The Iowa Farmer's Wife: advent

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7 Day Nativity Activity For Kids

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We do several different Advent calendar activities, but this year I wanted to do start a tradition of telling the Nativity story in parts over 7 days using our Melissa & Doug Nativity set. We received it last year as a Christmas gift so this is really the first time we've gotten to play with it since it got packed away in our Christmas decor soon after we arrived home from Christmas last year.

You can use any Nativity set for this activity, but Melissa & Doug's set is by far my favorite of the few that we have. I love the durability of the wooden pieces and the adoration on each of the figures' faces. My absolute FAVORITE part is that the manger is double-sided and you can save baby Jesus for Christmas day.

I broke the story down and created the following 7-day plan:

Set out the figures the night before (see below for ideas on how to use the printable) and allow your child(ren) to explore the pieces when they wake each morning. We have a breakfast picnic and read the scripture during this time, but setting up the Nativity scene on your kitchen or dining table works as well.

Day 1: The Annunciation
The Archangel Gabriel visits Mary
Luke 1:26-28

Nativity Figures Needed: Mary & the Angel
Discussion: What did the angel say to Mary when she was scared? What name did the angel say to give the baby?
Song to be Sung or Listened to: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Day 2: The Dream
The Archangel Gabriel appears to Joseph in a dream
Matthew 1:18-25

Nativity Figures Needed: Joseph & the Angel
Discussion: Who is Joseph? Talk about Jesus' earthly father and heavenly Father.
Song to be Sung or Listened to: Joseph's Lullaby - Mercy Me

Day 3: The Visitation
Mary visits Elizabeth
Luke 1:29-56

Nativity Figures Needed: Mary & an additional woman/girl figurine
Discussion: What happened when Mary greeted Elizabeth? Talk about a baby's movements inside the womb.

Song to be Sung or Listened to: Believe - Josh Groban

Day 4: Census
Mary & Joseph travel to Bethlehem for Jesus' birth
Luke 2:1-7

Nativity Figures Needed: Joseph, Mary, Jesus & stable animals
Discussion: Talk about a census. Where did Mary & Joseph have to go to pay taxes? Where did Mary lay baby Jesus after He was born?
Song to be Sung or Listened to: Away in a Manger

Notice that baby Jesus is not in the manger

Day 5: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Angels visit the Shepherds
Luke 2:18-24

Nativity Figures Needed: The Angel & Shepherds
Discussion: Why did the angels appear to the shepherds? Discuss how Jesus is the Lamb of God.
Song to be Sung or Listened to: Angels We Have Heard on High

Day 6: Shepherds
Shepherds visit the Christ child
Luke 2:15-20

Nativity Figures Needed: Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Shepherds & stable animals
Discussion: How did the shepherds find baby Jesus? Who did the shepherds tell about Jesus?
Song to be Sung or Listened to: O Come All Ye Faithful

Baby Jesus in the manger

Day 7: Magi
3 Kings visit the Christ child
Matthew 2:1-12

Nativity Figures Needed: Joseph, Mary, Jesus, 3 Kings & stable animals

Discussion: What made the star they saw different than the others? What type of gift would you give Jesus for His birthday? Discuss ways you could give Jesus a birthday gift by volunteering, serving or donating.

Song to be Sung or Listened to: We Three Kings

I also created a printable to go along with each day. Print, laminate and cut out cards to place by the Nativity figures each day. You could also hide the cards in your tree for the kids to find. Or keep the printable as a whole document to reference each day.

FTC Disclosure: All personal opinions and/or views regarding Melissa & Doug are my own and may differ from other users of Melissa & Doug products. I'll be compensated by Melissa & Doug for this post.

There are SO many different ways (from simple to elaborate) to celebrate the Christmas story with your children. My plan is to focus on the Nativity as much as possible when they are young so that as they grow, they realize that Christmas isn't about gifts, or toys, or a Santa, or Christmas trees. It's about a King who was born of a virgin mother, suffered, died and rose again to save us.

The linky below is filled with beautiful ideas for activities, books, crafts that celebrate the Nativity. Please take a moment to visit a few other links and don't forget to link up YOUR Nativity activities!

Here is a list of the 28 fabulous bloggers participating in the Focus on the Nativity Blog Hop today!

The Imagination Tree

Living Montessori Now

Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers

My Nearest And Dearest

Life At The Zoo

Creative Connection for Kids

This Reading Mama

Adventures in Mommydom

Sun Hats and Wellieboots

The Fairy and The Frog

Housing a Forest

The Iowa Farmers Wife

Simple Hot Chocolate

Drink Hot Chocolate was Sweet P's first Action on her Advent Action cards. I didn't want her to have store bought hot chocolate so I came up with a VERY simple hot chocolate recipe. She LOVED it and has had it several times since that first day of December!

