Through The Year in Foot Prints: February

I love Valentine’s Day , though we don’t celebrate in the most traditional way. I love my husband very much but for our family Valentine’s Day has become a great reminder to celebrate the love we share as a family and the love of God with others. The children enjoy making and sending cards to various friends and relatives, we give away candy to various folks that we see throughout the day (postal workers, sanitation workers, etc), and over all just try to share love and joy. We also eat ice cream sundaes for lunch but that is a story for a different day.

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That made choosing this month’s craft super easy for me. I loved the idea of being able to make several of these and send out for Valentine’s Day and so I decided to use his feet to make a simple heart that we could send out to the grandparents, as well as keeping one here. There are many variations on this craft that involve poems or sayings and other decorations. You can keep it simple like the one we did or spend a bit more time dressing them up. I will share links below to several of those projects to give you some ideas if you wanted to add to the craft project.

Supplies:

White Cardstock

Red or Pink Paint

Markers

Instructions:

I simply put red paint onto a plate, dipped the baby’s foot into the plate and pressed it onto the cardstock at a slight angle, then I repeated with the other foot creating a heart. I then drew a heart around the footprints and added his name, year, and a Valentine’s greeting. You could cut out the heart, add a poem, or even frame it as shown in some of the links below but we thought that keeping it simple was best for our purposes. My four year old wanted to paint with us as well so he tried a hand print heart. The feet did a little better at making the shape but he had a blast and I think it still turned out cute.

I hope you enjoy this craft. I would love for you to share your finished projects or ideas with us!

Links to Similar Ideas:

Framed Picture

Salt dough foot print heart

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

What’s Coming Up in February?

I know people have been talking about how long January was (and some days sure felt long) but the month seems to have flown by for us. We took a big field trip/ mini-vacation to Myrtle Beach to visit WonderWorks and Medieval Times, we made good progress on our school goals, Matthew got his 4-H pig for this year, and I finished reading two books.

What is Happening in February at Schoolin' Swag_

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I completed Becoming Mom Strong by Heidi St. John and Just Open the Door by Jen Schmidt in January. Both of these book are books that I would recommend reading. Becoming Mom Strong gives solid parenting encouragement with a Biblical background and stance. Just Open the Door is a book full of advice about Biblical hospitality. It gives practical ways to show hospitality both formally and informally. I loved how she included a variety of ways and simple ideas to help make your whole family demonstrate hospitality.

I am excited about what February will be bringing. My preschooler who has been begging for more school work has the opportunity to try two new programs, Dimensions Math and Homeschool Complete for which I’ll be sharing complete reviews. My older children are also hard at work on a few reviews including the newest Heirloom Audio, Victus Study Skills, and some great novels.

February is full of small holidays which can add a fun change to the day to day. I hear many say that they start to feel burned out in February between the cold and the after effects of the holidays. Spending just a little time to enjoy holidays like Groundhogs Day, Presidents Day, and Valentine’s Day can bring a bit of refreshment to your homeschool.

I am also very excited to be getting ready to start a blogging through the alphabet group. Stay tuned next week for details and more information but I am excited to be sharing a new post in that series each week with you.

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It has been awhile since our last online book study because of the baby and then the hurricane, but I am excited to be jumping back in with Girls’ Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendships in a Lonely World. I have had the privilege of previewing the first three chapters and the full book arrived in the mail this week! I’m excited to finish reading it soon!

For the most part we were enjoying our curriculum choices from the beginning of the year but time constraints caused me to switch a few things up. I’m still working on tweaking our new schedule but I hope to share that with you over the next few weeks. If you want to see what we started off with you can check out my posts about preschool, fifth grade, and seventh grade.

All in all February is shaping up to be a busy but fun month. I am looking forward to checking out all of these new programs and sharing them with you, my wonderful readers. I also joined Pinterest though I’m just getting started. I would love to have you follow me there. What is happening at your house this month?

