Winter Days with Kate

This winter we took things slow. Between lots of doctor's appointments, holiday gatherings, and occasional colds, we had to! We had fun doing some activities that I had prepared last summer, and of course reading and playing.

December was all about Christmas, naturally. We have more Christmas books than we can fully enjoy. They are not all pictured here! Our favorites to read this year were Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett, Christmas Parade by Sandra Boynton, as well as a couple of our books that tell about the birth of Christ.

 I took Kate to see a local production of The Nutcracker. She didn't have just a lot of interest in it but she did enjoy reading a story book we had. I hoping that when she's older she'll enjoy performances more.

Jingles bells with our magna tiles were a lot of fun! Probably won't happen next year since Claire will be on the move but it was fun to do it this year. 

We had some different math activities themed around the story of Christ's birth. She enjoyed doing them and it gave us something fun to do on days where it was hard to get out. 

Her favorite thing to do it play! We got out her Christmas cookie toys and she had a lot of fun with those this year! 

She got to make real cookies too. :) 

We didn't do a lot of crafts, but we did keep up with our advent pictures. Love doing those, and I think they will make an appearance for years to come. 

January brought routine again. We worked a little bit in our ABC book but we really haven't kept up with it. I haven't wanted to push it because she's still young, but when she's interested it's but to see how her skills are improving. 

January brought books about the months of the year and winter. Anno's Counting Book was a favorite as well as The Mitten, and our Alaska books. 

We had a lot of fun doing this sweet craft to go along with The Mitten. I found it on Jan Brett's website. 

We made some snowflakes with play dough. I was really hoping for a snow day in January, but no such luck. We did have some nice sunny days though. 

Melted snowman and snowflake name painting along with our mitten craft. 

Mid January I brought out transportation books. Go, Dog, Go! and Red Light, Green Light were the favorites. We also played Red Light Green Light quite a bit. 

We had some really wonderful weather in January. One Saturday we were able to go out to the nature park in Edmond. So fun! 

We've been having lots of family bible time. Here are the girls as we sing the "Peter James and John in a Sailboat" song. :) 

February! Love month! The Giving Tree and Mrs. Gigglebelly Is Coming for Tea were the favorites this month. Both books of my childhood so I enjoyed those! 

We made some Valentine's to send to family members. 

We also made a love bug. 

Candy Heart letters. 

We made some veggie pizzas on Valentine's Day. 

February also brought a trip to the Cowboy Museum. I'm trying to stop her more and have her look at the pictures. I'll ask her questions such as, 

What colors do you see?

What do you see in this picture?

How does this picture make you feel?

She's in a hurry to get to the kids stuff, but I really want to cultivate an appreciation for art so we will continue to stop and admire. :) 

And what do you know?! We got some snow! Just a bit, we pulled on the snow clothes from last year and she got to explore it a little bit. 

This has been a season of learning for me. Habit training is not easy and I often feel overwhelmed with all the good habits I wish we had but don't. One step at a time, though. Routine is difficult with a baby in the house, you know? Anyways, all of these fun activities and what our Kate likes most is reading, playing with her toys (with mom or dad), and family bible time. So as long as we do that, I'd say the day was pretty successful. After re-evaluating our priorities, I've got some new plans coming up for the spring, and I'm excited to see how things work out.