Homeschool Co-Op: Homemade Christmas Gifts

Our weekly co-op has done a great this semester in focusing on giving. The kids have done a great job giving this year with cards sent to the Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes and over 10 boxes full gifts for Operation Christmas Child.  In that spirit of giving this week we focused on homemade gifts for relatives and friends. 


Station 1- Clay decorations:

http://niccolaontuesday.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/3-tuesdays-till-christmas.html
http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2010/12/snowflake-christmas-tree-ornaments.html

• Rolling Pins
• Christmas Cookie Cutters
• Buttons
• Quick Drying Crayola clay
• Paint Brushes
• Paint
• 
  

Station 2- Ribbon Tree Christmas Card for Kids
http://blog.memetales.com/2012/12/ribbon-tree-christmas-card/

• Sheet of thick paper/card
• Curling Ribbon
• Star
• Tape
• Glue
• Scissors

Station 3- Christmas Shrinky Dinks (kids 7 and older)

 
Station 4-Thumbprint Reindeer Card
http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2010/12/dubien-family-la-thumbprint-reindeer.html

• paper
• brown paint
• brown marker
• googly eyes
• black and red construction paper
• glue
• scissors

The plan was to do each of the activities in stations with 3-6 kids at each station. Well that was the plan but the kids (as kids will do) split into their regular groups of close buddies. We had a mom at every table to hang out with the kids as well as help out. It went smoothly and everyone seemed to have fun. The boys did all the crafts and for those with boys you know getting them to do crafts is like pulling teeth. But boys being boys we got some interesting takes on traditional Christmas themes.

 Like these snowboarding robotic Cyclops reindeer.

Or these beautiful multicolored clay ornaments.

 My personal favorite was the Ninja Elf. As stated by my son " Because you need stealth to be an Elf."

It was a great day with great families whom we love.

Mini Unit Study: The Legend of the Candy Cane

We are doing a mini unit study on The Legend of the Candy Cane one of our favorite stories. But as always the major question is "How do they make that?"

We have found some nice supporting videos.

History Channel-Candy Cane


How Did They Do That- Candy Cane

Christmas Decor: Homemade Mantel and Fireplace

Mom,can we have a Christmas mantel like we did in our old house? Sure son. (Internal grimace.)

During our move the kid lost a backyard, sunny Decembers and his life long friends. We can not replace any of that but try to give a little Texas Christmas by giving him a mantel on a tight budget.

I felt like MacGyver minus the chewing gum. I had left over USPS boxes, brown butcher paper, a Wii Fit Board Box and the Family Fun Christmas book from the library.

My normally none crafty son was very pleased with the results.
In true boy fashion he had to take it up a notch. "Mom, can we make fake fire?" He runs to the Michael's bag and pulls out two flickering tea lights (battery operated) then places behind our fake logs. "Mom this is going to be AWESOME!" It is awesome.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday:Christmas Edition

Our first rolled out gluten free Christmas cookies.

The Twelve Days of Christmas in Washington, D.C.

As part of our holiday celebration we are reading "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Washington, D.C." by Candice Ransom. This is a great way for us to discover the city and start new family traditions.

So far we have done 5 of the 12 activities discussed in the book. Most of which have been free admission and loads of fun. However the blistering cold of the last couple of weeks have made each an adventure dressing for winter.

I have been having camera issues so most of the pictures will be borrowed from other sources on the web.

Some of our favorites are:

Zoolights at the National Zoo

A chilly Saturday morning visit to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The lobby has a beautiful glass floor with an amazing Christmas tree.

While there we visited the First Ladies at the Smithsonian exhibition. The gowns were wonderful and the space incredible.



My favorite dress. I loved it! The shoes were AWESOME!
Also on the display is the George Washington Statue from 1841. This was a different view of the first president. I personally did not care for it. Then Ironhide say "Look at your man, now look at your president" (reference the Old Spice commercial), I was well and truly done.




And of course the Ruby Slippers.


Our next adventure was on a cold and windy day to visit The White House and the famous squirrels at Lafayette Park.

The original black and gray squirrels where actual escapees from the zoo who found a home here in the park. These are the chubbiest squirrels I have ever seen. They have no fear of people and will come right up to you. When I did not feed them one actually stepped to block my way.

We were all in awe of The White House. It is beautiful sight.



And of course it would not be DC without the Washington Monument.
Well that is all for now.

Blessings,

Merry Christmas

Christmas Inspired Fine Motor Skills Crafts

Thanks to Jenny @ Little Acorn Treehouse, Laura @ My Montessori Journey and Carisa @ 1+1+1=1 with their wonderful holiday inspired plans we were able to keep some normalcy in our daily routine. Most of the plans I had for December FIAR were put on hold because we had issues with getting to the library due to family obligations.

Laura has great fine motor crafts which I tried to incorporate into our daily Advent type learning bags. (I found Laura from Angela @ Homeschooling the Chaotic Family.) Using information from Jenny and from a local homeschool mom of six I filled each bag with a daily lesson about something Christmas related as well as a craft. We then used Carisa's lapbook as a base for capture what we learned.

I tried to include at least two weekly fieldtrips but this became almost unmanageable because there was just so much to do in our area. I am sharing photos of some of our crafts. We have made so many crafts that we gave more than half to family and friends as gifts.

Also thank you all for you kind words of condolence. They really mean a lot. It was a very long and emotional weekend.