Today I’m sharing with you some of the good things
that I have found.
I decided the month of December would be crazy
make up for lost time month in our homeschool. So Chipette is doing double math
lessons this month, while Magpie is blazing through her preschool curriculum
doing one letter a day instead of spending a week on it. Since I accelerated
the skill subjects, I decided to drop all of our extra subjects (aka the fun ones). This did not go over
well with the girls.
That same day what to my wandering eye should
appear on Pinterest but a pin to a website that tied holiday themed books with cute and easy crafts. With such fun at my fingertips, I knew in a moment my
girls would be thrilled.
So this week we've read two of the books and
completed their corresponding crafts. While this book/craft project is supposed
to be for Advent (I confess I did not know
what that was until I looked it up. And, yes, my husband is a preacher.),
what I love about it is that you can totally pick and choose which books you
want to do. I chose the books we would do based upon the craft that went with
it and availability at my local libraries. I didn't want anything too time
consuming or that I had to be permanent assistant, nor did I want to be hunting
down books.
I must say that our first two books and projects
turned out very, very well and the girls had a blast!!!
Book
#1
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Activity: Make paper snowflakes
After reading the book about this amazing man who
took pictures of snowflakes, the obvious craft is to make paper snowflakes. The
not-so-obvious craft is to use another pin that I found on Pinterest to make
snowflake ballerinas. When you have two dancers in the house, one of whom (Chipette) says that she will one day be
the prima ballerina for the New York City ballet, then making this craft was
perfect!
We got our ballerina template from here.
And I used the Usborne book, which had a couple of
pages devoted to paper cutting, to show the girls how to cut pretty snowflakes.
I pulled out some fun scrapbook paper to use as
our snowflakes/skirts.
We hung our icy dancers from the light above the
dining room table.
I must admit that the girls did a really wonderful
job and have continued to make snowflake after snowflake for days now!
Book
#2
TheTrees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco
Activity: Make tissue paper ornament silhouettes
After reading this book which is a true story from
the author’s childhood about her Jewish family helping the Christian families
in the neighborhood after they all get scarlet fever (Have tissues handy. It’s like a Hallmark commercial in a book.), we
made Christmas ornaments that resemble the wooden figures the grandfather
carves in the book.
We used black, bright blue, and red paper for our
ornaments.
I had two star punches in my scrapbook bag and
also a single hole punch to use. There was a Christmas tree punch somewhere in
the girls room, but of course no one could find it.
The templates for the ornaments can be found here.
Cut out the template and trace onto the paper of
your choice.
Punch holes into the ornaments, a few or a lot!
Glue tissue paper on the back so that it shows
through the holes.
Loop string through the top to hang.
I laminated ours so they would last because the girls
really loved the story and I knew that they would want to keep them.
Plus, they turned out really well!
Next week, I’ll share some more of our book/craft
activities, but definitely check out the Bella Dia website (This link takes you to the first eight books. Just click on the Christmas Book and Activity Advent tag at the bottom of the post to find the rest.) to peruse all the
book and craft options. Pick a few to do with your kids too!
Enjoying being the fun, Christmas mom in the tree
house,
Chelli
No comments:
Post a Comment