Grinch Story Problems - FREEBIE

If your kiddos are fans of the classic Dr. Seuss Christmas story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you will want to check out this adorable freebie from Rulin' the Roost. A fun way to combine some math practice with a great story!

Creating Family Christmas Traditions - Guest Post

One of the people I follow on Twitter, Jenn from @KeepCalmandMom offered to guest post on my blog.  I was happy to oblige!  If you enjoy her post, be sure to follow her on Twitter to see where her next posts will appear.

Christmas is the best time of the year for reinforcing family values and traditions that will be passed down by future generations. The blended family as well as the traditional family may come together during this wonderful season of giving to carry on timeless crafting and creation. There are so many opportunities for family, and friends alike, to interact in festive holiday activities.



Aside from the parties and delicacies that define the season, there are activities that everyone can participate in that will become events that all ages will look forward to. Some of these may include:


Building a gingerbread house - Wilton.com has great gingerbread house ideas, lists all the ingredients and tools needed and even gives you step by step instructions. Planning and designing, baking, cutting, assembling and decorating are just some of the tasks to be shared in creating the gingerbread house. Each year a photo can be taken of the finish project with the construction crew and used for a Christmas Card.



Wreath making – While her instructions may be a bit involved, Marthastewart.com has some of the most beautiful and unique wreath ideas out there. If you are fortunate enough to live where natural materials like vines and evergreens are readily available, it a great fun to collect these items and have everyone create there own wreath. Grape vine, wisteria and Virginia creeper are a few of the many vines that can be wound for a form. Be sure to identify the vines when they have leaves. Poison Ivy can make you itchy in the winter too.

Make Snow Globes – Kaboose.com offers a great instruction guide that’s great for the younger children. All that is needed is some glycerin, a few miniatures, available in any craft store, some glass glitter, glue and a jar. Add a little imagination and a self contained fantasy can come to life.



Put the family Christmas photo on your iPhone case – Online services like TinyPrints.com can take your family portrait, or informal fun shots, and put them on an iPhone case that you choose yourself from a vast collection of designs. Make the family Christmas photo something you can take with you all year long.



There are so many more activities to get everyone involved, creating a future yearning for the season in the hearts of all. It might be decorating and baking holiday cookies or crafting ornaments. Decorating a gourmet tree for the birds and animals each season will be fun to do, fascinating to observe and appreciated by all the fauna that can work less and eat more.



With Christmas becoming more commercialized and stressful each year, it is healthy to participate in some festive family fun as the holiday draws near. Create memories for your family that they will cherish, while instilling values that will benefit them for life.

Grinch Math Game

I have absolutely fallen in love with this Grinch Math Game from Finally in First!  As is, this set is perfect for Luke who is working on his addition facts, but my brain is spinning with ideas for adapting the game with multiplication facts and positive and negative integers for my older boys.  Can't wait to get started!  And.... I love her idea for making the case with a recycled soup container (you could also use a Pringles can, yougurt container, sour cream container, etc.) - or just use one of those cheap dollar store plastic containers.

Christmas In July Lesson Plan

So last night when I asked Luke to pick a bedtime story, this is the book he picked out.  I guess with the temperatures hitting the 100 degree mark lately, he was craving a little bit of snow.  So, that got me to thinking about the phrase "Christmas in July"  I had of course heard it before, but was it actually a real thing?  Thanks to the magic of the internet, I found out that yes it was a real holiday, and there are people who actually celebrate it!  So in honor of my boy's craving for snow, I decided to plan some Christmas in July activities.  Here are a few of the things we will be doing just in case you are having a case of the summer blues:

Handwriting

Handwriting is always a little more fun when it involves Christmas, don't you think?  Have them practice writing Christmas words with this printable.

Creative Writing

You know that box of old Christmas cards you've been saving for??? Come on, fess up, I have one too.  Well, put them to use as story starters or writing prompts.  Have your child cut the cover off and write a story about it. I know one little boy who is going to be writing about snowmen in his journal!

Reading/Language Arts

Read about The Wild Christmas Reindeer with this fun reader's theater.

Practice alphabetical order using Christmas lights.

Math

Make use of those old Christmas bows that are collecting dust in your garage for some math fun!

Younger kiddos can sort them into piles to practice their sorting skills. If your kiddo is a little older, have them graph the results!  Older kiddos can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and even division with the bows.  See if they can write their own story problems to go along with them.

Practice some Santa Subtraction

The Cost of Christmas - Have your kiddo figure out how much the 12 Days of Christmas would cost with this fun worksheet.

Now that you are in the Christmas spirit - you might want to think about tackling a chore usually reserved for later in the year. You know the one that you forget about until the last minute so now you are known for your New Year's cards that were supposed to be Christmas cards but somehow didn't get mailed out until after Christmas. - Yeah Guilty as charged.

Well, this year I think I am going to surprise all of my family and friends by taking care of the chore of ordering and getting the Christmas cards ready early - like now, when I don't have the holiday hectic.

I usually send out photo cards, so I have already booked a photo session with my fave camera friend for right after BlogHer, and I have been checking out these snowman (of course!) photo cards from Storkie.com

Just use your imagination and replace those girls with my 6 boys and wouldn't it be fab?  I think so :)
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Storkie.com. This is a sponsored post, meaning that I have received compensation. All thoughts and opinions are that of my own.