Esteem Theme of the Week: Unique

 

Here's our first (self) esteem theme of the week. 

The idea -  to focus on a chosen theme word for the week - any word relating to "character".

I add a Bible verse, which we memorise, and we talk about the meaning of the chosen word. We also add a fun activity or activities to help us remember the word (and the verse).

This not only teaches my boys a great new word, but hopefully makes them realise how important it is to be aware of it in their own lives. In that sense, it becomes an esteem builder. And of course, by memorising Bible verses, we put God's word into our hearts and we make it part of who we are. I want that for my boys.  

Our word this week: Unique

(one of a kind; different to everyone/everything  else)

Our verse: Psalm: 139.14

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well."

Now what do aliens have to do with an esteem theme? Well, it is a fun way to drive home the concept. Little One has certainly remembered the word and loved the idea of "Unique Aliens" :) 

It's a very easy craft: 
You need polystyrene cups (from the Supermarket); balls (found at PNA); pom poms; pipe cleaners; and googly eyes.  We used toothpicks to attach the balls to the cups and then added the embellishments. And most importantly,  each one had to be unique, of course.

As we progress, I'll share more themes and activities. Let me know if you like the idea. I always love hearing from you.

Till next time...

PS. Shared at For The Kids Friday and The Sunday Showcase. 

Happy "I love you" Day

Valentine's day has come and gone and as much as I wanted to post this yesterday  - on the actual day -  real life often gets in the way of blogging :).

Many times I have great intentions that don't materialise - you too? - like sending Valentine's cards or giving Valentine's favours to our loved ones. Yesterday I sent some flowers and a Valentine's card to two important ladies in Little One's life...his teacher and the class assistant. It was such a good feeling to GIVE and to say THANK YOU. I lay in bed last night thinking, that if I had done that for every important lady in his life (excluding me) I would have had to buy a whole lot more flowers and we would have had to make many more cards. Isn't it such a blessing to have people around us that help us to love and to raise our children. I am grateful! 

Anyday can be "I love you" day ...who might you spoil today?

PS. Card via the super Allison from No Time For Flash Cards

Air Show

A nice way to spend an afternoon is to have your own "Air Show".  The boys (well Big One really) made a whole fleet of aeroplanes and they put on an Air Show for me and the Dad. We then had to rate each plane, based on design, flight etc. The winner was surprisingly this strange round-shaped plane...

Want to see a real Air Show? Last year August we took a visit to the Stellenbosch Flying Club,  where we watched small aeroplanes taking off and landing in the most beautiful setting. With snow-capped mountains in the far distance, we listened to air traffic control and had a yummy meal while doing it. It was  a super way to spend an afternoon.

 

Then more recently we took our US cousins to the airport (Cape Town International) and we spent the morning watching the aeroplanes arrive and depart - exciting stuff! I can highly recommend both of these outings if you have some aeroplane fans in your home.

Cool dude Little One watching an aeroplane being refueled.

Till next time...

2013 - Here we go!

Happy New year to all my readers! Belated I know, but January must be one of the busiest months of the year in my home - yours too? New Year and school holiday activities, then preparation for Back to School, followed by Big One's birthday (on the first day of School!), and Back to Work for me. So as you can tell, it's been pretty darn hair-raising over here :). To add to all that, Little One started at a new School this year. So that's my catch-up news and now onto a new year of Love and Lollipops. I hope you'll stay reading and join me on this happy ride.

To start the year off...remember Adam's Art Spot? I haven't posted one of these for awhile, so here's one of Adam's (a.k.a. Big One) holiday activities. Created and thought out by him.

Instructions:

Take some recycled cardboard and stick white paper to it. Draw some fun men or characters onto the paper and cut them out. Then take a paper clip and stick it to the back of the pictures. You then need attach some string to something high, like a curtain rail or a lamp on a shelf, and attach the other end to a lower item, like a toy basket, creating a zip-line. Now place your paper-clipped character onto the string and watch him zip all the way down.

 

Have fun! 

PS. Linking this to For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

Christmas Crafting

 

In the past few months my private practice has taken up more of my time and I worked far into December. It meant not having so much Christmas crafting time, but we did manage to sneak in some fun before the big day. 

At the top - our Christmas cards. These were printed with acrylic paint onto white cardboard. We used a round pencil eraser to make the red dots; an edge of corrugated cardboard to print the stars; and, a spaceship sponge - a modern take on a starry theme. 

This was our version of gingerbread houses - tennis biscuit houses :). They were pretty easy to put together. You need tennis biscuits, lots of icing and some sweeties to decorate. Next year, maybe I'll have a go at making actual gingerbread.

Homemade Christmas gift tags made by Big One. Every gift had a personalised tag.

Homemade wrapping paper by Big One.

This year Little One made this awesome handprint tree at School - all the children made one and it served as a forest - the backdrop in their small Christmas production. I decided to turn it into a ten day countdown tree to Christmas. Each day we decorated the tree with a sparkly pom pom and on Christmas day we added a star to the top. 

And lastly...a Christmas Elf made from a Lipton Tea Box. We spent the afternoon creating with some friends - it's become a lovely Christmas tradition. The idea was to create gift boxes from the tea boxes and this was Big One's creation. 

I hope you enjoyed these. See you back here in 2013! 

Christmas Moments

  Wishing all my readers a truly blessed and beautiful festive season. Isn't Christ's birthday such a special time? It truly is my favourite time of the year - hot weather and all.

Christmas came with a wag and a woof! Surely the highlight of this December was introducing a Jack Russell puppy to our family.

