Piwi Kids

Friday, November 23, 2012

Thanksgiving under the Sea

The week started off slowly. Miss K was getting her energy back from a week long bout of Bronchitis. Just as her temperature was dropping, Mini Piwi's was rising...at one point I had both of them leaning on me, asleep. Perry the cat came to sit on my lap and I dared not move except to reach for my e-reader. That was probably the sweetest moment of the week, my two 'babies' sleeping and cuddled up to me, a fuzzy friend and a book. In the quiet I even had the idea to create a planner for our advent activities...

When everyone was up, I got out a blank note book and together we made an 'Advent diary'. Amanda Bennet's Christmas Study Co-op on Face book begins on Nov 26. My theory goes...if we start AB Christmas and Truth in the Tinsel on Sun 25 and carry on until Three Kings Day (Jan 6) this would give us an Advent celebration of 45 days. One each day I made a basic list the activities each program suggested for us. I also hope to add in things we do or see or learn to make it a kind of keepsake.

Our printer wasn't cooperating so I just went old school and ruled up a 6 week calendar. The Piwis and I then worked together to add all the Feast days and the number of each Sunday in Advent.We also added Mini Piwi's birthday to the Calendar. Three years ago Mini Piwi was due to arrive on Christmas Day. She was born a few days early and was less than a week old when she had her first White Christmas in IL.

The Piwis decorated the first few pages with Santa and candy canes stickers. Little did they know that this was their first lesson...
I asked 'Is there something missing in these Christmas decorations?' Miss K looked puzzled at first and then I saw the light bulb over her head . 'Jesus!' she said. Mini Piwi of course copied her because she is the cutest little parrot. At this point Miss k began sticking in some candy canes upside down to make the J and wrote the rest of his name.

By Wednesday everyone was just left with a lingering cough. Mini Piwi still wasn't in the mood for anything but drawing and playing with our new set of Cuisinaire rods. Of course she still wanted to be involved with Miss K's lessons!

For Thanks giving we decided to eat out at Downtown Aquarium. We had been planning to go at some point and since we are moving out of the area this Month it was as good chance to go. It was definitely an experience the kids will remember. the aquarium on site is fairly small but still good for younger kids that aren't going to be staying for long visit. Personally I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a big beautiful white tiger being in a large glass cage but the kids sat there enthralled watching him. The highlight though was the restaurant's the humongous tank with giant fish and an eel that looked like he wanted to eat our food or us ( hard to know). It was like having Thanksgiving under the sea.

Spot the eel watching to see if any food gets dropped

Our Faith & Fun fulled 2012 Advent Plan

It's hard to believe we are so close to the beginning of December! I have lots of ideas and this week has been the time to get started doing and not just pinning.

We are going to use two products so that both Piwi's have age appropriate activities. I anticipate a lot of crossover activities we can all do together though. It was this reason I chose this two awesome products:

For Mini Piwi's first Advent meditation we are using 'The Truth in the tinsel'

E-book and printables

From the TITT site: Spend December impressing God’s Word on your kids’ heart! You’ll get 24 days of Scripture reading, ornament crafts, talking points and extension activities. Plus fun printables and templates! Click here to view more details

I love that it was made for Preschoolers! I think it will be a perfect fit for Mini Piwi since it incorporates so many of her favourite things: Crafts, 'clues' to follow, angels, sheep, pictures of Baby Jesus (she was crazy about finding him in our picture books last year).

We are going are also joining the Amanda Bennet Christmas Co-op on Facebook

We got our copy of the Christmas Unit Study on sale for $6

From the Amanda Bennet website:
Christmas: a special time of rejoicing as we celebrate the birth of the Son of God, the Messiah. Learn what the world was like at the time of Christ's birth.
When so many material desires threaten to obscure the true meaning of Christmas, this study will help bring back into focus how the birth of a tiny baby changed the whole world!
The Christmas unit is in electronic format, meaning your children can work through the study interactively, clicking on the links in each lesson to further their own investigation. Each day's lesson plan has been written in two levels: Lower Level (elementary grades) and Upper Level (junior/senior high grades), enabling the whole family to learn together! Includes Christmas Note booking Pages. Christmas uses the Bible as its primary resource.

We will also be supplementing these activities with the Catholic Kids crafts at Catholic Icing

And of course there are all the things I keep finding on Pinterest!

Here are some pics of last year when we included a trip to see the lights at Gaylord Texan@Grapevine. It is so Crazy to thing that was only a year ago! We have moved twice since then!