Pop-up Christmas Cards

We chanced upon Robert Sabuda's work and had so much fun reading the Night before Christmas pop up.

 

So we got another book, The Christmas Alphabet. We admired his work and went to Robert Sabuda's site and saw patterns and instructions. 

We waited till before she can get hold of the scissors for her age that says 2+. Learning to cut, she tries her own , as I do too. She puts glue and presses as we attach the pop-ups on the card.

Here is our attempt to do our own pop-ups with markers to finish off the cards.

St Nick Pop-up card using markers for color

Snowman pop-up card using markers for color

Side view of the pop-up cards

'Tis the Season of Play

Christmas poetry reading makes my daughter sit, relax and snooze.

This book is a combination of timeless poem, carols and stories.

Since the contents are written in 19th to early 20th century, it is refreshing how simple Christmas was being celebrated, family singing and gathering at dinner table, not the commercial jungle we are having now.

Though I would say I am not the best to sing the songs, my voice is still music to my daughter's ears. (Oh what delight!) so we sing with all our might, haha.

To relate to some stories, we wanted an experience of making a snowman. Since we are in a tropical country, we made our own out of clay. Add a spark of imagination, and a happy cheer, viola ,we have another Christmas moment with our child!

Anticipating Christmas

An advent calendar is used to celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas or Christ's birth. 

In every significant event, we try to prepare and discuss what it is about. It makes the day really big for my daughter. We read Christmas stories and poems a day, we look at festive decors. And once a day, we put up one ornament in this pop-up advent calendar.

Well, she couldnt resist to hang more than one ornament per day, :)  so we open, hang and return it to its respective cards, then we add one more to the next day. :)

St Nicholas a.k.a Santa Claus

From what  I gather, Saint Nick was just a name among many variation of Santa Claus. Little did i know of the life Saint Nicholas led. We have been in the bandwagon of the commercial version of Santa Claus. Admittedly unprepared to celebrate this day, i made some quick reading about the bishop St Nicholas.  

Saint Nicholas Day is not very popular in the Philippines. Much of its celebration is in Eastern Europe & Germanic countries. His generosity and kindness to children has inspired many people around the world. We didn't have time to put shoes outside or hang stockings, instead, we read some classic Christmas poems and opened a gift with wooden barnyard playtime for our mini celebration.

For further reading on St Nicholas you may check www.stnicholascenter.org

Our 1st Christmas Book

It is the season of cheers as my daughter's birthday is December, it is truly a month to celebrate.

A heartwarming performance by the little drummer boy.
This is my daughter's first Christmas book, i didn't realize she would love a fairly long story for her age. 

Intently listening to every word, she plays the drum with us in this book!

Guess who's on the Potty?

Potty training , something I wished we diligently did since we started at 8 months old.

In the 70's there were mostly cloth diaper and toddlers are trained by 18 months. This has been a challenge for us.

We have tried different techniques to make this work. One is singing the 'Where's the Potty' in tune of Are you Sleeping? , another is doing it with Baby Signs (using hand signals) , and lastly is by talking to her to bring her toys.

Sure enough when I told her to bring her dinos to the potty, well this is what she did! :)

Post Halloween Class

Making your own costume is fun! Though you'll be putting your creative juices to concoct one.                                                                                                                                                    With my husband and I brainstorming for ideas, searching for materials, seeking my mom's sewing skills, we were able to pull this off.

She has been doing the 'Spider Walk' and has insisted to wear her 4 legged backpack even the next day!








It was a Wizard of Oz theme for her teachers (Good Witch, Dorothy and Tinman), and a mix of fairy, angel, bumblebee, super hero and the little spider all completed the party.

Fear is not Real

Children are fearless. We adults are the ones who create and influence fear in them.
  
I write this note for I have seen many who make up stories which creates fear on a child, lines like 'halika na, may multo dyan' (come now there are ghosts there). It has become a sure way of making a child behave.

I will discount traumatic experiences and environmental causes, because those itself create anxiety. Creating a scene where the child will imagine the worst may create phobias in adult life.I have only later realized the connection of childhood stories to an adult's fear.
I traced how some developed fear of ghosts, dead, dark or insects, all have similar stories to tell, fear was taught during childhood.

As I end with a quote from a fictional character in a sci-fi movie: Fear is not real. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may never exist...danger is very real but fear is a choice.

Communicating with your Child

Anger when not addressed properly will create havoc in everyone's home
I have attended a workshop that has given valuable information to effectively listen, understand and impart our message effectively.

These are elaborately discussed but here are the key points:

• Start with calmness & intention- be thankful, pray for patience & polish self-confidence

• When patience runs low : Pause,  straighten your body & breathe, speak softly & sweetly, try to find your quiet place and meditate

• Personality Profile, identify oneself and children, and you will understand one's behavior.  (In the workshop, we were grouped and had questionnaires to assess ourselves and our kids)

• Task Oriented, Leaders-  agree & explain how to get the task done
• Organized, Logical Thinking- discuss the  process of things
• Playful & Social Leaders - approach in a playful manner
• Kind presence , a mediator - a sweet & gentle approach

• Understand  yourself and the Child's Modality, approach with words and actions 
• Visual - 'As you can see', 'Please look'
• Auditory - 'As you can hear', 'Please listen'
• Kinesthetic - sensitive with feelings, ' Can you feel;' or relate with emotion 

• Elements in Communication : Clear + Congruent + Pro-Active
• state your purpose, say what you want your child to do , not what NOT to do, don't say DON'T

• Words to Remember
• Yes + And + Because

Giving Variation to the Traditional Letter Puzzle

Most kids easily get tired of their toys, one has to innovate to keep them constantly interested.

Traditional ABC puzzle has kept my daughter busy. We even diversified and made a house with a gate using these mats.

But what made my daughter leap for joy is when her dad made a box that transforms himself and our little daughter into a  robot ! 

Brush, Brush, Brush, Three Times a Day!

Brushing a toddler is a nightmare for some.

We started early. My husband and I are often seen by our curious daughter brushing. 

She patiently observed and eventually, she wanted to try it herself. We allowed her to help us 'brush' our teeth and so it was easy for us to switch roles.

A popular toothpaste commercial song largely helped as well. Singing as we brush makes it a fun activity! She even pretends flossing!

Book: The House that Jack Built

This scene is taken right after a seminar on book reading. We read then on- everyday, as much as we could.

We take hint on reading what interests our daughter. This book was read again few months after it was introduced.

This is a rebus book, (a representation of words or syllables by pictures), As we read along, our little daughter suddenly spoke up and filled in the blanks!

Oh how we laughed as she completed the title exactly the same tone as we read it!

Book: Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

Our first Eric Carle book, though I would recommend to start off with  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? especially for young listeners.

Activities:
- We chanted the words and named the animals
-game pointing on parts of the animals such as wings, claws, neck, and teeth
- we 'sneaked' 'strut' and moved as the animals did

Our cutout version of Panda Bear!

Book: Goodnight Moon

The 1st time for my daughter to say a word out of a book is -- 'Moon' , which amazed me as any parent did with their child.

An opportunity of vocabulary building and activity has made me to go on a book splurge!


Activities

   -Drew a cow and a moon cutout - making it jump over the moon

   -Finding the mouse on every page - chuckling and making up stories           why it's there
    -animal and object identifying game
Music we listened:
      Hey Diddle Diddle
Related reading:
      Three Little Kittens