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Kids in the Kitchen: Knife Skills

When people watch my children in the kitchen, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “Aren’t you worried about them using a knife?”. While safety is very important and we are always reminding them to use their knives safely, I do not worry because we have spent the time upfront to make sure that they have the knife skills they need to safely do the job. There are a few keys to good knife skills for children that will help them be able to use knives appropriately in the kitchen.

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Choose the Right Knife for the Job

This is one area that is challenging for a lot of parents. How do you choose the right knife for the child and the job? First, we need to understand that ‘dull knives’ are not the solution. This particularly applies to knives that are supposed to be sharp but are not and in cutting things that do not cut easily. If you are trying to cut something with a dull knife you are more likely to slip and cut yourself.

When we start our children with a knife (somewhere around 2 or 3 depending on the child and their interest/development) we start with a butter knife and a lettuce knife. While a butter knife is not a particularly sharp knife, it is not designed to be sharp, and is used to cut things that are soft and easily sliced. This works great for soft fruits and cutting up veggies on their dinner plates. For harder vegetables and fruits that need a sharper knife you can use a lettuce knife. I love these knives because they will cut right through many foods but will not cut your child. As soon as we introduce them to these knives we begin instruction so that they learn to use the knives properly and safely.

As they get older and begin to use regular kitchen and chef’s knives, we make sure they are kept clean and sharpened. You want them to be able to slice what they are cutting and not feel like they have to ‘hack’ at it. It is also beneficial to choose knives that fit well in their hands so that they are able to handle them comfortably. My two older children both received a Sabatier-K chef’s knife for Christmas a couple of years ago that works very well for them. It is a high quality but reasonably priced knife that fits well in their hands. We purchased ours from their outlet store but they are also available on Amazon. At 11 and 12 they can both do any cutting that is required for the meals that they cook.

knife skills pintrest

Quality Instruction

Instruction is vital to good knife skills. While a young child’s fine motor skills may not allow for perfect knife skills in the beginning, you do not want bad habits to develop. For older children or if you need a little refresher yourself, Alton Brown has an episode titled American Slicer that can help with knife skills.

You want to make sure they learn to curl their fingers under and away from the knife, to have a good surface to cut on, to cut or peel away from their bodies, and to be aware of what is around them as they are cutting (make sure baby’s hand isn’t on the cutting board, etc). They need to learn not to run with the knife, to carry it point down like a pair of scissors, and not to swing it around like a toy.

When you begin teaching about knives it is important that young children understand that they may only use the knife with permission and under supervision. As they get older they can be allowed more freedom.

Practice

It is really important that we give them opportunities to practice. It can often seem easier and certainly quicker to just take care of it ourselves. However, giving them multiple opportunities to practice will help grow their skills and confidence. Like many life skills the more they practice the easier it will become, just be sure to continue to monitor for safety until you are confident that they are consistently using the appropriate safety measures.

Teaching children to use knives can feel scary at first but it is a life skill that is so very important. Accidents do happen, but proper training and experience greatly decreases the risk! I highly encourage you to take the time to teach them well and enjoy the shared time in the kitchen. What kitchen skills are you wanting to teach your children?

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Deals and Freebies

Starting August 31st all of Evan Moor’s Daily Practice titles will be on sale 20% off!

Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

If you are looking to add some new electives or switch up some of your classes, SchoolhouseTeachers.comis having a great sale, that is over 400 courses to use with all of your children for one low price.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Happy Birthday AA Milne

Growing up we did not have satellite or cable television, but my aunt and grandmother both had a satellite dish (you know, the big ones that looked like UFOs). When I went over to their house, I loved watching the television show Welcome to Pooh Corner.

I have so many fond memories, and when my children were old enough, I was excited to share the characters of Winnie the Pooh and his friends with them as well. The show is no longer available, but the books that inspired them are a great place to start.

happy birthday aa milne

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Happy Birthday A. A. Milne

January 18th is the birthday of the man who created the wonderful imaginary world of Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne. What better way to celebrate his life than to read some of his wonderful stories.

