Christmas Idea # 5: Printables

Thanks to Pinterest, I am so into printables these days. I jumped on the bandwagon around Easter, and have been loving them right through summer and fall.

I know lots of bloggers who keep one beautiful frame in a prominent position in their home, and then rotate the contents to coordinate with the season. I took a lazier and only slightly more expensive approach, and buy a new 8 x 10 Dollarama frame each time.

To go with my Christmas décor: this cute "Baby It's Cold Outside" printable, of course courtesy of Pinterest:

Original pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/175288610468015134/

Even if you're not interested in something Christmas-y, you can find tons of neat ideas for every room of the home. I also have a cute one up in my laundry room:

And remember, you don't have to join Pinterest to browse the great ideas. Just go to www.pinterest.com and search whatever you're looking for (e.g. "nursery printable"). You can bookmark your finds the usual way; you just can't save them to "Boards" like Pinterest members can. Happy printing!

Christmas Goodies From Hallmark

As part of the Hallmark Press Pause Panel, I receive a few boxes throughout the year of hot-ticket Hallmark items to review, and the Christmas selections are always my favourite!

Here are the items I'm recommending this holiday season:

Unicef Cards: At $13 for a box of 12, it's not much more costly than the dollar store, and a portion of your price goes to support a good cause.

Bell's Big Move: This is a book with a read-along CD, and the dog responds to certain phrases. Frannie's getting this one for Christmas, which I think is particularly appropriate since the dog we used to have was named Belle, and although another family adopted her five years ago, Frannie still included her in the first family portrait she drew at school this year. ($34.95)

Mini Instant Scrapbook Kit: The perfect size for 4 x 6 photos, this little book comes with 20 Christmas-themed scrapbook pages and a little package of decorative attachments. ($14.95)

Talking Mistletoe: This motion-activated decoration would be fun to have up at a party, though with "8 flirty fun sayings" this one's not for the kids: "Where I come from, we do everything in French...you know what I mean, don't you?", "Did you make the naughty list this year? Well, there's still time!", "I wish you a Merry Kissmas!"

Wireless Children's Angel Choir: This is not your ordinary choir... and my girls are loving these! We received "Michael" and "Faith", two of four choir members who can sing songs on their own, or sway and harmonize with the other angels' songs. Whichever choir member you activate first takes the lead and the others follow. Ours perform "Joy To The World", "Silent Night", "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Each angel is $14.95 with any purchase.

Light-Up Frame: This cute battery-operated 4 x 6 frame has lights that can blink for 1 minute or 1 hour, depending on how long you press the button. ($24.95).

Disclosure: I was provided with the items above for review purposes. Opinions are, as always, my own.

Christmas Idea # 4: The Throw Pillow

Okay, I know pillows aren't exactly the most original idea in the world, but I love this one because it's unique.

Mom is into making pillows and transferring pictures onto them, and when I first saw one I oohed and ahhhed enough to prompt her to ask "Would you like me to make you one?" (If it had been Dad, I would have batted my eyes).

I love the retro-looking picture she used here, and I'm glad to have something new and different to add to my décor this year.

Here are mom's instructions: "I found a free graphic online, and saved it in 'My Pictures'. Then I printed it on TAPS (transfer paper...like tshirt transfer paper) and ironed it on the fabric. I used canvas painter's dropcloths from Home Depot, washed and dried first. Then I make an envelope type pillow. (Instructions are all over the web for those)."

And here's one of hers:

As much as I would have loved to pass these off as my own creations, loyal readers wouldn't have believed me. Especially since my most loyal reader is the one who made them!

Christmas Idea # 3: The Holiday Book Basket

As my regular readers may remember, one of my organizational strategies involves keeping all holiday-themed stuff in bins, which are brought out well in advance of each occasion. This includes not only decorations, but also toys, books, games, etc.

When I pulled out the Christmas bins a couple of weeks ago and let the girls dig in, you would have thought that it was...well...Christmas! There's enough there to keep them busy and entertained right through 'til the holiday actually arrives, including favourites like Nutcracker figures, the Little People nativity, and the light-up village they have split between their two rooms.

