Archives for 2011

Christmas Shopping

The past few years, I have had a harder and harder time with gift giving at Christmas. Most of us in North America already have so much and it’s hard to justify spending money on more “stuff” when there are so many around the world who don’t have the basic necessities of life. We have cut back drastically on our overall Christmas spending and have also changed what we spend on! There are two main ways we now choose our Christmas gifts.

We buy gifts such as a goat for a family in a developing country to give to my mom or mosquito nets for a family in an area where Malaria is an issue for a friend or give a donation to an organization benefitting impoverished children in the name of a loved one. If you would like to consider giving such a gift, here are some websites to check out:

One Child

Compassion (for Canadians)

Compassion (for Americans)

Vulnerable Children

We buy gifts that support adoptive families in their efforts to fundraise to bring children who need a family home. Not only does supporting these efforts help children get a forever family, it encourages the families. If you’d like to join me in supporting adoption in a practical way, please check out these links:

Africa Sleeps Sleep caps – 5% goes towards Vulnerable Children Society and the rest towards raising funds for this family’s adoption from Lesotho (they have already adopted 2 daughters from Ethiopia). Dancing Queen is getting 2 of these in her stocking (shhh, don’t tell her)!

Hope t-shirts and Etsy creations This amazing family has such a beautiful story! They adopted a son from Uganda and are going back to adopt his 2 best friends.

Wild Prairie Farms Selling everything from soaps to t-shirts to coffee and more, this family’s fundraiser will not only help them bring 2 more children home from Ethiopia (they already have 3 Ethiopian born children), it will help them relocate to Ethiopia all together to serve there.

Reece’s Rainbow Angel Tree This wonderful organization allows people to donate directly to the adoption funds of special needs orphans around the world.

Happy Christmas shopping everyone!

Horse Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

In our homeschool this week…

This was the busiest homeschool week I can remember! Our theme letter for the week was “Hh”, so we had a Horse Sensory Bin.

I just used hamster shavings and a variety of toy horses, which we had around the house, so it didn’t cost anything and the kids thought it was a lot of fun.

I had a variety of activities in the kids workboxes for the letter “H” including many from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I also included a great book about horses complete with an audio CD. There were also several horse word searches and worksheets and a few colouring sheets just for fun.

We continued to start our days with a long prayer based on the Armor of God from Drawing Closer by Glen Martin and Dian Ginter. We added to that additional discussion by focusing specifically on one thing each day such as the Helmet of Salvation and the kids completed colouring/activity sheets on this from here. The kids also did one colouring sheet every day from the story of the birth of Christ.

Our memory verse for the week was “Honour thy father and they mother.” – Exodus 20:12.

They are really enjoying their typing lessons using Keyboard Classroom. I will be doing a review on this next week if you are interested in more specifics.

In Story of the World, we did the chapters on Rome Divided in Two and Attila the Hun, the kids did Celtic designs, activity sheets, and tonight, we are having a Celtic feast of roasted chicken, grape juice (wine), berries, and bread where no cutlery will be allowed!

Snuggle Puppy is getting way ahead of Einstein and Miss Optimism in Math U See. That is just a reflection on his natural tendencies towards anything related to math, but I am trying to get the other kids to catch up a bit because it is so much easier to teach them when they are at least in the same ballpark as far as the concepts go.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Monday afternoon, we went over to another homeschool family’s house and the kids played and made Christmas cards.

Tuesday night, we all went to watch Fred’s band Christmas concert.

Wednesday night, we had a Family Fun Night with a Minute to Win It theme. It was hilarious! You can check out all the details and pictures here.

As someone pointed out in the comments of that post, this theme would make a very fun New Year’s Eve family friendly party.

Thursday morning, we went on the Bethlehem Walk and it was absolutely incredible! It was very interactive. In the market area, the kids were encouraged to taste (dates, meat, nuts), smell (handmade soaps etc.), touch (live animals, pottery, sheep’s wool, etc.). There was a choir of angels floating in the sky in the area before the market and there was a stable full of live animals where Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus were. All the actors were in character and asked the kids questions such as if we had traveled far to get to Bethlehem and if they had ridden in on camels! There was a blacksmith who showed them how to make nails and a carpenter carving crucifixes who spoke to them about the need for a Saviour to come. My kids were excited to tell him that the wait was over…the King had just been born!

Thursday afternoon was gymnastics class.

Today (Friday), I am trying really hard to have an at home day because there are a lot of things that we are behind on and some projects we need to complete such as starting on our Christmas baking. The kids are also going to make some simple gingerbread crafts.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Family Fun Night – Minute to Win It

By Sharla Kostelyk

These Minute to Win It games are hilarious! They are great to play at home with the family or at your next party or group event. Fun for all ages! We had a Family Game Night with a Minute to Win It theme. It was extremely easy to come up with the activities.

