angathome

Mega list of highchair and table activity ideas for babies and toddlers

Posted on January 14, 2014 by angathome

How do you keep toddlers and preschoolers well occupied while you homeschool older children, cook dinner or make an important phone call? In the interest of getting organised and answering this question for myself, I have created charts of activities for 3 different age groups; babies and toddlers, preschoolers and school-aged children.

Every item on these lists is not necessarily a toy or activity that I would have chosen to purchase, or recommend that you do, they are simply what we already have. With 6 children in the house there are many birthday and Christmas gifts coming in and our collection of table activities is quite extensive. I have purchased some and do have my favourites, but it is very nice to be able to rotate constantly so that there is always something “new” and fresh to do.

The toddlers and very young children do not have a choice of activities. I set out what they will be working on and decide how long it will be before they are able to change. See choices, highchair activities for babies, routines & highchair time and Montessori style practical life tray activities for toddlers for practical explanations of how to get started and manage highchair time for little ones.

Click here to download a free printable PDF of the activities for babies and toddlers poster

It is a large download so it take some time to come through (lots of photos!) I had to leave it and walk away! The next two posts will include the charts of activities for preschoolers and school-aged children, so keep an eye out for those. If you would like an explanation of any of the activities, please feel free to ask. I didn’t want to clutter up the lists with too much information.

I would love to hear what activities you like to give your babies and toddlers.

Filed under: Workjobs & Montessori activities for highchair, mat or table time(mathematics, language, practical life & others) | Tagged: activities for babies, activities for toddlers, blanket time, free printable PDF, highchair activities, home-made Montessori, homeschooling with toddlers, list of ideas, managing large families, mat time, routines, structuring your child's day, table activities | 1 Comment »

Knock and run 12 days of nativity

Posted on December 16, 2013 by angathome

advent candles and nativity

If you are like me and have neglected to get started on your 12 days of nativity knock and run, here is my “deliver it all at once” version with introductory poem and readings for a 10 piece nativity set. (10 days until Christmas if I deliver it today!)

If you have no idea what I am talking about, this is a nice outreach idea for neighbours or friends at Christmas time. You can either deliver one piece of the nativity each day (with their corresponding readings) or all at once, to be opened one per day. If you live close to the recipient I think the every day approach is more fun, especially for the children as they take turns being the stealthy deliverer who cannot be seen delivering the daily piece. This year for us however, one delivery it will be as we have a lot on and I’m sure to miss a day or 2 otherwise.

I have included the instructions for both versions in poem form and the readings we are using this year. Feel free to print them out and tweak it to fit the set you have. Have fun introducing someone to the good news of Jesus birth.

All at once version:

Jesus came to earth to show the world God’s love

Amazing grace and forgiveness, sent from heaven above

At your door this gift you’ve found, unwrap it one per day

It will tell the Christmas story, in a special way

To remind you of the gift of God, as a baby He was born

Jesus Christ, God on earth, in a stable all forlorn

The date will tell you which to unwrap and set upon display

Isn’t it amazing; we can receive God’s love today!

One per day version:

Jesus came to earth to show the world God’s love

Amazing grace and forgiveness, sent from heaven above

At your door a gift you’ll find, unwrap it every day

It will tell the Christmas story, in a special way

To remind you of the gift of God, as a baby He was born

Jesus Christ, God on earth, in a stable all forlorn

Leave the basket out each night for us to fill for you

Don’t try to peek or find us out, it will spoil it if you do!

Mary

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, (Luke 1:30-32, ESV)

Mary was a young girl who trusted God and was willing to obey Him. She was given the privilege of mothering Jesus, the Son of God.

Joseph

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21, ESV)

Joseph was a man of character. God entrusted him to raise His Son.

Donkey

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. (Luke 2:4-5, ESV)

Mary may have ridden a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God was watching over her and fulfilling His divine plan.

Cow

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7, ESV)

Fulfilling the prophecies, God’s son began His life in a stable because He loved us so much.

Baby Jesus

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17, ESV)

Jesus left heaven to be born on earth as a baby. He grew into a man, died for our sin and rose as our Saviour.

Angel

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:13-14, ESV)

An angel gave Mary the wonderful news that she was to bear God’s Son. Throughout the Christmas story angels share joyous news and praise God for His wondrous salvation gift.

