Sophie & Lily’s 12 Days of Christmas 2011
On the first day of Christmas the girls made for you:
One beautiful painting for Caca and Travis. |
| Caca opening up her present |
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| The beautiful christmas Tree Ornament painting by Sophie |
On the second day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Two super-cool bean paintings for Eloise & Emma!
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| EMMA' bean painting by Sophie |
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| ELOISE's bean painting by Lily |
On the third day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Three American Girls outfits for Hannah, Olivia, and
Danielle (plus one for Lily too!)
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| Repurposed American Girl doll clothes made from old clothes by Sophie & Gamma |
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| Lily made all the ponchos to match the outfits! |
On the fourth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Four Painted and feathered masks for Caca, Gamma & Bo,
and Owyn!
On the Fifth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Five times 2 glittery snow-globes~for a lot of
people, we made 10! |
| We made the snowglobes at the farm with Gamma--she got mostof the old Ball jars at an estate sale |
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| We got the snowglobe ornaments all from Goodwill--the most expensive one was $1.99 |
On the sixth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Six Sophie-designed T-shirts for A,B, & C, Lauren,
Emma, and friend Lily!
On the seventh day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Seven more Muppet-monster letters for Ben, Gpa, Gma,
& Dad
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| The Muppet-Monster letters were super fun and super cute!! |
On the eighth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Eight handmade scrapbooks for
aunts, uncles, grands, and friends!
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| The Girls each made 4 scrapbooks each: Sophie made ones for Halliday & Owyn, one for Emma, one for Uncle Aaron, and another for Gpa DC & Gma Gayle. Lily made hers for Gpa Mike & Gma Linda, Uncle Araron, Aunt Kim & Uncle Paul, and Uncle Eric & Aunt Lyn |
On the ninth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Well, we made a lot of stuff too for people! |
| Sophie did this cool gold=leaf Owl engraving for Gamma and created a wonderful frame. |
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| Lily made this awesoem collage for Gamma and Bo! |
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| Lily painted these cat and dog bobble heads for Halliday because he likes cats & dogs |
On the tenth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Ten other special people got ornaments and presents too!
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| Busy dining room table for the month of December! |
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| Sophie paitned a beautiful Skate frame for Coach Linda |
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| The girls made all these ornaments for friends and neighbors--a lot of glitter! |
On the eleventh day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Eleven different batches of yummy holiday cookies—and
we did some math!
On the twelfth day of Christmas the girls made for you:
Twelve busy homeschool days full of love and
creation!
Merry Christmas to all our family & friends~
December 6, 2011 @ Doctor’s
Office: “Why do we make Christmas?”
1.
People appreciate gifts more—Sophie
2.
Better than buying stuff—hard to find things at
the store—Lily
3.
A lot more fun than shopping—Sophie
4.
I like to make things—Lily
5.
It’s resourceful—Sophie
6.
People like the stuff you make and they’re proud
of you—Lily
7.
The gifts are “unique” (new word)—Lily
8.
People like them more because they know you made
the gift especially for them and took time to make it and think about that
person—Sophie
I reflect on the lessons Sophie and
Lily learned for our second year of “Christmas School:”
·
Create
your own warmth. The house was full of baking and glue and glitter and
music for the month of December, reminding us that the long, cold winter stuck
inside can be an opportunity to create our own beauty and warmth.
·
Plan
& Schedule when you have a long list to accomplish in a short time.
Each gift was carefully considered and planned. On the first day of Christmas
school we make our list and go through the craft closet and begin to decide what
we’re going to make for whom. Then we look at the calendar and make a schedule
to insure all the gifts are made in time to be given out or shipped. We did
pretty well and only have five gifts left to be handed out.
·
Having
stimulation like holiday music and movies can help motivate creation. It was funny some days when I had to
really push the girls to work on their gifts. Even “fun” school can end up
feeling tedious sometimes. But I would play the Christmas mix or put on a movie
and that always helped to get us back into the holiday spirit!
·
It feels
great to cross things off a long list! This is more my lesson than the
girls and one I take great pleasure in~ I also really enjoyed cleaning,
organizing, wrapping, and putting away finished gifts and their materials. My
dining room table was full of supplies and all kinds of mid-made projects and
especially the last week and a half before Christmas, it was exhilarating to
start and finish a long list every day and slowly clean and recover my dining
room table well before the first holiday dinner.