There are several different books and collections written about the bear and his friends. I have included links to those in the resources list for your convince. If you do not have any of them, several of them are less than $2 on Kindle or Audible.

In addition to the stories that he wrote, we really enjoy the book Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear. (As of this posting, the book is only $1.71 on Audible, but prices are subject to change.) This book is a great story about the bear that inspired the Winnie the Pooh stories, as well as an introduction to World War I. It is a picture book, but even my older children enjoy it.

Art and Food Ideas

If you want to do something a little different, you could try a new recipe with honey (Pooh’s favorite food). You could also try this free Winnie the Pooh art lesson by the wonderful folks at You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels.

If your children are a little older, you could also watch the new Christopher Robin Movie, I have not yet seen it, but it does have good reviews on plugged-in.

I hope you have a chance to study AA Milne and his wonderful books. Winnie the Pooh is such an enjoyable addition to any childhood and a great way to revisit memories of when you were younger.

I had a $5 credit on Audible and a lot of errands to run today, so for less than $1, I picked up The House at Pooh Corner, and we will be listening while we ride.

Take a few minutes today and read a book, listen to a story, draw a picture, or try a new recipe. Who was your favorite character from the 100 Acre Wood?

Winnie the Pooh Resources

Free Art Lesson

Winnie the Pooh (only .99 on Kindle)

Audible Dramatization of Winnie the Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner

Now We Are Six

Finding Winnie

Christopher Robin Movie

Pooh’s Library

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When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library; we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.

This is a great resource for lots of amazing printable materials from pre-k to 12th grade and they are offering 40% of lifetime access.

My Snowman Paul is Free on Kindle, and many others in the series are less than $1.

Are you looking for a free Bible study that your whole family can enjoy? The Proverbial Homemaker is offering up a study that is FREE for a limited time.

A Fun Winter Art Lesson and What It Reminded Me About Flexibility.

We have been using You Are An Artist Chalk Pastel lessons for several years now and I really enjoy the ease of use, the fact that my children can do them independently, and the flexibility that they offer. They did these adorable winter bird chalk pastel paintings this week which are now proudly displayed in our kitchen.

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The Problem

A few months ago my oldest son who normally loved art and drawing was starting to resist doing the lessons and I was not sure what was going on. He is a preteen and can be a bit moody as is typical of boys his age so I did not know if it was the program or just him testing the waters and pushing his boundaries. As we talked more I realized that he was frustrated with the bit of mess that can be caused by regular chalk pastels.

The Simple Solution

My other two children that participate in the lessons do not mind the bit of mess, that is easily cleaned up with a baby wipe. I first tried letting him use his colored pencils and while he enjoyed that more, it was harder to get the same effects as the pastels with regular colored pencils but then I found Chalk Pastel Pencils! You get the neatness of colored pencils (no chalk pastels on your fingers) but the ability to blend and create the effects of chalk pastels. He received a pack of these pencils for Christmas and is once again excited about participating in his art lessons.

Lessons Learned

When I thought about the effects of that relatively simple change, I realized that there are many areas of our home school that might be positively affected by small changes. If your child is not enjoying or performing well in a particular area, you may not need to go all out and completely change curriculum (though sometimes that is the right solution).

For example they need to do that subject during a different time of day, or they prefer reading in a comfy pod chair instead of their desk. When we have problems it is a good idea to look for those little changes that can make things work more smoothly. I would love to have you share with me what you are doing in art or what little changes have made your school days run more smoothly.

winter artand a lesson onflexibility!

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Deals and Freebies!

Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

If you are looking to add some new electives or switch up some of your classes, SchoolhouseTeachers.comis having a great sale on over 400 courses to use with all of your children for one low price.

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Pack with reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Apologia has a new FREE Christmas/Advent E-book!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Smartick (check out our full review here) is offering a 25% off discount if you use this referral link! Elizabeth is still loving this program.

Foot Prints Across the Year

20190102_131204 — I thought this turned out adorable but in hindsight I would not use a black background.