This theme made the evening so much fun! We laughed a lot. It also worked really well for all the different age groups from our youngest child right up to us adults. One of the things that makes these games so versatile is that they can be used with groups of all ages.

For our party, I used a Minute to Win It party bucket, but it is no longer being sold, so I created a printable decoration kit for you that includes everything needed to host your own party.

Decorations:

The Minute to Win It Printable Party Pack includes:

Treat Bag Toppers
Cupcake Wrappers
Cupcake Toppers
Favour Bag Tags in two sizes
Straw Flags
Score Sheets
Game Directions for each of the games here and the games in our Dollar Store Minute to Win It night

Food:

I had planned to make cupcakes and number them from 1-12 and have them in the shape of a clock, but I ran low on time (ironic?), so we made mini cinnamon rolls instead. I made a variety of finger foods: veggies, surprise spread, tortilla chips, salsa, spinach dip, focaccia, crackers, cheese, and meat.

Other food ideas for this theme:

take the top layer off Oreo cookies and draw a clock face on the white part with black edible pen or icing.
make a veggie tray in the shape of a clock
fried cheese filled wonton clocks

Minute to Win It Games:

This was the really fun part of the night! All we needed was a timer and things that most people have around the house.

I did buy the ping pong balls, the Oreos, the Smarties, and the pantyhose, but everything else we already had on hand.

For prizes, I bought mini skateboards, parachute men, and let the kids keep a ping pong ball each. All told, the party supplies cost about $5.

Face the Cookie.

Supplies needed:

Oreo (or similar type) cookies

This game is also sometimes called Cookie Face.

Have each person place a cookie on their forehead and try to get the cookie into their mouth using only their facial muscles. No touching with your hands!

Einstein did it successfully. He was rewarded with bragging rights and finishing his Oreo!

Stack Attack.

Supplies needed:

36 plastic cups

This game consists of stacking 36 cups in a pyramid and then back down into a single stack. We have found that the red cups, like the Solo ones, work well for this.

The Ferrari came the closest to conquering this one in one minute, but even he wasn’t completely successful.

Movin’ On Up.

Supplies needed:

7-11 red or white plastic cups
1 blue plastic cup or permanent marker

(I love the look on Granola Girl’s face here!)

In this game, start with the blue cup on top of the stack of cups of another colour and stack the cups one by one until the first cup is on top again. Use 8-12 cups depending on the age and ability of those playing. If you don’t have a blue cup, you can mark the rim of one cup with a permanent marker and start with that one on top.

Junk in the Trunk.

Supplies needed:

empty tissue box
8 ping pong balls
adjustable belt or wide ribbon

This game is hilarious! With a tissue box strapped around the waist, the participants have to try to get out the 8 ping pong balls just by movement.

It was really funny to watch! We laughed so hard that it was difficult to keep the game going!

Fill an empty tissue box with 8 ping pong balls. Use a belt or ribbon to attach the empty Kleenex box to the player’s waist. Contestants can then shake, shimmy, bounce, jump, or dance in an effort to get all the balls out of the box.

Suck It Up.

Supplies needed:

Smarties, Skittles, or M+Ms
plastic straws
paper plates

In this game, players have to transfer Smarties or other similar sized candy from one plate to another using only a straw.

My kids were able to eat the Smarties afterwards which no one seemed to mind!

Penny Hose.

Supplies needed:

2 pennies
pantyhose

Players had to retrieve 2 pennies, one at the bottom of each leg of the pair of pantyhose. This is another funny one to watch. It’s more challenging to complete than it sounds.

Ping Pong Bounce.

Supplies needed:

ping pong balls
six cups

In this game, players have to bounce ping pong balls into six cups. Everyone was able to do it in the minute. It’s nice to choose some games that are a bit more attainable like this one so that people don’t get frustrated.

Mix in the easier ones with some of the more challenging games. This is especially true if younger children are playing.

Keep it Up.

Supplies needed:

feathers
bucket or bowl

In this game, players have to blow a feather from one side of the room to the other and land it in a bucket or bowl.

This one is much harder to do than it sounds like it would be. In our family, only our oldest son was able to do it successfully. It was awfully fun to try it though!

Yank Me.

Supplies needed:

index cards
plastic cups

This game was the hardest of the ones we tried. No one was able to do it in one minute. One of the kids was able to get close though. Maybe if you’re playing these games with a group of adults, you’ll have more luck.

