Just Add Stickers

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. ...

Make a fall themed treasure hunt for your little pirates. I made the map as a surprise and we made the spy glass together. We used an empty baby wipes container as a treasure box when we set off on our adventure.  Time: Map 15 minutes plus drying time Spy Glass 10 minutes Cost: Under $5.00 all household items and recycled material Map: Singe the edges of a peice of paper Soak the paper in cold tea dry on a flat surface Write the instructions for the treasure hunt.  I wrote: Treasure Hunt: can you find 1 yellow leaf 1 red leaf 1 orange leaf 1 large rock 1 medium rock 1 small rock Roll up the map and seal with wax or a ribbon. Spy Glass: 1 finished paper towel roll construction paper glue stick stickers Glue the construction paper around the paper towel roll and decorate with stickers.  Happy treasure hunting!

Just Add Stickers.. to the wall and the windows and paper!   I surprised my son with not one or two but three kinds of stickers after his nap this afternoon. We had stickers for the wall stickers for the window and regular stickers for paper. I was glad that they didn't get mixed up!   It was a lot of fun and added to our Halloween decorations, except for the Sesame Street stickers those are just a staple at our house!   The end results   

Meat, cracker and cheese platter.   Fall is officially here meaning Football season has stated!  Football season means football food!  Chips are good but having a little one who eats everything we do makes me want to make sure we have some healthier football food options this season.  These have been big hits so far and every week they wait to see what football themed food I'll come up with. Directions: Meat, Cracker and Cheese platter: Ingredients: Small round crackers (I used Breton Garden Vegetables) Peperoni slices String Cheese On a platter arrange the crackers in the shape of a foot ball.  Arrange the pepperoni in the middle.  Separate the string cheese and arrange the cheese on top of the peperoni to look like laces.  Football Fruit: Ingredients: Grapes Apples Cheese (I added some white cheddar cheese with the fruit) With a sharp knife cut one long line down the grape and three sm...