December Activities: Week 2

December 9: Make paper snowflakes. An annual favorite, Little Fish was able to participate this year too. I put one less fold in the papers for his so he had fewer layers to cut through (I find it goes much more smoothly if I fold a bunch ahead of time), but it was still kind of tricky for him, being brand new to the scissor scene, and he only did a couple. Beeper and I experimented with zig-zag scissors, but the ones we have are cheap and were difficult to get through so many layers. The results were very pretty, though, and the zig-zags made doing tree-shapes fairly easy.

Beeper also played with the roll-a-snowman game we made a couple of years ago.

Book: Frosty (old Golden Books version)

Advent: Donkey (sing, "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem") Beeper let Little Fish check the pocket that day, and after he had taken out the donkey, he ran to me with it and said excitedly, "I puyyed out a pony!"

December 10: I woke Beeper up around 5:30 to see the lunar eclipse. For the next half hour we would go outside for a minute or two, then come inside for several minutes to warm up, then go outside again to see how much more of the moon was in shadow. Then we drank a lot of hot chocolate to really warm up. Our official activity for the day was to play some of the folder games I made last year. Most of them were more suited to Little Fish's level this time. They included:

Christmas Tree Board Game (the only one Beeper was really interested in)
Candy Cane Color Match
Cookie Shape Matching

Book: Santa and the Christ Child (this is one of firebirdluver's favorites)

Advent: Baby Jesus (Luke 2:7)

December 11: Dominoes to play after church

Book: The Best Christmas Hunt Ever (I thought it would make a good quiet book for church)

Advent: Cow/Ox (sing "Away in a Manger")





December 12: Decorate Tree. Yes, because of our crazy schedule at the beginning of the month, it took us halfway through the month to decorate the tree. Every day until then, Beeper asked when we were going to put it up.

Book: Merry Christmas Curious George (one of Beeper's favorites)

Advent: Shepherd (sing "Angels We Have Heard on High")

December 13: Nutcracker Day. The other thing Beeper most looks forward to every year is getting out the nutcrackers. We put the big ones around the tree to guard the presents and village (all safe behind a gate so Baloo can't get at them). I also printed out the image from here, and Beeper spent a lot of the day drawing nutcrackers. We were able to listen to much of the music this year, which I had downloaded as part of this album. (hooray for the digital age)

Special Day with Daddy for Little Fish - We started the special days with Mama and Daddy last year with Beeper, and this year Little Fish got to jump on board. His whole countenance shone after spending the morning with Daddy, riding in Daddy's purple jeep, shopping and playing at the park.

Book: The Nutcracker (this version has four or five chapters, great descriptions and beautiful illustrations; it's one of the books my friend gave me and of course one of Beeper's favorites)

Advent: Shepherd (Luke 2:8-16)

December 14: Beeper's Special Day With Daddy. I was impressed when he hadn't thrown a fit the day before about Little Fish's special day. He didn't even ask whether he would get one (yes, the nutcrackers were an intentional diversion), but he was naturally excited when his turn came. I am sure much shopping and Christmas secrets were involved, but he didn't fill me in on any details.

Book: Christmas Dress for Ellen

Advent: Tree (watch "Shepherds Learn of the Birth of Christ") If you haven't seen the new Life of Christ videos, I highly recommend checking them out. They have a mobile app for them and everything.

December 15: Make a paper chain. I like to do this when there are ten days left. We also played some "make ten" games as an addition reinforcement. We used the "ten frame" from here and crumpled up bits of paper to use as "snowball" counters.

Book: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

Advent: Shepherd (listen to "Handel's Messiah") I have three or four pieces of the Messiah, which came with the same album as the Nutcracker pieces

December 16: Deliver Christmas trays. Instead of cookies or other treats, our tradition is to deliver vegetable trays to friends and neighbors. We have found them to be very well received. Everyone is glad for something different and healthy in the midst of all the treats. (Unfortunately, then they feel bad for bringing us cookies. We tell them not to. We never mind cookies.)

Book: Melrose and Croc (a fun one we found this year; there's not really a moral or anything - it's just two friends who meet and don't have to spend Christmas alone; Beeper loved the way they passed several times before meeting)

Advent: Wise Man (Matt 2:1-2)