Family Fun - 4 Benefits for Using Advent Calendars with Kids

There are many different types of advent calendars to aid in counting the days until Christmas. Most of these calendars start on the first day of December and continue all the way until either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, with a window to open or a pocket to check for each day.

I have seen many different kinds of advent calendars, many with other added learning benefits. Lego advent calendars teach kids how to follow a diagram to put together a small item that adds to a larger Christmas scene.

An advent calendar my family had growing up helped us learn about the Christmas story, as the calendar had an item for each day to add to a nativity scene.

I've seen other interactive advent calendars that have other kinds of different activities for each day. These calendars all have their own uses too.

But even the chocolate advent calendars, where there is just a chocolate to eat each day, have their benefits too.

As I've been doing an advent calendar with my boys this Christmas season, I've noticed a few things that have made me think I should keep doing these every year with my kids.

1. Advent Calendars teach children calendar skills. As my oldest son who is three years old has been doing the advent calendar this year, he has picked up on some different calendar skills. Since the numbers on the advent calendar match up with the date, he now talks about what the date is. When I went to pick him up from his nursery class last week, his teachers said, "He was teaching us all about the calendar today." They had a calendar up on the wall that my son had apparently noticed and scooted a chair over to. He climbed up on the chair and was pointing out what day it was and which day was Christmas, which he knew because of which number was the last number on the advent calendar.


2. Advent Calendars teach children about taking turns. Most advent calendars have one thing in each box you open. If you have more than one child, they will have to take turns or learn how to share what's inside. This year, we have a Lego advent calendar, so the boys have been taking turns each day with who gets to put together the little model. Yes, there have been days where there has been fighting over it, but they're still learning. They are only two and three, so a little fighting is kind of expected. But my three year old keeps track really well of whose turn it is and explains to his brother, "Today is my turn to build, but tomorrow will be yours."


3. Advent Calendars are a great way to get the family together at least once per day. In my house, the boys have to wait until Daddy gets home to open the box for the day. Although advent calendar activities are really short, it is still something that brings the family all together for at least a few minutes each day while we open the box and see what's inside. Then we usually end up staying together a little longer to talk about it or other things and spend a little time together.


4. Advent Calendars help you keep your sanity. As Christmas gets closer, children get more excited, and more impatient, about Christmas. Instead of my kids asking me every five minutes, "How many more days until Christmas?" they already know. Because we look at the advent calendar every day, they can see how many boxes we've opened and how many we have left. Instead, my kid wakes up every day and says, "Mommy, there's only 7 more days until Christmas!" which is a much more pleasant thing to hear than constant whining about, "Is it Christmas yet?"

So, those are just a few benefits that I've noticed from doing advent calendars with my kids. 

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids Special: Mrs. Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles

Mrs. Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles by Debbie Dadey and Marci Thornton Jones is part of The Bailey School Kids series. It is not included in the numbering of the regular series, and since I have not read any of the other books in the series, I can't really say how it compares to the rest of the books in the series. The story does mention two characters from a previous book, so it may help to read that one first, but it wasn't vital in understanding what was going on in the book.

The book centers on the before Christmas adventures of four friends who are out of school for the rest of the year due to a terrible blizzard that caused their school to be shut down. The story is told in third person but is told from the point of view of Liza, one of the four friends.

It's a week before Christmas Eve, and the friends are trying to decide what to do with their new freedom. Liza notices a lady all dressed in red at the top of a telephone pole doing repairs. Right from the start, she thinks there's something different and special about her. Her friends just brush her off and decide to go sledding instead.

Throughout the book, the kids continue to cross paths with the lady, whose name is Joy. Liza hears her laugh, "Ho, ho, ho." They overhear her talking to a man named Eli, who they saw in that other story, about S.C. and how he doesn't appreciate anything that she does. Eli begs her to come back, and talks about how they're behind schedule.

Pretty soon, Liza is convinced that the lady is Mrs. Claus, but her friends are going to take some convincing, especially Eddie who only wants to race at everything, especially down the big hill that terrifies Liza.

The children get to know Joy better and find out that she and her husband aren't really on speaking terms. Liza is convinced that if they don't help her get back with her husband, that Christmas will be ruined.

This was a fun, quick read, geared toward young readers, with its obvious clues as to who this mysterious woman up the telephone pole might be. I think it would be fun to read to my kids when they get a little older and see if they pick up on all the clues.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The first book of December was The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I have read this one before, but it's been awhile, so in the spirit of Christmas, and seeing lots of people talking about reading it on facebook, I decided to give it a reread.

This story focuses on the Herdmans, a family of five children whose mother works all the time and are left to do whatever they want, which is usually getting up to no good. The book starts out by introducing us to these children and some of the terrible things they have done including burning down a toolshed, stealing, hitting, lying, and making fun of anyone they please.

