Shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child? Check!

  I wanted to post about our experience filling boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  This really was a perfect way to help my 2 year old understand the concept of giving.  See this post if you want to know more about the opportunity to give!

 

PREP: We made filling shoeboxes a family event with my husband, J and myself, starting by watching the videos I mentioned in the last post.  Veggietales’ Operation Christmas Child is 3 minutes long and “Give This Christmas Away” is almost 5 minutes.  They are great videos to help show the concept of Operation Christmas Child to little ones.

 

 

 

We talked about how happy the children were when they opened their boxes and how happy the children that made the boxes were.  Basically we got him excited about filling a shoebox with goodies for a little girl/boy somewhere in the world, focusing on how it would make that child feel.  We talked about what type of things we should put in the boxes and had him come up with a few things on his own (cars and balls!).  Print off this list of items to consider  from Operation Christmas Child to help.   

We pulled out our shoeboxes and pointed out that they were empty!  We needed to fill them with fun things for little boys and girls. 

 SHOPPING:   We all piled into the car with J holding his empty shoebox, ready

J is ready to fill his shoebox!

 to fill it up!  For younger ones, I would really suggest bringing the empty shoebox to the store with you.  This really helped J focus while we were shopping.  We went down the aisles to look for things little boys and girls could use.  He never once forgot the purpose of our visit.  Each time we pulled something off the shelf, he placed it in the shoebox.  It was fun to watch the shoebox fill up!

 PACKING: Since we were technically shopping for 3 boxes we had some more packing to do at home.  I spread out all the loot we brought home from the store (the following afternoon) and layed out our three wrapped boxes.  I could hand J 3 sets of crayons and he would sort them into the different boxes.  We made this an event too, letting him choose which boy would get the grey and white socks and which would get the blue and white ones, …  

ABOUT US: OCC has a fun worksheet  that allows you to share a little about yourself to the little one that will receive the box.  J helped answer the questions and glued a picture of himself onto each one.  Finally, he helped place the labels on each box and they now sit ready to deliver next week! **Remember if you want to follow your box, you’ll need the barcoded labels found here. **

Your Turn! You still have time to put together your own shoebox of goodies!  I was reminded of this event last Thursday and we had it completed by Sunday with no rushing and lots of fun.  You don’t have to mail the boxes yourself, just drop them off.  Click here to find your nearest drop off location.  You can drop off your shoebox between November 15-22.  Plenty of time to join in!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

I saw this  cute Thanksgiving countdown and had to try it.  I adapted it a little so that I could reuse it every year (or at least for a few years). I used foam and cardboard instead of construction paper and cardstock.  I also made it magnetic and keep it on our fridge.  

 Our turkey actualy isn’t this full yet, I just took a picture of what he would look like in all his glory.  J adds one feather to Mr. Turkey each day.  You could do the reverse and pluck a feather each day, pretending to ready him for Thanksgiving dinner.  I think older kids would find that really funny actually.   

First check out the original site if you like to change things up each year and are ok with a temporary version.  I liked how she made the head 3D.  Since J is so young I know that this will still be exciting for him next year.    

My materials:  colorful foam, cardboard, googly eyes, adhesive magnets and glue.  It took about 30 minutes to make, but could be done much faster since I had to redo things a few times or find new materials to work with. This is also something your little one could help make.  I just did it during naptime since our week is so busy and wanted it done in time for a decent countdown.

How I made it:

1. Cut the feather strips out of colorful foam. (You want thin strips so they fit behind Mr. Turkey, especially if you plan for a full month’s countdown.)

2.  Attach an adhesive magnet to the top of each strip.  This will allow you to have that fanned look to the feathers.  If you place the magnets closer to the bottom, they will simply create a single file line across the turkey’s back. (This was my first mistake!)

3.  Cut two circles out of brown cardboard, a large one for the body and small one for the head.  **I suggest having a very large body so you have plenty of room for your feathers to fan out, especially if you plan to start on Nov. 1st.  The cardboard circles that come with frozen pizzas work great.

4. Glue the smaller circle onto the larger one.

5. Cut out a strip of cardboard and glue on the back of the large circle.  **Place it on the base of the body since the feather strips will be stuffed along the top. (This was my second mistake!) When dry, place 1-2 magnetic strips on the back of the turkey’s body.  The cardboard backing allows Mr. Turkey to be lifted slightly when attached to the regrigerator.  This allows the feathers to slide behind him easily.

6.  Cut out the feet, beak, and snood and glue them onto the turkey, along with the googly eyes.

7. Test it out before getting your little one’s excited about it.  I’m glad I tested it first since I needed to rearrange the magnets on my pieces.   Now we have a cute turkey that J can easily slip a feather behind on his own each day.

