Making our Christmas cards, reading, maths and park

I love productive Mondays and we had one today. It always makes me feel ready for the week ahead. We were up and out very early this morning to take Stuart to the airport for a work flight to London, so we also started work early and had done maths and reading by 9am.

Harry completed two Conquer Maths lessons. One on ordinal numbers, which I thought tied in well with the current opening of advent calendars and talking about dates and one on estimating. We will do some follow up on estimating using dry beans and I will get related workbook pages ready too.

Harry also finished his reading book, Gran's New Blue Shoes. We then played with the sound cards I made, showing some of the current phonic sounds in his reading. I set them out and said a word including one of the sounds. Harry then removed the correct card. I like this as he thinks it's fun but he has to work quite hard to isolate all the sounds of the spoken word to decide which sound it includes.

I also set out some of the cards together and asked Harry to throw a beanbag at particular sounds.

We then moved onto painting some Christmas cards, using Christmas themed sponges I bought recently and shiny paint and pens. Harry and Peter also did some of their own painting designs. I love Harry's tree and shop window (with helpful octopus holding up the boxes of baubles, of course!).

Harry and Peter are both really good at cleaning their pots and brushes after painting (except for the squabbling over who will go in the kitchen sink first!) so they did this and Peter loved squeezing the paint and water out of the sponges.

The boys watched some TV together while I cleaned up the table then Peter had a short nap after lunch as it had been a long morning, so Harry played some CBeebies games on the computer and practised his cello. We went out to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon, where the trees and the sky were looking decidedly wintry! Even I had to join in with a bit of running around just to keep warm! We do still try to get out every day for some fresh air and exercise when it is cold, even if it's just a walk or scooter ride around the local streets.

Celebrating Advent

Happy Advent! We have started decorating the house this weekend. We don't get our Christmas tree until nearer Christmas but this year I decided to use our other decorations from 1 December to make it feel more festive and cosy. Also, I wanted the festive fun to be spread over a longer period so the boys aren't hyper excited all in one go.

We are not a religious family so our celebration of Christmas is very much focussed on family time and seasonal activities. We do tell the story of the Nativity, but as a story not as fact and I do think it is important to understand the history of our National religion.

Today the boys started their advent calendars. 

We got out some house decorations and Christmas themed books - we will borrow more from the library too. We love jigsaws and I bought a new one to add to the box this year too. It is the first 1000 piece one Harry will try.

We also dried orange slices in the oven to use for decorations. I sliced them and put them in the oven on wire cooling racks for 3 hours (90 degrees), turning once. I will make a small hole for a ribbon after leaving overnight to fully dry out.

Harry helped me to make the first batch of mince pies from the mincemeat I made in October. They were delicious! 

Advent activity 24 - Christmas eve basket

I made a Christmas eve basket for the first time last year and it was very popular so I will do this every year now. This was the basket that was put under the Christmas tree while the boys were having a rest in bed after lunch. 

I included:

New Christmas books
A Christmas DVD that we watched that afternoon
Stockings ready to hang at bedtime
Chocolate to eat with our DVD
Reindeer food we had made earlier in the month to sprinkle in the garden
A Christmas candle
New pyjamas for the boys to wear to bed
A copy of The Night Before Christmas to read at bedtime

Advent activity 23 - the Christmas cake

Finishing off food preparation is a big job in the days before Christmas at our house. Harry was too poorly to do anything and spent most of the day on the sofa with his equally poorly daddy so I had a lot to do, hence why this was not blogged before Christmas! I had planned to decorate the Christmas cake together and make mince pies for Santa but Santa had to make do with gingerbread instead!

Advent activity 22 - Santa at Seven Stories

It has been a very busy month and I was really pleased when the last weekend before Christmas came! Stuart finished work with a bad cold though and Harry was quite poorly too so things were a bit quieter than expected. We visited Santa at Seven Stories this year, which was really good. 

We were entertained by two elves who talked to the children while we listened out for Santa's bell. Santa came through and talked to everyone as a group and the children asked him questions before the elves handed out presents (Christmas themed books) and everyone saw Santa individually in his grotto. This style worked well for us as it gave the boys chance to become familiar with Santa before seeing him at close quarters.

