Christmas - New Year Blogging Break

I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Thank you all for another wonderful year in the land of blogging. The inspiration I glean from all of you is nothing short of incredible and for that I thank you.

The connections I have made with people far and wide really does make this world seem so small. What a blessing the internet is to us homeschoolers.

Thanks to those of you that took the time to link up all of your Christmas posts. I know they will be a great help to others in the future.

I'm taking some time out from blogging and all things computer related. Hoping for some sunshine, because right now things aren't looking so great in the weather department!

See you all soon.

Christmas Books: The Christmas Story and Printable Nativity

Of course at this time of year one simply must read the Christmas Story together and that is exactly what we did.

I found the cutest nativity printable for the kids to colour and put together.

We grabbed our trusty Golden Book Christmas Story and cuddled up on the couch. The kids coloured in between chatting about the story as I read.

I love this hand drawn nativity, coloured by the kids. We have it sitting right alongside our nativity set.

Grab your own copy over at Catholic Icing, you still have time to complete one before Christmas.

Peg Reindeer, Footprint Reindeer and a Santa Card

Aside from the adorable calico Angel decorations that the kids made at their extra curricular days, they put together these little cuties.

Yet another simple craft, isn't simple generally best! Yet it looks so effective. Three pegs, painted brown, glued together. Add a couple of pieces of felt, a pom pom nose, googly eyes and some ribbon.

And hang them on the tree!

I love this Handprint/Footprint Reindeer, "Happy Holidays" wall hanging. These would make gorgeous gifts.

Fairy Princess made hubby and I a Christmas Card. Hand coloured, decorated wth glitter and of course Santa's Beard. She was very proud of this one and was excited to give it to us.

Candy Cane Reindeer

When I saw these over at Sugarplum Creations I knew that the kids would love them. I mean come on, they love candy cane's, so add in a bit of reindeer and crafting fun that is oh so simple and who isn't going to enjoy them!

I set up a mini work station for these so the kids could come and go and create at their leisure.

Now they are hanging on the tree waiting to be given to friends to spread a little Christmas Cheer.

Mini Gingerbread (Biscuit) Houses

The last couple of years we have made Gingerbread Houses from those cute little kits you buy at the store. One day we will advance to making them from scratch, one day we will.

I'd be lying if I said that the house decorating experience has always been a joyous one. With one house and several hands and lots of ideas, let's just say that things can get a little heated, during the decorating marathon.

I simply wasn't up to dealing with that this year. However the kids have looked at the kits every time we've walked past them in store and the fact that this activity was becoming a bit of a tradition for us was playing on my mind But not once have they asked to buy, I knew they wanted one though.

So I decided we could make these little Mini Gingerbread Houses, out of Arnotts Nice Biscuits. They are a near perfect rectangle and coated with sugar, so great for mini sweet houses at Christmas. Surfer Dude got right into his decorating.

Now we could have spent a great deal more time on these, cutting the biscuits to fill all of the roof space etc, but this was very much a, "here's the materials, let's see what you come up with" project. Lego Lover started his off with having the walls going the long way but found attaching a roof too difficult so he pulled his apart and redid it the same way as the others.

Once again, an activity that is right up Fairy Princess' alley. She took great care in her work and was sitting at the table perfecting her masterpiece long after the boys had left.

So for a couple of bags of lollies, a packet of biscuits and some icing, the kids got to decorate their Christmas Houses after all.

They are sitting on the dining room table waiting for Daddy to arrive home, that's if they last that long!

Christmas Fun 2011 Week 6 - Gifts Gifts Gifts

This is it, the last week, Christmas is really just around the corner.

All of my gift wrapping is complete YAY! No late Christmas Eve wrapping for me ;-)

This week, we are looking at Gifts, gift ideas, and of course those extra special handmade gift options.

Have you written a post about your gifting? Link it up below.

Don't forget that you can still link up all of your other Christmas posts into the link lists below:

• Christmas Crafts
• Christmas Lessons
• Christmas In The Kitchen
• Advent Activities 
• Traditions

Oh and don't forget to grab a button so you can link back to the Christmas Fun linky on your blog and specific posts. That way everyone can share in the fun and ideas.

<a href=" http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas/" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk224/realworldlearners/ChristmasFunButton2010.jpg" alt="Our Worldwide Classroom" /></a>

A huge thank you to all of you that have linked up. These ideas are inspiring to everyone.