Also a very popular item: the book basket. It's amazing how Frannie's reading comes along each year, as she can now enjoy several titles that were too difficult for her last Christmas. Maggie also has the task each holiday of weeding out any "baby" books that we don't need anymore and we pass them along to a coworker's little guy

Other years I've kept the books in a photocopy paper box (the most accessible storage system for teachers but not that attractive sitting on my living room bench). This year I pulled out a basket from the basement to use for a nicer display. Some favourite titles:


The Story of Christmas by Patricia A. Pingry, illustrated by Lorraine Wells

Patricia Pingry's books about various holidays do a great job teaching kids about the religious meaning behind each, while still validating and honouring some of the less "religious" traditions we enjoy.

The Very First Christmas: Hallmark Recordable Storybook

My parents recorded this one for my girls a couple of years ago, and I think it's such a special keepsake to treasure.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

A great story, to be sure, but what I love about our version (also a gift from my parents) is that it comes with a CD and cassette, which provides a wonderful listening and reading opportunity for the kids.


The Night Before Christmas: Classic Edition by Clement Moore

Yep, another gift from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) this title is in honour of the tradition I grew up with, when my brother and I would sit with Dad at bedtime on Christmas Eve and he would read this book to us. (This was right after snacking on his homemade fudge.)

And a new addition to the basket this year:

A Bit of Applause for Mrs. Claus

Behind every successful man stands a great woman, and this cute story for young children recounts the hard work Mrs. Claus must undertake when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve. (Personally, I'm quite sure that Mrs. Claus does more than her share of the work even when her hubby is in good health.)
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We will continue to enjoy these books for the next few weeks, because they will be safely stored away on Boxing Day. Or maybe before I go to bed on the 25th. I know, I have issues.

Books For Teaching Christian Kids About Hanukkah

While my students are Christian (most Catholic, as are my daughters) I see a great value in reading stories about Judaism (as well as other religions). I mean, we share a whole Old Testament of history and beliefs with the Jewish people, and it creates a great opportunity to teach about differences. The simple bottom line that I share with kids is that the Jews don't believe Jesus is as important as we do, but we still have lots in common.

Two titles I've shared with both sets of "kids" recently:

The Story of Hanukkah by David A. Adler, illustrated by Jill Weber




This picture book has a fairly short chunk of text on each page, along with colourful illustrations that take kids back to Israel at the time of the King Antiochus IV and the Maccabees. My kids were fascinated to learn about the miracle of the oil, and are so innocent that they were shocked to learn religious freedom didn't (and doesn't) exist everywhere.

The back of the book also has a recipe for latkes and instructions for how to play the dreidel game, two other ways to expose kids to other religious traditions.


The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate by Janice Cohn, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth



Also picture book style, this story is actually much longer than a traditional picture book, with many of the 39 pages completely full of text. (Not a quick read-aloud.) I read this to my students over the course of two days, and used it as an exercise in visualization, as the kids sketched what they were picturing as they listened.

The Christmas Menorahs is the true story about the town of Billings, Montana, where a rock was thrown through the window of young Isaac Schnitzer's bedroom simply because it was lit up with a menorah. The book recounts how the community came together, with many of those who were not Jewish placing menorahs in their windows as well to stand up against hate and prejudice.

One line that really resonated with the students and helped them to relate: "She had been trying to imagine how she would feel if someone threw a rock into her window because she had a Christmas tree."

While on the one hand I think it's very important for children to have a certain awareness about prejudice, I also find it heartwarming that at this point, the idea that someone could be targeted because of their religion is a completely new concept for most of the children in my life.

Easy Sight Words Game

As most of you know, I'm a teacher. And I'm well aware that when it comes to early learning, flashcards are taboo. But you know what? I still think they have their time and place within a balanced approach to literacy (or numeracy, or whatever the case may be).

