News with Naylors

Potato Stamping Ornaments : These were so cool. It's another activity I couldn't help myself from trying. I bought some small yellow potatoes, cut them in half and used a knife to make shapes in the potatoes (see picture below).  Click here for a tutorial using cookie cutters . Erupting Ornaments : This is classic baking soda and vinegar science. Easton LOVES these types of activities. He continues to say more until we run out of vinegar. These were a lot of fun! Click here for a tutorial on erupting ornaments.    Color Mixing Ornaments : We didn't do this activity this year, but I wanted to post it as something to do next year. Color mixing would be so much fun!  Click here for a tutorial.  The picture below is from the tutorial website.

I've always been a little obsessed with file folders. A few days ago, I found the best Christmas File Folders! I always print and laminate mine for durability, although it's not necessary.  Click here to print the following file folders : Christmas Tree (Numbers 1-10) : Count the number of ornaments on the tree and match it to the corresponding number. (The left side is empty and the right side is done for you). Ornaments (Color Matching) : This is a more advanced color matching activity. Alphabet (Match Lowercase to Uppercase) : Easton loves when I make the lowercase letters "babies" and the uppercase letters "moms". Help the little baby find his mom! (The first line on the left side is empty and the rest is done for you). Christmas Tree Shapes : This is also a more advanced shape activity with a pentagon, hexagon and octagon. Match the shapes!

Reindeer Footprint/Handprint Art Project : I love how this turned out! We used Easton's footprint for the head and his handprints for the antlers. Glue on some goggle eyes and use a red do-a-dot marker for the nose and you're set! Click here for a tutorial . Roll a Reindeer : Easton rolled a die and got to glue on the corresponding reindeer part. I had him match our die to the die on the worksheet with the same amount of dots. This was a fun activity!  Click here to print .

We only bought a few Christmas Books this year, but plan on adding more to this list as the years go on. The pictures and descriptions below are from Amazon. Our favorites this year are: " A touchy-feely board book with simple, repetitive text, tactile patches and bold illustrations suitable for babies and toddlers. A little, white mouse appears on every page, for children to spot." That's not my Snowman: Easton and Connor both love the touch and feel books. Click here to purchase online. "It's the most wonderful time of the year! Little Blue Truck is spreading cheer by delivering Christmas trees to his animal friends. Can you help count each green tree from one to five and back again? Don’t forget to save one for Blue!  Beep! Beep!" Little Blue Truck's Christmas: We LOVE all of the 'Little Blue Truck' books at our house. The original book has always been one of Easton's favorites, so I knew I had to buy the Christmas ...

Magnetic Christmas Sensory Bin : I bought a bunch of random Christmas items at the Dollar Store and used our  Magnetic Kit  for this sensory bin. Below is a list of all the items we used - feel free to be creative! The trick to sensory bins is to NOT bring everything out at once. We played for over an hour and had a blast!  Click here to view my inspiration for the Magnetic Sensory Bin .  Rice - pretend snow Jingle Bells - large and small Styrofoam Balls - pretend snowballs Toothpicks - used to connect styrofoam balls to make snowmen Christmas Themed Erasers - we played pretend with the polar bear erasers Measuring Spoons & Cups - for pouring and scooping Magnetic Kit - comes with magnetic wands, balls, chips, etc. Paper Clips Magnetic Cookie Cutters Christmas Cookie Cutters, Beads & Play Dough : I bought Christmas Cookie Cutters on Amazon and we used them to play with play dough today. It's always fun to bring in extra accessories with...

Prayer : Song Options :  " The Nativity Song " from the Children's Songbook page 52  Away in a Manger " Children's Songbook page 42. Click this link to learn the hand actions . Teach the Nativity : There are so many different and hands on ways to teach the nativity. Choose one of the following options below. Watch " The Nativity Clip " from LDS.org. There are shorter clips available, but we watched the full version, which is about eight minutes long Watch " The King is Born " - a living scripture DVD Read a book about the Nativity Act out the nativity with  Nativity Themed Finger Puppets Act out the nativity with  Nativity themed flannel board Act out the nativity with a  Playmobile Nativity Set Nativity Scene Craft : Please choose one of the craft options below: "Stained Glass" Nativity  from Housing a Forest: This is my very favorite Nativity Craft we did this year and perfect for toddlers. ...

PLEASE NOTE: UPDATED VERSION 2019. Please view:  Christmas Symbols Scavenger Hunt Prayer : Song : " Picture a Christmas " Children's Songbook page 50. We sang along while we watched "Picture a Christmas" on  Youtube  (pictured below). Christmas Symbols : My two year old has seen a lot of Christmas Symbols this year. I want him to begin to understand that all the symbols remind us of the Savior. I printed and cut out a  Christmas Tree & Symbols Printable  (see image below) and put them all into a brown, paper sack. I pulled the Christmas tree out first and simply explained how Christmas Trees remind us of Jesus (the explanations are found below). My two drew the remaining symbols out of the paper bag, placed the symbol on the tree, and we briefly explained each symbol. Christmas Tree: The top of the tree points toward the sky, or heaven, where Jesus lives. Star: The star reminds us of the new star in the sky when Jesus was born. Can...

Fizzing Candy Canes : The first picture below is where I got the inspiration for our project. Click here for a tutorial of fizzing candy canes . Of course, we didn't have candy canes today, but we did have a lot of peppermint candies. I used a muffin pan and filled each tin with baking soda (snow) and peppermint candies. Then, I filled three plastic cups with vinegar and used food coloring to color the vinegar - blue, red and green. We initially used a medicine dropper to fill with vinegar and squirt into the baking soda. After a while, we just poured the cup of vinegar into the baking soda. Easton kept wanting to do more and more. We'll just say baking soda and vinegar are on my grocery shopping list.  Easton LOVED this. See the bottom picture to see the fun we had today. Candy Cane Color Matching : We did some color matching today. I found the candy cane color matching, size ordering and numbers from the same Christmas Pack. Click here to print . Candy Ca...

Coffee Filter Christmas Tree: I thought these were so neat, I wanted to do one myself. We used a large, white coffee filter, do-a-dot markers and a squirt bottle to make these (first picture). I love when the sun shines through them on the window. The original post uses washable markers - click here for a tutorial of Coffee Filter Christmas Trees (second picture). Glitter Christmas Tree Craft: We had my niece over to play today, and we made these. They were so fun! I drew a tree on a piece of white card stock and had Livi and Easton color their trees green.  Click here for a tutorial   to learn how to do the rest! I like how my niece and Easton used their own creative touches to make their Christmas tree special. Livi did a stamping technique, while Easton did a painting technique (see the second picture below).                                         ...

Santa Ornament : We made salt dough and Easton loved playing with it! We spend over an hour rolling the dough, making shapes, using cookie cutters to stamp in the dough, etc. Once we were about done, I used a bowl to make a circle cutout in the dough. I had Easton stamp his cute handprint in the dough, baked the dough and painted a Santa face onto it (first picture). Click here for a Santa Ornament tutorial.   I've also seen a similar idea as a Santa Claus Handprint (second picture).       Santa and his Reindeer Scene : I LOVE this idea. Easton finally let me stamp his foot green for the sleigh. We used his handprints for the reindeer and his fingerprints for Santa and Rudolph's nose. This turned out so cute, I want to frame it. I also really like  Fingerprint Santa/Reindeer Scene (second picture).     Cottonball Santa : I've seen a lot of different versions of this craft on Pinterest. We chose to do a simple one. I'll be honest, E...