Shepherd & sheep

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. (Luke 2:16-17, ESV)

God shared the miracle of His Son’s birth first with humble shepherds in the fields, rather than the important people of the time. The good news is for everyone.

King/wise man

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2, ESV)

The wise men came to worship the newborn king. They bough Him gifts because they recognized who He really was – King of Kings and Lord of Lords

King/wise man

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

The wise men probably travelled on camels as they carried their loads of precious gifts and belongings. We come to Jesus loaded down with burdens but He promises to carry our burdens and give us the rest we need if we will trust in Him.

King/wise man

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV)

The wise men bought precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but the gift of forgiveness for our sin is the most precious of all. Jesus came to purchase our freedom from sin. He sacrificed Himself in our place so we can know God and live in peace and joy with Him forever.

Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.) | Tagged: 12 days of nativity, advent, Christian Christmas, Christmas traditions, free printable, knock and run nativity, neighbour gift, poem, scripture readings | Leave a comment »

Christmas craft bags (advent count down)

Posted on November 16, 2013 by angathome

In December we finish up our normal school routine and get right into the Christmas spirit. Along with our daily Jesse tree readings, traditions we are continuing from past years and special outings, I like to prepare a stack of craft activities ahead of time.

I find my ideas, (Pinterest is an awesome source for this) do all the prep needed for 6 children to make one each and place everything into large paper bags. When we want to do a craft I simply plop the bag on the table with nothing to do other than gather some glue, textas or other basic items that we are using every day and can’t be assigned to a single bag. In the past, the children didn’t know what was in each bag but this time I will be attaching a photo to the front so that I can decide which one I can cope with at the time. Some are much more involved than others.

I would love to post photos here, but as they are other people’s ideas you will need to follow the links to see them or have a look at my Pinterest Christmas board where there is a pinned picture for almost all of the crafts, plus quite a few more! I also prepared some simple colouring pages with stickers for the younger children to work on while the older ones are doing the more difficult crafts or pre-prepared crafts ahead with only the decorating left for the little ones so they feel like they made it themselves. Three older children wielding hot glue guns at once means I am not always able to supervise the little ones at the same time! Oh, and if you don’t own a glue gun now is the time to invest. I just got 2 more for $7 each and they are awesome. Don’t try to craft without one! Trust me; I was sure I didn’t need one for quite a while but once you have one there is no going back!

