Christmas Around the World - Japan

In continuing with our Christmas around the world theme, my daughter made some beautiful temari Christmas ribbon ornaments.

First I took a Styrofoam ball, a hot glue gun, and some red embroidery floss.

I wrapped the floss around the ball, using the hot glue gun only at the beginning and end of the string.

After that my daughter decorated the balls using ribbon which she attached with straight pins, and glittery string which we "sewed" in and out of the ball using a large needle at an angle.

Finally we attached an ornament hanger at a spot where the ribbon was very secure.

We got this idea from the Expedition Earth curriculum at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

My son also used the preschool ideas for Christmas from her site this week. He really enjoyed them! Here is a picture of his ornaments with clothespins on them:

You can find all of this curriculum at <a href="http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com"><img alt="coahbutton" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4539688748_8098ff340c_o.png" width="150" height="150" /></a>

Another thing we did this week was make candy. We do it every year, but we didn't make nearly as much this year as we did last year. This year we made peanut butter fudge, regular fudge, cherry mash, and molded chocolate. Here are pictures from the peanut butter fudge:

You can find the recipe we used here: Easiest Peanut Butter Fudge

Here is a picture of the cherry mash

We used the recipe on the back of the bag of cherry chips, so I don't have that one for you.

Anyways, I have more stuff from our Christmas week to post tomorrow. I know I am super behind, but I still want to share all of the fun stuff we did and I have some adorable pictures coming up that I can't not post! I hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did!

Countdown to Christmas...23 Days!

Today is officially my last day wearing the walking boot for even a partial day, so there is something to celebrate right there!

For dinner we are having pumpkin pancakes, and for activities, we are having Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, all over this place!

So far today we have read 10 pages from Hark! A Christmas Sampler, Read today's selection from The Jesse Tree, taking our ornament and candy out of our advent envelopes, and I now have a coloring page for each story we read.

We also read about Mexico in our Christmas around the World activities from Expedition Earth and made paper bag luminaries, using battery operated candles.

When we finished all of that, we just hadn't had enough (I know, right?) So we made hand print ornaments, another idea from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Here is the link to her instructions and pictures: snowman handprint ornament I actually used the acrylic fillable Christmas ornaments so that I wouldn't have to worry about them breaking during the creation or shipping process.

I went ahead and added the links for everything you would need to make the ornament crafts, and also a link for battery operated candles, so you would know what you are looking for but I found the candles 2 for $3.99 at Target, so the candles can be found cheaper. The book I haven't found anywhere but on Amazon so I bought it there myself.

Countdown to Christmas...24 Days!

So I didn't mean to go this many days without posting, but I have had a migraine for days now. I still don't feel 100%, but I am doing better.

Today my youngest son had an evaluation with a speech therapist and he will now have to start speech therapy. I was worried about it going in, especially since we chose to go through the school district for the speech in spite of homeschooling, but it all went smoothly. I am glad that he will be getting some help.

Despite all the chaos, this week has gone good for the kids. My daughter used her Christmas money to buy her second American Girl doll, Elizabeth.

My husband finally got his birthday dinner with his parents, including pumpkin pie, and I got our advent calender on the wall.

Tonight in addition to The Jesse Tree we read from Hark! A Christmas Sampler and The Mother Goose Book of Christmas Carols

Hark! A Christmas Sampler

I also put a red or green gummy Lifesavor in each envelope for each kid. We didn't get to do a Christmas craft today because I was feeling so sick. :( Maybe we will do two tomorrow? hehehe

Which reminds me: Here is a fun idea for a craft you could make for someone in your family, niece and nephew for Christmas. They are shadowboxes of their initials:

All I did was decoupage (collage) using modge podge

 magazine cut outs all over a cardboard letter that I bought from Hobby Lobby. 

After that I picked a complementary background color of scrapbook paper and glued the letter on. 

I placed the letter in a shadow box frame, and voila! A beautiful piece of wall art was made!