When it comes to sight words, we've used cards to help our girls learn, and it hasn't hurt them yet. But this time we tweaked the flashcard idea and saw a great improvement in our younger daughter's motivation.

Maggie (who's 4 and in her first year of Ontario's Early Learning Kindergarten Program, which is all-day, every day) wasn't originally very enthused about practising her words. So I used a bunch of my old business cards from when I had a central teaching position (they put "Kathleen" on them instead of "Kate" which really deterred me from using them) and made them into a matching game with Maggie's Year 1 (JK) words. If you find a match, you have to be able to read the words in order to keep them.   Maggie plays this game with her older sister, and she loves it. I'm not kidding: she actually begs to play, and has even cried on nights when we didn't have time. Plus, it's very low-organization and low-supervision for the parent (I realize I must come across as lazy sometimes, but I also try to put myself in the shoes of busy parents - which isn't hard - and I know that if an activity is too lengthy or complicated it just won't happen).

(I also saw Maggie's competitive nature emerge when she came home one night all excited to tell me "My teacher says that when I know the Year 1 words, I get to have the Year 2 words!")

In case you're looking for word suggestions, here's what our Kindergarten parents were given:

Year 1 Words (JK - 4 years old)

a
and
he
I
in
is
it
of
that
the
to
was

Year 2 Words (SK - 5 years old)

at
big
can
come
for
here
little
look
not
on
said
see
too

(P.S. If "sight words flashcards" is the most taboo topic I've covered here at This Mom Loves, I think I have to resign myself to a "vanilla" designation. For the blog, at least.)

Christmas Idea # 2: Displaying Christmas Memories

This idea came from my friend C, after I saw her hall table adorned with years of framed photos of her children with Santa, as well as some Santa shots from when she and her husband were kids.

While I don't have a lot of official Santa shots (there is one gem of my brother and me with Jolly Old Saint Nick) there are lots of Christmas photos of my girls, some which were made into holiday cards, and some that are snapshots of the four of us (we usually take the same photo op on my parents' couch every Christmas Eve). My husband is the eighth of nine children, so there are few photos of him at all, let alone on Santa's knee!

As always, I turned to Dollarama for my supplies, picking up a few silver frames and some Christmas wrapping paper, which I used as mattes behind the photos. The results:

I displayed these last Christmas for the first time, and they're real conversation-starters. I think they'll mean even more as the girls get older and perhaps refuse to wear coordinated red and green velvet outfits...or Santa hats.

Kids' Books For Bedtime

Some of the cutest books I've received for review lately have a common theme. Here they are:

Bedtime is Canceled by Cece Meng, Illustrated by Aurélie Neyret

This is a great story about the mayhem that takes place when a brother and sister write up a notice that "Bedtime is Canceled"...and it gets into the wrong hands! My six and four year olds loved it, and I appreciate the media references (there are newspaper and television reporters, and a lot of texting and e-mailing going on in the story. Kids these days can relate to that.) Both the story and illustrations are very funny.

Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

 

In this story, a not-so-sleepy little princess asks "Does everything in the world go to sleep?" and learns all about the sleep habits of different animals. I could totally connect to the parents (not because they're royal, of course) and their patient attempts to coax their daughter to bed every time she insisted she wasn't tired: "They nodded their heads and said she didn't have to go to sleep. But she had to put her put her pyjamas on," and "Her parents said that was fine. But she should wash her face and brush her teeth." If only I could be that patient about it! The illustrations are beautiful, and as the jacket says "this bedtime book insipres a gentle fellowship with the natural world..."

Mama I Can't Sleep by Brigitte Raab, Illustrated by Manuela Olten

This title is coincidentally quite similar to the one above, only this time it's a non-royal little one trying to convince her mom that she can't sleep, while attempting to copy the nocturnal manoeuvres of different animals. Oddly enough, she has some difficulty sleeping while standing on one leg like a stork, keeping her eyes open like a fish, or hanging upside down like a bat. My girls had a good laugh over the silly things this girl tried.

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Any of these books would be a worthwhile addition to your bedtime story collection.