Busy Thursday

Today we have school and it is a special day for us, because Steve is going with us. He always takes a Thursday off in December and today is the day. Since he has never been to the actual class, it is the perfect opportunity to do so. I'm also working later, so we will probably not have much time to craft today. I will share a craft we did awhile ago. They have been hanging in my front window along with  the window candles.

Toddler "Gingerbread" House

This morning (before I went to the dentist) Hazel and I made a "gingerbread" house out of graham crackers. I learned this technique from a friend who is a preschool teacher. What you need is an empty and cleaned milk carton--cup or pint size work best for toddlers, graham crackers, frosting, and candy or things to decorate with.

The milk carton is the form of the house and gives it stability. You put frosting right on it and stick the graham crackers on it. Hazel loved putting the frosting on the milk carton.

Once you have the graham crackers (you may need to help with the roof and the triangular shape up to the roof--I just broke the corners and hid any holes with frosting), you spread frosting on it to decorate. We started with the roof. hazel loved putting the candies on. Since M&M's are her favorite she kept telling me she wanted to save them to eat later.

Then we decided the lollipops could be people, so we put them on the front of the house and one on the back. Hazel tried to use the flavors she doesn't like very much for the house.

We spent about 30-45 minutes doing this. It was a lot of fun. We bought a kit to do a gingerbread train. We'll see how it turns out.

Have a sweet day!!

St. Nicholas Day

Today is when Hazel's school celebrates St. Nicholas Day. This is a holiday that is not traditionally celebrated in the United States, so I had not heard of it. However, in her advent calendar she got a needle felted St. Nicholas (I made it last night). I did some research and the best site for information on St. Nicholas including free stories--printable or on-line-- is St. Nicholas Center.

We read a story about The Real Santa Claus after opening  the advent calendar. She then started to color one of the print-outs from the website, but got distracted.

Before her nap, she sat on my lap while I read to her several of the stories on-line. Many are like books on-line. She fell asleep in my arms. The free stories can be found here.

This website also offers crafts and activities. Printable ones are found here.

They also have suggestions to celebrate on your own. The idea I liked most was leaving a gift of food at a neighbors with a card about St. Nicholas (printable). If we have time to bake some banana bread after Hazel's nap we may try this. Run a loaf with a card attached to a porch, ring the bell and run.

I'm hoping by celebrating the different saint days with Hazel that the Waldorf School does, she will get a better understanding of each of them. I know Steve loves this part of her education, being the one who is Catholic in the family.

So Happy St. Nicholas Day! I hope you find a way to spread some love and goodwill to all.