Christmas Fun School

I have been motivated by all the Christmas ideas for curriculum, crafting and fun that I’ve seen online this year that I have tried to put many of them into the schedule! Here is a rundown of some of the photographed fun we’ve had the last two weeks:

 

We made the Christmas Tree Sun Catcher from Itsy Bitsy Learners. I loved the simplicity of no glue! Contact paper, sequins, and tissue paper circles instead! They look great on the window—just didn’t get that picture taken yet.

The girls enjoyed playing the “S is for Santa” game with a Portuguese version of M&M’s and dice. I like to use pages like these for their Do-A-Dot Paints too. There are tons of great Christmas learning printables at Making Learning Fun.

I read somewhere about a Christmas ornament count (let me know if it was you!), but we didn’t have Christmas stickers. So I decided to cut out a tree and have the girls add ornaments with their Do-A-Dot Paints. I encouraged them to make each ornament distinct so they could count them later. Next we graphed how many of each color. The next day they practiced writing their numbers next to each row.

Please don’t miss all the great Christmas curriculum at 1+1+1=1! She has lessons plans--a great compilation of ideas from many great blogs and sites I frequent. Here my 4.5 year old has written the first letters of these names (after tracing the letters on the back side). She was doing great until she got to S for Star!

Putting the alphabet ornaments in order has been great practice for her too. I am reluctant to print and laminate a new “theme” of alphabet every week normally, so this was nice to have a theme we can use for 4 weeks! There’s much more in 1+1+1=1’s Christmas Tot Pack and Nativity Preschool Pack—you have to see!

We came up with a fun new way to practice our sight words (those we’re learning with 1+1+1=1 RRSP curriculum).  With us doing Christmas fun this month, we’re including Christmas songs in our start time every day. The girls have been holding the various sight words (on a popsicle stick) that may be in the song. When we get to that word, the girls hold up that sight word. They LOVE it and laugh a lot, and I think they are learning the words the best this way!

I’ll be checking out Homeschool Creation’s Gingerbread Baby unit and Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Christmas unit next, along with other creative and resourceful moms at

 

 

Painting Party

Our oldest turned 6 in early November. She had agreed that she didn’t need to have a character themed party. So we looked at a few birthday idea sites online and were both struck with the fun and creativity of a pottery painting party at the Polka Dot Birthday blog. Then we found a personalized downloadable painting party invite from Whirlibird for $10 (more than the store bought kind in America but less than the time I would have to put into making my own).

We don’t have those come-paint-your-own-pottery stores like they do in America and the UK. Thus began the search for what we could paint. We ended up buying some tiny canvases and easels from CASA (here in Portugal) and some cardboard frames from IKEA . I also had the kids paint their own paper sacks with foam stampers as their treat bags.

My daughter was also pleased with the idea of having paint balloons to throw darts at. This was an acceptable alternative for her instead of us making a piñata as we had for her sister in the spring. My husband and a family friend graciously filled balloons with a mix of paint and fabric fix fluid using a syringe!

We added the fabric fix because the balloons were attached to a board covered in a cheap tablecloth I bought from the dollar store. We thought we might come near using a splatter paint tablecloth more than a splatter paint board. I didn’t want the paint to wash out the first time I washed the tablecloth. Therefore we also had to keep paint off of the kids! They wore their kindergarten smocks we call “bibes” here. (All of us adults are the ones with permanent spots on our clothes!)

I decided upon a rainbow cake after seeing one at Fowl Single File and a artist’s palette of cupcakes after seeing the idea on etsy (but I cannot find it now—sorry!). I almost waited too late to get an inside pic of the cake—one of the last pieces!

The before shot of the cake…and yes those are real sparklers. You can buy them in the grocery store here in the party section. It’s the thing to do here.

The last time my mom sent some smocks they came with these mats that were supposed to protect the floor. One made a great tablecloth!

Two other foods I’ve wanted to make overseas and hadn’t yet were caramel apples and popcorn balls. They seemed like good fall food for this party. All the Americans enjoyed them (in comparison to the other nationalities who think our sweets are much too sweet).


