A Verry Merry Christmas Book Flood to You!

A (age 14) saw a post, with the picture below attached, from one of her friends on Facebook.  Naturally, as an enthusiastic bibliophile, she thought it sounded like a great tradition.

Our Christmas Eves are already tradition-laden, but I thought maybe a fun compromise might be to make a Christmas book run part of our week before Christmas tradition.  So, yesterday, I loaded up the gang (minus T who was working, and who is already buried under a pile of books for his college reading) into the minivan, and headed to the bookstore.

Instead of buying books for each other, each of us picked a book ourselves, with the goal in mind of finding something that might keep us busy reading through the week, until Christmas Day.

A (age14) had no trouble finding a cozy mystery to curl up with (I really wanter her to get Wuthering Heights, but she wasn't sure she was ready to commit to another classic, just yet).  The younger children (ages 9-12) opted for short Minecraft handbooks and modding manuals.  G (age 16), who does not share her sister's love of books, finally snatched a You-tuber's book off the shelf, after getting tired of the rest of us, with our books in hand, following her around the store, asking if she had found anything yet.

As I mentioned, T(age 18) has more than enough required reading to keep him busy for the week...month...year, but we did snatch a copy of the next book he needs to read for his health class, for him.

And, I picked up a copy of The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel, which I think the Man of the House might also read, while I'm busy finishing up my latest Kindle book acquisition...

...purchased after the boys came back from the movie with positive reviews, and enough spoilers, that I decided I might as well read it for myself.

Anyway, with books in hand, we hit the coffee shop for some hot drinks, and Christmas goodies (because of course, we don't have enough of those at home already), before heading home for an afternoon of quiet reading.  The younger children were done with their short books before the day was out, but can exchange with each other for another couple of afternoon's of reading, and the rest of us will be quite happily ensconced in our stories for the rest of the week, at least.

All in all, it was a very nice beginning to what we hope will become a new tradition for our family.

Thanks Iceland!  And a very merry Christmas book flood to you!

16 Christmas Chapter Books from our Favorite Young Reader's Series

Besides printing out Christmas themed math and spelling sheets for the younger girls (ages 9 and 11) to work through, I've also been raiding our bookshelves and Kindle library for a few Christmas themed, quick reads from our favorite chapter book series.  Some of the books are from series the girls are currently reading through.  Several are from series they've already outgrown, but don't mind revisiting for a holiday adventure.

From David Adler's Cam Jansen series:

From Megan Mcdonald's Judy Moody & Stink series:

 From Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series:

and

 From Jeff Brown's Flat Stanley series:

From James Preller's Jigsaw Jones Mystery series:

and

From Carolyn Keene's The Nancy Drew Notebooks series:

From Barbara Park's junie b. jones series:

From Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries:

From the Geronimo Stilton:

and

and

From Marjorie (Weinman) and Craig Sharmat's Nate the Great series: 

 From Elspeth Campbell Murphy's Three Cousins Detective Club series:

I hadn't really realized how many of our beginning chapter books were from mystery series.

17 Christmas Science Projects from Almost Unshoolers' Christmases Past

I was going to link-up 17, or so, Christmas science projects from around the Web, that we might do between now and Christmas.  Then I realized, there are quite a few right here I (and hopefully the children) wouldn't mind giving a second try.

So, from the Almost Unschooling archives, why not:

1. Build a Christmas Gnome-Bot.

2. Host a Christmas Tea (and learn about pH indicators).

3. Speaking of pH, how about making a packet of Poinsettia pH indicator paper?

4. Or, if you don't want to tear up your centerpiece - cranberries make pretty good pH indicators, too.

5. If you're paying attention you've probably realized that any natural red makes for a good pH indicator (because of the anthocyanin), which at Christmas (at least around here) means pomegranates, as well.