Children grow up so fast and it really is true that the ‘days are long but the years are short’. As the mother of a 12 year old I can tell you that the years fly by and I’m sure that will become even more a reality as he continues to grow up and gets ready to leave home. I am blessed to have four children ages 12, 10, 4, and 10 months and I want to make sure that I utilize the perspective that comes from having older children to really enjoy the moments with all of them. This doesn’t mean that every moment is going to be fun or that I’m going to be any less exhausted (teething anyone?) but I want to make sure that I capture the memories while they are at each new stage. *Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Why Keep Track of His Footprints?

When my oldest was a baby I thought I would always remember with vivid clarity each moment, each new accomplishment, each different stage, but time has a way of making some of those memories quite blurry. I think this is especially true for busy moms that have so much going on with just keeping the house running and making sure everyone is clean and fed. I wanted to be intentional about watching the baby grow up even in the midst of the hustle and bustle so I decided to create a keepsake each month that would remind me how much he was growing.

How Do Footprints Through the Year Work?

Each month I’m going to do a foot print project that goes along with the month/season and at the end of the year I will have a fun collection and be able to see how much his tiny feet grew over the course of a year. My four year old LOVES anything related to paint so he will probably also participate although I don’t expect to see as much of a dramatic difference in the size of his prints. I may use his hands instead of his feet. I had originally thought about using hands for both of them, but attempting to make a hand print using the 10 month old taught me that it was not the best plan.

20190101_155201 — The hand print did not turn out well as he did not want to relax his hand.

I hope to be able to create some kind of book or keepsake at the end of the year to commemorate the growth. While you have the paint out and the children messy you can even create a duplicate project that you can send to grandparents or other relatives that might enjoy the keepsake.

January’s Footprint Project

For January I found this footprint snowman that was super easy to complete. For the baby I just helped him make his foot print and then I finished the project. I let my four year old see the example of this cute snowman project using a hand print and he loved the idea. However, I made the mistake of leaving him alone with his hand print and his new paint sticks and the results were not quite was I was expecting. We may try again later this month with a little more guidance. 20190101_165356

If painting isn’t the right fit for you, you could do some other fun craft, a series of pictures, or a program like Qeepsake which sends you a question each day to answer and create a journal of memories. I hope this post encourages you to have fun capturing memories of the hectic but wonderful time when your children are small and growing and changing rapidly. I would love to hear your ideas in the comments for how you record those memories and mementos. foot prints across the year pintrest

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When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on. Resource Library This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.

This is a great resource for lots of amazing printable materials from pre-k to 12th grade and they are offering 40% of lifetime access. My Snowman Paul is Free on Kindle and many others in the series are less than $1.

Be Still and Be Present: Week 4

James 1:17

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James 1:17 probably is not the first verse that comes to mind when you think of the Christmas season. Most people thing of the story of the birth of Jesus as told by Luke or Matthew. However, during this time of gift giving and receiving it can be so easy to lose sight of the true gift of the season. Sure we know that Jesus is the reason we celebrate, but do we really live that out both in our hearts and our actions?

I want to spend the next week really focusing on all of the gifts and blessings that are in my life. We celebrate not just because Jesus was born but because he died for our salvation. No matter the stresses and frustrations of today, the gifts not yet wrapped, the child who is sick, the dinner that isn’t going to cook itself, the house that still needs to be cleaned; we celebrate because Jesus became flesh and was born to a virgin in order to die for our sins. When I put things into proper perspective there is so much for which to be thankful and joyful.

For many of us the next few days will be busy and it may seem that we do not have time to ‘be still’ but I encourage you to try very hard to carve out a bit of time each day to focus on Him. Sing hymns as you travel to visit family, read the story of the birth of Christ together on Christmas morning before you open gifts, pray over each person with whom you exchange gifts. You may not be able to hide away and have thirty minutes of uninterrupted time but you can still take a few minutes to focus on the reason that we celebrate.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17 (NIV)

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Sometimes our best laid plans just don’t happen. We had some fun times and did some great things this week, but other things did not go according to plan. On Friday my four year old woke up with a fever. This is never a good thing but was made worse by the fact that Friday was supposed to be a fun day out with friends. After much deliberation on my part, he stayed home with my husband and I took the other three to meet up with our friends. This time of year can be hectic and it was nice to spend an afternoon hanging out with friends and enjoying fellowship with no obligations. We tried a new burger place, had some yummy cupcakes, and then spent a couple of hours at the aquarium where most of us have memberships.