Told in first person by a girl who is the same age as Imogene Herdman, the reader gets an outside view of the Herdmans. After introducing the Herdmans, the Christmas Pageant is introduced. The lady who normally runs the pageant has an accident and winds up in the hospital. No one else volunteers to do the pageant, and the narrator's mother ends up in charge.

The usual director tries to direct it from her bed by calling the new director and explaining every little thing. The mother gets fed up with her calling and declares that the Christmas pageant is going to be "the best Christmas pageant ever" just to show her how capable she is.

The Sunday before the first rehearsal for the pageant, all five of the Herdmans show up to church, because the narrator's brother, Charlie, told one of them that they had refreshments at Sunday School. When they hear about the pageant, Imogene Herdman seems interested, and they all show up to the first rehearsal.

The Herdmans have threatened anyone who tries to volunteer for one of the main parts at the first rehearsal. No one dares to go against the Herdmans, so they end up with all of them, with Imogene herself as Mary.

The narrator tells us about the antics of the Herdmans as the rehearsals for the pageant go on, and her friend is bound and determined to get her role of Mary back for herself. Everyone wonders if five children who have never set foot in the church in their lives before this can actually pull of the Christmas pageant or if they'll completely ruin it.

It's not a super exciting story. The narrator isn't clever or witty, but there are a few moments where she starts to think a little more about the Christmas story and what actually might have happened when Christ was born because of things that the Herdmans do or say throughout the story. There's a sweet, although somewhat anticlimactic ending with the pageant itself and a few closing thoughts from the narrator.

It's worth the read as it did offer some points to ponder and showed that sometimes it might be better to do things a little differently from what people may be used to.

Follow-up on NaNoWriMo

Now that November is over, I am happy to say that I successfully finished NaNoWriMo! I wrote 50,000 words in one month!

I know the original widget doesn't say I made it to 50,000 words or level 100; there's some sort of glitch. Probably because I made it to 50,000 words at 11:30 on the night of the last day, and then the contest was over before the widget could update or something. As proof that I finished, here's a new one. This one didn't evolve, but it has the right numbers on it.

I couldn't have done it without my oldest son. The one who's obsessed with Pokemon. My tactic worked quite nicely. Throughout the month, he kept asking to see what level my Pokemon was and if it had evolved yet. When he would see it, he would say, "Mommy, write some more words, so you can level up your Eevee." And then he would go play something with his brothers so I could get a little bit of typing time in. 

He actually got so excited about it that he wanted to write his own story to get his own Pokemon leveled up too. Unfortunately, the widget only works with the official NaNo website, and you have to be 13 to sign up for an account. 

However, I did help him set a goal the way they do in the Young Writer's Program for NaNo. We set the goal of writing 100 words for the month of November. I thought this would be a challenge for him since his longest story previously written was only two sentences.

He finished in two days.

After that, he kept saying, "You still have more words to write Mommy? I'm done. I already won."

Talk about motivation. As it got closer to the end of November, I knew he was going to be disappointed in me if I didn't finish. This just made me want to try harder. I ended up writing over 11,000 words the last day in my efforts to win, and it paid off! I finished with just half an hour to spare. It feels great to be able to accomplish something like that. But it feels even better to do it with people you love and to help each other get there.

I suppose that's why they always tell people to have a buddy for goals you set like losing weight or exercising. I think the same is true of anything you want to accomplish. If you have someone who can be your cheerleader or motivator, it's easier to find that motivation to do it, even when it seems hard. But it's even better when you have someone who will commit to doing things with you, where you can both help each other reach your goal.

NaNoWriMo

If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo, it is National Novel Writing Month. This happens in the month of November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month. I've attempted to do this several times, and actually "won" once by writing just over 50,000 words before the end of November 30. I didn't actually ever go back and finish that novel because after writing 50,000 words or doing NaNo period, I'm usually quite wiped out with writing and feel like I need a major break.

I haven't done NaNo for a couple years just with my kids and teaching school things have always been too busy or I didn't have an idea. I wanted to do NaNo this year, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen since I didn't have any idea what I would write.

I have several projects that I'm working on (or rather, not working on. I'm kind of stuck in all of them.) The technical rule for NaNo, however, is that it is supposed to be a new novel that hasn't been written or started before the month of November. Planning and research and outlining before November is allowed, even encouraged.

I was wishing I had an idea for NaNo, and then, on October 31, I suddenly thought of something I could write. So, on November 1, I logged onto the NaNo website - which can be found here - and entered my novel.