Paper strip Christmas tree for Jesse tree
Christmas activity books for quiet times. Most of the pages for these came from here (scroll down) here (scroll down to Christmas) and here (type nativity and Christmas into the search bar for heaps of results.)
Electric tea-light covers – cone shaped Christmas trees. Inspired by a picture that turned out to be papier-mache with holes drilled in and sanded off. Far too much work I say! I am tracing a cone template onto glittered card stock and using a hole punch plus a scrapbooking tool to punch a variety of hole sizes to let the light through.
Paper chains. No explanation needed here! The children plan to make enough to go around the entire house. Needless to say, I cut my own strips rather than purchasing prepared ones.
Clove decorated oranges. Some beautiful examples here and here. Use a zester that makes strips of peel for the patterns before adding cloves.
Wooden dolly peg Mary Joseph and Jesus
Giant popstick snowflake decorations. We hung these outside our front door last year. Must have a hot glue gun to make drying fast or lots of patience with white glue.
Ribbon Christmas tree card
Jewel decorated line drawing Christmas trees. I have bought sticky jewels so this will be very simple. A quick drawing following the style of the example and some jewels on the branches for baubles.
Felt Christmas tree with decorations All the children will cut out decorations for the large felt tree backing which will then be left out for them to play with and redecorate as they wish.
Delicate string Christmas trees I have pre-made the cardboard cones and covered them with plastic kitchen wrap. Paint the plastic covered cones with white glue and wrap with string. Ensure that the strings cross over each other for a strong result. Once well-covered, paint over the top of the string with white glue and allow to dry thoroughly overnight before removing the cone and plastic carefully from underneath.
Natural branch Christmas trees We will have to go on a nature walk to collect sticks for this.
Sequin decorated foam baubles I have a variety of plain, flower and star sequins for this activity. I purchased a packet of shirt pins with tiny coloured round ball ends but any pin with an end that won’t pull through the sequins will do.
Pasta noodle angel choir These are so cute. We will experiment with different facial features. I can see a whole village developing!
Split pin and string Christmas tree cards This wall sized version gave me the idea but I shrunk it and used split pins to make the outline of a Christmas tree on the front of a card. The children will wind glitter string back and forth. The split pins need to be placed into the card loosely so there is enough room underneath then to fit several turns of string.
Popstick stable and silhouettes I copied the silhouettes into Word and chose format picture – adjust picture, black and white 75% to get a strong black and white silhouette to cut out. Hot glue gun popsticks or coffee stirrers {same thing but cheaper because they are not a craft supply!} together to make the stables and add some card backing with sticker stars. I am going to show the older children the example and let them go nuts creating their own stables. May turn into mansions…. we’ll see!
Variety of nativity scene colouring pages. (Search google images for nativity colouring pages, they are everywhere.)
Bauble Christmas cards An easy card requiring nothing but a little patterned paper and ribbon.
Strings of fingerprinted Christmas lights Controlled finger-painting experience! Could use ink stamp pads rather than paint or even bingo dotter markers.
Wooden peg stars These look very effective. We added glitter last year and made some beautiful ornaments. Even the natural wood alone is pretty.
Popstick tree Last year I bought some foam popsticks which we will use instead of wood because they can be easily cut with scissors to make the various sizes required for this tree.
3 wise men popsicle ornament Oversized popsticks (or paint stirrers) are used for these with a couple of scraps to decorate. We will use felt off-cuts for beards and dot stickers for the faces rather than painting the popsicle sticks.)
Paper strip flower decoration A good use for left over paper chain strips – if there are any!
toilet roll flower wreath Collecting lots of toilet rolls in a household of 8 is never a problem 😉 These do look very pretty and are so easy to make – IF you have a hot glue gun. Get one!!
Jesus in a toilet roll manger We will wrapping felt pieces around a wooden dolly peg for Jesus and laying him in the toilet roll mangers filled with shredded gold tinsel. (Upmarket hay for our baby Jesus!)

What crafts are you doing this Christmas?

Other posts you may find helpful:

Mummy’s Christmas shop – how to organise gift giving with lots of siblings

Receiving gifts, thankfulness and good manners

Christmas “to do” list; making sure those traditions happen

Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.) | Tagged: advent, Christian Christmas, christmas crafts for children, Christmas gifts, Christmas traditions, December count-down, Jesus, nativity crafts, simple crafts for kids | Leave a comment »

Relationships; joyful or difficult, they all need the 5 A’s

Posted on November 11, 2013 by angathome

Some time back I was privileged to hear Alma Wakefield of Elijah Ministries address the ladies at family camp. She reminded us of the importance of the “5 A’s” in our interactions with others.

Affirmation (showing value in a person)
Appreciation (thankfulness)
Affection (Love languages)
Acceptance (Things you can’t change)
Authenticity (Our relationship with God is our priority)

As we come into the Christmas period, it is a good reminder for all of our relationships. Is there a difficult relationship that you dread renewing at this time of year? Difficult relationships need the 5 A’s.

Is there a particular child who is getting under your skin? Children need the 5 A’s.

Have you been making your marriage relationship a priority? Husbands need the 5 A’s.

All relationships need the 5 A’s. Give yourself a relationship check-up to see if you need to spend a little more time on the 5 A’s.

Toddler busy bag exchange

Posted on October 29, 2013 by angathome

A good friend of mine recently hosted an activity bag exchange for young children and toddlers. Each Mum involved made 13 copies of an activity of their choice. We all got together for a chat and to exchange our bags with each other, leaving us all with 13 different activities to use with our own children. Here are the wonderful bags the ladies made. (While none of these are original ideas, they can be found in so many places across the web that I haven’t tried to give credit to sources in most cases.)

Pizza factory. The children follow the order cards to custom-make each pizza according to their customer’s preferences. (Links to free printable order cards and other busy bag swap ideas here.)

Popstick pattern match. Use the coloured popsticks to copy the picture patterns. Several of the cards have plain colours on the back to convert the activity to a colour match instead.

