Oh, I’m the feeling the pressure of holidays closing in…so much to do! How are you faring under it all?

Baking, packing, and wrapping to finish…my husband keeps reminding me we have a week until we leave for my parents house for Christmas. Which isn’t all that bad until I realize when we get back from Christmas, we have two days until we turn around and fly to San Diego for a month! That’s the stressful part.

Whew. Thanks for listening. 🙂

Christmas Toss

Otto inspired this activity, when I caught him trying to put a paper wreath on our leftover pumpkin. For the older tots (or preschoolers), you could have them toss rings on a small Christmas tree. For the preschoolers, they could stand up and at a distance to toss.

And those chenille sticks? They’ve come in pretty handy.

Counting Ornaments

We have a winner!

Commenter #35 – The Bargain Babe

Congrats! I’ll be sending you an e-mail for your address.

If you didn’t win, you can still use the coupon code HOME10 for 10% off your purchase at the Little Sapling Toys Esty shop.

The code is good until December 22nd. 

Rhythm & Songs

A fun activity to help teach young ones beginning rhythm is singing with  a simple instrument. This could be done with rhythm sticks or even a wooden spoon and pot. Since it’s Christmas, I made homemade jingle bells (just several bells on a chenille stick wrapped together).

The activity is simple, really, but it works on your child’s social and sensory skills. Sing simple songs together and shake your instrument along with the beat. It probably won’t be perfect, but a toddler may catch on quickly. Pick a song like Deck the Halls or Jingle Bells (maybe Row, Row Your Boat sans holidays), so that there’s an easy rhythm to imitate with the instrument.

Either way it’ll be fun for everyone!

Stringing a Garland

Since the kids are little, I thought it would be fun to have a more child-friendly tree decorated with things that would pretty, but I wouldn’t necessarily cry over if they broke. So I thought making our own garland would be fun.

I cut a piece of yarn about 2.5 feet long and threaded it with a blunt needle. I tied one end and let the other hang loose, so we weren’t doubling up the yarn. We had 3 containers of items Joey could string: apple cinnamon balls, fabric scraps, and stale Cheerios. I let him string them in whatever order he wanted.

It was a fun activity, though I did have to re-thread the needle a couple of times. It’s still a work-in-progress, thus not on our tree just yet. 🙂

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Hop on over to the giveaway page to enter!

Also, if you stop by Little Sapling Toys Esty shop, enter the code HOME10 for a 10% discount off your purchase!

Cold season has hit our Montessori home. Both boys haven’t been feeling well, one with a fever and the other with a fever and cold. We’ve been taking things slow, playing here and there and watching Christmas movies.

Luckily, the weather has matched the activity level in our house. It’s been raining going on 3 days straight. They’re calling for snow sometimes Wednesday evening, but that’s what they said for Monday too. 😉 For now, we’re holding down the fort and hoping the boys start feeling better.

Pegs on a Rim

For Otto, this is nothing more than a variation of the in and out work, but for an older toddler this is a great activity. You start with the pegs on the rim of a container, then you take the pegs (clothespins) off one by one and drop them in the container.

I like to use tin containers for this work, because of the sound the clothespins make when they drop. It’s an added sensory experience for the child. After all the pegs are in the container, one-by-one put the back on the rim of the container.

 Sorting Ornaments

We have a small Christmas tree and with Otto at grabbing height, I decided to not put all the ornaments on the tree. I put a few aside with this work in mind. I choose five different category of ornaments (I wouldn’t do less than 4 or more than 10) and ended up with five ornaments in each category.

As you can see some of the ornaments are identical, but in the angel and manger columns the ornaments are different. For these Joey had to pay closer attention and decide what category they went in.

I wish I had more ornaments so that the categories could have been a bit more abstract. Like all sphere ornaments, ornaments with dots, or that were made of clay, but I just didn’t have enough to make the categories even.

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Don’t forget to check out the Little Sapling Toys giveaway! It ends Thursday at midnight!

If you stop by Little Sapling Toys Esty shop, enter the code HOME10 for a 10% discount off your purchase!

This will be code valid until December 22nd.