20 Advent ideas: simple ways to count the days

by on November 29, 2012
in holidays & celebrations · 11 Comments

Today for our Home for the Holidays celebration each Simple Living Media channel is featuring some of our favorite links to help you with this year’s holiday preparations.  I’m talking about Advent and some simple ways to count the days before Christmas.

It doesn’t take too many days of using an Advent calendar for even young kids to start to understand the idea of a count-down.  The simple, repeated act – be it opening a drawer on an heirloom calendar to reveal a surprise or tearing the next link on a paper chain every day – is a fun way for kids to mark the passage of time.

Are you looking for some ideas for observing Advent this year?  I’ve rounded up 20 of my favorite ideas for you to choose from.

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Weekend links, Gadanke winners, and holiday kids’ gift craft-along

by on November 25, 2012
in crafts, holidays & celebrations, showcase · 1 Comment

Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

Gadanke winners

The winners of the giveaway from Gadanke were:

  1. Joe
  2. Satia

Congratulations! Check your email soon for further details about claiming your prize.

Enjoy 10% off all journals at Gadanke through Sunday November 25th at midnight MST with the code: STORYKIDS.

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Holiday themed family movie night

by on November 19, 2012
in holidays & celebrations · 13 Comments

Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

Can you feel it?  That change in the air?  The darkness falls earlier, the temperature drops, and this mama hen likes nothing more than to gather up all of her chicks, tuck them under a blanket beside her on the sofa, and enjoy a quiet evening together.

Lately we’ve been enjoying holiday themed family movie nights. We pop some popcorn or bake some cookies, pour cocoa into our mugs, and the modern day Currier and Ives scene is set.

Tsh is talking about simple holiday traditions on Simple Mom today, and watching holiday movies together  is one of our traditions.

While not normally a big TV viewing family, during the holidays the television (and the sweets) monitoring gets a bit more relaxed and watching TV together actually becomes one of our favorite things to do together this time of year.

We pick  a movie from our collection or a holiday special we have marked on the calendar.  Something tells me we won’t be the only family snuggled up to view A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this week and we’ll be watching our local coverage of the annual lighting of the Christmas Tree in downtown Indianapolis, too.

Here are a few that are in our holiday movie collection, along with a handful of fun and festive ideas to incorporate into your next holiday themed family movie night:

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Outdoor play idea and a new post-Halloween tradition: smashing pumpkins

by on November 12, 2012
in holidays & celebrations, play learn explore · 8 Comments

Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

This year our family started a new post-Halloween tradition:  pumpkin smashing.  Normally I might process the pumpkin and save it for pies and bread, but this year the pumpkins that we carved were a bit past their prime and starting to decay.

My husband and I thought breaking the pumpkins open so we could explore their insides would make an excellent learning and messy play activity for our family.  Any time we can all play outdoors and make a mess together is a good time for us!

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Birthday goodie bags plus a Kid Made Modern block party kit giveaway!

by on October 26, 2012
in giveaways, holidays & celebrations ·

Written by Kara Fleck, Simple Kids editor and Rockin’ Granola mama.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we had a Birthday Block Party for my soon-to-be eleven year old last weekend.  (Eleven!  Isn’t that just crazy? Double ones!)

We had some friends over to paint and create and we had a really good time.  One of the things I loved about this party was that instead of bringing something to our house, our friends got to leave with something – the blocks that they had painted.

We also gave each guest a little goodie bag as a thank you for coming.  We used simple brown paper lunch bags that we decorated with patterned tape.  Super easy and low-fuss!

Inside each bag we included:

It was a fun day, one of our best parties, and also one of the easiest to coordinate and host.   Building the party around the Block Party kit made it so easy for everything else to fall into place.  Intentionally having it be a “messy” party meant  no one was worried about making a mess because that was why we were gathered, to make a mess and celebrate.  Don’t you just love it when things like that happen?

Speaking of the Block Party Kit, I’ve got some fun news …

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