Christmas Gift Ideas



Christmas Traditions




Christmas ~ Advent Activities Links



Christmas In The Kitchen Links



Christmas Lesson Plan Links



 
Christmas Craft Links

Christmas Fun Round Up - So Much Inspiration

Have you had a chance to look through all of the inspiration over at Christmas Fun? So much cool stuff there. I wanted to take a moment to share some of my favourites.

Loving these giant snowflakes from You're Not Lost You're Here.

Glue snowflakes, so simple, but simply adorable, Rockabye Butterfly.

Making math fun for this time of year, aren't the penguins adorable. Walking By The Way.

More cute Christmas learning from Walking By The Way.

These interactive, wing flapping angels are simply delightful. From We Bloom Here.

Creekside Learning has an awesome list of Advent Activities and a neat Character Trait Advent Calendar.

A book a day is a tradition the kids will surely never forget, by Live, Learn, Love.

A Dance Moment To Remember

{iphone photo}

Our first ever Dance Concert!

What an amazing Moment To Remember.

Two shy kids,

One year's worth of hard work, 

Six Hundred People (twice over), 

Two blubbering parents, 

Two happy smiling faces, 

One awesome moment to never ever forget

A bit of background on this moment. Our kids are what many would classify as shy. Not overly shy, just shy. They are generally quiet, rarely seeking to be centre of attention and often moving away from any position of limelight.

In fact Fairy Princess has only participated in our home school classes for the past two years and only really this year with some level of confidence. You might remember me posting about dance before and the times we have tried to participate in dance lessons. Oh how she wanted to, she wanted it so bad. Finally this year (with the help of having a friend's hand to hold) she went off to dance lessons week in and week out with a smile on her face.

Lego Lover also relished in his weekly Boys Funk Class and over this past year we have witnessed both of their confidence levels flourish. To sit and watch both Lego Lover and Fairy Princess converse with adults (and not just those within the family) with relative ease brings tears to my eyes. This from a little boy and girl that could barely look strangers in the eye.

I was beyond scared for both of them in the lead up to the concert. As I sat in the audience, second row from the front I worked hard to compose myself, even well before either of them appeared on stage my eyes were welling up.

Is there any feeling like that of a mother's heart overflowing with pride. Pride at just seeing my babies up there, up there on that stage in front of six hundred people. Even if they didn't move a muscle I would have been proud.

But boy they moved, they kicked, twirled, jumped and danced their little hearts out and I cried, cried tears of joy for my shy little babies whom really no longer need or deserve that label.

Just before I took the photo above, both of them were eagerly asking for more, more dance classes, more dance concerts, more, more, more. Considering that just a year ago I wondered if they would ever be able to stand up in front of a crowd and here they are begging for more.

A big thanks to the amazing dance teachers that both of the children adore!

Definitely one moment this mummy will remember forever.

Calico Angels

In addition to crafting at home, we've enjoyed some fabulous crafty activities at the school we are registered with during their extra curricular days.

These cute little Calico Angels look adorable on the tree. I really wanted to share how to put them together, I think you could easily work it out by the finished image though.

I did consider pulling them apart completely to photograph, however I decided to only partially do that.

Materials List:
2.5cm Styrofoam Ball
Calico cut in a circle approx 30cm across
Gold & Silver Paint
Gold & Silver Glitter
Star Stamps
Silver Pipe Cleaners
Silver Curling Ribbon
String
Gold, Scrunchy Paper
Fine Point Marker
Pinking Shears

Cut the circle of calico with pinking shears and use the gold and silver paint to stamp around the edge, sprinkle with glitter. Allow to dry.

Place the styrofoam ball in the centre of the calico and gather at base of ball. Loop a piece of silver curling ribbon, which will be used to hang the angel on the tree. Attach it to the back of the angel with string used to tie off the calico at the base of the styrofoam ball.

Glue silver pipe cleaner around the top of Angel's head and draw on her eye's and mouth (see the first image).

Cut the glittery gold paper into a strip approximately 7cms wide and 30cms long. Twist in the middle to make wings. Wrap silver pipe cleaner around base of ball (head) holding wings in place, wrap and twist the pipe cleaner twice around.

Shape the ends of the pipe cleaner to make little arms for the angel.

Hang her on your tree. These are so simple and sweet.









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