Advent Idea #1

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I love Advent.

“Come Lord Jesus, Come”–my individual walk with God as an adult pales in comparison to the communal walk with God as a family.  Each day I become closer to God as I teach, listen, and create with my kids.  What a blessing and a gift.

I have done quite a few Advent projects over the years with my kids and kids in afterschool programs that I have taught.  Purple, pink, wreaths, glitter, candles–all my favorite things!

I tell the kids that Advent is a time to prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ.   In our house we do lots of little things–my oldest is 11 and he doesn’t craft as much any more but LOVES to HELP the little kids–which tells me that he is still interested but it may not be cool enough.  He does enjoy seeing his previous artwork on display.

Today’s idea is simple–it can be a coloring project.

any kid project framed–turns into beautiful artwork!

This was from my #1–he made is in 1st grade.  It has been up in our house for 5 years now.

I like that it is simple and get the point across that each week we focus on a different word to bring us closer to the cross.

I wanted to do this project again–so when I was the room mom for Kindergarten Christmas Party I knew this is what I wanted to do for the craft!

I had 20ish frames in my basement–don’t judge me!–I’m a collector–but I’m working on getting rid of stuff that doesn’t add value to my life.  Let’s get back to the project.

I had frames, I cut paper into strips, I cut squares for the “flame” I had markers in a variety of greens and I had little jewels to put on the wreath–add some bling!

The kids cut the strips into different lengths (I was going for perspective and how a “real” wreath would look), the candles burn down each week (science), and I had them label each candle with hope, love, joy, and peace–the words correspond with our focus and prayers for the week.

For the flame I had them cut a triangle with fancy scissors.  Some kids took it a step further and used orange marker on the tip for a flame!  Kids are so creative.

Once they had the “candles” on the page I had them do simple crosses (or x’s) on the bottom for the wreath.

I love the colors of Advent–this wreath came out very well.

Simple, cute, frame-able for years to come.

see the bling?

I’ll be writing more advent ideas in the next couple of weeks!   If you don’t want to miss  an email . . . sign up to the Advent prayers and crafts sent to your email.

Be Blessed.

Today I’m linking up with

Heart and home, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Titus 2uesdays, Into the Beautiful, Soul Sisters, Hip Homeschool, Path A merry meaningful Christmas

Advent wreath #2

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Supplies, foam, tissue paper, greenery, stapler

This is another advent wreath that I made.  click here for the 2-D wreath.  I try to make Advent “real” for kids–I  want the kids to have the same excitement over the lighting of a “new” candle but in a safe way!

peel back this much of the white–that way the inside won’t be sticky

cut tissue paper for the flame or use marker on a coffee filter to make it look like a flame

FAIL! I love showing how my great ideas fail and need to be reworked. I used a stapler the second time around!

This was taken before I put the staples in!

This project has so many possibilities:

  • use toilet paper tubes and cover with fabric, scrapbook paper, yarn
  • use a wrapping paper tube and paint it purple and pink then cut into varying lengths
  • paint tubes green and cut to make the greenery part of the wreath.

Be Blessed as we enter this time of anticipation, planning and thoughtfulness.

A merry meaningful Christmas, All things Christmas

Advent idea # 5 (25 days of reading)

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25 days of reading!

I love this idea–I read about how a mom had carefully wrapped 25 books and each night she read one to her child at night.  Then when her second baby came along she carefully wrapped 50 books and read each child a book at night (I thought this was crazy but I kept reading . . . ).   The third child she did the same thing (she is now wrapping 75 books!) and finally with the fourth kid the books were just put in a basket and they picked randomly.

I have learned from her and I have adopted the idea of reading a special Christmas book to my kids each night–and I did wrap them in white paper and I did number some of them . . . but I’m only reading one book a night!  and some are chapter books so I will spread those out over a few nights.

a basket of books

a basket of books

I didn’t buy the books all at once–I searched the house first–I found several books with a Christmas theme.  Then I stopped at the library and they have a used book rack–I went often and picked up a book here and there for 25 cents-$1.  Then I just needed a place to put them so I wouldn’t forget!

a selection of our Christmas books

a selection of our Christmas books

I’m enjoying this “new” tradition.  Tomorrow we will read a book before quiet time rather than wait until evening–this lends itself to lot of possibilities and I love planing in options.  My “older” son likes to stop and listen or read some of the longer books . . . my heart sings to see all the kids gathered in a layered mess reading.

Be Blessed as we focus on wonder of this season.

I’m linking up with  All things christmas, deck the halls