6. Engineer a toothpick and gumdrop "tree".

7. Make reindeer fly with static electricity.

8. Diffract Christmas lights with a feather.

9. Refract and reflect Christmas lights through water.

10. Add Christmas lights to electric play dough.

11. Identify a Christmas tree.

12. Experiment with Christmas candy - melting and expanding marshmallow Santas.

13. Experiment with Christmas Candy - Seizing the Chocolate.

14. Experiment with Christmas Candy - Blooming Chocolate.

15. Craft Christmas-themed Convection Spinners.

16. Simple Snow Science - find out how much water your snow holds (assuming you have snow).

17. And if you do have snow, don't forget to go outside and take a look at who's been walking through your yard.

Do you have a favorite Christmas science experiment?  Link it up in the comments - we're always looking for interesting ways to add learning to our Christmas fun.

18 Nativity Scene - Craft Templates, Patterns, Tutorials, and Ideas.

Because...

....you can never have too many Nativity scenes, right?

1. Perler Bead Nativity - pattern

2. Origami Nativity - video instructions for folding Joseph, Mary, and the Baby in the manger.

3. Gingerbread Nativity Creche - video instructions for decorating a gingerbread nativity scene from Martha Stewart.  Includes a recipe for gingerbread, but I do not see a link to a template for cutting out the pieces.

4. Gingerbread Nativity - tutorial and template from Elaine's Sweet Life.

5. Crochet Nativity Figures or Finger Puppets - this is a link to the free pattern for the shepherds from 6ichthusfish, but she has the entire set of patterns in a series of posts around this one - fantastic!

6. Toilet Paper Tube Nativity - A print, color, and glue download from Catholic Icing.

7. Paper Nativity Scene - Print, fold, and color (if you like) template from Made by Joel.

8. Another Paper Nativity Scene - Printable template from ScrapbookScrapbook.

9. Candy Nativity Scene - Instructions from Aok Corral.

10. Cinnamon Stick Nativity Scene Ornament - tutorial from Adventures in Frugalness.

11. Watercolor + Cardboard + Clothespin Nativity Craft and Play Set - I don't see a tutorial or template, but this one is pretty simple, self-explanatory, and adorable.

12. Craft Stick Nativity - would make a good Sunday school craft.

13. Matchbox Advent Calendar/Activity - a printable template for what might be my favorite Advent Calendar Nativity set, ever!

14. Polymer Clay Nativity Scene - excellent step by step tutorial for each figure from Then She Made (this link takes you to Joseph).

15. A Snow Nativity - instructions and tips (if you have snow).

16. Pom-pom Nativity - instructions for making animals from pom-poms and mini-clothes pins, to go with a cardboard stable (with pattern) and pipe cleaner figures.

17. Painted Rock Nativity - cute idea and tutorial from The Deliberate Mom.

18. Coke Can Nativity - points for creativity.

I can hardly decide which one to make first!

19 Free Christmas Themed Spelling Worksheets and Games

Game from TeacherspayTeachers

It has been so nice to have all the Christmas themed math pages linked and ready for printing, I thought maybe I'd line up a list of Christmas spelling links, too.  It happens that there are plenty out there.  I'd only visited four different websites when I realized I'd found more than enough free spelling worksheets to easily keep the girls busy from now through Christmas.

The links below are aimed at 3rd-6th grade spellers.  All the worksheets and games are currently free, but you do need to log in to access the Teachers pay Teachers and education.com printables.

1. Holiday Word Challenge - Use the letters from "Winter Holidays" to solve a series of riddles from Teachers pay Teachers.

2-5. Christmas Word Puzzles - Two word searches, a Christmas crossword, and a word scramble from Teachers pay Teachers.

6. Ho Ho Ho Homophone Game - A challenging board game for practicing proper word usage from Teachers pay Teachers.

7. Christmas Crossword - from education.com.

8. Christmas Word Scramble - from education.com

9. Christmas Nativity Crossword - from education.com

10. Christmas Letter Tiles - Cut out and rearrange letters tiles to spell the names of Santa's reindeer, from Classroom Jr.

11. Santa Word Search - from Classroom Jr.

12-14.  Christmas Mad Libs - Three mad libs from Classroom Jr.

15. Winter Words Cryptogram - from Classroom Jr.

16 - 18. Christmas Word Ladder - spelling puzzles from Classroom Jr.

19 (and 20).  Christmas Crossword and Word Search that can be printed or played online at ABCya!

20 Gingerbread House Templates

I was busy tonight, baking and assembling a batch of mini gingerbread houses (using the template from from Not Martha, for her mini-fit-on-a-mug houses) for my younger three to decorate with friends, tomorrow.