To play, stack an index card on the top of the cup until there are five cups and then yank the index cards out to attempt to create a single stack of five cups.

It was a great family fun night! This was a very easy theme to plan around and it was one of the rare themes that worked well with the broad age range of kids that is represented in our family. It would be a great one to plan for family get togethers, family reunions, birthdays parties, or youth group nights.

Minute to Win It games are based on a former NBC TV show hosted by Guy Fieri where contestants would vie for prizes by competing against the clock in these type of games. They are easy to recreate at home or at the office.

Sign up for a free copy of our Minute to Win It Build Edition challenge cards. Use these cards to create an easy, impromptu games night. All you need is the cards and building blocks such as LEGO.

You can find other hilarious game ideas in our Dollar Store Minute to Win It Night. There, you’ll find Chocolate Unicorn, Puddle Jumper, Ponginator, Hanky Panky, Ball Drop, Breakfast Scramble, and Elephant March.

Our Christmas Minute to Win It is perfect for the holidays!

Or check out our Minute to Win It Thanksgiving Games for your family gathering.

If you’re looking for outdoor large group games to play at a picnic, family reunion, or camping, our Minute to Win It Camping Games are the perfect solution.

If you’re looking for more fun party games for family or group get-togethers, check out The Flour Game.

Another game that is so easy to set up and can be played with large groups and a variety of ages is The Bag Game.

Don’t forget to grab your Minute to Win It Party Pack!

Army Theme Birthday Party

By Sharla Kostelyk

A few week’s ago, we had a birthday party for Snuggle Puppy. I am still a bit confused as to why he wanted an army theme, as it is not something he is interested in in the least, but it was easy to plan.

Food. I planned the food around what Snuggle Puppy likes, so it wasn’t your typical kid food. He likes ethnic food, so I served samosas, pakoras, and bahajis. He is a fan of seafood, so I made crab rangoons. I also made a few other appetizers and veggies.

Instead of cake, I made cupcakes in camouflage wrappers and The Husband and I iced them with three different colours to make them look like camouflage. I added little plastic walkie talkies and other army related items to the tops of some and flags to others.

We had a small cupcake mishap, so there weren’t as many in the end as there had been when we iced them, but there were enough to go around!

Activities. Our daughter, Miss Optimism set up a face painting station and gave willing party guests camouflage faces. Fred and The Husband set up an obstacle course in the backyard and once guests were settled, The Husband put them through “basic training” on the course.

I don’t remember the course exactly, but one at a time, they had to run over, crawl through the tunnel, go up the balance beam, down the slide, over to the climbing wall where they went up that, down something to the other side, through another tunnel, crab walk quite far to the finish where they rode a little car down a ramp. When everyone was finished the obstacle course (complete with The Husband barking orders at them like a drill sergeant would), they all did a running race. Once their training was complete, they were made honorary soldiers.

Now that they were soldiers, they were given their first mission: to rescue their fellow soldiers who were MIA. Fred had hidden dozens of plastic soldiers in our trees. The kids all enjoyed finding the army men. They were each able to keep any they found.

I also had put some toy army men in two clear plastic cups that I had taped together. The kids could then guess how many army men were in the cups. The one that came the closest got to keep all of them. I forgot to take pictures of these last two activities.

Extras. When party guests first arrived, they were given hats and dog tags that had a place to write their name and rank. For party favours, each guest was sent home with a bag containing army related items such as plastic compass, binoculars, activity map, soldiers, parachute men, and a few candies in camouflage bags.

a picture of the happy birthday boy with his cousin K. We were blessed with good weather and a great turnout. It was a very fun day!!!

Gingerbread Playdough Station

By Sharla Kostelyk

This week, we are concentrating on the letter “G” and I just couldn’t think of a great sensory bin to go with that, so instead, I made a Gingerbread Sensory Table. I have this awesome recipe for Gingerbread Playdough that looks and smells like real gingerbread dough. We make it most years before the holidays.

This scented gingerbread playdough smells just like gingerbread and makes such a fun Christmas sensory station. The only negative thing about this playdough is that it smells so good and the colour looks so much like true gingerbread dough that kids want to eat it. In fact, my great-niece was over last night and couldn’t resist tasting it!

I set out a rolling pin, a cookie sheet, 3 gingerbread cookie cutters, and a flipper (spatula) along with a large container of the gingerbread playdough. Our kids have so much fun pretending to bake gingerbread men. You can also set out items like yarn for them to decorate their gingerbread men. The playdough stays fresh for a long time as long as it’s kept in a tightly sealed container in between play sessions.