·
Take your
time girls. This was one of the most repeated mantras of Christmas school
and the girls really learned this lesson by the end of the month. There were a
couple of mistakes that needed Mom’s attention to fix and a stern reminder that
if you take your time—especially with glue and painting—the gift will look
better in the end and you will feel more proud of it. There’s no point in
rushing through a creative project just for the sake a finishing it and there were
a couple of times that we’d start a project and realize that one or both of the
girls weren’t really into doing that particular craft at that time. So instead
of making art feel like work, we just switched gears and worked on something
else that they were interested in making. This tactic also worked when they
were painting and gluing and had to wait in between applications for things to
dry—this was a really important and successful lesson and the finished gifts
show the result!
·
Know when
to give up, recalculate, and rethink a project that just isn’t working! This
was a good lesson for all of us and one we learned without a lot of drama or
upset. There were just a few planned projects on our original list that just
weren’t working either because of time, interest, or that once we started we
just didn’t like the outcome. Both girls made some readjustments mid-month and
I was really proud of their attitude.
·
Learning
about all the important holidays at this time of year and how and why they’re
celebrated is fun! Sophie definitely worked hard school-wise this month too
and she finished really good 6 x 6’s and some book reports and well-written
blogs about how Christmas is celebrated around the world and the country, about
the Christian Nativity story, Hanukah, and the Solstice. I was proud of the
work she accomplished this month!
·
Spending
time with family and enjoying holiday theater and music productions helps make
the holiday season special. As a family we spent a lot of time in the
theater this Christmas season. Thanks to Jean (and Andy) we saw the amazing,
spectacular Rockettes in Boston, we enjoyed two showing of the Theater
Project’s Miracles on School Street, we saw Sophie’s friend Emma as the Ghost
of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol, we enjoyed the lively Portland
Symphony’s concert, we joined Al Miller in his telling of the winter story The
Mitten and then listened to him recite A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and we
enjoyed Sophie’s tap dance performance of Route 66 with her new dance teacher,
and we can’t forget the annual Skating Club of Brunswick’s Holiday Exhibition
where Sophie skated a beautiful solo and Lily and Eloise were adorable
reindeer! Wow. We did and saw a lot!
·
Giving really
does feel better than to receive (or at least just as good!) The girls
again really enjoyed giving all their gifts and watching their loved ones open
them and gush with awe and appreciation. I was really proud of all our
Christmas gifts (given and received this year) because they were mostly all
handmade and the ones that were purchased were thoughtful, creative, inspiring,
and, except for Sophie’s gift from Santa (a Kindle Fire), NOT ONE PRESENT NEEDS
BATTERIES OR PLUGGED IN! and I will happily excuse Santa because the Kindle is
really cool and is important for school.
Thank you to all our friends and family who spent the holiday with us.
The love and support and friendship we are blessed with this year especially
filled our season with kindness and laughter and good food. The girls and I
really enjoy “making Christmas” and sharing it all with you.
We also celebrate almost 100 days of sixth grade homeschool and I
can’t say I am looking forward to next month or the next three months after
that, I am looking forward to getting into the nineteenth century with Sophie
with the War of 1812, the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Westward Expansion and
Pioneers. For Science we’ll be working
on Weather and will keep a weather log and hopefully meet and visit one of the
local meteorologists. Sophie has two new math books to work from—one which will
really challenge her and the other is more of a basic workbook. Since we’re not
planning any major “project” for this unit—just a lot of web quests, reading,
and 6 x 6s, I have put out a basket full of neat books, games, videos, and
stuff that she will pick two on “Basket Days.” Subjects in the basket include:
Latin workbook, Spanish to English flashcards, Brain Quest cards, Daring Book
for Girls, Landmark and Presidents flashcards, Math card games and a book about
Math tricks, BBC’s Planet Earth DVDs, National Geographic magazines and maps,
books on hieroglyphics and a bunch of short informative science books. My plan
is for her to pick two and give me about a half hour to come up with an
activity for the day. Should be fun and different!
We will end the year with the Civil War, Maine Studies, and Geology.