 I usually make a standard chalet type gingerbread house later in December, for a Christmas Eve treat, as well. 

I've had the template for that house printed out and clipped into the front of my cookbook for so long, I'd have almost forgotten were it came from (if I hadn't linked it in a post a few years back).  This year, I'm thinking I might mix it up a bit, and try something new.  There are so many creative (and free) templates to choose from:

1. A standard, straight forward house template with instructions from King Arthur Flour.

2. A dinky Swedish style house template with gingerbread recipe, and instructions from BBC Good Food. 

3. Written directions for making your own template for a standard gingerbread house, with a cute little entry porch from Food Network.

4. Printable templates for small and large A-frame houses with a recipe for gingerbread from Tikkido.

5. A gingerbread Tipi template - this is one I've got to try!  It only has one piece repeated 6 times.

6. Gingerbread Tardis (for Dr. Who fans).

7. And, another Tardis.

8.  A gingerbread lighthouse template from Coastal Living.

9. Super mini gingerbread house pops template, and instructions.

10. A Moomin house (I had to Google Moomins - it's a cartoon, and the house looks about right).

11. A Menger Sponge Fractal Ginger Bread House - I absolutely love this one.

12. Gingerbread Eifel Tower - borrowing a simple template and using some very clever icing work.

13. A modern (mid-century ranch?) gingerbread house template.

14. A Sea Ranch-inspired gingerbread house (template is linked at the bottom of the page) for the architect in the family.

15. A simple, thatched gingerbread house from Canadian Living.

16 - 20. Instructions and templates for a one-room, Victorian, and log house, as well as a country store, and chapel from Celebrating Christmas.

Now my only problem is trying to decide which one to pick for Christmas Eve, and hoping the empty shelf space where the molasses was supposed to be, will be filled, by the next time I make it to the grocery store.

22 Christmas Themed Group Games

T (age 18) needed a game idea to take to a college and career Christmas party, tonight.  After he searched one out, and gathered up his supplies, I thought it might not be a bad idea to have a list of quick and easy, Christmas themed games at our fingertips.

In keeping with the Christmas countdown I seem to have fallen into this Christmas, I found enough games to last us from now until Christmas Day.


1. Christmas Rollick (Reverse Charades)

2. Tiny Prints has 30 well explained, simple, but fun Christmas games (my favorite is "Candy Canes" like "Spoons" but with candy canes - rules included on the site).

3. Printable Nativity Quiz - test your knowledge of what's really in the Bible story.

4. Printable Christmas Carol Quiz from LifeWay.com. Can you guess the carols from the synonym laden clues?

5. Online Christmas Songs Picture Game - guess the songs represented by the pictures, answers embedded in the graphics.

6. Christmas Oven-Mitt Game - Needs several sets of Christmas oven mitts, and a couple of bags of Christmas themed Hershey Kisses.

7. Christmas Tangrams - a free printable (take a look at these animated tangram Christmas cards from PVillage, too - they are so cool!)

8. "Night Before Christmas" MadLib.

9.  Printable Christmas themed Family Feud style questions and answers (so much fun!)

10.  Another version of Christmas Family Feud - with a link to instructions for how to play the game.

11. Now that you've got the hang of it, here's one more version of Christmas Family Feud.

12. Online Game of Christmas themed Jeopardy.

13. Quia also has a version of Christmas Jeopardy.

14. Holiday Tunes game from Better Homes and Gardens - for four or more players.

15. Printable Christmas Bingo.

16.  Good House Keeping suggests Going on a Candy Cane Hunt.

17. Silver Bells Memory Game, using Hershey Kisses - another one from Good House Keeping.

18. Christmas with the Right Family - needs a small gift for each player.

19. Alphabet Bags (needs a little prep)

20. Candy Canes and Icicles - a free printable version of Chutes and Ladders from Itsy Bitsy Fun.

21. Printable word list for Christmas Pictionary

22. Printable list of Christmas themed activities to act out for a game of Christmas Charades.

23 Free Christmas Multiplication Worksheets and Printable or Online Games

While we're on Christmas "break" I thought it might be a good time to have my youngest two work on speeding up their multiplication facts. They both know them, but could be a lot faster at bringing up the answers.

