Crafty Mommy Workshop - Autumn

After a lot of thinking and preparation I managed to hold my very first Crafty Mommy Workshop with Autumn crafts and activities.

Quite a few moms have asked me about the activities we've been doing with E. since she was small, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a craft session for mommies (instead of telling everyone separately).

The workshop was in Hungarian as English-speaking moms didn't sign up 😞. The main idea was that moms could learn some easy to make activities and at home they can work them out with their kids.

I collected autumn activities around 5 major topics:

• Conkers
• Leaves and trees
• Halloween
• St. Martin's Day (Márton nap)
• Thanksgiving

I dedicated 1 hour to go through the activities, however, they proved to be too many as we couldn't cover the last 2 topics. Still, I hope the 2 moms who turned up (other 2 cancelled 😞) will benefit from what they heard at the workshop. 

The original ideas of these activities are either from other blogger moms or mine. I mainly came up with  the conker games but here I'd also like to pay tribute to the pages I read and "steal" ideas from:

Leaves and tree activities:

1. Paint and stamp with the leaves
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Paint around the leaf
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Laminated leaf rubbing (or just place leaves under a white sheet of paper and rub it with autumn colour crayons)
   
   
   
   
4. Leaf lacing
   Although I didn't print the free printable leaves, just used our laminated leave that I'd punched on the sides. Shoelaces are pretty goof for threading, but if your child has any difficulties with the small ending you can add some cell tape to make the end firmer.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Make leaf faces and  people out of (laminated) leaves
   
   
   
   
6. Leaf shred pictures autumn images and animals too
7. Count the leaves with free printable
8. Stamping leaves on a tree with toilet paper roll
9. Popsicle stick tree 
10. Make a hedgehog/squirrel with leaves
    
    
    

What else to do with leaves:

• collect them
• group them by their size, colour
• make them stand in a line from the biggest to the smallest
• paint them, colour them, trace them
• press them
• make a crown out of fresh autumn leaves

The participants got a nice pack of goodies to work with at home, like 10 laminated leaves, a punched leaf with a shoelace for the lacing, some magnets so they can stick the leaf faces/people on the fridge, popsicle sticks, squirrel/hedgehog templates and the counting leaves free printable.

The third topic we could cover was Halloween. Here are the crafts I showed to the moms:

1. Cotton ball ghost
2. Baby food jar mummies (I'll soon write a post on this in detail)
   
   
   
3. Jack-o-lantern faces with shapes
4. Pumpkin emotions
5. Toilet paper spiders, monsters with googly eyes 
6. Skeleton out of cotton buds
   
   
   

In the mommy package there were some toilet paper tubes, googly eyes, black pipe cleaners, cotton balls, baby food jar, a roll of gauze, black cardboard, orange construction paper and, of course, two printables: the black shapes for making Jack-o-lantern faces and the pumpkin faces showing different emotions.

The other topics were postponed and due to the lack of time we agreed to have a similar session with winter and Christmas activities. We had a wonderful time together and I've been planning our next session excitedly.

Advent Calendar Activities Days 7-13

Here come the activities of the second week of our Advent:

Christmas wreath from pasta - fail :( (Day 7)

1. 
   
   
   
   
   What you need:
   * pasta (farfalle)
   * green paint
   * paintbrush
   * glue
   * cardboard ring (cut out of a cereal box)
   * red ribbon/bow
   * glitter sprinkle (I left it out this time as E. loves to spread it all over the flat)
   
   How to make it:
   Cut out the cardboard ring beforehand for your child. Let the kid paint the pasta green and let them dry. Glue them on the cardboard ring in a circle. Tie a bow (I tied it) and glue it on. You can hang it on a door with some more ribbon.
   
   In our case E. wasn't in the mood to finish the wreath after having finished with the painting. She started to paint her apron and hair, then it was time to stop.
   
   

   

   here still happily painting the pasta

   
   
   We'll get back to this project later on as the outcome is so sweet.
   
   Though we used a lot of English phrases:
   -This kind of pasta is called farfalle.
   - I have paint all over my hand.
   - Can I get some more paint?
   - I don't want to do it any more.
   
   ---o---o---o---o--- UPDATE---o---o---o---o--- coming soon---o---o---o---o---
   
   It should have turned out something like this... but better later than never...
   
