Teacher & Class Christmas Gifts

This is my first year of ever having to do Christmas gifts for teachers and classmates. I didn’t want to just do the blah thing of buying all the teachers an ornament. So, I searched Pinterest and the internet until I found something like I liked. I ended up finding a blog that was written by a teacher and that said that one of the best things to give a teacher was something that they could actually use. So, I figured why not something in a jar or bottle that they could reuse. Hot Chocolate! Isn’t that something that always reminds us of the holidays? I know it does here for sure!

I ended up going to Michael’s to find something to put the hot chocolate in. I ended up finding these super cute Ashland glass bottles with cork tops! They were perfectly sized for some hot chocolate and some mini marshmallows! I grabbed four and away we went (I had Miss S with me since Miss M was in school)!

Click the image to go directly to the listing on Michael’s website!

When I got home I took out four packets of hot chocolate mix from our cabinet. I used Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate since that is all we drink in my house… and who could go wrong with that stuff! It’s the best (in my opinion of course)! Once I poured a packet in each of the glasses (and remember to wash/dry the glasses before adding any food to them), I got out the Kraft Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites and put in a layer of those. MMmmm so good right!? They fit perfectly into the bottles without having to worry about them not coming back out when her teachers went to make their hot cocoa.

I found a cute little poem on the internet for the labels… so I did a quick on up in Photoshop and printed out four of them. I used elastic string to attach them to the bottles. Then added a ribbon to the neck of the bottle.

Teacher gifts… Done!

 

 

For the kids gifts I got cellophane bags and put little treats and goodies in there before I added our special little surprise. My girls love putting out their little bags of Reindeer Food on the lawn on Christmas Eve… so we decided to make some for all of Miss M’s friends. These are super simple and easy to make. All you need is little zip-lock bags (got ours at Michael’s), Oats and big Glitter (color is totally up to you).

 

Once you have all of those things gathered together you can start putting them together. What I like doing is putting a little bit of the oats in the bag first.

Then you add enough glitter to be able to see it mix well in the bag.

After that you fill it up the rest of the way with oats and give it a little shake after you zip it up tight.

Now, you just need to attach the little Reindeer Food poem and you are done!

If anyone makes any of these cute Christmas crafts please feel free to share!

Toddler Sleep… Wish I could solve the mystery.

I don’t know about anyone else but things at my house have been pretty crazy. Both of my girls (Peanut will be 4 in September and Mushy turned 2 in April) don’t take naps anymore. I have been noticing some aggression, moodiness and down-right grumpiness from them lately. I chatted with my sister-in-law about this and she mentioned that it might be because they are not getting enough sleep.

So, I looked at the sleep requirements on the National Sleep Foundations website and sure enough they were not getting the amount of sleep that they say the girls need at their ages.

According to them 1-3 year olds need 12-14 hours of sleep in a 24 hours period and 3-5 year olds need 11-13 hours (information can be found at http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/children-and-sleep). My kids come no where near that amount! On a good day they will both go to sleep around 9pm and get up around 7:30-8am. Whenever my little Mushy gets a nap in (no matter how long or short the nap is) she ends up staying up longer. A good example: Yesterday she actually fell asleep on the couch and took an hour nap. Then when it came time for bed she didn’t fall asleep until almost 10:30pm which is 1.5 hours after we put them to bed. Even though she went to bed that much later, she still got up at her normal time.

So, with this kind of thing happening how do you get her to sleep longer so that her attitude isn’t horrendous anymore? Right now I am working on “quiet time” after lunch. When they are done eating they get cleaned up and then head upstairs to their room. I then put the gate up and explain to them that it is “quiet time” and they should lay down and relax while reading a book or playing with their lace-up cards. Of course I hope that they take a nap but that never happens. Instead they usually just end up fighting and bickering… the usual “sisters that share a room” stuff I guess.

The only good thing that comes out of that one hour of “quiet time” is that I get to “recharge”, make phone calls if I have to, do laundry, empty the dishwasher… you know get all of the wifey stuff done.

Do you have any advise on how to solve this kind of problem? Are you dealing with this kind of stuff? I like to hope that I am not the only one that has to deal with this kind of thing. If I figure any of this stuff out I will be sure to share the info with you!

Potty training with PBS’s Daniel Tiger

I can’t tell you enough how much I love PBS in the morning for the kids! Their shows are full of things to learn, from the Wild Kratts and their animal adventures to Sesame Street and all their learning fun. I love that each of their many shoes teaches my kids about every day stuff as well as letters, numbers, reading, math and manners (just to name a few).

But I have to say that my favorite show currently is Daniel Tiger! When Peanut was first learning how to go on the potty Daniel Tiger just started on the channel. The episode about going on the potty was a huge help when trying to teach her how to use the potty. In each of the episodes they have a little song that they sing-a-long when they are doing what the episode is about.

 

The potty episode came on this morning while we were watching it and of course the jingle has helped with Mushy’s potty training! We sing the song all the time now and it helps reinforce the whole stop and go potty right away, thing.

The song for this episode is: “When you have to go potty, you gotta stop and go right away! Flush and wash and be on your way.” Perfect for a super busy two year old!  She hasn’t had any accidents all day not bad for a 26 month old! This mama might be diaper free very soon! Now if only they would come up with a song for going potty in public… that is something that she just wont do yet… even with a sucker bribe! Anyone have any suggestions with that one?

Some of the other songs that have worked for us is the sharing song, the grownups come back song and the trying new foods song! My Peanut was actually singing that one during lunch since I gave them something new to try. She found out that she liked it!

They have awesome interactive stuff that you can check out as well online! Visit their website here: Daniel Tiger Website

Some of our other favorite PBS Kids shows are: Peg Plus Cat, Wild Kratts, Super Why, Curious George, Sesame Street, Caillou and Word World! You can find these as well as many more at the PBS Kids Website!