The Recipe: Simple Hot Chocolate

What you need:
8 oz. of Organic Vanilla Soymilk (or rice milk or almond milk)
1/2 to 1 tsp of cocoa powder

Heat soymilk for 1 minute in the microwave. Stir in cocoa with a mini-whisk. Serve in a teacup. Makes the perfect mug for a 2 year old!

This was after she and the Farmer played in the snow - the perfect time for hot chocolate!

Another Healthier Gingerbread House

Last year we made these gingerbread houses (er, huts) and I knew I wanted to do something similar with Sweet P again this year. Since my attempt to make a house didn't go so well with natural peanut butter, I knew it'd completely fail with almond butter so I decided we'd skip 3 dimensional and make a flat gingerbread house. It worked great!

Here's what we used:
Trader Joe's Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Shaved coconut
Craisins
Raisins
Pumpkin seeds
Trader Joe's strawberry fruit bar
Peanuts
Almond butter

I simply arranged the graham crackers so that it resembled a house, stuck it all together with almond butter and handed it over to her. Oh, I also cut the door and chimney pieces for her.

At one point I tried to make a peanut a doorknob. She said, "I don't want a doorknob." Okiedokie.

She had a ball making it and wanted to eat it right away, but I convinced her to save it to show the Farmer (he was coming home in 5 mins). She was so excited that she was yelling at him through the door when she saw him in the window. Too funny. Maybe next year we'll attempt another 3 dimensional version.

Holiday Mail for Heroes

I so wanted to post this earlier, but the post (and the week) got away from me. Mailing a Christmas Card to a serviceman was one of our Advent Actions early in the month and I really wanted to do this with Sweet P. We watched the video on the Holiday Mail for Heroes webpage and I tried my best to explain to a 2 year old what exactly someone in the military did without going to in-depth about war or their injuries. (See the bottom of this post for the deadline).

I had a pack of holiday cards so we set to decorating the inside.

I wrote a note in each one and then let her decorate with markers and stickers. She had a really good time and even tried to draw a Christmas tree.

You can still send Holiday Mail to Heroes! Letters must be postmarked by December 9th. Visit the Holiday Mail for Heroes website for more information on what/what not to include. These cards mean so much to the individuals who receive them.

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Santa Calendar

The Santa Calendar is somewhat of a continuation of our Thankful Turkey. We had such a great time with the turkey that we wanted to keep it going (or a variation of it anyway). The original idea was a tree with ornaments, but when I asked Sweet P if she wanted a tree or Santa, what do you think she picked?

Yep. Santa. So here he is (even though she really doesn't know what he's all about).

This is our "What are you looking forward to about Christmas?" Santa. We ask the question each morning and although she doesn't quite get the question, she knows it's something we like to do.

I free handed the Santa on construction paper and posterboard and stuck him to the wall in our dining area. She has a Santa placemat that has his eyes closed (he's smiling and squinting) and she was a bit disappointed that the one above's eyes were open (of course if I'd drawn them closed she'd have wanted them open).

I cut out round circles from the leftover posterboard and I write our answers on one each morning. We've talked about looking forward to the birth of baby Jesus and celebrating his birthday, visiting family and visiting friends.

This morning after I wrote hers and the Farmer's answers, I said, "Mama is looking forward to.." and I paused to think about it. She answered for me and said, "Coffee." Does she know her mama or what?

Our other Advent Calendars:
Day 1: Book Calendar
Day 2: Chain Calendar
Day 3: Gift Calendar
Day 4: Advent Action Calendar

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Advent Action Cards

Remember how I said I have awesome sisters? Here's more proof.

I typed these up in my handy dandy Word Starter pack (it won't even let me make business cards..it's that awesome). I looked at them, almost printed them out, then thought "Maybe Auntie RoRo will take pity on me and pretty these up." Let me let you in on a well-known fact: this is a super busy time of the year for RoRo and her business so I didn't think she'd have the time (and she told me on the phone that she didn't have the time). But much to my surprise and delight, I found a pdf of these adorable cards in my inbox that afternoon.

See? She's awesome. (I also think she probably'd be embarrassed if she visited the blog and saw my plain, jane cards.)

Each morning Sweet P comes down the stairs from her room and picks a card out of her sock advent calendar (RoRo also made that for Sweet P...she must really love us!). Sometimes we do the card right away, other times we wait for the Farmer to come home from work. She loves picking the card out of the sock and has been really excited about the actions so far.