It would have been very easy to decide not to spend the day with our friends due to all the things on my to-do list. I could have said that I was too busy to go and no one would have argued with me, but sometimes we need to put the lists aside and just spend time with our people. My first priority in ‘be present’ is my family, but I also need to take the time to pour into my friendships as well. Friday we were able to ‘be present’ not only as a family but with our friends.

We have not yet done our graham cracker nativity scenes because I want to wait until my son feels better so that we can do them together. We did do some more puppets because he has decided he is really into the puppets. Another activity that we did this week with our 4H club was a five senses activity with these blooming tea balls. It was fun for all ages and simple to do. It is also easy to adapt for one child or a group of children. I simply unwrapped one of the tea balls and had them look at it, feel it, smell it, and listen to it. Then we dropped it into a pitcher of very hot water and they watched it bloom. Once it had steeped they were able to taste it. It would make for a nice low key activity this week after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

If you didn’t finish all the fun crafts and activities that you wanted to do, do not despair Tuesday is only the first day of Christmas. I have found that the days following Christmas often bring a slower more relaxed pace and we can enjoy those activities without the pressure of long to-do lists hanging over our heads.

Take some time this week and ‘be present’ with your immediate family and if you can with extended family. If you are not close enough to visit for the holidays maybe you can spend time with neighbors or use technology to virtually visit those that live far away. Take the time to bake the cookies, get on the floor and play with the new toys, read the book, or just sit and chat.

How are doing with this challenge? I pray that it has blessed you and brought you closer to God and your family. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. While this challenge may be wrapping up, it is my hope that you will continue the habits of ‘being still and being present‘ into the New Year.

Be Present Resources:

Blooming Tea

Free Printable Nativity Coloring Pages

Hands on As We Grow (If you have young kids and struggle to come up with easy activities to do with them, this maybe a great resource for you. She has some free challenges, e-books, and a membership plan full of great activities that are easy to implement.)

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Deals and Freebies!

Amazon is doing it again! $5 off $20 Book Purchase. Use Code GIFTBOOK18. If you aren’t sure what book to buy you might want to check out this new book by Sally Clarkson that is on pre-order right now: Girls’ Club.

Exciting news from All About Learning Press this week! They are coming out with a full color edition of levels 1-4 All About Reading and to celebrate they are hosting a $1,000 giveaway! We use All About Spelling and are hoping to use All About Reading next year with my son who will be in Kindergarten.

My Snowman Paul is Free on Kindle and many others in the series are less than $1.

Crafting with Noodles!

We had some fun with noodles this past week and I wanted to share in case you were looking for a fun easy activity to do with your children. I did this activity with my four year old in mind but my ten year old joined in and had lots of fun as well.

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I chose this activity in part because we had all of the supplies on hand and it would be easy for the four year old to do with minimal help. He loves anything that involves paint and had been wanting to make some decorations to go on the small Christmas tree in his room.

First we chose our paint colors. Since we were looking for a Christmas theme we did red, green, and white. We split the noodles into three bags and put a squirt of paint into each bag (one red, one green, one white). Then, close the bags up and gently move the noodles around in the paint until they are fully covered. Next, spread the noodles on a cookie sheet to dry. We chose to cover the cookie sheet in parchment paper for easy clean up, but old newspaper would work as well.

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It took a couple hours for them to be fully dry. If you have little ones that take a nap or rest in the afternoon you can paint the noodles in the morning and let them know they can finish their project after rest time as an incentive.

