Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 19. Fire Starters Craft.

Pinterest is an ideas gold mine. Here is another craft I found there: Fire starters. We don't really plan to start fire with them, actually, but they look beautiful near the Christmas tree.

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 18. Christmas Concert, Santa, and more Salt Dough Paint

We had a busy and fun morning today. Santino's preschool held a Christmas Concert for the parents and relatives, followed by the potluck.

I decided against posting pictures from the concert, as I didn't want to post other kids' photos without their parents' permissions, and I don't have them. To describe the concert in a few words: Santino again ran off the stage after the second song, and sat with me for a while. He didn't sing, didn't open his mouth once. On the bright side, he also didn't cry, like last year.

Countdown to Christmas. Day 17. Salt Dough Puffy Paint.

We've done puffy salt dough paint before, but I was inspired by this blog post and decided we can do it again! I didn't add peppermint essential oil, as I don't have it. So we just stuck to the salt, flour, water and paint.

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 16. Baking cookies for a Pot Luck.

Santino's preschool had a Christmas concert with Santa, gifts and potluck. Our contribution were Italian cookies, called "pizzelle". (I wrote about this recipe last year, find it here).

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 15. Danino Santa

This activity is a double shot: a dinosaur activity and a Christmas one! Santino will do anything if it involves dinosaurs.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 14. Christmas Tree Collage

This is one of those activities I read about in various Montessori books. Not necessarily the same activity, but I was inspired by the Montessori ideas.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 13. Christmas Sensory Bin.

This is a simple entertainment for a little guy. Santino is a big fan of sensory bins, and if it is difficult to have him sit down to do art sometimes, it is always easy to occupy his attention with various sensory activities.

 

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 12. Stamping.

I am a couple of days behind posting our activities. These are actually rather short and easy ones.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 11. Playdough Sparkly Snowflakes.

So we missed one day with our countdown activities, but now we are back.

This was a painting activity. We used our playdough, which I made a couple of weeks ago. (And yay!, I made my own playdough and it worked! For a while I couldn't do it. I had a playdough block, so to say.) Anyways, we've been playing with this playdough, rolling it, smashing it, leaving it to dry overnight and throwing it in the garbage. All kinds of fun! And here is a Christmas activity. Snowflakes!

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 9. Building a Gingerbread House.

I have never built a gingerbread house before, and only saw them on pictures; but as we read Christmas books, there is always a gingerbread house featured, so I suggested to Santino we make one. He really wanted to do that! He kept talking about gingerbread house, until we went and bought it yesterday.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 8. Rudolph Foot Stamp Art.

Santino's friend Joe came over to play. Among other things they did, they each picked a video to watch, and Santino's pick was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". After the movie finished, I suggested we all make some Rudolph art.

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 7. A Field trip to the Toronto Christmas Market.

Toronto has Christmas Market, that takes place in the beautiful part of the city, the Distillery District. This historic district is an awesome place as it is, with its shops, restaurants, and theaters, but every year now it also hosts a Christmas Market, European style, making it a great attraction for the Torontonians and visitors.

 

 

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 6. Dinosaur Christmas "Habitat".

Here is a fun installation we came up with today. Well, we first decorated a couple of cones with glitter and pompoms. I actually found some old hair gel with glitter. I let Santino squeeze it all over the cones, and he enjoyed it, squeezing away.

Christmas Countdown Activities. Day 5. Popsicle Sticks Ornaments.

Santino and his best friend Joe had a play date in our house. To let them do something different from jumping on a trampoline and dumping all the toys on the floor, I suggested we do a little Christmas craft.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 4. Cottonpad Snowman.

Directing Santino's attention is quite a challenge these days. He is into physical activities, like soccer, golf and simple run and crash onto couch or pillows. Nevertheless, I try to get him to sit down for a few minutes and read a book together, play with letters and draw or paint. Or do some Christmas crafts.

Countdown to Christmas Activities. Day 3. A Snowman in a Jar.

This was a fun activity! We had a busy day today, so we only got to do this after dinner, before bed time. It is an easy one, too.

"Countdown to Christmas" Activities.

As I've been told multiple times by multiple people, it is normal for the little boys not to be interested in art, creative activities, painting, gluing. I still encourage Santino to do something creative every day. Even if it is just a few strokes on the blackboard. Something!

Making wreaths or any other kind of Christmas crafts is a challenge here. Well, not the "making" per se, but the interest in such activity. Santino only wants to play with dinosaurs (anything related to dinosaurs) and silly wreaths had nothing to do with them. Now they do!

Newmarket Santa Parade 2013.

This will be just a collection of a couple of photos. We walked part of the way to  get to Main St., Santino biked. Then we waited a while with the crowd. Santino's favorite part was in the beginning of the parade - 2 fire trucks! Once they were gone, Santino wasn't much interested. He later wanted to run around, walk his friend's dog (dressed as a hot dog.. so cute!) and dance. The parade was just a tad bit long for his attention span. I reckon.

 

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A Cardboard Christmas tree and other decorations to make together with a toddler

I love using cardboard in my son's playroom, its easy, cheap (or I'd rather say free, most of the time), fun, personal, different every time, and when we are done playing with it, I have no problem discarding it by putting in our blue bin for recycling.

Thank you Anna!

I was going to hold this report of our finger print art until tomorrow, but it so happened that I felt motivated to publish it asap by a nice something-something! Santino's personal "secret" Santa... or I would rather say Ded Moroz,... or even Snegurochka had yet again surprised us with a thoughtful present: truck stickers, dinosaur stickers, finger puppets! And chocolate, yay!