Here's the list of our actions (we only have 16 since we'll be headed south after the 16th):

Day 1: Drink hot chocolate

Day 2: Send a Christmas card to a serviceman (Holiday Mail for Heroes)

Day 3: Sing Christmas carols

Day 4: Make a gingerbread house

Day 5: Dance to Christmas songs

Day 6: Spend some alone time with Mommy

Day 7: Look at Christmas lights

Day 8: Make Christmas candy

Day 9: Take change to a Salvation Army Santa

Day 10: Take Christmas Candy to a neighbor

Day 11: Take a family walk

Day 12: Take Christmas candy to a friend

Day 13: Play in the snow (if we have some!)

Day 14: Make an ornament for Gammie

Day 15: Make an ornament for Nana

And Day 16:

Your action cards don't have to be fancy (or even printed)! Write them on a sheet of paper and hide them around the house, put them in a stocking each day or hide them in the tree. What other actions would you do?

Our other Advent Calendars:
Day 1: Book Calendar
Day 2: Chain Calendar
Day 3: Gift Calendar
Day 5: Santa Calendar

Need more Advent Calendar ideas? Check out Countdown to Christmas, hosted by some pretty awesome European bloggers!

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Advent Gift

My mom started this for Auntie K when she was little and I knew I'd continue it for my children. Each day Sweet P gets a small gift as part of advent (yes, yes, this is in addition to a wrapped book). Her first year it was mainly bows, socks, a handprint ornament kit, etc. (things useful to an 8 mo old). Last year we added books (wasn't doing the Christmas Book Calendar at the time), stickers, and other small free or $1 items I'd come across throughout the year. Anything we didn't use ended up in her stocking.

I had most of her Advent gifts before the end of January for this year. Either stuff leftover or things we found for 50% off after Christmas. Gammie and RoRo sent a few things throughout the year, too.

Each day she comes downstairs, pulls an Advent Action card (upcoming post) out of her sock Advent calendar and opens a wrapped book. After we read the book she hunts for her Advent gift which is hidden somewhere in the room.

Here's what she's opened so far:

Day 1: Alphabet Alley's A Child is Born Christmas Magnetic Playset (such an awesome set and comes with it's own magnetic playbook). The magnets are thick and great for toddlers. After putting them on the dishwasher Sweet P told me "Mary needs to hold Baby Jesus" so the baby Jesus is in Mary's lap. I love listening to her commentary.

Day 2: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer window clings. We have a large front window that is perfect for window clings! She loved sticking them up and is currently obsessed with the abominable snowman (he's a mighty humble bumble!).

I have a few gifts that follow our Tot Preschool theme for the week. We are doing The Nutcracker next week so I have a nutcracker wooden craft and a small nutcracker to give her. She LOVES to look at them anywhere we go that has them.

Do you do Advent gifts?

Our other Advent Calendars:
Day 1: Book Calendar
Day 2: Chain Calendar
Day 4: Advent Action Calendar
Day 5: Santa Calendar

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Book Calendar

I couldn't decide on just one Advent Calendar this year so I decided we'd do not 1, not 2, but 5 different things. Overboard? Maybe. But we've had so much fun on day 1 that I'm glad I did.

When I pulled out and counted our Christmas books, I realized we have 16, which is the number of days we'll be home before driving south for the winter (or at least Christmas). Some are just about snow, but since it snows so much here I figured they'd be a good addition to the Christmas pile.

We've accumulated the books over the past year (we had about 3 last year). I picked up several from garage sales over the summer, bought some on Amazon and Gammie found a few at thrift stores throughout the year.

I'm not sure which ones are our favorites because we haven't read them, yet! But the 5 I listed have 4.5 to 5 stars on Amazon so it sounds like they're some good ones.

I wrapped each book and will set one book under the tree for Sweet P to unwrap each day. We'll then sit near the tree or in our reading corner and read the book for the day.

I'm excited to start this tradition with her because she LOVES books. I know she'll be excited about getting a new book to read each day this month.

We have a variety of books, but here are a few:
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numberoff
Little Porcupine's Christmas by Joseph Slate
The Big Snowball by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
Lift the Flap Nativity
One Night in Bethlehem by Tim Wesemann

Our other Advent Calendars:
Day 2: Chain Calendar
Day 3: Gift Calendar
Day 4: Advent Action Calendar
Day 5: Santa Calendar

DIY Nativity

I found this adorable DIY Nativity at Catholic Icing. What a delight that she was sharing her printables for free! And I love the results. I didn't print out all the pieces because I wasn't sure we'd have enough time to do it so I just did Mary, Joseph, 2 camels, a donkey, the Angel and the baby Jesus.