Once the noodles are dry you can get creative with them. We were stringing them to make a garland for my son’s Christmas tree. He wanted to do a simple green, red, white pattern. I tied the first one onto the end of the string to keep the others from falling off and then let him go to work. He enjoyed stringing them on but did get a little bored towards the end, so I agreed to help him string them as long as he was giving me the colors in the pattern. When he was done, I tied the last noodle to the other end of the string and we had a garland for his tree. He wrapped it around his tree and was quite pleased with this work.

While we did Christmas tree garland, you could also use these to decorate a mantle or window, small sections of yarn to make necklaces or bracelets, or have them removable to practice a variety of patterns or color recognition. If you have extra painted noodles left over just stick them in a Ziploc bag until you are ready to do another activity.

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What fun and simple crafts have you been doing with your children?

Supplies:

A variety of washable paints

Ziploc Bags (1 for each color of paint)

Noodles (can be different kinds but need to have a hole in the middle)

Yarn or String

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Deals and Freebies!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Packwith reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Apologia has a new FREE Christmas/Advent E-book!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Smartick (check out our full review here) is offering a 25% off discount if you use this referral link! Elizabeth is still loving this program.

Be Still and Be Present: Week 3

Joy

Some weeks ‘Be Still’ is much harder than others. It felt like last week was a lot of ‘go, go, go’. It was a really busy week for us as a family, with our business, and our church volunteer obligations. However, I’m pleased to say that my goal of being still didn’t just ‘disappear’ out the window as it has in the past when things got too busy. Using the app on my phone to do my devotional and spare minutes here and there to be intentional about prayer meant that I was able to spend some time focused on Jesus each day.

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Sometimes I think God uses a variety of ways to reinforce that which he is teaching us. This week he used the lesson I was teaching to our middle school students to reinforce that focuses on Jesus in this season is the key to true joy. When I focus on myself and what I want or need it is easy to be disappointed. Maybe we didn’t get to do some fun activity I wanted to do, maybe I’m not going on a cool vacation like my friends, maybe money is tight and I don’t put everything under the tree that I would have wanted. If I am focused on me those things are disappointing and frustrating, but if I turn my focus to Jesus it is much easier to be joyful over what I do have, eternal life, because he came as a baby to grow up and die for my sins. When our focus is on what we have because of Jesus the joy flows naturally. It may not erase all of our problems but it will bring joy to our hearts.

Over the past couple of weeks we have focused on peace but this week I want to focus on joy! John 15:11 tells is that our joy may be full in Him and I want us to hold on to that promise this week and focus on Jesus and the joy he brings. You may still have sadness or grief in your life, there still may be stress and frustration, but if we focus on Him there will also be great joy.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

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We had a lot of fun this week as I was intentional about ‘being present’. Some things were small and some a bit more time consuming but all time well spent. We had the privilege of stopping at two large light displays this week on our way home from a field trip. The first one we rode though and enjoyed but the second one you can get out and walk through. The baby was asleep so it was just me and my three older children. We all enjoyed it, but the excitement that my four year old had for the experience was amazing. I have seen these lights every year for the past 12 years and while I always enjoy them I had forgotten just how amazing they are to those that are not familiar with them. My four year old had forgotten being able to walk through them last year and was absolutely enthralled, running for display to display squealing with joy. Looking at those lights through his eyes brought me to a new appreciation of that great display and I loved making those memories with the children.

I mentioned last week that my four year old wanted to do a puppet show. I had planned on printing out puppets and doing a show with him. I found these cute printable Christmas puppets and we colored them but then he and his siblings decided to change things up a bit. They ended up using some nativity masks that we have and doing a show together depicting the nativity story. It was cute and hilarious.

Another fun and easy project that we did this week was making Christmas tree garland out of noodles and paint. It was so easy because we simply put noodles and paint into ziploc bags to cover them, let the paint dry on the noodles, and then the children could put them onto a long string to make a garland. Check the blog later this week for a quick tutorial of this fun activity.

