Safe-Keeping for Next Christmas…

Every year on the four Sunday’s proceeding Christmas, we celebrate “Advent” which is a German holiday where we light a candle (first one on the first Advent, two on the second…etc).  We enjoy singing carols and then we like to have a special snack or treat.  In our family, I made it a tradition to give the children who are present, a gift to help them feel the spirit of the season….which usually ends up being a beautifully illustrated book.

As I have so many seasonal books, I have been looking for either a crate or something to keep them in so that they are more special when I pull them out along with the decorations.  I was so excited last night when I found this beautiful big, square, basket; even big enough for the largest books!

This is now going in my closet where the temperature is controlled (an important thing when storing books) and where little hands and eyes will forget about them for about eleven months and they will be more magical because of it.

Busy Book—Preschool Skills

I finally finished my “preschool skills” busy book. It kept getting pushed aside for other projects but after seeing it on my “projects pending” list for WAY too long, I finally gave it top priority and finished it in a couple of days. Here it is in all its homemade glory!

 Cover

I did the cover in this cute understated material that contrasts with the cover of the other busy book that is still colorful and fun.  I love the snap closure because it makes it less likely to “drop” its contents.

 

Alphabet pages

I wanted to use these cute buttons I found for maybe $1 on a Joann’s Clarence rack.  So I had the brilliant(?) idea of using them as the labels for my shape pages.  I traced cute pictures onto white muslin and then afterwards realized that iron-on transfers would have been soo much easier…oh well, you live you learn.

 

  

 

Shape Page

This was a fun page to create though (of course) now I have even more ideas that I could have used.  This is one of Christian’s favorite pages, I think it’s great that he knows what a parallelogram is!

 

Number pages

This is very similar to the alphabet pages except that this one is numbers.  I found some very cute brads from Oriental Trading Company that I used for the “tallies”. It would have been nice to have this ready a couple of months ago because Christian is quite good at recognizing numbers already.  It will be useful when Vivian is ready for it.

 

Addition page

This idea was taken from one of the many other busy books I looked at online when I was trying to think of ideas for my busy books.  Yes, there is a stain on it from fabric markers leaking when a certain three-year old was drawing on a paper above this.  This is my least favorite page but it’s pretty fun to watch Christian figure out the sums.  Plus it does familiarize him with math notation at a young age so it won’t seem quite so foreign when he first sees it in school.

 

 

What’s the Weather?

This came from my memory of a chart that my mom had on the wall for years in our playroom.  It was always fun for me when I was small to look outside and figure out what the weather was for the day and mark it with the hands.  I think that the idea originated from the Joy School manual. It’s my done in my own scribble with fabric markers so I’m sure it could be much cuter.  

 

 

Season and Calendar pages

This is the page that was the most intensive to put together.  I had caught on to the iron-on transfers by the time I reached this page so that wasn’t the problem.  It was the bazillion squares that needed to be sewn around.  So basically I put it away and hadn’t pulled it out for a while.  Guess what though? It really wasn’t that bad.  I sometimes get so intimidated by things that really are not so terrible once you get into the swing of things.  I did myself a favor with this page though and bought the sticky backed Velcro rather than sewing it on…it just worth my sanity to do that many squares! This us by far Christian’s favorite page. Of course, it is the most advanced page and much more on his level so that accounts for it but it’s pretty fun.  All the pieces on the Seasons page are pretty much movable except for the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn labels.  I thought of doing it by the year but I felt that learning the seasons and the months in them was probably more easily grasped for preschool age children.  It’s funny what interests kids because Christian has a blast just putting the numbers in order starting with the one on a different day.

 

Tick-Tack-Toe Game page

Here is Jared’s favorite page.  Funny huh?  He keeps trying to talk Christian into playing Tick-Tack-Toe (rather than Life which is the game Christian always wants to play) with him.  I think it’s hilarious.  As you can see, I made it with my boy in mind who’s favorite everything at the moment is green… I did a survey the other day for Fisher-Price and I was supposed to ask my child what picture they liked best.  Of course he picked the picture with the most green.

I’m so glad it’s finished.  It would have been nice to have finished it last year for a 3-year-old but it still is entertaining for a 4-year-old.         

Advent Stocking

We celebrate German Advent at our house.  If you don’t know what that is, it is basically the four Sunday’s preceding Christmas where you light a candle on an Advent wreath and say a little poem in German.  The first week you light one candle, the next two, and so forth as you say the poem.  Afterwards, we have a child open a gift of some sort (we usually have it be a book or something about or related to Christmas) and then we have some sort of treat.  It’s a fun tradition that my husband’s family started when they lived in Germany (where my husband was born).  Here’s the poem that we recite.

 

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt,

Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,

dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.

 

Roughly translated it means:

 

Advent, Advent, a candle is lit,

First one, then two, than three, then four

the Christ-child stands at the door. 

 

The first year we were married, Jared was very adamant that we “Do Advent”.  I searched high and low for an Advent wreath to buy.  I actually ended up thinking I’d have to create one myself and found one at JoAnn’s that came equipped with candle holders and everything.  So, basically, anything Advent always interests me when I’m looking at new ideas of things to do.  I love the Christmas Advent Calendars that “countdown” until Christmas (It might just be my love of Chocolate).  But I found this fun stocking pattern for an Advent stocking and had to try it:

 

 

This is from the book:

The Ultimate Christmas Book: Over 240 Holiday Craft, Food and Decorating Ideas by Editors of Reader's Digest

It’s a really great book with all kinds of ideas for Christmas and even New Years including gifts you could make (that don’t look home-made.  I love it!

Sleep Mask and Neck Pillow

One of the best books I’ve ever found to help the beginning sewer advance their skills at a quick pace is called “Sewing Projects in an Afternoon” by Susan Mickey.  This book is incredible and I love, love, love it!

 

The instructions are straight forward and the projects are pretty much classy things that you wouldn’t mind having…rather than some of the what I call “country cottage” projects that some books have that just are not very elegant let alone functional.  Once you’ve done a few of the projects in it working from beginner and up your skills will have advanced to a much higher level.  The glossary in the back is wonderful and has all kinds of tips and how-to instructions such as “How to Make your own Biased Tape”.  Which I had a difficult time finding anywhere else.

  

 

I spent maybe two hours all together on this project but I think it’s a lovely gift for someone that you know needs to relax but you don’t want to give them yet another lotion or body butter set that is going to be placed in a drawer and never used.  The best thing is that you get to choose the materials that you think best suit the person that you’re making it for to match their taste and personality.