairs.  I have put my web address across it a couple times, just because I don't want people copying the picture from me (it's not the best quality PLUS it's not mine), so I recommend going to my Pinterest Boards (Easter) and finding it there - it was uploaded by the user and there is a link above!

Once the house was decorated (see pictures below) it was time to get some ideas for the next couple weeks!  The ideas above are the ones that my daughter chose from my Pinterest Board and we will be doing them in the couple weeks leading up to Easter.  She's very excited!

St. Patricks Day 2012

Original Posts: Secrets of a Super Mommy, Lesout, Chicka Bug

Our Story:
Normally, we don't do much for St. Patricks Day.  Maybe dress the kids in green and have some green milk.  Or make shamrock sugar cookies.  But this year, it's on a Saturday and for some odd reason, my daughter is SO excited for it.  So I have come up with a little plan for the day and I'm kind of excited about it this year!  Mainly for the kids, but still excited!

Of course, first things first, we must wear green!  Everyone!

Our day will start out with a special breakfast - I haven't decided which yet - but either some Lucky Charms or some green pancakes.  We have both things in the house, so it will be a matter of how much work I feel like doing!  And while at the Dollar Store, my daughter found these plates that she wanted, so everything will be served on special plates - hey, just means no dishes for me!

After breakfast, we will do a scavenger hunt!  I bought this foam shamrock shapes that I will write all the clues on and at the end will be a pot of gold treasure!

For lunch we will have green kabobs.  Different foods (probably mostly fruits and veggies unless I can dye some other foods green) on sticks - the kids will love it!  Or to make it a little easier on myself, I may switch it up and go the way of the Rainbow kabob.

After lunch we have some shamrock painting planned!  Green paint and peppers cut in half.  What a great idea!

And before bed: a green bubble bath!

I'm really looking forward to this fun day with the kids!

Valentines Day #2 2012

Original Post: Craft Gossip, Danielle's Place

Our Story:
Finally we decorated the whole house for Valentines Day PLUS we made (most) of the our Valentines for our friends!

The valentines were a lot of fun.  I cut out the hearts, my daughter wrote her friends names on the hearts, plus her name and then she glued on two feathers with a glue stick.  Afterwards, I wrote the saying in the middle.  On the example one, she wrote the word "FRIEND" on top and "ME" on the bottom.

Verdict:
This project was great for two reasons!
1. I've never made valentines before, but it was lots of fun and I can't wait to do it next year!
2. My daughter has never been better at writing the letters in the alphabet!  She did it ALL herself and I've never been prouder!