Maybe I should have let my kid color them, but I decided I'd do it, put them together and surprise her with them. She, of course, went straight for baby Jesus. We'll use these for our Advent tradition tonight and hopefully for years to come. Visit Catholic Icing to get your own!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Handprint Santa Craft

Gammie emailed me this craft and while it was meant for a card I decided I could put it onto a t-shirt. I also changed up a few other things. Gammie thought it would be a good idea to use pompons for his hat so she sent me some (thanks mom!) and I decided to use a bell for the top of his hat. I also didn't have googly eyes, but did have some felt to make eyes. You'll also notice he has no mouth. Oh c'mon, it's covered by the beard! I had everything I needed except the t-shirt and it was $2.99 at Hobby Lobby.

Here's what you need:

The Craft: Handprint Santa

What you need:

T-shirt

White and pink fabric paint

1 red button

2 small pieces of black and white felt

1 large piece of red felt

Red embroidery floss

White and black thread

1 jingle bell

Cut out a piece of red felt in the shape of a stocking hat or a simple triangle would work! Stitch the felt to the t-shirt using red embroidery floss.

Use white thread to sew pompons to the bottom of the hat. I just used a regular stitch on everything. Cut out 2 white circles and 2 black circles from your felt. Sew the black felt to the white circle to create an eye. Repeat with the other eye.

Use a paintbrush (or if your child is old enough they can stick their hand in the paint) to brush white paint on your child's hand. Cover it well as the paint will soak into the t-shirt.

Stamp your child's hand fingertips away from the neckline of the shirt to create Santa's beard.

Dip your child's finger in pink paint and dab two prints to make his cheeks. Allow to dry for about 30 mins.

Sew his nose (red button) to the shirt using red embroidery floss, then the eyes with white thread.

Use embroidery floss to attach the jingle bell to the tip of his hat.

And there you have it! Handprint Santa in no time!

If you don't want to use a t-shirt, you can do all of the above with cardstock and paint.

Tot School: Week 7

Sweet P is 19 mos old

Blech. What a week. Poor Sweet P has been sick all week, which never makes for a fun time at our house. She has croup and sounds terrible, poor gal. Besides the cough and runny nose, though, she's in good spirits. We even made it to our swim class today. Our friend K was quarantined, too due to her illness so at least we had a friend over!

In other news: I got the Nikon back on Wednesday! Whoopie!

Here's what our week looked like:

LeapFrog Fridge Farm: Sweet P has finally gotten the hang of this and matches the animals! A few weeks ago she just ran around pushing the chicken on top that plays a variety of songs.

Painting: This is the only evidence I can give you of our painting escapade! I'd post a better photo, but the items she's painting are gifts for Gammie and Nana and they both read our blog!

Sensory bucket: Same bucket as last week, but this week we got to play with it in our basement! I added some disco ball ornaments that broke from the loop you hang them with and some washed laundry scoops.

Wooden snowman: This guy was her advent gift on Wednesday (he was a $1 at Joann's fabrics) and she is too hilarious with it. She thinks it's funnier when you hold it up and refuses to hold him up to her face now! Before we colored him, she gave him different colored eyes using pompons.

Stickers! Another advent gift (from Auntie RoRo). I wrapped an empty kleenex box w/ wrapping paper scraps and let her go to town.

A mighty humble Bumble: The Farmer got this as a stocking gift one year and I found it while digging for some tape the other day. I showed it to Sweet P and she made the little growl she does when she sees his ornament on the tree and we took him upstairs. The packaging says it takes up to 10 days!!!! to fully grow so he's still in that cup of water!

Naming ornaments: She loves to walk around the tree and tell me the names of each ornament. It's too cute and she's usually pretty gentle!

Gingerbread houses: Our friend K came over and made gingerbread houses with us on Thursday!

Water fun! We've spent a lot of time in a steamy bathroom this week trying to ease Sweet P's congestion so Friday morning she climbed up on her potty/stool and went to town in the sink. We've never done this before and I think she would have stayed there all day!

We also got to play outside a little bit this week! Daddy took her out while I was working and they had a blast. Good thing we played outside while we could, since there's a blizzard watch now!

And with that blizzard watch...we had our first actual snow! I ran out and put some in a bucket for her to play with. She kept saying, "Snoooowww!!!" And I think was a little confused when it melted.

Books this week:

Play and Learn ABC book: Roger Priddy (This is a great book and Sweet P has learned the words Yawn and Umbrella from reading it!)

Peek a Boo What?: Begin Smart Books

If You Give books: Laura Joffe Numeroff--Gammie got all of these for Sweet P last year and they are such great books. If you haven't read them, you should definitely check them out.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

If You Give a Pig a Party (Sweet P's favorite because of the balloons)

What a great week and despite her sickness, quite busy running around town! How was your week?

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