Christmas paper chain

I remember making these paper chains when I was a kid. I also remember how I would tear off one chain link each day, counting each link that was left and excited about Christmas getting closer and closer, until the very last one was left on Christmas. And I always marveled over how they were the exact number of links that led right up to Christmas Day. Silly me, it never occurred to me that my teacher just made sure we used enough links for it to last until then.

Recently, we saw the movie Jingle All The Way, and in the movie, there was a Christmas paper chain hanging on the wall, which we must assume was made by the young character, Jamie. The chain in the movie had a lot of links on it and I thought that was odd since the movie starts two days before Christmas. I guess they were not using it as a “countdown chain.”

The kids didn’t make these chains at school, so I thought it would be nice to include this activity for them to do while they are on Winter Break. Of course, it’s too late for it to work as a “countdown chain,” but when Jennifer had heard about this idea, she was really insistent that we do this. They had fun tracing lines along the ruler to create the strips on the colored paper (I cut the strips out), and it was a challenge for them to glue together the links to keep each link perfectly round and fit together to form a chain. In the end, they were happy with their creation and Jesse was so proud of himself for gluing almost every single one of his links together.

Today’s Christmas movie is The Santa Clause.

Here are the kids with their chains:

Paper Christmas trees

The kids are really enjoying their “time off” from school – and a school schedule! I am also enjoying the chance to sleep in this week. I am still getting up early in order to get things done, but not at 5 a.m. like I usually do during a school week. Ahhh, no more waking up and making my way through the bedroom in the dark! The kids are enjoying getting their extra sleep, too, and being able to eat cookies or ice cream at night. Plus, they get to stay up past their normal bedtime. I reminded them they’ll be going back on schedule next week to get ready for when school starts again, so they are enjoying this fun while they still can!

And while I have been lax on some rules this week, I won’t go easy on all of them. Everybody still has to take their baths, brush their teeth and comb their hair!

Today the kids decorated a paper tree. I thought they were going to go all-out with the decorating – using glitter, string, etc. – but it seems they were content to just use crayons. The one on the right is Jesse’s tree. Jennifer decided to turn hers into an ornament.

Today’s Christmas movie: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The schedule

This week, we started a new "summer schedule" for Jennifer. Basically, it's a "back-up plan" to beat the summer vacation boredom that can likely ensue when there are not a whole lot of activities planned. And it's also my way to prevent Jennifer from spending her entire summer vacation lazing around the house doing nothing fun or educational and watching TV all the time. Things on the schedule include activities like playtime, cleaning up around the house, reading a book (or being read to), going for a walk, visiting the park, etc. It also includes a daily "special activity."

The special activity is assigned according to what day of the week it is. These are the special activities for the week:

Monday: Craft project
Tuesday: Talent show
Wednesday: Nature walk
Thursday: Science project
Friday: Write Something Day!
Saturday: Go on an outing
Sunday: Cooking day

I know you can't exactly "plan" fun, but Jen sometimes has a hard time figuring out what she wants to do. I have definitely had one or two occasions in which she'll get frustrated and say, "I'm bored!" So having the schedule is definitely a great way to beat the boredom. In fact, she keeps going on about how much she loves the schedule because it sort of helps give her a sense of direction on what to do with her day. While it has been great for her to have new and fun summer-y experiences, it hasn't been so great for me. A lot of these things include me participating with the kids, which eats into my time to do housework and the writing. I am still managing to squeeze those tasks in somewhere or another. Still, the laundry ended up piling up this week, the trash can was overflowing and the floor in the living room hasn't been vacuumed for 3 days! (I am hoping I will be able to vacuum later tonight.) I have managed to get some housework done, though; dishes, beds made, floors swept and mopped, toys picked up, etc.

All the same, we've been having a great time using the schedule. We are not on track with it yet, much to Jen's chagrin. But I told her it takes time to get used to any schedule. We also have to work activities around Jesse's naptimes.

This week we went on a nature walk and it was just awesome. We enjoyed looking at the many gardens, and especially liked seeing a pumpkin patch in somebody's front yard! Jen collected a lot of leaves, rocks, pinecones and sticks that she thought were all interesting.

When we walked to the park, a funny thing happened. There was this yellow squiggly-shaped pipe on the street next to a curb. But when I saw it, my first thought was that it was a snake! I jumped then grabbed Jen and pulled her away, freaking out and going, "Aah! Snake!" I swear, it looked so much like a snake. But Jennifer laughed and said, "That's not a snake!" I almost fainted when she bent over to pick it up. It was then I noticed it was a pipe! LOL How embarrassing. A guy passing by who saw the whole thing was laughing about it, too. At the park, I took pictures of the kids playing and also of Jen playing in the sprinklers. You can't have summer without playing in the sprinklers!



For her science project, the theme this week was space. I picked space to celebrate the launch of Endeavor which FINALLY happened on Wednesday (after so many delays) and also because it is almost the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon. Yay!! I love things that have to do with outer space (part of why I love Star Trek and sci-fi so much) and my dream house even has an observatory in it. (I have actually drawn out what my dream house looks like!) So for a science project, Jennifer made a space shuttle and a rocket. Originally, she was just gonna make the shuttle, but decided to go ahead and make the rocket, too. I helped her make the shuttle and she made the rocket all by herself. Woot! They are not perfect, but, hey, she's 7. You can see them here. Afterwards, I found a site on the 'Net where she could learn about rockets. What they look like, how they're made and what everything in a rocket does. I was amazed she was able to read the word "Oxidizer." Woot, go Jen!

Today, Jen had to write something. Previously, I made a list of writing prompts so she could have an idea of what to write. You can view that list here. She's usually gung-ho with the writing stuff. It's like she is always writing something! (And crafting something or drawing something...) But, today, she had a serious case of writer's block. Oh, no! She didn't want to write ANYTHING on that list. As she kept refusing every idea, I started to wonder if she was struck with perfectionist syndrome (which is what I am known to fall prey to quite often; EVERYTHING I write just HAS to be perfect on the first go). But as I talked with her more about what to write and why she didn't want to write some things, I learned she was just shy. She said it was embarrassing to write about those things. I assured her she could trust me with whatever she wrote. I promised not to laugh or tell anybody about it or point out any mistakes. (Though I DID have to stop her in the act of plagiarism. Yikes! I am going to have to have a kid-friendly talk with her about plagiarism.) After the talk, she wrote about her favorite color. When I read it, I gave her high praises, a high five and mondo congrats for writing something awesome. She beat her writer's block! Yay!

Tomorrow, we're planning to go out to the park and fly a kite. That is, if we get some windy weather. If not, we'll go on some other outing. And on Sunday, we're baking brownies together. Yum. Should be fun!



LATER: You know what? I'm not going to get all worked up over not being able to stay on top of getting ALL of the housework done every day, or every week. I have realized that my kids are not going to stay young forever. Time flies by so fast and, before I know it, they'll be teenagers wanting to spend ALL of their time with their friends instead of with Mom or Dad. I am going to enjoy this summer fun with them. I'll get caught up on the housework eventually. That housework will always be here, but they sure won't. And I don't want Jennifer to go back to school saying, "My mom spent the summer cleaning the house while I did stuff by myself." At least we ALL get some of the housework done every day. And that should be enough, for now!