Schooling parents to support their children, one lesson at a time.
As I pulled out my Advent Calendar with daily Scripture verses about the anticipation and birth of Jesus, I thought of so many other things that I wanted to do to get ready for Jesus’ party that we all know of as our Christmas Celebration.
So, I made an activity calendar and thought y’all might want to jump on board and remember WHO this month is REALLY all about.
I really like to display our seasonal arts and crafts on the playroom wall, and I have always loved to display and talk about a Santa Countdown.
It only made sense to me to countdown on Santa’s beard…So, I made it happen.
I decided to post it tonight so that you could get a head start if you wanted to.
I will be posting a printable EVERY day until Christmas so you will have lots you can do with your kiddos.
If you just want this printable it is only $1 HERE, but my membership is only a one time payment of $5 and I have TONS of resources so you may want to join instead. 😉
I am going to talk to Sean Patrick tomorrow morning about this and here is how the conversation will start:
“Look at this cute Santa picture. What do you think about him? What do you notice? (Wait for him to notice numbers) We are going to use the numbers to tell us how many days there are until Santa comes. We will cover up one number each day until we fill his beard. When his beard is full that will mean that it is time to bake cookies for Santa! It will be a calendar countdown! So lets cover up the first number – this is twenty-four (a two and a four).”
I plan to let Sean Patrick fill one circle each day with dot paint first and then glue a cotton ball on each number as we countdown.
And here is what it might look like when it is time to bake cookies for Santa:
It took my family a while to get into the hype of Elf on the Shelf. I thought, “Oh, no. Yet another Christmas gimmick.” But you know what? After receiving our elf, Captain, in the mail from my aunt erm… Santa, he immediately became a fixture in our house during Christmas time. The kids LOVE Captain!
I thought for sure my super-literal and practical-brained child would just laugh the whole thing off, but he seriously bought into it last year. Not just that, we (unintentionally) used our Elf on the Shelf as a learning tool for correcting Captain’s naughty behavior. Each morning we would wake up, see Captain’s mischief, and talk to him about his behavior… we also asked him to apologize.
Our elf sure did get in a lot of trouble… and we had so much fun plotting his next move! But, I gotta say, it did get a little tricky trying to come up with so many things for him to do! And we didn’t even start on December 1st! So this year, we are going to make a list, and check it twice, of what Captain will be doing each day. To help you out, I am going to share Captain’s antics from last year with you… enjoy! Oh, and each morning, the kids discovered a handwritten note from our elf (Mommy got really good at writing left-handed) 😉
20 Days til Christmas – The Rescue Bots were not pleased with our new house guest. They captured him inside a mason jar while Captain was writing a note to our kids.
19 Days til Christmas – After this, the boys made Captain and the toys call a truce. They have been friends ever since.
18 Days til Christmas – Mischievous Captain climbed down a rope that hung from the curtains to reach the pictures.
17 Days til Christmas – Captain rode the sailboat back to the North Pole that night.
16 Days til Christmas – The boys forgot to clean up their popcorn mess, so Captain took full advantage!
15 Days til Christmas – Our stuffed friends had a snowball fight with Captain! Marshmallows everywhere!
14 Days til Christmas – Captain the Elf spent the night playing on Mommy’s computer. Santa also sent the kids a personal video message too!
13 Days til Christmas – “Oh Captain! No, we are NOT allowed to play with toilet paper.”
12 Days til Christmas – before our gymnastics class…
11 Days til Christmas – “Captain didn’t put the cap back on the toothpaste…”
10 Days til Christmas – how ’bout a little education thrown in there?
9 Days til Christmas – This wasn’t the best idea because I couldn’t put the baby in her swing all day long (did I mention that if anyone touches the elf, he loses his magic???).
8 Days til Christmas – because the kids kept pressing the button on the guitar ornament. They didn’t touch it again after this.
7 Days til Christmas – following a trip to the zoo!
6 Days til Christmas – and day 437 of potty training.
5 Days til Christmas – The day of James’ Christmas play at school… riding the stocking holders.
4 Days til Christmas – with all of our Christmas cards that we received.
3 Days til Christmas – testing out the snicker doodles before we leave them out for Santa.
2 Days til Christmas – decorated the stars on top of the kids’ Christmas trees. We tied this one into reading Matthew 2:9-11 out of the Bible.
1 Day til Christmas – SANTAAAAAA! Captain the Elf headed back to the North Pole til next December.
Please share your Elf on the Shelf ideas with us on Facebook @themommyteacher!
This week, I re-discovered and had nearly forgotten about “Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers.”
![The Mayflower Voyagers (This Is America, Charlie Brown) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BKGN4TEML.jpg)
Sean Patrick is only 3 1/2 but we watched “The Mayflower Voyagers” and discussed the entire movie while it was on. This movie is perfect and appropriate for young kids, but it is meaningful for all ages.
By pointing out all of the details, he stayed engaged and interested.
I said things like “OOhhh look! A map! Do you see the land and the water?” (I paused the movie for a second to point these out).
And then, “Oooh a ship! That ship has a special name called the Mayflower. It is going to take the Pilgrims to America. Would you want to ride on that ship?”
You get the point.
I talk to him a lot during the movie and he really enjoys the commentary, though I know most of you would go NUTS if someone talked the whole way through a movie haha; I understand.
But, for little ones… the dialogue helps them to process what is going on and helps them to put all the pieces together.
Discussing the details also helps children store the information for better memory recall, and helps children to get a better grasp on story elements like setting, plot, characters, major events, and all the underlying details that build comprehension.
This specific movie is currently on Netflix, which is great because (unless you check this out at your local library or find it at a grocery store) it is not too affordable online.
I notice that “coloring pages” are still all the rage, and I actually think so much great conversation and bonding can take place coloring with your kids so I am probably in that mix. My kids and I love to color together.
But, I also like to make templates that I can use for multiple uses.
So, I made a simple but useful and free Pilgrim Hat Activity that I am posting for ALL my TMT followers.
You can use this to talk about who attended the First Thanksgiving.
You can use this to talk about food that we typically eat at Thanksgiving.
Or you can use this to talk about thankfulness of course!
We decided to break out the puff paint and glitter for this one. We ended up finger-painting the globs of puff paint. We had fun, and we talked about the Pilgrims. I reminded him of his school’s Thanksgiving Feast and the Pilgrims costume to make an association. At one point I had to hide the “sugar,” my one year old’s name for glitter, but other than that it was a winner!
Simple, but timely right?
