Advent update (Days 1-11)

We are almost halfway through our advent calendar. Some activities have definitely been more successful than others!

The Good
The trip to the city (Day 10) was a definite winner - a fun day! It was also a chance to look at the displays and talk about the Christmas story.

Putting "baby Jesus" in the manger was popular with Mr Sociable. He liked giving "Jesus" the crown and has been dropping gold-coloured decorations into the manger as gifts from the wise men!

Jesus in the Manger (Days 3 & 4)

Mr Sociable has enjoyed reading the Christmas books. Today he read "The Nativity" with Franky and they had some discussion about the book (including "How do women have babies?").

Opening the "Jesus Storybook Bible" (Day 1)

Day 11

The Little People Nativity set has got a lot of play this week - mostly by Mr Fun, who likes to carry it around, pressing the button so he can listen to "Silent Night"!

Little People Nativity (Day 6)

Our playgroup Christmas party went really well. We did lots of Christmas-related activities - some crafty, some not. I even made some Christmas Story dress-ups!

Testing out the shepherd's costume, with a bonus trumpet!

The Christmas sticker frieze. This one was perhaps not-so-good, but it was funny! Mr Sociable and I had some different ideas about where the characters should be located!

Note: the shepherd on the roof, angel lying on the ground,
donkey out in the field (rather than the stable)

The Not-So-Good
The paper-plate angels were a bit of a fizzer. Mr Sociable is often not a big fan of paper-craft - but I was hoping he would be lured by the glitter and decorations. Sadly, he didn't get past the colouring part & was keen for the activity to be over. Mr Fun actually did do some colouring (with help). The angels are hanging on the tree, but I don't think they will be ones to cherish from year to year!

Cut-out plate, ready to decorate (Day 2)

Mr Sociable's orange angel; Mr Fun's coloured angel

We ended up abandoning the Lightening McQueen calendar, as it distracted from the "main event". Every day, Mr Sociable just wanted to eat chocolate rather than participate in the activity or do the readings.

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate...

Changes to make
I think we are losing the flow of the story, breaking it up into little bites. I think that for the remainder of advent, I will include longer passages of the Bible, rather than one or two verses at a time. So, we will read either a section of the bible or one of the Christmas books each day.

The week ahead
This week is Mr Sociable's 4th birthday and his preschool Christmas concert. So, I have planned pretty low-stress activities (with the possible exception of the pasta/PVA glue/paper-plate wreaths). I'm looking forward to videoing the concert tomorrow and sharing it with Franky tomorrow night!