Button snake. Great for learning how to do up buttons; excellent for fine motor control. The felt pieces are pushed on and off the “snake” using the button head.

Pipecleaner bracelets. Thread the cut straws onto the pipecleaners to make patterns and jewellery. You could do this as a colour matching activity if you have the right straws and pipe cleaner colours

Sandpaper and wool pictures. Again with patterns to follow and copy, placing the pieces of wool onto the sandpaper to make pictures.

Paper clip feet. Slide the paper clips onto the toes by colour or write a number on each foot for counting practise as well as fine motor skills. Young children can just pile the paperclips on top if it is too difficult to push them on.

Tissue paper pictures. Tear pieces of tissue or crumple into balls to decorate the pictures or make you own with the blank paper and glue. Stickers and crayons are added for extra fun as well.

Paint swatch pegging. Pincer grip (necessary for writing later) is exercised by opening the pegs to match them to the correct colour swatch.

Shape puzzle. A simple make-your-own puzzle with foam sheet cut into geometric shapes

Pop-pom push jar. Push the pompoms through 2 sizes of holes into the plastic container. (Tip: Use a drill to make the holes.)

My youngest enjoyed the pompom posting and soon figured out that he could shake the small ones back out again – saving me the trouble of taking the lid on and off for him!

Felt chains. Perfect timing for Christmas! While the rest of the family are producing reams of paper chain to decorate the entire house (or is that just my children?) the youngest can be practising with felt and velcro, to be made and re-made over and over again.

The last 2 bags were mine and I made sewing and threading activities and a basic gluing bag. Sorry, no photos, but check here and here for some gluing and fine-motor ideas.)

Other posts you may find helpful:

Ziploc activity bags for toddlers and preschoolers

Toddler busy boxes

Sensory tub ideas

Filed under: Toddlers and babies | Tagged: activity tubs for toddlers, blanket time, car travel with toddlers, fine motor skills, highchair activities, home-made Montessori, homeschooling with toddlers, managing large families, mat time, Montessori for preschoolers, Montessori style tray activities for toddlers, table activities, toddler busy boxes, workjobs, ziploc activity bags | Leave a comment »

Hand commands and missionary minded children

Posted on October 26, 2013 by angathome

It has come to my attention recently that we apparently have been reading too many heroic missionary stories that end in martyrdom or less than idyllic life situations. My three older children emphatically stated that they “never wanted to be missionaries!” and “Why would anyone want to?” Never mind what God’s plans for them were….

I decided to address this less than positive attitude by commencing the 40 day Mission minded family challenge by Ann Dunagan. We watch a 5 minute YouTube clip each morning that includes a quick geography lesson on locating countries around the world, some inspirational quotes by missionaries, a couple of thoughts from Ann herself and a related bible verse. While the quality of the film is less than professional, what she has to say is worthwhile listening to and has been a great springboard for mission related discussions. She offers a daily missionary challenge for you to do as each segment concludes to start you on the path to becoming more missionary minded.

After the first session, I printed out a free geography quiz and made a velcro label the continents and oceans activity and the eldest 3 had those memorized in a couple of days. We spent half an hour or so watching clips about the floating Mercy Hospital Ship and the amazing work they do around the world and got them all fired up about medical missionary work. Interestingly, this was followed by a couple of days of outdoor time when all the children decided to play “Mercy ship” in the back yard and doctored each other, complete with making the patients line up to be treated!

I printed out the ocean and continent maps (one blank, one control map) and laminated them before adding velcro to the labels. In 5 minutes a day, with minimal effort, the children had the continents and oceans memorised. Kids love velcro!!

Day 6 to 10 has seen us learn Ann’s “Hand Commands” for the ten commandments. Genius!! I thought Ray Comfort’s visual number version on YouTube was brilliant (and it is) but you always have your hands with you and these are even better! While the children already had the 10 commandments down after watching Comfort’s video a couple of times, Dunagan’s Hand Commands had them practicing the moves and all ready to share them with others. Definitely worth a look. There is a written explanation here or watch the 5 clips from day 6 (the first screen and voice-over says day 11 but it is actually day 6 ) to day 10 to see it in action. I recommend the live recording because the movements, especially for number 8, are very clever.

