Skip to main content

Advent Weeks 1 & 2

Advent is in full-swing, and we are loving it.  Button asks multiple times a day to do the Advent Calendar (sorry, dude), and Buddy is still trying to figure out when we do the Advent Wreath.  Unfortunately, mama ran out of ink in her printer just prior to Advent so some of the things that required printing just had to be gone without.  But that doesn't mean we haven't had fun!  Here is a glimpse into some of the things that we've been doing so far.

Our Advent Wreath
We have been doing our Advent Wreath every Sunday.  The boys love the candles and the special time together even though they don't understand most of it.



Edmonds Tree Lighting
We thought it would be fun to go to the Edmonds Tree Lighting this year.  It started at 4:30 so we thought that would work great with the boys' eating/sleep schedule.  It was fun, but Button was extremely bored and not very happy through most of it.  We didn't realize that the event was an hour long, but we did make it to the end.

Eating his cookie

Before lighting


After lighting

Making Peppermint Bark
We like to make peppermint bark every year, and this year, I let the boys help out.  It was a really easy recipe, and it turned out great.  The boys loved that I let them "lick the bowl" once we were done.



Button so looks like a chocolate Guy Fawkes


Making Homeless Car Kits
I got the idea from the Seattle Union Gospel Mission's Action site.  We assembled 10 kits to pass out to homeless that we see when we are in the car.  Our kits included: water, kleenex, socks, granola bars, a candy cane, a Bible, Hotties hand warmers, and a sheet telling them about the resources available at the Gospel Mission.  It was a great sorting activity!



Swanson's Nursery
One morning we didn't have anything planned, so spontaneously the boys and I went to Swanson's Nursery for their reindeer festival.  There were reindeer, a camel, a model train exhibit, and a koi pond.  Ok, so a koi pond isn't very Christmasy, but I think it was one of their favorite parts!  Go figure!





Hanging Around the House
There's been a lot of just playing at home as well.  We've dressed ourselves up in Amazon packaging, read books by the Christmas tree, and enjoyed putting together our Nativity puzzle that Buddy always wants me to take a picture of each time they complete it.




R.I.P. Paper Snowflake
For a craft one day, we decided to make a 3D paper snowflake.  (Another one of those lovely craft ideas from Pinterest.)  It was pretty easy to do, and Buddy helped a fair bit with the cutting and taping.  I think it came out really nicely.

However, apparently candles and paper snowflakes don't mix very well.  Today, when we were starting to do our weekly Advent reading, it accidentally caught on fire from the Advent wreath candles.  It freaked all of us out, but no one was hurt.  Here is a picture of our snowflake remains:


Overall, though, it was a lot of fun to make and display.  Just maybe pick a place that isn't near fire.  =)

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I'm Approaching... Geometry

N will be taking Geometry this year.  A Little Bit of Background His last year was split between taking his first semester of Algebra I at the local middle school as an 8th grader and his second semester being homeschooled. Khan Academy was a fantastic resource for him to make sure that he didn't have any gaps in his learning. We also used IXL to supplement. He took a math diagnostic right when we started homeschooling, and then took the personalized lessons to make sure he wasn't missing anything from even earlier math. N likes math, but it isn't an obsession for him like it is for his brother. I'm a huge fan of the Art of Problem Solving's courses especially since we loved their elementary series, Beast Academy, when they were younger. However, AoPS is extremely rigorous and expensive if you take their online courses, so they are better suited for students who want to focus a lot of their attention on math. However, they do have a FREE online learning platform for...
Post a Comment
Read more

About Me

  Hello! Welcome to my blog. What you will find here are my attempts at sorting through my ideas and implementation of homeschool curriculum and activities that I have pursued with my own two boys. The Beginning I began this blog in 2008 when my oldest was only a year old. It began as a family blog chronicling our adventures as a young family in Seattle. We decided early on that we wanted to homeschool our two sons. Honestly, now, I don't remember why we decided to do that, but we did it nevertheless. We began teaching our children as soon as they could walk and talk. We made many mistakes along the way and so learned to follow the lead of our children in what they were interested in. We focused on delight-directed learning with a lot of outings and fun things to do. When things got rough, we learned to adapt and switch things out. Moving To Thailand In 2015, our family moved to Thailand. We started another blog for our time there, but alas it was not a good fit for us. We had int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mexico Week

Overview of Mexico Videos 10 Facts about Mexico  (we skipped the folklore section) Flag Worksheet Children Just Like Me  book Map Coloring Page Geo-Puzzle America Food: Tortillas and Salsa! Pyramids Mexico Pyramids Pyramid Book Make a Lego Pyramid Art: Make an  Ojo de Dios  (this was a HUGE hit) Frida Kahlo How to Draw Frida Kahlo Body Cast Printable Art History Lesson and Printable Things we didn't do at school, but could be fun: Make  Aztec Hot Chocolate Tons of resources here Mexico Unit Study Math: Mayan Numbers  The Dawn of Numbers Mayan Counting Worksheet Science:  Monarch Butterfly Migration Life Cycle and Migration to Mexico Song Monarch Butterfly Release Butterfly Symmetry Art More Mayan Info: Hour long video on Mayan Code  by NOVA Mayan Glyphs explained Mayan Math Game Archaeology Game featuring the Mayans Another game (costs money) with a lot of worksheets ...
Post a Comment
Read more