Thess pictures are from last year when J was 21 months. We dressed him up in his winter gear, gave him a soup ladle and he was entertained “helping” dad shovel the driveway. Maybe this simple idea will be put to use in light of the blizzard moving across the country! Even little ones can “help”.
I never posted about our Christmas cookie baking, but we sure did A LOT of it. I think baking is one of those activities where they can learn a lot (if we slow down enough to let them) and where they see a great reward for their efforts.
Of course it’s easier, cleaner and faster to mix up the cookie dough on your own, but I’ve found that the majority of learning comes from allowing J to help mix the dough. He “reads” the recipe, gathers the ingredients and then measures them, allowing him to practice tons of skills.
We of course made the traditional sugar cookies where we rolled the dough out, J cut them into fun shapes and then decorated to his hearts content. This is NOT my favorite type of baking! J loved it, but it’s honestly quite stressful to me. I try to stay calm, but I’d just rather not deal with the rolling and the cutting. I think J would have as much fun with playdough and mom wouldn’t have the mess afterwards. (And I don’t even like the taste of this these cookies either!)
We honestly might stick to playdough in the future. BUT all cookie baking is not lost. We did have lots of fun baking other types of cookies (or I should say we BOTH had fun with other cookies).
My favorite type of cookies to make with J this year were those with a “surprise” inside. Once I realized how perfect these were for J’s age and ability level, this is mostly what we made to give away to neighbors and teachers.
I scooped the dough onto the baking sheet and J pressed each ball with the back of a teaspoon, creating a small hole. He could then ”bury” a surprise inside each cookie and I helped him cover it up with the dough. This was right at his ability level and he loved it. We buried Rolos, Reeces Pieces, Reeces PB Cups, Chocolate Kisses, and M&Ms (not all in the same cookie!). I also let him sprinkle crushed toffee and confectionary sugar on top of some which he liked.
And the good news is they taste great afterwards. You can hide them in basically any type of cookie dough and it will taste good.
Age attempted: J first helped with Christmas baking when he was 20 months; this year at 32 months he could do A LOT more
So here are some of the recipes we tried for Christmas:
Million Dollar Caramel Cookies (These were by far my favorite!)
PB Surprise Cookies (basically chocolate chip cookie dough but hide PB cup, M&Ms, Rolos, whatever candy you want inside)
**I hope these are the same recipes I used; I just did a online search for the names of each, but the pictures looked very similar in all cases… that should count for something right!**
These ice activities from last year would work well during winter. I have a few of them on the list to do again this year. Click on the picture to see more about the activity.
Melting Hearts
Ice Painting
Ice Melting Bags
Ice Blocks
I recently read Val’s post about surving the winter with extra fun at bath time (see it here) and was reminded of how I used to set up a car wash for J’s cars. It keeps him busy.
You could do this in the bathtub, near the kitchen sink, outside in the summer or wherever you’re brave enough to try. J gets a “dirty” bin, a wash bin, and rinse bin. When he’s in the tub I leave off the rinse bin and he just rinses them in the tub. Our bins come from the Target dollar section (or maybe their $2.50 section??).
The cleaning supplies he gets is random, a spray bottle, sponges, a dipper (measuring cup), a medicine dropper and a toothbrush all work well though they definitely don’t need all that. He typically lines up all the cars, spray them down, soaps them off with a sponge, rinses and then line them back up (either to be washed aga
in or to “dry”).
You could have them wash their “pets” (plastic animal figures) or girls might like to give their dolls a bath.
Age attempted: These photos are when J was 29 months old; this could easily be done by pretoddlers and might even be entertaining for preschoolers (no experience there yet!)
“The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every story whispers His name”
…exactly the purpose of the Bible, presented in a kid-friendly way.
This is BY FAR my favorite children’s Bible. Most children’s Bibles tell a simple story of Noah building the ark or Jesus healing the blind man and leave it at that. They give no attempt as explaining WHY these stories are important for us. They miss the meat of the message God has for us in the Bible.
“There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story.”
The Jesus Storybook Bible goes above and beyond others by giving the big picture. Starting with God creating us to “share his Forever Happiness” to God remaining firm in His “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love” even after Adam and Eve’s sin to His promise to come back for us, to rescue us, and finally to His arrival on earth, putting His resuce plan into action. “He was going to get His people back.” Each story foreshadows the coming of Christ, explains the reasons for His coming and the purpose for this time we live in today, between His ascension and His final return.
Honestly, that’s a deep message. Amazingly the author, Sally Lloyd-Jones, explains this message in a way a child can understand.
“The Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes.
The Bible is most of all… an adventure story about
a brave Prince who leaves his palace…
to rescue the one he loves.
The best thing about this Story is – it’s true.”
I am confident you will adore this children’s Bible as much as I do and as much as J does. Oh and they also have an audio version if you purchase the deluxe edition. I don’t have this yet, so no personal experience with that portion. It’s on order though, so stay tuned for my thoughts on that too!
