There is so, so, so much going on in December. When I first thought up this activity, I choose a specific book. As I went through and reworked the activities, this took a new direction and suddenly–there were just SO. MANY. things to read about in December. Continue reading Day 15: Read a Book Related to December
So here’s the thing: it was choir concert weekend. You’d think I’d have learned to schedule my posts when these kinds of things are coming, but alas… There was a choir rehearsal for Girly Saturday morning for 2 hours, then we had an hour off before BigGuy’s rehearsal (which included eating lunch with the choir). Sunday we had soccer at 9:30am, call time for the first concert at 1:30pm, finished that and got home by 3:30pm and then had to get BigGuy dressed, fed, and to his 5:30pm call time for his concert.
We did, however, manage to keep up with our seasonal activities… Continue reading Days 12, 13 & 14: Lots of stuff
Sometimes you just want to send a great, creative gift to a kid that has some creativity to get out. So here is the list of awesome! Sixty… SIX-TY creative gifts for multiple ages.
Here are all of the links to some complete awesomeness. Check the reviews for yourself! And if you have Prime, you have plenty o’ time.
Please remember: BOYS LIKE CREATIVE STUFF, TOO! And this list has plenty of gender neutral stuff. But my own local group had a gathering for tweens who like to be creative and it was MOSTLY boys… doodling and drawing and making all kinds of cool stuff. “Creative” doesn’t mean “for girls”. 😉
Seriously, this is going to be the first year that this particular activity isn’t met with an exasperated groan from Mama. Because this year I bought a REAL winter coat. That’s right! Last year I caved to buying an expensive pair of boots meant to beat the cold and they won me over to the idea of spending the money to buy a bona fide cold weather coat.
Mama is finally warming up to the tundra. So this year, I’m ready for the nature walk. Of course this year… THERE IS. NO. SNOW. Continue reading Day 11: Take a Nature Walk (even if it’s cold)
This day is a big one in our house: movie day. We don’t have TV or cable–just Netflix and Amazon Prime. The kids have access to screens for schoolwork, but they have almost no time for screens otherwise. Part of this is health-related, but part of it is just lifestyle. When my kids are in front of a screen, it is purposeful.
Movies are a wonderful treat. What shall we watch? Let me tell you how THIS decision-making often goes down… Continue reading Day 10: Movie Day
We are a MIXED bag at my house. Husbeau is 100% Italian. I am 1/4 Welsh, 1/4 Italian and the other half is a mix of Scottish, Irish, Alsatian (I’m gonna call “German” on that one based on the food, words and preferences of my grandmother) and “unknown” because my great-grandmother was a foundling. So BigGuy is 5/8 Italian and then a bunch of “other European” and Girly is half Guatemalan and half completely unknown. Her history is very much like my great-grandmother’s except they no longer call those children “foundlings” and they generally don’t grow up in a hospital setting like my great-grandmother did.
So what do we honor today…? Continue reading Day 9: Honor our heritage
Bodhi Day is actually a Buddhist observance. It is the day that the Buddha reached enlightenment. “Bodhi” means “awakening” and “Buddha” is “the enlightened one”. “Enlightenment” is the western word for “awakening”. For Buddhists, meditation is a central component of detaching from this world and trying to really know through personal experience that all things are interconnected and interdependent. That nothing in this world exists independently. Our family connects deeply to this concept, so we observe Bodhi Day. Continue reading Day 8: Bodhi Day
Today stands as traditionally “do something nice to help the family” but I have to be honest: my family is not feelin’ that today. Perhaps that is all the more reason we need this mandate on this day… Continue reading Day 7: Help the family…?
My family has long tried to separate gifts from December 25th. It. Is. HARD. people. Do you remember my post from last year about the elf? Well, here we are a year later and Girly is still pretty much all in. I woke to the squeals of delight and joy a few mornings ago when Husbeau apparently placed our elf. She’s all in… the tooth fairy, the Halloween fairy (who takes their candy and swaps it out for a toy), some other fantasy characters that escape me at the moment and… Santa. Continue reading Day 6: St. Nicholas
Today’s activity is to tell each person in the house why they are special. I’m sure that when I picked this, I had delusions of grandeur about the accolades I would hear my children give one another. The reality I suspect I face is that BigGuy will make an earnest attempt to express some Asperger’s-oriented version of what makes someone special and Girly will say that what’s special about BigGuy is that he has the loudest farts. Continue reading Day 5: Why we are special
Educated Adventures 