Advent activity 21 - spiced nuts

Harry and Peter helped me to make some spiced nuts which we gave as Christmas presents. This was perfect for them to help with as they love scooping and spooning things.

We added spices and sugar to a beaten egg white before coating a selection of nuts with the mixture. This is then baked in the oven on a tray for 15 minutes before scraping the sticky nuts around the tray and baking for another 7 minutes until the nuts are lovely and crispy.

Advent activity 20 - a Victorian Christmas at Beamish

We headed out in dreadful pouring rain yesterday for a group workshop at Beamish with other home ed families. The workshop was held in a lovely warm farmhouse room with a burning coal fire. The children talked about what they do at Christmas and looked at how the Victorian room was different (no electric lights or TV, natural foliage decorations).

We had two staff dressed as Victorians to facilitate and the children split into groups and rotated between baking biscuits (which were actually baked in the oven in the room and were very tasty), playing parlour games (guess objects in the stocking and hide and seek with a bell) and decorating Christmas trees. It was really enjoyed by both children and adults and was a lovely pre-Christmas activity to do with our friends. 

We also saw a bit of Beamish (we haven't been before) and rode a tram back to the car park. We will definitely be going back to spend more time there next year - I think it may become an addition to my list of why the North East is such a great place to live!

Advent activity 19 - printed wrapping paper

We went to the church hall home ed gathering in Durham this week mainly for the art session as Harry really looks forward to it and had even made the art lady a card to say thank you. This week the children were making their own wrapping paper by printing on brown paper with paint and glueing patterns covered with glitter. Harry is going to make a picture present for someone this weekend so he can use his paper.

Advent activity 18 - Christmas gymnastics

Harry took part in the Christmas gymnastics display as his gymnastics club tonight. It is on for 3 evenings so he will be there tomorrow and Thursday as well. He wanted Stuart to watch tonight so I haven't seen him in action yet, but was very proud when he arrived home full of smiles after being watched by close to 200 people!! The display includes all the recreational gymnasts (his is the youngest group) as well as the elite and adult gymnasts. They have been practising the routine for a few weeks at his gymnastics class and we have been practising at home too. I can't wait for my turn to watch on Thursday!

Advent activity 17 - baking day

We filled the cake tins with gingerbread biscuits and mince pies yesterday as I like to keep them topped up in the week before Christmas so a festive snack is never far away to boost the flagging energy levels. Harry is proving to be a bit of a whizz in the kitchen this month and managed half the mince pies and half the biscuits completely on his own (he wanted to try making both), all while dressed as an elf! I did make some royal icing for the biscuits (which I will never do again without the help of an electric beater!) but then realised we had neither piping bag nor plastic bag to use for icing, so they are as yet un-iced but still very tasty.

We also gave the Christmas cake its last feed of brandy before I plan to ice it at the weekend. I have made Christmas cake for the past 2 years but have never iced it and I am looking forward to doing that.

Advent activity 16 - the tree

We have a Christmas tree! Stuart and Harry bought one today and even Peter shrieked with excitement when it came home. Harry didn't need much help decorating it and he also took the tinsel off upstairs to put in his bedroom. They both loved seeing the lights twinkling in the dark. It is a very colourful tree with lots of decorations made by Harry. It was lovely to see the ones he made last year coming back out, bringing back memories of a Santa I had made as a child that always sat on top of our TV (becoming very fragile after several years!). 

Advent activity 15 - a Christmas wedding!

Alright, this is not strictly an advent activity but we spent all day yesterday in Harrogate at the wedding of my auntie so there were lots of Christmas themes! Harry and Peter looked wonderful in their smart clothes, we ate our first turkey dinner and caught up with family we haven't seen for a while. Harry and Peter loved some Christmas sticker books I took for them to do over dinner and they definitely helped to keep the boys in their seats! I was very proud of their behaviour and it was lovely to be among family for the whole day!