Age attempted: 30 months

Great Products: Vinyl Sticker Books

This is a GREAT travel toy.  I bought one about a year ago and have brought it on every flight we’ve taken since.  It is always a winner.  It’s light weight (a must for a travel toy IMO).  We have the Rush Hour version shown here.  There are a TON of choices out there.  Here’s a quick list, though it’s really only showing one particular brand. They are a little more expensive but we have more than gotten our money out of this toy! I’ve found other examples at Ross, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx too.  I just bought a couple new ones and am excited to show them to J.

This would also be great to take on a road trip, to the doctor’s office, and to restaurants. 

TIP:  Don’t toss the empty sticker sheets!  J spends just as much time returning the pieces to the correct spot as he does putting them on the actual board.  And it’s great matching practice since he really has to focus on the outline shape of each piece to find where they go. 

Age attempted: started between 16 and 18 months (if your little one can handle stickers, they can handle this toy), still a winner at 2.5 years

Operation Christmas Child

I am so excited about this!  I first heard about Operation Christmas Child last year through a Veggietales video.  Of course I didn’t find out about it until the after the deadline to drop off boxes.  This year I won’t miss it!  I think it is so important to teach J a heart of giving.  That takes putting it into practice. 

So this year we will be organizing some shoeboxes full of goodies for little boys and girls around the world.  I plan to do something similar to what Amanda described here on Impress Your Kids (a WONDERFUL site by the way!!)

Since J is so young, I first plan to show him this video: Veggie Tales Operation Christmas Child story. I originally saw this on the St. Nicholas Veggietales video. 

 

We’ll talk about the act of giving, make a list of fun things to give other little boys and girls and GO SHOPPING!  I’ll be sure to share how everything goes once we’ve packed our boxes, but I wanted to get this info out in case others would like to join us!  The week to drop off boxes is November 15-22, 2010.  Don’t miss out like I did last year!  If you go to Operation Christmas Child  you will find all the info you need, including where the drop off locations are for your area.  This is something everyone in the family can get involved in!

ETA: I wanted to mention that they even give you the opportunity to track your box.  You can a barcode online to attach to your box to determine it’s final location.  This is a great way to incorporate a little geography and culture to the project!  This page tells more about their tracking process.

To add to the links for you to check out, please take time to listen to this song, Give This Christmas Away.  It will touch your heart and inspire you to find all sorts of ways to give this year.

Homemade Toy: Thomas Puzzle

J absolutely loves puzzles.  He also adores anything Thomas!  I LOVE a bargain, so this homemade toy is perfect for both of us.  My goal was to create a Thomas counting puzzle.  I tried finding one to buy and only found a wooden puzzle for $10.  It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, and the price was nowhere NEAR what I was hoping for.  So I made a Thomas counting puzzle myself.

I searched online for images of all the different Thomas trains, hoping to find #1-20.  This was the longest part of the process.  It turns out they aren’t so easy to find which I found odd  considering their popularity.  I also could never find number 13, perhaps they’re superstious and left that one off? **If anyone DOES know of a #13 train, please let me know. **   Our puzzle stops at 12 for now, but I can easily add on to it in the future.

If this works, here’s the link for the pdf I made with all the pictures. Thomas puzzle

The puzzle is meant to be in one long line, I just split it up for the photo

I printed the pictures of each train and glued them (using Mod Podge) onto the back of some small foam puzzle squares I found at the dollar store.  This step took me probably 15 minutes.  I used 2 store-bought puzzless to have enough pieces for trains 1-12. Some of the longer trains take up two puzzle pieces.   

The nice thing is J can also turn the puzzle pieces over and do the store-bought puzzle too.  So 3 puzzles for $2 seems to be a good deal in my book and it was so easy to make!   I think this would be a good homemade Christmas present for toddlers

  Age attempted: 29 months, definitely could be done much earlier

Edited to add: Here’s the list of Thomas trains #1-12.  Since J wants to know their names, I added those on my finished puzzle too.

1 Thomas

2 Edward

3 Henry

4 Gordon

5 James

6 Percy

7 Toby

8 Duck

9 Donald

10 Douglas

11 Oliver

12 Alfie

Homemade Highways

We had some home remodeling and needed J centralized to one place for quite awhile.  This was my solution.  I set up a highway system on the kitchen floor using painter’s tape.  This took me about 5-10 minutes.  J loved the surprise we had for him!  He later made 2 requests that were easy to add on.  1. A garage to park some cars (my version is on the bottom right side of the pic) 2. Destination states (he’s VERY into states and geography right now. I definitely accomodated him on this one since it’s educational too.  I let him choose the states and just cut them out of construction paper and taped them down to the end of each roadway.)

This would be an excellent choice for a winter activity when everyone’s stuck inside! Since painter’s tape is not cheap I tend to leave these up for awhile whenever we set something up for him.  And I reuse the tape to make other things (letters, shapes, numbers,…).

**ETA: A reader recently shared her adaptation to this activity.  It is such a good idea, I wanted to share.  She placed the tape onto a blanket so she can now bring out the homemade roads anytime she wants.  Check it out here!  She also created a cute homemade town around the roads. 

Age attempted: 30 months