Truth in the Tinsel

This is what my family room looked like last night.

This is where all the mess went to.

What am I doing? I am taking Calan and I on an Advent adventure till Christmas.

Using the e-book "Truth in the Tinsel", I have created 24 bags filled with ornament crafts and Bible study for Calan and I to do leading up to Christmas.

We will use each bag to learn a little more about Jesus and the Good News of his birth.

After we create the ornament, we will hang it on a small empty Christmas tree that we have. It will be Calan's own little tree to play and decorate.

I hope to do something like this every year with my kids.

Bob will do the Bible study with the kids in the morning before he leaves for work. I printed out the verses from the Good News translation. It seemed the most kid-word friendly.

Each craft looks pretty easy for Calan to handle. I doubt Maisie will be able to do them, so I'll give her some activity to do in her high chair while we are working. I am sure that I will have to help Calan quite a lot, but the end product is never as important as the process. I hope that he looks forward to the different ornaments each day.

We will paint, glue, decorate, color, etc. till all 24 ornaments are hanging on the tree.

Car ride science experiment

Here is an easy science experiment using soap and oil that any toddler and 1-year-old can enjoy:

Water-bottle sensory toy

Supplies

• 2 empty water bottles
• Water
• Oil
• Dish soap
• Food coloring
• Glue

Directions

• Take the water bottles and fill about half way up with water. 
• Take 1 of the water bottles and add about a teaspoon of dish soap.
• Take the other water bottle and fill with a generous amount of oil. 
• Add a few drops of food coloring to each bottle. 
• Take the water bottle lids and dab with some glue. Twist lids tightly shut. Wait to dry.

I made these for the kids before our trek home from vacation. I figured that they would be sick of the car toys that I had been using for our vacation and knew that I needed something for our 5.5-hour trip home. 

I came across the idea at We Made That. It took me literally 3 minutes to throw them together. 

Calan calls them his "shakes." But, I think he liked the sound of the crinkling plastic more than shaking the bottles up. The soap one is his favorite by far, and even Maisie enjoys shaking them up and crinkling the water bottles. 

They were only about 5 minutes of entertainment in the car, but now I have them as another toy option when we are out and about. 

Toddler Tuesday: Travel road map

A travel road map made from felt and glue. 

The large house is a pocket that you
can park a small car in. 

Next Monday, I am taking part in another Busy Bag Swap. I figure with two kids, I can't have too many go to activities. For this swap, I decided to make a travel road map for toy cars. Calan is really into cars and trucks and isn't so into matching and sorting games, so I figured at least this activity he would use right now.

The idea was an easy one, but making 10 of them has been a little time consuming. It has been worth it though. I am super happy with how they turned out. Each one is decorated with trees, a lake, 2 small houses, 2 stores, and one large house that acts as a pocket to park a small car. I also found bulletin board road signs that I added felt to to make more durable. 

The back of the map includes a blue pocket for
extra cars a spot for the road signs.  I used extra felt
to hold the two sides together. 

The map folds up easily into thirds to fit into
any diaper bag or purse. 

The road maps fold easily into thirds for storage and have a pocket on the outside to store the road signs and extra cars. 

So how did I do it?

It was super simple. I used this template from Serving Pink Lemonade for the road and small houses. I cut the template apart to fit as many pieces onto each black piece of felt as I could. I cutout templates for the other accessories and went to town cutting out a ton of felt. If you want templates for those, let me know I will post them, but they were really easy to figure out. 

I cutout all the pieces for the houses, stores, and trees and glued them together with a felt craft glue. 

After getting all my pieces together, I hot-glued everything onto my green pieces of felt. 

I took a small piece of black felt and hot-glued it to the back to keep the two pieces together, and I added the pocket for storage. 

Calan has already been playing with his and he loves the extra road signs. So, glad that I added felt to the back of them because he has already tried to crush them and chew on them. Not sure how long they will last, but for now they are holding up.  

Post linked to a few bog hops here and here. 

Busy Bag Winner

Congrats Julia! You have won the Toddler Busy Bag!

Thank you everyone for entering. And thank you again to all the moms who helped put the bag together!

Busy Bag Giveaway *closed*

Games clockwise from left: Shape memory game, Clothes pin color game, Noah Ark felt board, Button Snake, and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" matching game.

I have a few extra activities that I would love to giveaway. I have never hosted a giveaway before, but I thought that someone would love to have these games.

The bag includes:

1. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" Head and Tail matching and memory game
2. Felt Button Snake
3. Noah's Ark felt board
4. Shapes memory game
5. Color clothes pin matching game

Plus, a target reuseable bag

The only mandatory entry is that you like me on Facebook and leave a comment on the blog telling me so. If you already follow, just leave a comment telling me so. 

For extra entries, follow me any other way (google+ and GFC) and leave a comment telling me how you are following me. Also, blog about or share on Facebook about this giveaway, and be sure to either leave a link or comment telling me you shared the giveaway.

A winner will be chosen using random.org on Monday, Feb. 13. Good Luck!

Complete Busy Bags

Thanks ladies for all your work! From matching games to scavenger hunts to colors and animals, you guys did a great job!

Button Snake

Easy to make Felt Button Snake

This week I am hosting a Toddler Busy Bag Swap with a couple of my friends. A Busy Bag is just basically little activities that are small, quick, transportable, homemade, and reusable. I decided to make a button snake and a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" matching game. The Button Snake was easy and pretty inexpensive to make. This is by no means an original idea. I got the idea by searching Busy Bag activities. Here is what I did:

Materials

Different colors of felt or other stiff fabric (I used 6)

2 large buttons

Ribbon

Needle and thread

Fold the ribbon over at
end so the button is more
secure and ribbon doesn't fray.

Directions

• Cut felt or fabric in any shape or size that will accommidate your button. I just did square because I was making 9 of them, but you could do circles, triangles, stars, etc. too.
• Cut slit into fabric large enough for button
• Cut a decent length of ribbon. I used 15 in.
• Fold ribbon over and into a point. I did this so that the button was more secure and the ribbon won't fray. Stitch a few times to keep in place.
• Sew on button.
• Repeat with second button

Extra pieces to work with

patterns as your toddler

gets older

Bonus: I had some left over felt that I cut into small squares so that as the kids get older the Button Snake can be used to work on patterns as well. 

I have only let Calan play with his snake once so far and all he wanted to do was wear the "snake" part around his neck like a scarf. So, he might not be ready just yet to play with it, but I am so excited to have all these activities for when he is ready. They will be great for errands, eating out, doctor appointments, you name it.

Get your own Button Snake by entering my first giveaway.