Pattern Bracelets

I bought some Pony Beads for Talia and brought them out today. She was so excited to see so many! :) She picked out a pipe cleaner and went to it. Then she announced to me that she was making Valentine bracelets (I had recently been going over upcoming holidays) and that the one she was making was for me :)


Then I taught her about patterns by starting one. I had been meaning to teach her patterns this way since this post in October, on beading! She figured it out, finished the pattern & announced that it was Daddy's Valentine Bracelet because it was out of "his favourite colours" (light blue, green, and purple evidently ;)

I look forward to more pattern practise (I mean play) in the future- it's so cool to see her learn- next I'll suggest that she create her own pattern (she was done with beads by the time I suggested it this time).

Oh, & she didn't even notice the heart-shaped beads- we can make even more "Valentiney" Valentine Bracelets next time! ;)

Jinglebell Braclets

When I saw the jinglebell bracelets post at Chasing Cheerios, I knew that it would be an activity that Talia would love.



She loves making bracelets, she loves jinglebells. I didn't have to give her any instruction- just told her what we were making, gave her the materials, & she went to it :)

Salt Dough Ornaments

Yesterday, we made salt dough ornaments & it was a lot of fun!
This morning, we started decorating them.
Here are a couple, on display:


I followed the recipe that Filth Wizardry posted for Salt Dough Ornaments, and we had a great time making a few of our own!
Talia loved the stirring & the kneading :)


We rolled the dough and cut it with cookie cutters. We made holes in them with a straw (for hanging, and for weaving- as seen in the first photo). Then we waited (too long- these things take a couple of hours! :) for them to bake.



p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Kid Made Holiday Decorations post!

Christmas Preparation

This year I really want to do a lot of Christmas activities with Talia leading up to Christmas. I love Christmas for so many reasons, and I want her to experience the joy of the season. From gift giving and service to decorating & creating the Christmas atmosphere in our home to the true meaning and story of Christmas.

So, I'm starting now to gather ideas for activities to do with her come December.

Ideas I've found surfing just three blogs that I hope to try this year are as follows:

From Chasing Cheerios:

- Jinglebell Bracelets
- Clove oranges

From Filth Wizardry:

- Salt dough ornaments
- newspaper/streamer wreaths
- homemade advent calendar
- tights snowman
- cardboard Christmas trees


Stained glass paper trees from Alphamom

Popsicle stick tree ornaments from A Homeschool Journey

Candy Cane Syrup from Storybook Woods

Pipecleaner/bead Ornaments from Make and Takes

Santa Claus Card from Tutus and Turtles

Sparkly Pinecone Ornaments from Mom in Madison

Reindeer Paperbag from Mommy's Little Helper

I'll be adding more ideas as I come across them!

Now, please, if you're reading this, and you have any ideas (or great blog resources!), please share them in the comments section!

Tissue Ghosts

This morning, Talia & I made ghosts out of tissues.

To make one of these you need:
2 tissues
1 marker
1 ribbon or pipe cleaner or string

You just crumple up one tissue, wrap the other around it (creating the head), and tie the ribbon (or string or pipe cleaner) around the neck, to hold it in place. Then add the face with a marker.

We made about 70 of them this morning (a whole box of tissues worth). We are using them for invitations to a Hallowe'en event, so we needed a lot of them :)

Observations:

Talia was able to do everything except tie the knot in the ribbon (pipe cleaner probably would've worked better for her).
She would do one 'job' for a while & then suggest that we switch jobs.
She went from crumpling the head, to cutting the ribbon, to putting the finished ghosts in the bag, to wrapping the ribbon (I got the knot ready, then she pulled the ends to make it tight).

Beading

This post is an example of why I wanted to start this blog- sharing ideas is so helpful!

I have an online friend who I met through our love for photography. She is a great mom and is one of the inspirations for starting this blog. You can find her on her blog, Learning Vicariously. Her most recent post was on making patterns with beads. As soon as I read it I knew that my daughter would love working with beads on pipe cleaners just as much as Eloise.


So, last night I went out and bought some beads from the dollar store, some pipe cleaners, and a little plastic organizer. Today when Talia had a friend over, we made little bead bracelets together- Talia was very focussed on them! She kept remarking about how she had never done this before & she was so glad I went shopping to buy the beads because she really loved to do this! :)

Observations:

This was a good opportunity to practise sorting as well. After filling a pipe cleaner, she emptied it of beads to start over, and placed each bead in its spot in the organizer.

Things I Would Change:

Next time, when it's just the two of us, I think we'll spend some more time talking about patterns, now that she is used to stringing the beads.