December Daily 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Christmas Preparations

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed a nice dinner with my brother-in-law and his family.

As is our tradition, we put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  That also involves dragging out all other things Christmas.  The girls had a grand time digging through all of our Christmas books and movies.  We own A LOT!  Back when my oldest was a tot I started collecting Christmas books.  I wanted one for everyday of Advent.  Plus we have some secular ones as well.  I'm still adding to it because I'm addicted.  =o)

Anyhow, I thought I'd share our favorites with you.  I love scouring blogs this time of year looking for good books that I don't own.  It's a sickness.

So here's are collection of Christmas books, movies, toys, music, and Advent materials.  I'd love to hear what favorites you have in your house.

Weekly Wrap-Up/ Tot School: Christmas Lights Edition

Kayleigh is currently 22 months

We are currently on break from all "formal" learning. We've been in cookie and visit mode. So here's our festive Weekly Wrap-Up and Tot School edition. #1

So here's what our week looked like. It looked PRETTY!

We went to visit my dad and step-mom in the middle of no-where, NC. This is their potting shed all decked out for Christmas. The only sign of Christmas there. Not even a tree. Gasp! LOL

One night Grandpa drove us out to see a house where the family is apparently very excited about Christmas. And they have deep pockets for their electric bill. All these shots came from one house.

Be sure to check out what everyone else is up to over at Carisa's and Kris'.

Tot School

Kayleigh is currently 21 months

I decided to try her on a Tot Book this week. She's been very into sitting at the table and doing her "work". (That's Kayleigh for scribbling with a pencil of her choice. LOL) She'll sit there for an hour sometimes just drawing away. Big sis is making several lapbooks as part of her school work during the holidays, so I thought this might be a good time to try Kayleigh on one. I chose to do the Christmas Tot Book from 1+1+1=1.

We're slowly working our way through it. I've just been giving her one sheet at a time to work on. She's been doing it for the most part, although she won't work on those as long as she would on her own work. I haven't assembled any part of the book yet. She's still working on her pages.

Here's a few shots of her.

Since Kayleigh did so well with the magnet activities last month I thought I'd try it again. I found the cutest Christmas activity, "J is for Jesus Magnet activity", over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Wouldn't you know it she wanted nothing to do with it this time. She just said no and pushed it away. =o( I guess there's always next week.

We have all of our Christmas books and movies out for the holidays. Kayleigh was very drawn to this version of Away in the Manger. She must have liked Thomas Kinkade's beautiful artwork.

She was particularly interested in how Baby Jesus (Baby G in Kayleigh speak) was "seep-in". Here she is signing the word sleep. They she would shush us to be quiet. LOL

She also enjoyed watching the latest Veggie Tale movie, The Joy of Giving. She especially liked dancing to the music.

She practiced 1:1 correspondance by gluing foam circles onto a Happy Birthday Jesus printable from 1+1+1=1. I was very surprised that she completed the whole thing.

One of her favorite activities was inspired by Sissy and a roll of wrapping paper. Sissy taught her how to "ride" it. This has been a daily activity since she was first alerted to it. She's forever asking for her "stick" and then "riding" around shouting "neigh." LOL

I'm sad to say the stick is no longer able to be ridden because mommy started wrapping presents.

One thing I'm particularly excited about is how her shape recognition. I was drawing shapes for her on our Magna Doodle. She was able to name stars, hearts, circles, triangles and squares. I was so excited.

And to round out our week, 2 photos that make me LOL.

Check out what the other tots are doing over at Carisa's.

Tot School

Kayleigh is currently 21 months

Hello fellow Tot Schoolers! We're back!

We've been slacking off Tot School a bit these last couple of weeks. We got distracted by other things, like Daddy coming home from Iraq. Yay!! So that's what we've been doing. Hanging with Daddy.

Kayleigh took to him like he'd never left. So he's enjoying her attitude, stubborness and fits just like the rest of us. LOL

We did do a few Tot School activities this week.

Our first activity was more spooning. I bought a new, snowman-shaped icecube tray and jewels. Last month Kayleigh liked doing this activity, as long as it was done her way. Her way being shaking the pumpkin and acorn jewels to make lots of noise or dropping the whole lot on the floor. I wasn't looking forward to that but thought we'd give it a try again.

And guess what? For a (very short) period of time, she actually did what I wanted. It was amazing! Mackenzie and I were shocked.



I reeled her in by telling her the snowmen were hungry and they need a "bite". She loves to steal "bites" from other people and she loves to feed babies so she was interested for a little bit.

Her interest was short lived. I pulled out the activity a couple more times this week but all she wanted to do was make a mess and lots of noise with it.

The second activity that I'm going to share is what she did with her new nesting blocks. Now we have nesting blocks already but when I saw these, I had to have them. Who doesn't need seasonal nesting blocks, right?

I, as always, had grand visions of how this activity was going to play out. We were going to sit happily stacking the blocks as I told the story of Christmas that is so nicely displayed all over them.

Now I knew I was asking A LOT. At our house block use looks like this: I stack the blocks about 3 high before she knocks them all down. She doesn't help build, EVER, and I never get higher than 3.

Naturally this activity did not go as planned. She had no interest in hearing the story of Christmas. Not on blocks, not from books, not by watching it on T.V. LOL But she did surprise me by stacking the blocks, all of them, all by herself. If I didn't have pictures, I still wouldn't believe it.

Naturally, this was a one time only deal. She would not stack them again and the blocks never make it past 3 high. LOL

One of her other activities, that I didn't photograph, was playing with our Little People Nativity. That's still one of Mackenzie's favorite things too. Kayleigh likes to push the angel on top and dance around to Away in the Manger. I hope to get video of that next week.

Oh and she's finally starting to recognize some her shapes. She's been naming hearts, stars, and circles consistently for a couple of weeks. I'm so excited.

She's still not gotten her colors down. I thought she might have gotten pink and green but it turns out that was a fluke. That's okay. We're adding quite a few things to our Tot School collection when Christmas comes. Including a laminator for mommy. =o)

And here's her other new "skill."

Pretty impressive, huh? LOL

Be sure to check out the other tot's news skills over at Carisa's.