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Homemade Adevent Calendar Instead of chocolate advent calendars I like having an advent calendar of toys or activities that we can do as a family. It is nice to have a special time to slow down turn on the Christmas lights and play as a family. Last year we had a Playdough advent calendar, that was a big hit so the bar was set high for this year.  I was very excited when I came accross a Lego Advent Calendar because we are currently in a Lego obsession (the castle Lego with knights and treasure and even a dragon) but then I saw the price.  I decided to try and make one for half the price and this is what I came up with.  Tip: I bought one box of Lego (a small one) about 90 peices. I wasn't sure if I would have enough with one box so I bought a Playmobile knight set as well but there would have been enough with just one box. Time:1 hour Cost: $15.00 Material: 2 empty boxes (one rough cardboard and one soft cor...

Add a homemade touch to your presents Get your kids into the spirit of gift giving with these easy festive magnets. I found the snowman kit used above at Target but you can use any holiday shapes either bought in a pack or cut out your own out of foam sheets. Time: 15 minutes Cost: $10.00 or under Material: 1 package of foam Christmas crafts such as Snowmen ChristmasTrees, Gingerbread men etc. White glue Magnets Directions: Decorate the snowmen.  Add the names with foam letter stickers or with markers Glue a magnet to the back of each snowman Tape the snowman magnet onto the wrapped present

Making  homemade Christmas presents  is a fun way to involve the whole family in the gift giving process. My favorite is cookies in a jar. Everyone loves cookies and it is easy to adapt the recipe to fit the taste of the person you're giving it to. You can use this time to talk about the person who the present is for. I found these delicious Super Chunk Oatmeal Cookies here http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/super-chunk-oatmeal-cookie-mix-82913.aspx Tip: to make all the ingredients fit into the jars have your child press down on each layer using a mallet. Cranberry & Walnut Cookie Gift jar and Chocolate Chunk Cookie Gift jar Chocolate Chunk Cookies Ingredients:   In the jar: 1 cup flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1 cup sugar 1 cup quick-cooking oats 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 6 oz Baker's semi-sweet chocolate coarsley chopped   When making the cookies: 3/4 cup of butter or margarine 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla   To make cookie ...

Every morning we take half an hour to sit down (actually sit still) and do some fun educational activities. These are some of my favorite alphabet activities they help develop fine motor skills as well as letter recognition. Letters in space Material: Peice of paper Scrap of construction paper Glue stick Colouring pencils Safety scissors Directions: Draw stars and a moon  and colour the background blue. Write the alphabet in lower case letters in the middle of the stars. On the construction paper write the alphabet in upper case letters.  Have your child cut out out the upper case letters and glue them on top of the lower case letter. Alphabet Soup Material: Peice of paper Scrap of construction paper Glue stick Colouring pencils Safety scissors Directions: raw a pot on top of a stove.  Write the alphabet on the construction paper and have your child cut out the letters and glue them in alphabetical order in the pot. ...