Advent activity 14 - party 2

We went to a second home ed Christmas party at a soft play centre in Whitley Bay. The children had a great time racing around and, again, it was so wonderful to see so many friends from the home ed community together and the children from a wide age range playing together. We are very lucky that there was a need for two parties to cover all the people who wanted to go to one!

Advent activity 13 - Crisis donation

We stopped off at the Crisis homeless centre on the way to French today with a donation for their Christmas wish list. We have been talking this week about helping other people and that Christmas is a time when we should especially consider others. This is something I really want Harry and Peter to take on board and we will look at the volunteering opportunities over Christmas when they are older. 

Today we took a bag containing coffee, tins of soup and peas, soaps and shoe boxes. 

Advent activity 12 - sweet snowballs and party 1

This morning we made rice krispie snowballs to take to the first of our two Christmas parties this week. I adapted this recipe from the rice krispies site. This involved melting marshmallows (I used a 150g bag of mini marshmallows) with a little butter - it looked like a ball of playdough in the pan!

Then 2 cups of rice krispies were added - now the mixture looked like a really unpromising sticky mess!

But the balls came together really well and they were rolled in sweetened coconut and icing sugar to give them the snowball effect. I really liked these for a party and they took less than half an hour.

We went to a party at the church hall in Durham where we often meet other home ed families. We played games brought by everyone - pin the red nose on Rudolph, pass the parcel, snowball fight using newspaper balls and musical statues set to Christmas music. The children ate food that everyone had brought and battered a pinata to finish. It was brilliant! It was so great to see almost 30 children spanning a wide age range playing the same games together, taking turns and joining in. Happy home ed days :-)

Advent activity 11 - Nativity mobile

Following on from our Nativity story yesterday, we made a Nativity mobile printed from Activity Village today - Here it is in case anyone else wants to make one.

Harry decorated the characters and we talked about why the wise man might be wearing bright, richly coloured clothes, because he was wealthy and why Mary and Joseph would not, because they were not wealthy. I asked Harry to re-tell the story we heard yesterday too, so he could try to remember it. He showed the mobile off to Stuart when he got home and was telling him who everyone was and that the star led the wise man to the stable. The activity in Durham yesterday and making this mobile have been perfect for stimulating thought and discussion about The Nativity.

We are getting quite a collection of decorations he has made this year now. I am looking forward to using them all at the weekend when we put a Christmas tree up!

Advent activity 10 - Durham cathedral

We had a lovely day out today with other home ed families at beautiful Durham cathedral (our first time there). We listened to the nativity story told by a lady dressed as (and telling the story from the perspective of) one of the shepherds and the children made an angel craft. Harry did well today as he had to join in with most of it on his own due to Peter generally being a shrieking monster! Peter did have a go at the craft but tore the head off his angel before he started so it's a bit lopsided!

Advent activity 9 - enchanted parks

We made it to Saltwell park this evening for enchanted parks - a display of light/art installations throughout the park. I was tempted last year but thought Peter was a bit small.  We enjoyed it and it was a nice novelty for the boys to be out in the 'park in the dark' (as Harry has been calling it!). The hugging trees were the most popular, where you hug a tree and it makes the lights come on. Very clever!

Advent activity 8 - green beanstalks and playdough

Our activity today was our first festive trip out - a visit to Dance City to see their Christmas performance of Jack and the Beanstalk with some friends from my NCT group. It was a good performance and showed the giant stealing the sun, which Jack had to retrieve with the help of the giant's little sister. The set was minimalist and was designed to encourage imagination. We stopped at John Lewis on the way home and Harry chose two new decorations for the Christmas tree, which we will put up next weekend. It was very nice to have an afternoon out just with Harry - Peter had a lovely day too at swimming and soft play with Stuart.

We also made a batch of green playdough this morning and the boys enjoyed cutting out Christmas trees. 

Advent activity 7 - sewing decorations

Harry loved sewing some felt Christmas decorations today. It was a kit from Baker Ross that included felt pieces with punched holes, which were sewn together and filled with stuffing, so it was the most basic I could find as he has never tried sewing before. I like sewing too so hopefully we will be able to do some together next year.