End the Madness!

Did you go out into the holiday madness this weekend? Well, never fear, Monday is here. Have some fun with the kids today.

Craft Time: Today we are making Christmas balls for the tree. But these are no ordinary balls - these are filled with chocolate candies. Below you see all the supplies you need to make them: egg cartons, pipe cleaners, candies, and metallic tissue paper. hint: you can find pretty much all you need to make these at the dollar store.

Cut the egg carton cups into sections. Stack one cup on top of the other and tape one side so that it can flip open like a lid. Fill with candy. Close the cups then wrap up in a square of metallic tissue paper. Use half of a pipe cleaner to close. The pipe cleaner then twists around the branch to attach on the Christmas tree.

Now you not only have a decoration on your tree, but a candy surprise as well. On Christmas day, if anyone needs a sweet treat, they can just help themselves to a Christmas ball ornament from the tree! :)

Indoor Time: Play beanbag toss. You don't even need a bean bag to accomplish this game. Get yourself an empty clothes basket for the target. Use balled up socks to act as bean bags. Make 3 bean bags. Take turns tossing the bags into the target, seeing who can get the most in. Keep moving farther and farther away to make it more challenging.

Story Time: Today find books that teach about circles. If you don't have any specifically about shapes, help your kids to identify circles in the various pictures of the stories you read.

Art Time: Break out the crayons today and have your kids do a winter wonderland drawing complete with Frosty the Snowman, who just happens to be made of ...circles!

Music Time: Teach your kids Frosty the Snowman today. This is a great song to dance and skip around to. It almost begs to run around as you adventure along with Frosty! Don't know the words? You can find them here:

Frosty the Snowman

Outdoor Time: Target toss. Similar to your beanbag toss, but now use a big bouncy ball. Select an object to be the target. (a tree trunk, swing set leg, rock, patio chair, etc) From a good distance away, toss the ball with the goal of getting the ball to stop close to the target. Mark their position and try to get closer with the next toss.