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I used to have grand plans and dreams of us baking and creating our own gingerbread house. I’ve come to realize that in this stage of our lives that just is not going to happen. My oldest has an intolerance for food dye and so we cannot use most commercial kits. Some years I get a chance to go to Trader Joe’s and pick up a kit that he can eat but with the closest one being two hours away that does not always happen. Luckily I have found a variety of tutorials for cute little graham cracker nativity scenes that are lots of fun, easy to make, and I can accommodate his food restrictions. This is one of the family activities that I hope to do this week. I will link to a couple of different ideas for these in the resources below.

We are also going to spend some time this week making cards together to give to friends and neighbors. I have already sent out our ‘official’ Christmas cards but I know it will be fun for us to share homemade cards with some people that are close to us and a good time for us to spend crafting together. We can all work on them and spend some time talking and listening to Christmas music while we work.

How are doing with this challenge? I would love to hear about the progress you are making or the challenges that you are having so that I can try to help you overcome those. I pray that this challenge is bringing you closer to God and your family.

Be Present Resources:

Edible Nativity Scene

Another Simple Version

Gingerbread Nativity

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Christmas Traditions: Cousins and Cookies

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Christmas elicits so many emotions, both positive and negative. Our goal as family during this season is to create many fun memories without going overboard and adding to the stress and overwhelm; all the while keeping our eyes on Jesus. Our family culture values time spent together and with those we love and we especially tend to gravitate towards that during the holiday season.

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Two years ago we decided that we wanted to do something fun with my children and my cousins’ children. We didn’t set out to start a tradition, just give the kids a chance to play and us a chance to visit and enjoy each other’s company. However, we did it again this year and decided that it was so much fun it needs to be an annual tradition.

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Most of our family lives with-in about a 45 minute radius of each other but we also have a cousin and her precious son that are many hours away. We try to schedule the cookie party when everyone can come but that is not always an option. If all of our little ones can make it we have eight children four and under. This can make for an exciting but messy event.

We always get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas for dinner and visiting but we really wanted an event that focused on the children and let them play and have a good time together. I originally thought about having them bake cookies together but quickly decided that might be a bit too much. If you have older children or fewer children, baking cookies might be a lot of fun. I let my four year old and ten year old help me bake the cookies the day before and my ten year old make the homemade icing.

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On the day of the cookie party everyone gathered at my mom’s house, (hers is closer to most of the family). First we let the children play outside and burn off a little energy. Then we brought them inside and let each of them choose one of our cream cheese cut out cookies to decorate. We had paper plates to put them on, plastic knives to spread the icing, and a variety of sprinkles and colored sugar to finish them off. My son is allergic to food dye so we made most of our own using India Tree natural colors.

Once they decorated their cookies they either ate their cookies or decorated other cookies for the adults in the room. It was really messy, there was probably some double dipping, but they had so much fun. There were smiles and giggles and lots of proud faces showing off their creations.

We did a quick craft using foam shapes and stickers, thanks to an inexpensive kit from Hobby Lobby. Then we finished up the party with pizza and fruit. It was several hours well spent making memories. Aside from making the cookies the day before (and you could buy them in you wanted) there was very little preparation time and the only costs were the food and the $5 I spent on the craft kit. Sometimes it can feel like you spend so much time and energy on something and it is over in no time and not really worth this hassle, this event felt very low stress and my son is still talking about it over a week later.

You might not have a gaggle of young cousins that need to get together but this party could easily be adapted for different groups. You could invite friends, neighbors, or even a Sunday School class to attend your party. If you have older children, the children could actually bake the cookies and maybe even donate some of them to a local nursing home or fire department. When the children are a little older (i.e. have a bit longer attention spans), I want to add reading the book The Gift of the Christmas Cookie to the tradition. I already read it at home but thought it would be a little too much for the youngest ones to sit through.

I hope I have inspired you to add a cookie party to your list of fun Christmas traditions. If you have tried something similar or have other fun traditions that you would like to share with us please let us know in the comments. Stay tuned next week for more on another Christmas tradition, my daughter’s Christmas tea.