Gingerbread Playdough Station

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe:

5 cups flour
1 cup salt
6 Tbsp. oil
2 1/2 tsp. alum
3 pkg. unsweetened orange Koolaid
3 1/2 cups boiling water
6 Tbsp. instant coffee
1 Tbsp. each of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves

Mix Koolaid, flour, spices, alum, and salt in a bowl. Pour in oil and mix until crumbly. Combine water and instant coffee and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well. Keep dough in an airtight container.

This dough makes a great Christmas gift, especially if packaged with a few gingerbread cookie cutters and a children’s rolling pin.

We also have several other Christmas playdough themes that you may be interested in. I find that they are a great way to keep kids occupied during the holiday season while I am busy preparing food or cleaning.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Snow Playdough and Invitation to Play

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

Learning Activities for the Letter “F”

By Sharla Kostelyk

This might be a bit long because I discovered that “F” is a great letter when it comes to learning. We studied frogs, firemen, flowers, and fish. We didn’t do an extremely in-depth study on each of them, but I think that the kids will still remember much of what we learned and they had a lot of fun!

We had a Fancy Nancy day. You can read all about the activities, crafts and food here.

I had gotten these feet shaped cardboards in socks awhile ago and saved them for this week. The kids made them into flip-flops by coloring them and hole punching then stringing yarn through them. They loved this activity and it didn’t cost anything. Also, foot and flip-flop are great “f” words!

For our fish day, the kids did a number of fish activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

They read 2 Rainbow Fish books and made this activity to go along with the Rainbow Fish idea.

The kids glued sequins onto fish shaped paper frames.

Making these flower mini books was a great way to reinforce colour concepts, especially for my younger kids. Plus, everybody loves mini books!

I love this worksheet from 2 Teaching Mommies because the kids thought it was just so funny (“a flower doesn’t need pepperoni pizza…that’s so silly!”), but I think because of that, they will really remember the talk we had about what flowers do need and why.

This cut and paste worksheet is also from 2 Teaching Mommies.

I made a flower muffin tin lunch to go with our theme:

-blueberry brown sugar flax cookie topped with an organic maple arrowroot cookie
-bread cut in flower shape and baby tomato
-sweet potato puffs
-apple strawberry puffs
-Greek yogourt with sprinkles
-babybel cheese with a heart cut-out

As a fun kick-off to our “F” week, I made these frog sandwiches. The kids thought they were awesome! They are super easy to make.

I also made another muffin tin lunch for the letter F.

-fettucine alfredo
-foot shaped cheese
-fish crackers
-F shaped bread
-fish fruit snacks
-fruit cocktail

The frog life cycle – I had these plastic models of the frog life cycle and the kids enjoyed playing with them. I also printed off a puzzle from 2 Teaching Mommies detailing the life cycle.

cut and paste of the frog life cycle

In learning about frogs, we also had a frog sensory bin and read the books Frogs and Who Taught Frogs to Hop?.

My dad dropped off 5 hoodies from his work and the kids made up this game where they would wrap the hoodies down over their feet and curl themselves up so that they just looked like blobs and then they would have someone guess who was who. It was actually really hard to do! I was able to guess them all correctly, but it took a lot of effort. The Husband got almost all of them wrong! They thought it was hilarious!

These are some of the many things we did in workboxes this week. Fall number and letter practise with clothespins, letter “F” sewing, counting on numbered lily pads using frog manipulatives.

We did some fireman and firetruck do-a-dot sheets from Making Learning Fun and made this foam craft.

This week was also the beginning of November, National Adoption Month, so I wrote up a very condensed version of our five adoptions. I am also planning some great things over on my adoption website this month.

And the week was kicked off with Halloween, when I took the five younger kids to a local indoor carnival. They had a lot of fun playing old fashioned carnival games and getting to hold animals such as a parrot and a bearded dragon.

I have a rule that the costumes can’t be scary and this year, we had planned for Snuggle Puppy to be a robot, but after homeschooling Monday and helping Einstein make his Rocketman costume, I ran out of time to make a robot costume, so I got desperate and put him in his glow-in-the-dark skeleton pyjamas!

This picture I just have to include because it so depicts Snuggle Puppy’s eating preferences. He hates typical kids’ food like KD, but loves the fancy stuff and anything super spicy. On Tuesday, I took the kids to WEM and we stopped to eat lunch and he ordered this:

(the other kids had spaghetti!)

Our memory verse this week was “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

The kids finished Lesson 8 and started on Lesson 9 in Math U See, continued in A Reason for Handwriting, devotions, and started a new typing program that I am excited to review in a few weeks once they have settled into it. The kids also watched the movie “Degas and the Dancer” and we discussed Degas’ style of art.