Christmas Reading List - Early Chapter Books

During this time of year I love pulling out all of my Christmas books to share with my little ones.  Some stories I remember from my childhood while others are new to all of us however, each one is enjoyed.  We've been having a blast with our 24 Days of Christmas Stories ( see post here) .  Each night we gather around the tree as a family and open one new book from our pile.  Each child also gets to pick one book that has already been opened for me to read as well.  It is the perfect ending to what usually seems as an always busy day.

The OWL now is getting into easy chapter books.  He is still at the stage where he enjoys having some illustrations in the book. I've pulled our top four Christmas "beginner" chapter books that we've been making our way through:

1. Stanley's Christmas Adventure - the original Flat Stanley book was a staple in my 3rd grade classroom - however Stanley has expanded his line of books recently so be sure to check them out.  In this story the Lambchop family give Santa a helping hand.



2. Triplet Trouble and the Runaway Reindeer - Triplet Trouble books are the baby sibling of the Magic Tree House books - three triplets - Ashley, Alex, and Adam usually find some sort of trouble.  In this book it is Cleo the Runaway Reindeer ( aka Dog) that is the catalyst for trouble!



3. Horrible Harry and the Christmas Surprise - there is always drama in Room 2B with Horrible Harry and his classmates and they don't disappoint with their holiday drama!


4. Oliver Moon's Christmas Cracker -  this is one of our favorite new ( to us) series.  Oliver is a wizard in training and is always finding some "magical mayhem" in his travels!



So if you have a little one who is ready for a bit more then a picture book, but still needs to have some illustrations along the way be sure to check out any of the Christmas themed books we've mentioned - or the other books in their series!  Enjoy!

Decorate the Tree Bath Time Fun!

After perusing Bath Activities for Kids website a couple of weeks ago I've been thinking about doing more themed tubbies! My two had so much fun with their Peppermint Bath Paint, that I knew I needed to  gather up the materials to have another Christmas themed tubby.

Today was the perfect day for our Decorate the Tree tubby. We had our Holiday Jam session tonight with our Music Together group so we did our tubby earlier in the day. I wish I would have caught the look on the little ones faces when I called them upstairs for a surprise and they spotted the tub all ready to go!

The best part about this tubby was that I had everything I needed at home! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a wet piece of craft foam acts just like a bath decal - genius! Since my basement is filled with 10+ years of remnants from an elementary classroom I have a sheet or two of craft foam in my stash!  In fact, I actually found these pre-cut ornaments and lights from an old craft project.  I simply cut out the tree trunk and star. For the tree I used Crayola's washable finger paints. I tested it first to make sure it would indeed wash away and it did!

I did make some green peppermint bath paint for the kids by mixing - shaving cream, green food coloring, and peppermint extract together....

And I threw in some package bows to jazz up the bathwater.....

( These actually "stuck" to the wall as well when wet.)

The kiddos loved decorating their tree....

Who knew tubby could be so much fun!

Super easy to pull together and just as easy to clean up - simply turn on the shower and the Owl washed it all away for me, leaving no evidence of our tree decorating party behind! 

24 Days of Christmas Reading

There have been loads of posts on Pinterest having to do with wrapping 24 of your favorite Christmas stories   to open each day leading up to Christmas Day.  I loved this idea and looked forward to starting this tradition with my two!

At first I was worried I wouldn't have 24 books to wrap.  I knew I had quite a few Christmas books, but 24 is a lot of books. Well I shouldn't have worried because after I  picked out my 24 favorites I still had more then enough to fill our bookshelves in our reading area!

And even more to bring to each child's room for bedtime stories!! Clearly, there isn't a shortage of Christmas books in this house - the result of 10 years in the elementary classroom and a mother who loves Christmas books!  However, if you don't have enough for this year - no worries, visit your local library and wrap their books.  Just be sure to unwrap and read them before they are due!

This year I simply wrapped each book - nothing fancy - and put them in a basket by our tree.

However, there are many ways to elaborate the wrapping.  I love A Matter of Memories wrapping below.  

At first I thought of adding a number to each book - but then decided against it. The only book that I care when it is read is The Night Before Christmas - which I don't have in the basket yet and won't put in until the end.  Adding a number would make it a great advent/Christmas Count Down Calendar!  How simple would that be?  Maybe next year I will be a bit more organized and will wrap each book, # them and then have a corresponding craft/ornament/activity to go with each book.  Guess I won't be wrapping them at nap time on December 1st if I go with that plan.

Here are the books I chose to use - I chose a mixture of  Christmas and religious books that are geared to the younger crowd.

1. How Santa Got His Job - Steve Krensky

2. Auntie Claus - Elise Primavera

3. The Christmas Cobwebs - Odds Bodkin

4. The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever - Steven Kroll

5. Tractor Mac Saves Christmas - Billy Steers

6. The Dog Who Found Christmas - Linda Jennings

7. This is the Stable - Cynthia Cotten

8. The Littlest Elf - Brandi Doughtery

9. J is for Jesus - Crystal Bowman

10. The Story of Aloha Bear - Dick Adair

11. Llama Llama Holiday Drama - Anna Dewdney

12. Pockets Christmas Wish - Ann Bonwill

13. Merry Christmas Strega Nona - Tomie dePaola

14. The Pinetree Parabel - Liz Higgs

15. Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg

16. I've Seen Santa by David Bedford

17. Thomas' Christmas Delivery

18.Auntie Claus And the Key to Christmas - Elise Primavera

19.Snowmen at Christmas - Caralyn Buehner

20. Arthur's Christmas - Marc Brown

21. The Spirit of Christmas - Nancy Tillman

22.Corduroy's Christmas Surprise- Don Freeman

23.Once There Was a Christmas Tree - Jerry Smath

24. Twas the Night Before Christmas - Clement Clark Moore

Candy Cane Bathroom Paint

Recently I came across a fabulous site that just specializes in bathtub sensory experiences! What fun ideas!  Be sure to check out Bath Activities for Kids for tons of theme based ideas that can easily be done in your tub.

Now tubby time in my house is usually daddy time however, when daddy is working late or has a meeting I take over!  Adding anything besides two children, a washcloth, shampoo/soap and a few bath toys to the tub would send him RIGHT over the edge so I have to be the one to add in the fun!

We started off simple, with Candy Cane Bathroom Paint/Foam.  The best part was I had everything I needed to make this at home: shaving cream, peppermint extract/oil, and red food coloring.

My two were VERY excited when I presented them with our tubby time addition!

The kids loved painting themselves and each other.  Then the OWL practiced painting his name. We took turns saying letters and writing them on the wall. 

As the paint entered into the water it turned our bathtub into a pink and white swirl candy cane of it's own.  The kids were ecstatic and the bath room smelled just like Christmas!  It was perfect! 

I can't wait to go back and find some more fun ideas - my two loved it and I'm hooked!  

Looks like I'm in luck for more Christmas/Winter Tub ideas since it is Christmas Week on their site and they will be presenting a different idea each day!