We could drill the facts - but I always hated drills in school.  Since they know their times tables, but are just a little slow pulling up answers, I thought a quick (Christmas themed) daily review might do the trick.

I've been trying to have a worksheet or game printed out for the girls each morning, but its been tricky.  There are a lot of Christmas themed multiplication worksheets in the Google search, but not all the links lead to free worksheets, or multiplication worksheets, and some lead to...well...places I don't want to go.

Rather than battle it out each day, I took some time this afternoon to seek out and find enough free worksheets, and games (printable and playable online) to last from now until Christmas.  Many of them are freebies from Teachers pay Teachers.  They may not stay free forever, but once they're downloaded, they're yours.  I didn't run into any problems with any of the sites linked below, they all seem to be what they promise.

1. Math Mystery Multiplication - a multiply and color by answer sheet from teach-nology.com (double digit by single digit).

2. Math Salamander's Christmas Codebreaker - single digit multiplication, solve problems to decode message.

3. Polar Bear Multiply and Color - very simple, single digit from Classroom Jr.

4. Christmas Bunny Multiply and Color - multiply by 5's from Classroom Jr.

5. Mitten Math - match and color problems and answers, multiplying by 10.

6. Color by Number find the Missing Factor - a Christmas tree worksheet.

7. Santa Claus Mystery Picture - single digit, fill-in-the-graph.

8. Christmas Multiply - a free printable game from Teachers pay Teachers (you have to log-in to download freebie), a game from 2 players, needs counters to cover numbers.

9. Online Game - Holiday Fun, practice number facts, and decorate a gingerbread house.

10. Online Game - Merry Christmas Math Facts from ABCya. Choose a level, answer multiplication problems, and earn lights to decorate a house.

11. Online Game - Holiday Puzzle Pics - drag and drop puzzle pieces onto the correct answer spots to solve puzzle.

12. Online Game - Christmas Math Facts from A Kid's Heart - practice multiplication facts and uncover a Christmas puzzle.

13. Gingerbread Bump - a free printable game from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download) a game for 2 or more players, needs counters to cover numbers, and 2 dice.

14. Peppermint Products - a free printable game from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download)  a game for 2 or 3 players, needs counters to cover numbers.

15. Santa's Coal - a free printable card game from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download) a game for 3-4 players.  You might want to laminate the cards.

16. Christmas Math Mystery Picture - Christmas Owl - a free, multiply and fill in the graph printable from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download).

17. Christmas Tree Fact Triangles - from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download)

18.  Multiples Light Up the Tree - free printable game for 2-3 players from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download), requires three different colored crayons or colored pencils, a metal fastener, and a paper clip to make a spinner.

19. Christmas Mystery Picture - Mario, multiply and fill in the graph to reveal picture, from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download).

20. Christmas Find a Line - A free print and play game from Teachers pay Teachers (you need to log-in to download).

21-23. Multiplication Trees - multiple free worksheets from Itsy Bitsy Fun.

25 Christmas Brain Teasers

Puzzle from teachersnotebook.com

I'm hoping to have a daily Christmas themed logic problem/ math riddle/brain teaser up on our chalkboard from now until Christmas, with candy treats waiting in one of our fill-yourself advent calendars for anyone who solves the problem.

I searched out 25, or so, quick to write out puzzles (and mostly easy enough for the younger children to join in), and linked them below.  I'll be mixing them up, to keep a good variety going, but now it's just a matter of click and copy out - barring any broken links, of course. 

1 - 4. Triangle Tree Totals
5.  "C" "H" "R" "I" "S" "T" "M" "A" "S" Brain Basher
6.  Best Friends Gift Exchange - A short logic problem.
7. Christmas Chess - Spelling and Logic
8. Reindeer Order - Logic Problem
9 - 20. Christmas Anagrams
21. Decipher Christmas Carols
22. Christmas Carol Fill in the Blank - Missing Words
23. Christmas Carol Cryptogram.
24 - 25 Christmas Word Sudoku

Hopefully, the kids will take me up on the challenge, and we'll be keeping our minds active and challenged all the way to Christmas day.