Special breakfast

Since baby sister has arrived, Daddy is usually up early on Saturday mornings with A, allowing the baby and me some extra rest.  A has learned to look forward to her letter pancakes.  Daddy will usually spell words for her; her name, friends, or just the entire alphabet.  She never eats a better breakfast than on Saturday mornings!

Merry Christmas!

(names are blurred)

I finally finished baby sister's stocking!  It joins A's on the wall near our front door.  Happy travels to all who are traveling and Best wishes for the new year!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Action Cards!

I printed these Christmas Action Cards over at Oopsey Daisy and they are terrific!
The first time we used them, we probably went through each card at least five times.  A would say, "can we do the cards again?"  She loved them.

Here she is spreading her branches like a tree:

 We just put all of the cards in a bowl and pick one out at a time.  This activity is fun and great for getting some energy out when it's too cold outside, or if you have a few spare minutes you don't know what to do with (like before naptime, which is when we first tried them out!)

Christmas book bin

I'd thought about doing the "wrap a book for every day leading up until Christmas, open it, read it and do a craft to go along with it" Advent thing, but really didn't want to focus on opening gifts. I also didn't have the energy to throw myself into making a craft to go with each one.  I decided instead to just put all of the books into a special book basket and let A look through them whenever she wanted.  I also thought we could read a new one each day.  We actually end up reading several together each day and she looks at several on her own.  I'm quite pleased with my decision and will probably do this again next year.

The reason for my lack of posts...

We've gone from a family of three to a family of four and it's wonderful.  I've been soaking up all the yumminess of having a sweet newborn again and watching A be the best big sister there ever was.  As we slowly move into our new routine of toddler activities with a new baby around, I'll be posting more and more often again.  Thanks for sticking around!

Snowman letter match

I pulled out my letter matching snowman and tried it out with A for the first time.  Lowercase letters are written all over the snowman and uppercase letters are written on little "snowballs".  You need to match the uppercase and lowercase letters together.  It was a bit challenging for A, which is good.  I think I'll have to sit with her and do this so she won't get frustrated.  After a few times, I think she'll get the hang of it.

To make:

Draw a snowman on a sheet of posterboard with Permanent marker(color)

Trace circles all over the snowman

Trace circles all over another sheet of posterboard

Write lowercase letters on the circles on the snowman

Write uppercase circles on the other circles

Cut and laminate

Add small pieces of velcro to the circles if you will be hanging it up to use (it can also be used on the floor without Velcro)

Gingerbread Playing Cards

I found these playing cards at the Target Dollar Spot a few years ago and used them with my students.  I came across them the other day and lined them all up 2-Ace and A chose one card at a time from a bowl and matched the number (or letter).

This was a great activity and it took a nice amount of time.  I like that she had enough concentration and it kept her interest. 

What are we doing for Advent?

For Advent this year we are simply following along with this book, Countdown to Christmas.  I've been embracing the idea of simplifying things, and this little book is a perfect fit for us.  Each day there is a short reading, prayer, Bible verse and activity.  

Our first activity was to make a paper chain to count down the days until Jesus' birthday.  (we are just using ours as a decoration)  Notice the tape dispenser?   It's one of those hands-free gift wrapping tape dispensers.  We used to use them at the preschool I used to teach at.  So easy for little hands to use!