I'm terribly behind as my word count has been made up of just a couple word sprints a day (15 minute timed writing sprints) in between playing with my boys, making dinner, making things to open up an online craft store with my sister, cleaning up after sick kids, doing homework for my online class, and trying to get my house clean and organized to be ready for Thanksgiving dinner after our move. Word Sprints have actually worked quite well, considering I only did one each day for the first week and have only just started fitting in a few more here and there. I work well under pressure, so a timer does the trick for me to get out a lot of words in a short amount of time. But it's been fun so far. This story has taken on a life of its own, and I'm not sure where it's headed.

I noticed on others' NaNo profiles these fun widgets, that only caught my eye because my oldest son is obsessed with Pokemon right now, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I guess now I have a little more motivation to write more, so I can evolve this for my son.

If you want to make your own, just click on the widget above. You also have to have a NaNo profile and have a novel entered for this year for it to work.

For those of you who are doing NaNo this year:

Happy Writing! and Good Luck!

Case Closed Vol. 63 - 2017 Book #3

Case Closed Vol. 63 by Gosho Aoyama is the latest installment in a graphic novel series that follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a teenage detective. In the first book, he follows some suspicious men but gets caught. They give him an untested poison and leave him for dead, but instead of dying, he is turned into a little boy. He goes by the name of Conan as he continues to solve cases, all while trying to keep his identity a secret and find the mysterious group known as the Syndicate to try and reverse the poison and get his old life back.

This book starts out finishing up a case started in the last book where they discovered a man who had been strangled in his car while driving. The time is ticking, because Jimmy has to solve it before Anita's mixture wears off and he changes back into Conan in front of everyone.

The next case happens when a food critic is poisoned at a revolving sushi restaurant where the Junior Detective League is eating. This is followed by a murder case at what was supposed to be a television quiz show as part of a final contest for a prize. I actually solved this one myself, which pretty much never happens, so I was pretty proud of myself for that one. 

The final case is about the Silver Witch who is known for racing people in the fog and leading them to their deaths. This one had a funny ending when the identity of the real Silver Witch is revealed.

I feel like this book of Case Closed had a much lighter feel to it. As always, it was a quick, easy read, with Conan showing off his amazing deducting skills and trying to guide the adults to the right answers, all while keeping his true identity a secret.

I've never really been interested in graphic novels, but I love a good mystery, and Case Closed never fails to deliver one.

The Hero of Third Grade - 2017 Book #2

The Hero of Third Grade by Alice de La Croix was illustrated by Cynthia Fisher. It is a really quick read, less than 100 pages with lots of space on the page and some pictures scattered throughout. This book was a cute story about a boy named Randall. His parents just separated, and he and his mom just moved to a new home. He hates his new school and doesn't know that he will ever fit in, since the school year is well on it's way and everyone already seems to have their own friends.

Randall watches a movie with his mom the first week of school and gets the idea to be the Scarlet Pimpernel at school - a hero who does things in secret. He begins writing secret notes to people signed with a red flower stamp. He still has no friends, but he starts to enjoy going to school, constantly looking for things he can do as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

This story includes all the things you might expect from an elementary school story including class bullies, group projects, and homework, as well as others to keep things interesting like pet trees, a monkey, a thief, and a runaway dog.

I really enjoyed the message of this book. When Randall stopped thinking about how terrible his life was and that he wasn't going to ever make friends and started looking for things that he could do to help people, he started enjoying school and it started looking like things were going to be okay.

Spirit Animals Book 6: Rise and Fall - 2017 Book #1

After a long break from blogging, I'm trying to get back into it. This blog is changing to add some other interests of mine, namely my three boys and teaching ideas, but I will continue posting about books I read. I have done a terrible job this year at keeping track of the books I've read so far this year, so I'm just going to pick it up with one of the more recent ones and go from there.

The first book for this year is Spirit Animals Book 6: Rise and Fall by Eliot Schrefer. This book follows Meilin, Abeke, Rollan, and Conor after they have been separated following a devastating betrayal at the end of book 6. This book is full of action. The story isn't complete without sacrifice, escape, cunning, a heart wrenching death, and yet another surprising act of betrayal as the Greencloaks race to retrieve another talisman before the Conquerors - this time from the Great Beast, Cabaro, a giant lion out in the middle of the desert in an oasis guarded by attacking ostriches, fierce lionesses, and other animals who have congregated to join the Great Beast in his sanctuary. I do have to say, the ending is quite terrible, leaving the group of kids wondering if they have any chance of succeeding.

I enjoyed this book. It flowed nicely, made me want to keep turning pages, and was a quick read. However, it didn't have as much of the light-hearted humor coming from Rollan, due to the events from the last several books weighing down on him. Things were a lot more tense as the whole group has been under pressure for the whole length of the series, and things are nearing an end that could be even more catastrophic than events that have happened so far. Because of this, everyone else is more serious as well.