I am not sure what the next 30 days of the challenge will have us doing, but the children’s attitude has already shown a great improvement.

Filed under: Christian Education, character, Sundays and the Sabbath | Tagged: 40 day missionary minded family challenge, ann dunagan, Christian, geography, home-made Montessori, homeschooling, missionaries, Montessori for preschoolers, oceans and continents | Leave a comment »

Our Jesse tree symbols for advent 2013

Posted on October 20, 2013 by angathome

Christmas is fast approaching and with it, the advent season. In our family, we try to make this a special time to focus on Jesus in the lead-up to Christmas day. This year we are making a magnetic Jesse tree to count down the 25 days of December. The clear jewels that are stuck over the top of the tiny pictures have a magnifying effect that make the simple picture symbols look quite spectacular. We will read the bible reading to go with each symbol and the older children will design their own pictures, while the younger kids will colour in the ones I have already pre-drawn for them.

If you would like to use our pictures, I have uploaded a printable version here. (You are welcome to print the pictures out for your own use, however please do not re-post these on any other blog; feel free to link back here.) Don’t forget to check the size of your jewels and adjust the print size of the pictures accordingly. Jewels can be found at discount variety stores and are usually with the candles or artificial flowers.

The tree backing is simply strips of coloured paper glued down and laminated. If you can find a couple of complimentary scrapbooking or wrapping paper patterns that would be ideal. To glue the jewels down, we used white PVA wood glue. Just make sure that whatever you use, it dries clear or obviously your pictures will not show through well. I found round magnets and used the same glue to attach them to the back after the pictures were dry.

There are lots of suggested readings available online, but the ones I used you can print here. (I fit my readings into the 25 days of December, rather than actually following advent and there are a couple of extra readings and symbols on this list than I needed. Ignore the days of the week and just choose the ones that match the printable symbols from above or make up your own.)

If you would like to see another version of a fairly traditional Jesse tree from previous years, see here or for a different take on Jesse trees, see our names of Jesus Jesse tree symbols.

Other posts you may find helpful:

Jesus trees, lent and Easter traditions for a Christian Easter; minus the bunny.

Making those traditions happen; a “to do” list of wonderful memory making ideas

Christmas debrief and next year’s plans

Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.) | Tagged: 25 days, advent, black and white, Christian Christmas, Christmas traditions, count down, December, family devotions, free printable, Jesse tree symbols, print and color, print and colour | 2 Comments »

Christmas “to do” list: Making sure those traditions happen

Posted on October 16, 2013 by angathome

In light of my Christmas resolutions from last year, I have decided to get a jump start on Christmas planning and organisation by making a master list of everything I need to do before the start of December and Christmas day itself. Christmas traditions are wonderful but they do take planning and effort to make them happen. My resolutions were something along the lines of:

Next year I will have everything done well in advance.
I will be able to sit back and relax and enjoy the season WITH my children, rather than running around like a headless chook organising things FOR my children.
I will get around to doing some of those amazing ideas I pin to my Pinterest Christmas board.
I will keep the traditions we have started in the past going.

Grand sentiments I know but ones that I am determined to make happen this year. Most of the ideas on this list are explained more fully in this post, so have a read there if these sound a little cryptic. I actually plan to use today’s list for me, but hopefully it inspires you to make this year something special as we focus on Jesus as the reason for the season.

Make my gift list. Who I have to buy for, what I have already purchased and what I plan to purchase. I will keep it in my purse and carry it with me. No more being in the shops and seeing an awesome special and not buying it because I have forgotten that I need to buy for my cousin’s new baby. It will also stop me seeing the awesome special and buying it for my cousin’s new baby, only to remember later that I already have a gift tucked away that I have forgotten about. (See “Tools not Toys” for some gift inspiration.)
Place online orders. We are purchasing more online gifts each year. With the limited budget we allocate for children of extended family, we’d rather purchase quality reading material than the junky toys our budget would include.
Purchase or make Christmas cards, take and print family Christmas photo and address envelopes. It’s been several years since we have sent out Christmas cards due to lack of organisation rather than an unwillingness to do so. This year will be different!
Order new Christmas books and wrap our collection. Each year we add a couple of new titles to our collection of precious Christmas stories. These are wrapped individually and the children take turns to open one each day for story time. Since they are packed away each year, the stories stay fresh and interesting and bring back happy memories from the years before. Opening them like a gift adds to the excitement.