My sweet friend Cristi helped me set everything up, even dividing up our version of M&M’s here into colors for the table.


I have to say this is one of the most peace-filled parties we’ve had overseas—could be our kids’ ages, keeping the kids busy, the America and Portuguese helpers, getting more done in advance, just making less, or many prayers. So thankful for how it turned out!  {And if you want to see the kids in action…}


Post Addendum: Several readers have asked to see what the tablecloth looked like after all the paint. Here are a couple shots: One full shot and one of the tablecloth in action at our tie-dye party!

Need some ideas?

Being that I like to share ideas with others, I couldn’t NOT tell you about this amazing Christmas crafting e-zine (is that a word?) called Inspired Ideas by Amy Powers. Full of decorating and gift ideas from people like Mary Engelbreit, Jenny B Harris {love her embroidery designs} and others I don’t know as well but am enamored by their creativity. Even if you don’t like to make things the settings for the pictures are inspiring themselves!

Wish I could show you a couple of these but you’ll just have to go see things like:

• An advent calendar made from a 24 count muffin tin pan
• Glittery village houses made from cereal boxes
• Holly berry garland that kids can make from felt
• Burlap and lace door vase
• A yo-yo Christmas tree!

Many have templates and downloadable freebies too!

On one of the ads I read what might be my new favorite motto:

This is not a mess. This is potential.

Thank you Jerusalem Greer!

I’ll have to let you know if I get around to making any of these beautiful things. Love to know if you do to!

Thanksgiving in Retrospect

This year I started Thanksgiving preparations early. Even though I had wonderful helpers (our new interns!) it felt like the first time it was all on me. That is where grace abounds… even when my first baking item comes out like this!

The first pan of spice cake cupcakes turned out great. We’re still not sure why the lower pan decided to explode. I’ve forgotten those semesters of food science!

Thankfully there were no more mishaps, apart from the butcher being very late on having our turkey ready. So my brining process was about 12 hours versus 24. Everyone complimented the turkey, so I can recommend Pioneer Woman’s  Favorite Turkey Brine. Just be sure to use a fresh turkey, for “they say” it can be too salty otherwise.

My next adventure was procuring flowers for our table since I’d never bought anything from a florist in Portugal. I was pressed for time, so I went to the first florist I came to. Another car pulled up at the same time, and the woman rushed in and bought nearly all the cut mums the florist had. I was left to choose between white or brown mums since there wasn’t many other Thanksgiving-ish options (since they’re not celebrating the holiday as we are). I got envisioned for the white mums once I saw the florist had some dried wheat. But how to arrange it all?

We have one of those long candles with multiple wicks that sits in a narrow tray on legs. Thankfully I had enough floral foam to fill the tray, so I covered the foam with the leafy branches the florist had.

Then I put the mums in. It was looking a little funeral-ish. Thank goodness for the wheat!

I was able to use the wheat in vases on other tables to pull it all together and some dried leaves to help it look a little more fall/Thanksgiving-like.

 

I used some linen remnants from curtains we hemmed at the Haven (the retreat center) as a runner and mix and match candlesticks and candles.

Abbie and Piccola (our interns) jumped right in and whipped up many of my recipes—things they’d never had to make from scratch before (like rolls). And several of our guests brought pies and/or food, so it really wasn’t all on me.

I wanted to share the sites I got the printables from for our dining table and our food table. The “Gather Here…” printable came from Craftily Ever After for FREE! Check out the other Thanksgiving printables and her new Christmas ones in a her blog archive.

 

The placecards, cupcake toppers, and napkin “rings” were downloaded for FREE from HWTM Daily Blog. There was so much more they offered that I didn’t even have a place to use!

 

This word really does sum it up. I’m very encouraged by the peace I had during all the preparations and the enjoyable, memorable time we had with our friends.

Notes From Home

This past weekend we had three great visitors from our home church in America. One came specifically to love on the kids at each stop the group made. Of course the girls ate up the attention! Thanks Jessica!

Jessica brought some notes the kids in the preschool department made for our girls. So fun to see!

