dodgy phone photos of advent activities
Are you adventing this year? We are trying to squeeze things around all the commitments. As I’ve said before, don’t try moving to a small community to find the ‘quiet life’ – there is no ‘quiet life’ – even with a four-day school week things just keep on getting busier.
So yes, Advent: While Lily is still busting with excitement with each new day’s simple idea, I have discovered that Amelia is less enthused about the activities this year. She wants to be excited and then when she opens the card she does a little sigh of disappointment. There is such a fine line between keeping it simple (achievable) and making it appeal to the jaded pre-pre-teen crowd. She cut one snow flake before telling me it was “kinda boring” and headed for the hills. Breakfast for dinner (not just a bowl of cheerios but the full eggs and bacon extravaganza) was apparently “no offence mum, but pretty lame.”
That being said, it hasn’t been a complete fail – She really, really liked our “unplugged night” (thanks to Maya for the idea) where we ate and read by candle light. Unfortunately Lily hated it, being terrified of the dark. Last night we did “fancy dress for dinner time”. The air was thick with the smell of hair gel and everyone looked sharp. Sock puppet story time still seems to be a favourite, despite Amelia’s grand old age of 9. Next year I might add in some extreme sports to spice things up.
I’ve been doing the advent activities with my girls since I first read about them on your (kiddley?) blog. We dressed up for dinner too last night – swimming costumes, tutus and goggles among the outfits! It’s been a real favourite of my girls, so thank you!
We do the old fashion chocolate ones every year.. and this year we are also doing advent anime watching? We celebrate Yule and Xmas so it is a constant balance of trying to merge the two and finding things that inspire conectivity and inspire goodness and bravery and a whole Waldorf craft mentality whilst also sharing the whole techno future vibe my little ones crave. We have been gathering sticks to make little Yule bundles and making arms and various oddities to attach to the snowmen once the Snow comes to us. 🙂 Thank you for the inspirations! I like the origami idea.. or drawing on a giant Winter picture together = one more scene of winter till Yule and Xmas.
My kids were fans of color dinners….the whole meal in one color…as much as was possible without resorting to food coloring.
Love your blog (and your website) – its not at all old to me as I’ve only just found it! Came across your bio at Girls Got Gumption – very inspiring. I am a graphic designer possibly on the verge of becoming an illustrator and reading the book The Artists Way. Can only hope my story turns out half as good as yours… 😉