I kept putting off working on calendars with J, honestly because I wanted to create a cute calendar first. I’ve seen tons of cute ideas online and wanted to do something along those lines. After months of that project getting put on the back burner, I finally remembered J doesn’t need a fancy homemade calendar. He’s two! He’s fine with the plain and simple and honestly doesn’t even notice mom took the easy route.
So I printed off a blank calendar from my computer and J started learning. Simple as that. I had no plan. All it really took was labeling some special events and crossing off each day. Over the past few months I’ve developed my simple calendar lessons to this:
Obviously still not too impressive for a blog post I guess, but J likes working on them and learns from them… that afterall is my goal for the activities we do.
Each month J gets to decorate his calendar using stickers, pictures and stamps. This gives us the opportunity to discuss the season that each month falls in as well as important events. We label important dates, color the days of the week and then cross off each day throughout the month. I’ve also found that this is great practice with counting since J sees the numbers in front of him daily.
We sing some cute songs that help make memorizing calendar info a little more fun.
Months of the Year (sing to the tune of 10 Little Indians)
Days of the Week (sing to the tune of Oh, My Darling):
There are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in a week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Today Song (Sing to the tune of Frere Jacques)
Today is _______,
Today is _______,
All day long,
All day long.
Yesterday was _______,
Tomorrow will be _______,
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!
I got those last two from Littlest Learners.
These calendars now work as a daily reminder to me that I don’t have to spend lots of time planning extra cute activities. I obviously don’t see anything wrong with doing those cutesy projects, BUT my priorities are off if I put off working with J because my expectations for myself are out of place. Maybe there’s someone out there that will also benefit from this too!
Age attempted: 30 months
J and his grandma made these cute no-bake Holly Cookies for Christmas. They turned out really cute and created minimal mess (my favorite, especially during the busyness of Christmas).
INGREDIENTS
WHAT YOU DO:
This is a fun addition to lunchtime. It’s so easy and your toddler will enjoy it. Simply add two antlers (pretzles), two eyes (raisins or chocolate chips) and a red nose (red M&M) to a sandwich. Of course as soon as J saw his sandwich he requested mom to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer again and again and again… so be prepared!
When I was little my grandmother used to record stories on tape for us. We still have some of them! She also sent some to my cousins who were overseas at the time. I think this is an awesome gift for little ones that live far away. They get to hear your voice on a consistent basis, acting out your love from thousands of miles away by reading stories to them!
A few years ago I took the same concept and made a set of books on CD for my nephews (age 2 and 3 at the time). I chose some favorite books from childhood and recorded myself (and my husband) reading them using my computer.
I used a free recording software called Audacity. It worked well. Their software was easy to use and easy to edit. I later went in and added a little chime sound for when the page should be turned. The software made it easy to dub the chime to my saved recording. Just Google “free sound effects” to find a wide array of choices. Finally I burned all the stories onto a cd, made a cute little cover for it and packaged cd and books together for my nephews.
We also recorded some fun family stories and songs and I added a few stories from my grandma and grandpa (using the tapes they gave us as kids).
I should add that I am not a technological expert by any means. I have trouble with Facebook! 
I guarantee that if I could do this, anyone could.
It really wasn’t a difficult project to complete and I think it’s a great gift. I recently burned all those same stories onto a cd for J so it’s become a gift that keeps on giving! It’s been great to use on road trips and plane trips. It also works great while cooking dinner.
If you’re still deciding on a Christmas gift for a little one in your family, you should try this out!
Age attempted: 2 and 3 (for nephews and for J)
Posted in Age Range, Birthday, Childhood (5+ years), Christmas, Early Preschool (3-4 years), Early Toddler (18-24 months), Holidays and Seasons, Homemade Toys, Pre-Toddler (12-18 months), Preschool (4-5 years), Reading and Writing, Toddler (2-3 years), Travel Activities
Tagged Homemade Toys, Rainy Days, Travel
I saw my friend Kelle doing this with her kids years ago, before J was ever born. I logged the idea away in my head for the future and was excited this year to include it in our own family’s Christmas traditions.
What you need: A manger (the actual manger was most likely a stone troft, but we’re just using a basket); a baby doll to represent Jesus, and something to represent hay (rafia, shredded paper, cotton balls,…)
The goal is to create a soft manger by the time baby Jesus is born. They do this by adding hay to the manger each time they do a good deed. I’ve incorporated this activity with our memory verse, Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” J gets to add hay into the manger whenever he shines his light. It took a few days for the concept to grab hold, but it has. J now takes note whenever he sees others shine their light too. This makes for the perfect opportunity to put in practice the second half of the verse and praise God for that person’s light.
In most cases, I’ve seen baby Jesus held from the manger until Christmas morning. This year, I actually have our baby lying in the manger daily. It just helps my 2 year old grasp the purpose of the manger that much more. It’s also kinda nice to see our baby Jesus included under the tree, next to all our wrapped packages. I like that it’s a simple visual that keeps the purpose of Christmas in the forefront of minds.
Age attempted: 32 months
