Advent Activities for Slacker Moms
If you’re like me, you have great intentions when it comes to the holidays. You want a Pinterest-Perfect winter wonderland, but what you end up with is…less than perfect. I want to make the holidays magical for my kids- without making myself insane. So often, when I am looking at blogs for advent activities, I find lists of activities that are just not realistic for my family. I put together this list of super easy advent activities to keep myself sane. Hopefully some of you will enjoy them too!
- Christmas Coloring Pages from Crayola – It doesn’t get much easier than this! Just hit print! Great for a day when you don’t have time to prepare anything.
- Christmas Music Dance Party – Check out this Youtube playlist or use your own favorites.
- Write letters to Santa.
- Draw a gingerbread house with Art for Kids Hub– these fun, short videos are easy to follow and kids have a blast.
- Get/ put up your Christmas tree. You’re going to do it anyway, it may as well count as an activity.
- Christmas movie night. Netflix has a ton of family holiday movies.
- Make cocoa. Quick, easy, and the kids will be happy.
- Go look at Christmas lights. Good for when you forgot to do something all day and suddenly, it’s almost bedtime. Put jammies on and go drive around looking at lights. Easy peasy.
- Go shopping for those less fortunate. Grab one of the tags hanging on an angel tree near you and take the kids shopping to help make the holidays brighter for kids in need.
- Bake cookies. Use the pre-made cookie dough if you need to.
- String popcorn.
- Play Holiday Charades
- Read your favorite Christmas storybook.
- Go to a local holiday parade/tree lighting/ town festival.
- Have another movie night. The kids won’t be sad if you have them watch Rudolf twice.
- Print out this Christmas word scramble.
- Write your own Christmas stories. If your kids are too young to write, have them tell you a story. You can write it down for them and they can illustrate it.
- Go to a holiday party. You are probably doing this anyway.
- Take the kids Christmas shopping. I like to set mine loose in a thrift shop or dollar store with $5 and see what they find.
- Make lunchtime more fun with this printable holiday place-mat from Three Little Monkeys.
- Make family game night festive by playing Christmas music and eating candy canes.
- Get some wrapping done while your kids enjoy holiday games online.
- Make peppermint bark. It’s super easy. Really. You basically just melt chocolate chips and sprinkle it with crushed candy canes.
- Open one present Christmas Eve. Pajamas are a great choice so the kiddos can put them on and look cute in the 200 photos you’ll take Christmas morning.
For Educators, Homeschool Groups, or Book Clubs
If you are interested in using the Nellie Nova series in your classroom, homeschool group, or book club, please contact me at stephie.peterson@live.com. I am happy to provide a discount for orders of 20 or more books. I also can provide a special educator’s guide to accompany Nellie Nova Takes Flight free of charge with a bulk order. The guide contains more information about the science and history concepts in the book as well as art, science, writing, and history activities for kids.
I love visiting schools and homeschool groups. If your school or group is within two hours of Raleigh, North Carolina, I would love to come do a reading for your students. I can also do Skype presentations for those outside of my driving range.
I love hearing from educators. I’d love to hear more about how your schools or groups are using Nellie Nova.
Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Book Deal
If you’ve been thinking about buying some Nellie Nova books for kids in your life, now is a great time! Use code GIFTBOOK17 on amazon.com to take $5 off any book order over $20. Can be used with any combination of books.
Happy shopping, book lovers!
Thanksgiving Writing Prompts for Kids
Get your kids writing this Thanksgiving with these writing prompts!
- On Thanksgiving morning, you wake up and find that you are not in your bed. You are in a pen, on a farm, and you have a lot of feathers. You’re a turkey and the farmer is hungry! What do you do?
- Your mom tells you that all pies have been banned by the government this Thanksgiving. What do you do?
- You hate turkey. You hate pie. Most of all, you hate cranberries. How do you convince your parents to make something else for Thanksgiving dinner?
- What are you thankful for this year that you either did not have or did not appreciate last year?
- It’s Thanksgiving Day. Your parents decided to order a delivered meal this year. The doorbell rings. You open it and find three dozen live turkeys waiting for you. What happens next?
- Your crazy Uncle Bob shows up at Thanksgiving with a time machine. He sends you back to the first Thanksgiving. What do you see?
- Your Grandma serves a Thanksgiving dinner of cereal, dog treats, and candy canes. What do you do?
- A strange guest shows up at your Thanksgiving dinner. Who is it and how does your family react?