 Don't you love the second little puppy - he's as cute as the real one don't you think?

It's so much fun receiving a parcel in the post, but extra special at Christmas time. A beautifully packaged parcel arrived all the way from Indiana - Thank You so much Katherine! Our friendship is a true testimony to the wonderfulness of blogging :). I also got to taste Peeps for the first time - oooh they are yummy.

I promised to post some more "Teddy on the Shelf" photos on Facebook and I didn't post any - my apologies. To make up for it, I'm sharing some more here with you.

You may recall in the last post that Little One wasn't too fond of our mischievous teddy Nicholas. That changed a bit when he came bearing some gifts.

Sometimes he just sat around.  

 

Other times he was quite busy being carried around. He even went on a outing with us. He went missing for a few days and we thought that he may have got lost, but, thankfully, he had just found his way into the washing basket :).

Drinking Little One's favourite juice. 

His favourite book "the three bears" ...who would have thought ;).  

Next year I'm sure the children will be very excited when he comes out of the Christmas box - it was so much fun starting this new tradition. 

It also really made me smile to find these. 

Spontaneous Christmassy play. 

Top pic: Big One

Bottom pic: Little One 

When I asked Little One why the blue gift was on top of the tree and not next to it, he told me that "Mr Bean" put it there. Gotta love how they think.

On Christmas Eve we got SPARKLY. One of Little One's favourite things about this Christmas I think.  

And we played with gifts of course. Big One's best gift this year -the Perplexus Maze Puzzle .

He removed the gift wrap and started playing with it while it was still in it's box - Addictive! 

Next post will be the little bit of crafting we got up to. This season always goes by too quickly for me. 

Till next time...

Teddy on the Shelf

Have you heard about or seen the elf on the shelf  ideas all over the web? I saw the little elf for the first time last year and think it's a really sweet idea - having a mysterious little elf arrive in your home and him getting up to all sorts of antics while the children are asleep. And he is really cute.

Anyway, we had an old Santa toy that broke last year - you know, those NOISY, dancing Santa dolls - I'm thinking that maybe it was broken on purpose by the Dad person - hehehe. Well, I couldn't let a good Santa suit be thrown away, so I found myself dressing up one of Little One's teddies in it. That's when the idea of a Teddy on the Shelf came to mind - our cute substitute. 

 

 

Our little teddy was named "Nicholas" by Big One and has been getting up to all sorts of mischief. Little One has had me giggling - he has really not been impressed with this teddy. He has told me that he will "kick him out of the house" (harsh words from a four year old!) and I have found Nicholas "locked up" in a cardboard box - apparently this was him in jail. It appears that there are some serious consequences for getting up to mischief in our house :). 

 
To see lots of elf on the shelf ideas and fun...here are a few links:

lilsugar

Complicated Mama

SheKnows Parenting 

Till next time. 

Christmas Treasure Hunt

Usually in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I have a few small surprises for the children. Last year one of them was a Christmas Treasure Hunt to look for some small gifts in the garden. I ran out of time to write about it, so I thought to share it with you this year.

I found these wonderful Christmas cones over at Mr Printables and used them to create a fun and fairly simple treasure hunt. Little One was only three and a bit at the time, so it had to be easy to follow. The kiddos loved it.

First up was a boy cone, who had a note saying:
Find a tree
Find a tree
Hee hee hee

Next up, a Christmas tree, with a note saying:
Where can Rudolf be?

Rudolf has a note too:
The Easter Bunny is here!
Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear

I decided to call the snow bunny, the Easter bunny, to get a few smiles. His note said:
I love Christmas, 
I can't help myself.
Such yummy treats.
Now can you find an elf? 

The elf's note says:
Santa's got a surprise for you!
Just find him. 
That's all you need to do.

Santa has the gifts and a note saying:
Ho Ho Ho
Way to go! 

This was so easy to put together. If you click on the Mr Printable's link above, it takes you to the post where you can download and print out these cuties. Simply cut them out and stick them together. If you don't know the Mr Printables website, well then, consider this information a small Christmas gift from me to you ;). It is a wonderful site, full of incredible freebies to print out. Have fun!

What Christmas surprises do you get up to during the festive season?

Christmas Crafts @ Love and Lollipops

I love this time of the year, don't you? So on the eve of December 1st (YAY!), I thought I'd dig into the archives and share these with you. Just to get you in the mood ;).

Milk Bottle Santas

Imagine a Santa Ten Pin bowling game with these...

Christmas Cards

It sure is special receiving a homemade Christmas Card. I didn't last year, but I really do want to make some this year.

Bottle Top Snowmen 

Have some fun making bottle top snow people.

Teddy Bear Ornament

Make a teddy bear ornament from two pipe cleaners. I have included a nice tutorial in the post. 

Coffee Filter Christmas Trees

Pretty for some Christmas art work or cards. 

Christmas Tree (Tennis) Biscuits

Easy to make and yummy to eat...mmm

Sock Snowmen

These make for sweet little gifts that the children can make for their friends.

Matchbox Advent Calender

You have one night left to make this :)

A Christmas Sensory Box 

A sensory box filled with Christmassy goodness. 

Christmas Eye-Spy Bottle

I never posted about the bottle seen here, but if you go to the link, I share how I made another Eye-Spy Bottle. This is great fun for the really little ones.

Little Town of Bethlehem Craft (from toilet rolls!)

My favourite Christmas craft of all...this precious little town of Bethlehem. I love how this one turned out...who would have thought that toilet rolls could be turned into something so special?

Have fun preparing for the BIG DAY, but remember it's a season...Enjoy it all :)