2. Christmas dominoes + Santa patterning and reindeer puzzles with numbers (Day 8)

The domino was a great hit. We needed to play it 3 times and the next day when E. was with her Grandma, she showed the game to her and played it in Hungarian several times as well.

Source: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas-dominoes

If she hadn't been interested in the dominoes, I had a plan B this time. Finally, we did the plan B tasks as well since there was a lot of time before dinner.

Source: http://gyereketeto.hu/kiemelt/mikulas-minibook (Santa and reindeer puzzles)

Christmas tree puzzle (Day 9)As E. spent the afternoon with her Grandma, I didn't want to put great pressure on either of them so I'd just prepared all the previous tasks and this extra one. E. showed them all to her Grandma and played with them all afternoon... this time in Hungarian.

No photos have been taken but here is the source where you can find the Christmas tree puzzle (Part 1)

Sticker Christmas tree (Day 10)

I printed out a Christmas tree template from the internet and made some dark green and light green cardboard Christmas trees. St. Nicolas has brought E. loads of Chritsmassy and winter stickers (with owls, snowmen, snowflakes, Christmas trees, presents etc.) so I wanted her to use them in this activity.

She needed to decorate the Christmas trees but there was a tiny bit of educational twist. I wrote letters on the trees and she had to cover each with a sticker. She needed to use a sticker which started with the same letter (C - candy cane or Christmas tree, B - bell, S - star, snowflake, snowman, G - gingerbread man, A - angel, P - present etc.) The dark tree had letters corresponding Hungarian words and the light green trees the English ones. (We did this task in two or three rounds)

She enjoyed it soooo much, she was busy with it for 40-45 minutes each time. (Sometimes she asked for a letter so she could cover it with something special (H for holly, for instance).

As I made the same number of trees as we are in the family, Daddy and I helped out a bit. (Not as if she'd needed any, just for fun. It could be a great family activity.)

When she'd finished with all the trees, I stuck them up on a ribbon in a line and displayed it on her door frame. She likes it a lot. Mostly the little green bell at the bottom (you can't see it in the photo.)

Make a Christmas card for a friend (Straw Christmas tree) (Day 11)

Again I prepared everything for her beforehand. A A5 size construction paper (yellow) folded in half. Inside I wrote MERRY CHRISTMAS! (in capitals) and signed some spots with crosses where she could stick her stickers (we are in a sticker craze phase). I'd also cut up some straws (red and green) with different length so she can build a Christmas tree in the front (of course I provided her with some glue too.)

First, she stuck in the Christmas stickers.

Second, she traced the letters in Merry Christmas and signed the card.

Lastly, she built the Christmas tree on the front (She wanted to put a star on the top - "Can I get a star? I want to put it on top" so I gave her a golden felt one - this is what I could find.) She needed help with the straws as they were too thin for her little hands. But the final result was really nice. (Here is a very bad quality shot of the card. I had very little time to take photos as B. came earlier and we really needed to focus on finishing the card. But you can get the idea.)

Christmas ornaments: baubles filled with pompoms  (Day 12)

(present for the nursery teachers)

From last year I had two plastic baubles which can be taken apart. I gave E. some pompoms (red, yellow and green - some of them sparkly) and jingle bells (gold and silver). She needed to decide what colour combination she wished to fill the baubles with. It was also her choice which bauble would go to which nursery teacher. (The light/dark green is for R. and the red and yellow is for M.)

It's a real easy craft (the only thing I did at the end was fixing the bottom of the baubles with transparent cello-tape and tied a ribbon on it.) Even a 2 year old can do it. What's more, you can fill the bauble up with anything: beads, ribbons, nuts, fake snow, coloured rice, tiny Kinder egg objects, torn crepe paper etc. - you name it)

Christmassy pre-writing practice (Day 13)

As I have already mentioned I found a great Christmas pack for preschoolers (it has a version for toddlers too - see the source information bellow), which offers a great number of activities: puzzles, pre-writing activities, find the difference, memory games - just to name a few). So I printed some of the pages and used them separately, like these two types:
*Which one is different?
*Pre-writing sheets in Christmas style.