Bible reading scrolls to go with each name of Jesus.

This contact covered toilet roll Christmas tree holds the bible reading scrolls to go with our Jesse tree symbols for advent. With 25 holes, it is just the right size. (And with 6 children in the house, we had no trouble at all saving up 25 toilet rolls to make it!)

Purchase materials to make our jewel magnet Jesse tree symbols for this year. Make a list of matching readings from the Jesus Storybook Bible. In the past couple of years we have used a fairly traditional Jesse tree and a names of Jesus Jesse tree. This year we will be designing our own miniature pictures to accompany the daily reading and gluing them under jewels with magnetic backs. These will be added to a Jesse tree backing on our magnetic whiteboard and used as a daily count down as we listen to the bible readings. Pictures and a free printable black and white version to colour in will be posted soon.
Dig out the next book in our advent reading (for fun) series. Grandpa’s Box was brilliant (one of my favourite stories and broken into short sections that are perfect for advent) and we thoroughly enjoyed Jotham’s Journey. This Year we will be following on with the second book in the series; Bartholomew’s Passage. The stories are broken into daily readings for the advent season and leave the children hanging on the edge of their seats and begging for more.

Set up Christmas craft bags. Last year we had a craft for every day of December and the children loved making them. We didn’t get all the bags finished though and some have been tucked away to do this year. We will probably go for around 15 different activities this year as we simply had too much on to get through one every day. I have all the preparation for 6 lots of the craft plus an example or picture done beforehand so that I can plop the bag on the table and know that there is nothing to do other than perhaps get the glue and scissors out.

Check dates for Road to Bethlehem. A church in our area puts on a fabulous walk-through Nativity play. You follow a guide from station to station as the story is presented in parts with amazing sets and costuming. They really go all out, with camel rides and activities beforehand and lots of great food. The children love it and it is the perfect event to invite friends and family who are not Christian along to. Check out the church programmes in your area, you may be surprised at the free events you can attend.
Stock our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to send overseas to needy children. The kids had a ball choosing all the little gifts to put inside.
Plan our neighbourhood outreach gifts. We like to deliver small gifts with the Christian Christmas message of God’s salvation through Jesus in a variety of formats to everyone in our street. We also include our church’s Christmas service times and contact info. You never know who will decide to come along at Christmas time.
Buy our Ikea gingerbread house in readiness to turn it into a stable. If you cut the front wall into 2 pieces and have them open out like window shutters on each side it makes a great stable. Use the chimney pieces to make an awesome manger without even having to cut them!
Decide on a Carols in the Park event and mark it on the calendar.
Mark Lights in the Heights on the calendar; Perth Christmas lights display; 8th to 20th Dec at C3Church Hepburn Heights.
Print golden tickets and plan for our Christmas lights express trip. The children are put to bed early and with squeals of delight, find their golden ticket. We will all then jump in the car and head out for a tour of the best Perth Christmas lights displays. My inspiration for this came from here. She has some great ideas like taking hot chocolate and snacks, playing carols in the car and there are even printable tickets to hole-punch as the children climb aboard.
Book a date with Nan and Grandad for Christmas lights on the water. Last year we were very blessed to have my parents take us out on their boat for a trip around the canals to admire the lights from the water. It was a wonderful way to spend some time with them and something different for the kids. Not to mention the amazing light display.
Stock our Mummy and Daddy shop with small items for the children to purchase for each other. This is how we manage sibling gifts in a large family.

Rehearse our family nativity play. We have not managed to put one together yet and it is way down the list, but maybe this year. The children would like to act out “Jesus’ Christmas Party” if we can pull it off with our limited cast.
Organise our ladies high tea. Send out invites, menu plan, cook, games, decorations and place settings; the whole works. This is something we started a couple of years ago as a lovely way to bless others. We invite a bunch of elderly ladies from church along (who we usually barely know) and hold a fancy high tea just because. They love it and our older children love being waiters and waitresses for the event, taking their roles very seriously.
Set up a Christmas card prayer box. This was a nice idea I came across a couple of years ago. Instead of figuring out how to display the Christmas cards that come in, place them in a basket on the table and pray for the senders of the latest one before the evening meal.
Fill advent calendar. Ours is a wooden box calendar with magnetic nativity pieces to add to a stable scene daily throughout advent. I add a couple of treat surprises on random days.
Buy nativity set. We like our decorations to point to Jesus and have started a nativity collection. While we are doing teeth and getting ready for our evening time together in the loungeroom after dinner, those who are ready can play with the nativity scenes with the lights off and Christmas tree lights and advent candles lit. Add some Christmas music and it is a wonderful atmosphere.
Purchase spare nativity. We would like to do a knock and run 12 days of nativity with the neighbours one year. Unfortunately nobody around us has children, but the adults may still enjoy it.
Set up the advent wreath and candles. We light the candles each year and watch them burn while we read our advent book for the night. We discuss the symbolism of the different coloured candles leading up to the birth of Jesus.
Print Christmas activity books. I trawl the internet for Christmas themed dot-to-dots, mazes, puzzles, colouring pages and the like to make printed activity books for those times when a little quiet table time is in order.
Repair any broken decorations. Yes, I know it would have been easier to do it last year before we packed them away but that didn’t happen ok!
Plan thank you cards ahead. Address and stamp them so there is no excuse to send them in March (like last year!)
Find the Christmas music. We have several CDs of Christmas worship music and carols to play throughout December.
Trial any new Christmas recipes and plan some favourites to take as our contribution on Christmas day.
Watch the Nativity cartoon: The Christmas story according to the bible . A cute little 5 minute cartoon for kids with a Christian message that shows children with humour what the bible actually says happened at Christmas.
Set out the Christmas videos. We try to use these sparingly but on the days after some of our special late-night outings, a little chilling in front of a vid is needed.
Hold the tree decorating ceremony. Usually on the first of December but depends on when Daddy can be home to participate. Video proceedings and have the youngest child place the start on top of the tree as per our tradition..

Seeing it all down on paper makes me realise why I am always so busy at Christmas, but with a little forward planning all these special things will come together. We can always drop some out if it gets too much, but at least the most important ones will happen. These traditions will be what our children remember in the years to come and make this period very special for us as a family. Plus, I love it too!!

Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.) | Tagged: advent, Christian Christmas, Christmas traditions, gifts, Jesse tree, nativity | Leave a comment »

Toddler bags for out and about: How to get through a restaurant meal with a toddler.

Posted on October 8, 2013 by angathome

Any parent of young children knows that a meal out in a restaurant can be taxing with a toddler in tow. There are ways however to minimise the stress and make it a pleasant experience for everyone.

Firstly, train your child at home to sit in their highchair after meals for a period of time with a few toys or activities, or perhaps a book or two and include playpen time (or room time) and mat time in your daily routine. Having these daily periods where your child is used to happily playing with the toys you give them, whilst staying within a boundary, is excellent preparation for other occasions when they will need to sit quietly for a longer than normal stretch of time.

Spend a little time preparing some new and interesting activities that are kept aside for use while you are out. Either purchased toys and books or some simple (and cheap) home-made ideas like the ones that follow. Toddler’s generally do not have a well-developed imagination and tire of toys that don’t “do” something relatively quickly, so having to buy new things continually to keep up with their changing developmental needs and interest can become very expensive. These home-made toys are great for developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and when introduced at the right developmental level, will be stimulating and interesting for your young child. If a task is too easy it will not hold their interest. Too hard and they will become frustrated and lose interest.

This is the bag of “toys” I put together for my 18 month old to use during a lunch we attended on the weekend. He only used a couple of them as I bought them out one at a time and only changed them over when necessary.

Posting bottle: Posting noodles into an empty vanilla bottle and tipping them back out again.

Posting box: Pushing pompoms into the hole in this twine box. Help is needed to open the box to tip them out again but as we are sitting right next to him this is not a problem.

Small spaces jar: Posting earbuds into a spice jar with holes in the lid. He discovered after I had taken off the lid and tipped them all back out about 5 times that he could shake them out one at a time through the holes so that added a new dimension to the activity.