A few of my favorite small notes, one written by a child we’ve known since he was bitty:

Encouragements come in all shapes and sizes and from all ages! Thanks home base!!!

Autumn Accents on the Sofa

I found a fun and cheap pillow at a local store recently.  It reminded me of a project I’d seen in a Do It Yourself  magazine where they appliquéd a bird print onto a turquoise wood grain pillow (the Fall 2010 edition). I thought it might be just the thing to add a Thanksgiving fabric graphic too.

I have seen different examples of using free graphics in decorating. I thought Just Another Hang Up’s printing on fabric tutorial seemed simple enough, I actually tried it!  (She also has a tutorial on using iron on washable graphics if you’re interested). I chose a Thanksgiving graphic from The Graphics Fairy—scroll down to Clip Art Categories to see all she has to offer!

This is my printed graphic on fabric still attached to card stock (with spray adhesive). It was easily removable. I cut out the printed section and realized I didn’t like how it covered up my wood grain pillow so much. So I ended up using a piece of burlap that fit perfectly around one of my rectangle pillows to make a new cover. Before I sewed it up, I sewed on the printed graphic and frayed the edges a bit—nothing fancy.

These new pillows led to a decision to change out a few other less “fall-ish” looking pillows for a few I had stored away or used elsewhere. I pinned on a quick circle flower to one to help it coordinate {cut out some imperfect circles, stack, and glue or attach with a sewn button}.

So, a seasonal change in our living room for not too much effort or money!

Autumn Accents on the Sofa

I found a fun and cheap pillow at a local store recently.  It reminded me of a project I’d seen in a Do It Yourself  magazine where they appliquéd a bird print onto a turquoise wood grain pillow (the Fall 2010 edition). I thought it might be just the thing to add a Thanksgiving fabric graphic too.

I have seen different examples of using free graphics in decorating. I thought Just Another Hang Up’s printing on fabric tutorial seemed simple enough, I actually tried it!  (She also has a tutorial on using iron on washable graphics if you’re interested). I chose a Thanksgiving graphic from The Graphics Fairy—scroll down to Clip Art Categories to see all she has to offer!

This is my printed graphic on fabric still attached to card stock (with spray adhesive). It was easily removable. I cut out the printed section and realized I didn’t like how it covered up my wood grain pillow so much. So I ended up using a piece of burlap that fit perfectly around one of my rectangle pillows to make a new cover. Before I sewed it up, I sewed on the printed graphic and frayed the edges a bit—nothing fancy.

These new pillows led to a decision to change out a few other less “fall-ish” looking pillows for a few I had stored away or used elsewhere. I pinned on a quick circle flower to one to help it coordinate {cut out some imperfect circles, stack, and glue or attach with a sewn button}.

So, a seasonal change in our living room for not too much effort or money!

Pearls and Metal

This week I got to wear a new creation born out of mostly really old things. I’ve had these pins, clip earrings and broken necklace for years with minimal wear. I think I bought most of them when I was young at a flea market. I’ve seen several tutorials for Anthropology copy-cat necklaces (and here), so I thought I’d try and get a new necklace repurposing these old jewels!

I really didn’t follow any specific tutorial and thus it’s not perfect and I got to redo things a couple of times. It’s like that for me with many projects—thankfully I keep at it! A quick run down of what I/my husband did:

1. Take off some pearls to have more string to knot onto jump rings (those metal O’s that can be opened).

2. Connect the pearl necklace to the new metal necklace.

3. My husband removed the pins and earring clip.

4. I started trying to group the “jewels” with jump rings but it wouldn’t work since they flopped all around.

5. My husband taught me how to use epoxy glue to glue metal together. We had a silver metallic version thankfully. Not the easiest task to do and not be messy, as you can see:

 

I don’t think you notice it from the front! Just the glue the original jewelry maker used back when.

I can wear the pearls on top or bottom,

…but honestly the jewels part makes it way down to balance the weight of the pearls on its own. Regardless, I’m celebrating a new necklace and using old things that had little use!

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