Source: http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/packs/christmas.php (part 1)

And also this Santa and stocking matching activity from gyereketeto.hu

Source: http://gyereketeto.hu/kiemelt/mikulas-minibook

I'll be back with some more activities hidden in our advent calendar.
Here's a teaser:

Advent Calendar Activities Days 1-6

This year we have two ways to prepare ourselves and wait for Christmas. I have already written a post about a Book Advent Calendar, and now I'll share with you the activities we'll be doing in the next couple of weeks week by week. Here are the first 6 days:

This Tchibo Advent Calendar that I managed to get a few years ago hides small presents and an activity card every day. Most of the time the cards are written in English so we can spend a little time doing something in the second language on a daily basis apart from the books we read.

Sometimes we have simple instructions in the calendar, like "Clean your boots and put them out in the window for St. Nicolas". Or we decorate our home together and the ornaments are in the calendar. (They often cannot fit in the pocket so I put them near the calendar and E. can find them easily) In these case, there are no crafts.

Here is the list of activities for Days 1-6:

1. Cardboard candy cane (Day 1)
   
   
   

   

   painting

   

   sticking the cotton wool

   
   
   

   

   on our door

   
   
   What I prepared beforehand:
   
   - 3 cardboard cut-outs
   - red paint
   - paintbrushes
   - glue
   - little cotton wool balls
   
   We painted the candy cane cardboards red and let them dry (on the radiator).
   
   We glued lines on the candy cane and stuck on the cotton wool to make it stripy. When we finished we displayed them on our door.
   
   
   
   Source: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/12/how-sweet-it-is.html
2. Decorating E.'s window with flashing snowflake ornaments (Day 2)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   On one of our Christmas shopping we bought 2 snowflakes that have little batteries and if you turn them on they have flashing led lights (I didn't realise the colours are red and blue - so they are a bit strange, but E. loved them at first sight anyway). You can attach them to the window with suction-cups.
   
   Every evening E. asks us to turn them on.
3. Write a letter to Santa + Santa counting cards with festive peg + hair bobbles and clip present (Day 3)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   First, she didn't want to write a letter to Santa (St. Nicolas) so played with the cards. She loved the tiny pegs with Santa, mittens and boots on them. She counted and clipped and counted and clipped. I made the printable myself, and you can download it at the end of the post.
   
   
   
4. Gingerbread dough making (with a recipe) (Day 4)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Last year I found a really good gingerbread recipe on bebeangol.hu. It's easy to make, smells wonderful, and stays soft.
   
   So on the 4 December (before the next day's gingerbread party) we prepared the dough with E. So many people were coming we needed to make two batches. E.'s enthusiasm lasted only for one.
   
   It was rather messy with lots of ingredients and measuring I couldn't take photos.
   
   Here is the recipe in English:
   Ingredients:
   For the dough:
   - 500 g white flour
   - 2 teaspoons of baking soda
   - grated zest of an orange (the colourful part of the peel)
   - grated zest of a lemon
   - 1 egg + 2 egg yolks
   - 2 tablespoons of freshly pressed orange
   - 130 g honey
   - 100 g butter
   - 150 g sugar (powder)
   - 1 tablespoon of gingerbread spice
   
   For the decoration (optional):
   - 1 or 2 egg's white
   - about 150 g sugar powder
   
   Preparation:
   
   Put the honey, butter and sugar into a pot and heat it up until they melt. Let them cool (on the balcony or in the window sill, while you are making the rest of the dough)
   
   Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, baking soda, gingerbread spice, grated lemon and orange zest, then add the whole egg and the two egg yolks. (Put the whites in the fridge, you can use it for the decoration). Mix in 2 tablespoonfuls of freshly pressed orange and finally the cool mixture of honey+butter+sugar. Mix them all together with a hand mixer (dough hooks on). In the very end I knead it a little to make it stick together.
   
   Wrap the dough in cling film and place it in the fridge for 6-8 hours. (The best is if you can prepare it the day before baking and the dough can rest the whole night in the fridge. If you're pushed for time, it is OK if it rests in the fridge only for a few hours. (I've tried it and it worked the same)
   
   When you're ready to bake, take the dough out and knead it a bit on a board covered with a thin layer of flour (also add flour to your rolling pin).
   
   Then roll the dough 3-4 mm thin and use your cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Put them on baking paper on a tray and bake them for 8-10 minutes in the oven that you've preheated at 180 Celsius degrees.
   