Posting tin: Posting plastic poker chips through a slot into an empty baking powder container. Yes, I know, it’s another posting activity. But at this age, my son LOVES to post stuff so I’ll run with that for a while and change when he is no longer so fascinated!

Surprise boxes: Opening and closing these little pill containers to find the small toy inside is great for fine motor development.

Dolly peg and hair bands: Sliding hair ties on and off a wooden dolly peg may be a little difficult for him but we will give it a go and see what happens. I haven’t used this one yet.

Dinky car: Having older siblings means that interest in cars has developed early and he knows how to play with them form observing his brothers.

Pipecleaner box: Shoving them in and out and bending them into different shapes could be fun. (We haven’t done this yet either but I remember one of my older children using this idea as a toddler and spending a very long time poking the ends into the small holes in the chair he was sitting on.)

This old bag is how we cart the activities around. The fact that it has several different compartments as well as zips means that it is an activity in itself.

Having children will certainly change your life, but it shouldn’t stop you from doing the things you love. Train your children and you will reap the benefits.

Other posts you may find helpful:

Mat time on the go

Activities to make for toddlers and babies

Buffet training

Arsenic hour and toddler meltdowns

Filed under: Toddlers and babies | Tagged: blanket time, concentration, highchair activities, home-made Montessori, homeschooling with toddlers, mat time, playpen time, routine, toddler activities, toddlers, toys | 1 Comment »

How do you store children’s jigsaw puzzles?

Posted on October 1, 2013 by angathome

The “after” photo. All those melancholy organisation junkies out there say aaahhhhh!

After unsuccessfully searching for a suitably priced storage solution for our woefully disorganised jigsaw puzzle cupboard, I decided to come up with my own system. I have been frustrated at constantly having puzzle pieces mixed up, missing and the whole lot in an untidy jumble and sorting the mess out had finally risen to the top of the project priority heap! After looking at several different options that were going to be way too expensive for us, (we own a LOT of puzzles) I settled on clear plastic containers from Kmart.

The “before” photo. The really scary thing is that I had already taken out about 15 puzzles when I thought to take a photo of what we started with.

We had a marathon puzzle session where the children completed every puzzle we owned and I photographed the finished result. I threw out any that had been missing pieces for years and were unlikely to suddenly be found and those that were broken or very tattered. We gave several of the least loved away to friends and that still left a rather extensive collection, gathered from secondhand stores and markets over the years at a dollar or two each.

I taped the photo of the finished puzzle to the front of the boxes so the kids can see which puzzle is in the container and choose what they would like to do. I also photographed the base boards from puzzles that had a back and attached these photos to the lids of the boxes so they knew to look for the matching board when they took the pieces out. The boards are now standing at the end of the bottom shelf.

I separated the puzzles into three age or difficulty groups so that I can simply direct the twins for example to take any puzzle that has a white dot on the front. (Very frustrating for them to tip out and start a puzzle they have no hope of completing.) Finally, each box is numbered and every piece inside the box is numbered to match so that when a stray piece is found we can easily see which box it belongs in.

I cut the pictures off the boxes of the more difficult puzzles, folded them and stored them in the box too so that the children can use them as a guide if they need to. (The pictures on the front of the box do the job for the simple puzzles but are not large enough for the very complicated ones.)

The peg puzzles are stored in plastic bags that zip or press-stud together that I have kept from blankets, grobags and other gifts that come in suitable packaging. If they get accidentally tipped off the shelf, at least the pieces will stay in the correct bag.

It cost a total of $62 for the containers which was more than I had hoped but a lot less than some methods I came across. It also means that the children are now regularly choosing to sit down and do a puzzle which had not been happening at all in their jumbled state. Plus, every time I walk past I give a little sigh of satisfaction at that organised shelf! One more thing to cross off my list. Now for project 982….

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Archives of previous posts

Knock and run 12 days of nativity

Christmas craft bags (advent count down)

Relationships; joyful or difficult, they all need the 5 A’s

Toddler busy bag exchange

Hand commands and missionary minded children

Our Jesse tree symbols for advent 2013

Christmas “to do” list: Making sure those traditions happen

Toddler bags for out and about: How to get through a restaurant meal with a toddler.

How do you store children’s jigsaw puzzles?

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