December Traditions and Ideas

Next year I will likely forget the ideas I tried this year so I'll blog about it just for my own records. :)

I bought gift boxes from the dollar store (the smaller ones were in a multiple set for a dollar!) so that I'd have 24 total boxes that I could fill with books and crafts and such!  Each day the girls got to open one and the first few weeks this was absolutely wonderful, but it did get a little old in the week leading up till christmas.  I might do a 12 days before Christmas or something else to make it shorter.  Maybe just week days and not weekends?  I don't know, it needs more tweaking.  :)

Christmas Coloring Pages

I have made several coloring pages for my girls and wanted to share them!

 You can print them from this link.---  CHRISTMAS COLORING!

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

My coloring buddy and me.  After seeing me make some coloring pages she started making her own and giving them out!  First we worked together and now she is making them alone. :)

Story writing contest for kids!

My 10 year old (resistant reader/writer) wrote a story for this contest!  I played editor as any professional writer would have and now her story is on Youtube with some others as well!  If she gets lots of "thumbs up" on her video then she might win a prize.  Just doing this project has been encouraging and helpful to her, but obviously it would be encouraging to win a prize too.  She also has the book they show at the end and has writen more stories independently in it!  It is so encouraging to see her actually enjoy writing.

The full list of stories read aloud with pictures is linked here and below (everyone had the same pictures to choose from and base their story off of.)  Listen and watch and like your favorites!

Lily's story is called "Our Adventure in Photos, by Me, Cliff Pony"
The whole list is here - Thinking Tree Writing Contest 2016: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh7XJcQPXiiUdFj_aLrmIemjetm8qEjYN

Thanksgiving coloring pages!

 I made a couple coloring pages for my own kids and their friends for thanksgiving just now!  And hopefully it will be easy for anyone to copy/save the pictures from here and print them out for your own kids.   I know how kids tend to get a little whiny when waiting for food!  ... or they could even be used for that adult relative that gets a little whiny while waiting.  ;)

Anyway, I made them myself and am giving you all permission to save and print as many as you want to use (obviously not to sell) for your own Thanksgiving gathering!

Enjoy!  And Happy Thanksgiving!

A Look Inside and a Life of Learning

I shared briefly in the previous post about this pocket journal, but it was brand new and I hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet! It has a different feel than some of the others so is worth some extra attention.

My 8 year old thought it looked amazing and she wanted to use it right away, but I personally think it would work best for possibly 6th grade and higher or for a child who loves to read a lot and isn't as into the coloring and drawing and much.  The small size makes it feel more doable and less intimidating for children who don't enjoy writing as much, or for adults who want a book to guide their own studies but don't have a ton of time to put towards them.

This post will give you a peek inside this journal and how it can look to use it, but since I was the one using it, I will also share how it can be used for a mom book.  Or some people say "awesome adulting" or other people call it being an example, or modeling how to learn for our kids.  Whatever you want to call enjoying being an adult and learning what YOU want to learn is what I am going to talk about.