   Let it cool down and decorate it with the whisked mixture of sugar powder and egg whites (whisk them until they are hard and fill them in a plastic bag. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and push the white stuff out on your gingerbread) or with other decorations (nuts, almonds, sugar sprinkles, hearts or beads etc.) We always use the Dr. Oetker edible decorations.
5. Clean your boots and put them out in the window for St. Nicolas (Day 5)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   As in Hungary St. Nicolas (Santa) brings presents on the night of 5 December, children need to clean their boots and put them out in the window so St. Nicolas can fill them up with goodies and presents.
   
   
   And then in the morning (6 Dec):
   
   
   
   
   
   
6.  Santa craft from paper plate (Day 6)
   
   
   
   
   
   On the 6 December E.'s Godparents and God-sisters came to visit. So we did this advent activity together. They were more than happy to take part.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   (By the way, I saw this Santa paper plate craft activity on Pinterest but after some rethinking I changed it a bit.)
   
   You need:
   * paper plate
   * red construction paper/foam sheet
   * googly eyes
   * red pompom
   * white cosmetic cotton wool balls
   * scissors
   * glue
   
   What you need to do:
   
   I prepared the hats out of the red cardboard in advance and drew a line on the top of the paper plate where the kids could cut along.
   
   First, stick on the hat, then add the googly eyes, the pompom nose. You can use any kind of glue you have at home. For smaller kids (about age 2 or younger) you can pre-draw the places of the eyes and nose and mouth).
   
   Next, with a crayon or marker you can draw the mouth.
   
   To finish with, you can add the cotton balls on the tip of the hat and along the head line. If you have a lot of cotton balls the sticking can go on the beard too.
   
   There was an extra special activity with Daddy at bath time: tea lights were lit and placed around the bathroom and the tub and they were blowing bubbles while bathing. It was so much fun... unfortunately I couldn't take photos in the dark and I preferred to watch how they enjoyed the bath :)

More activities are to come!

Thanksgiving with turkeys

At this time of the year we have real difficulties preparing for all the festivals and celebrations we have:

• Thanksgiving (26th Nov)
• Daddy's birthday (28th Nov)
• the beginning of Advent (29th Nov)
• St. Nicolas Day (or Santa Day - 5th Dec)

Not to mention that illnesses were on and off all month, three in a row. There haven't been 3 consecutive days when everybody in the family was perfectly healthy.

Still, we managed to do a little bit of fun for Thanksgiving.
Of course, it was mainly about turkeys :)

I made this home-made salt dough: 

1 cup salt

1 cup hot water

2 cups flour

1 or 2 tbs cocoa powder (to make it brown)

Mix them all. I kneaded the dough with my hand but you can use a mixer. If you choose to knead it wait a little until the hot water cools down. Then I put it in a plastic container and next to the fridge for a short while (1-2 hours)

When ready, I prepared this for E.:

On the tray I prepared coloured feathers, orange foam triangles for the beak, googly eyes, red (water drop shaped) foam for the wattle (the red skin hanging down from the beak of the turkey along its neck - "bőrlebernyeg" in Hungarian). In the middle there was the brown salt dough.

We made balls out of the dough to make the body and the head. First, we kneaded the dough and then with rolling movement we formed them into balls. These movements are really useful to strengthen the muscles in a child's hand.

Googly eyes: a girl and a boy

Placing the wattle

Then E. made two turkeys and me too. We fixed the beak and eyes as well as the wattle, after all this she stuck the tail feathers in.

We practised saying the colours, the different parts of the turkey, like feather, beak, head and body or this new word (even for me): wattle. We used expressions like roll the dough, knead the dough, stick it in etc. We also talked a little bit about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, why we have a feast at this time of the year.

I found another great turkey activity online. Turkey feather counting mats. You can use these either as play dough mats (so you can use coloured play dough to make the feathers) or with real feathers. E. was so into these colourful feathers we used them again. 

Finally, we had a Thanksgiving feast (quite a moderate one). My Mum stayed for dinner too (also help with preparing some turkey breast roast and pumpkins) and we all said what we are thankful for in our lives.

And what is E. thankful for?

- I'm thankful for my parents, my Godparents and my toys and others... the good meats and my friends in the nursery.

I'm thankful for my wonderful daughter and my family.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

If you wish to listen to some Thanksgiving videos on youtube, or prepare a tree of gratitude, just click on the pic below:

If you haven't had enough of thanksgiving, here are some more crafts: