| Author | |
Babs
Forum Pro
Joined: March 07 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 162
|
| Posted: Nov 30 2009 at 4:59pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
I just got out our Christmas books and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. We have quite a collection of Christmas books, (thanks in part to suggestions from many of you!) and I was wondering if you have any type of schedule for reading your Christmas books. I KNOW you all have too many, I mean a lot of Christmas books, too. 
I would like to make sure they are all being read but not sure how to do this. Of course some are for specific days but the majority are not. I am pretty sure if I just put them out in baskets, the boys will just choose old favorites. Any advice on how you handle this would be appreciated.
God Bless,
Barb
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JennGM
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 17702
|
| Posted: Nov 30 2009 at 6:08pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Barb,
I had the same thoughts this year, so I tried to create something for each day to spread it out. I do save some of them for willy-nilly, and anything for Epiphany and St. Wenceslas will be after Christmas.
So I did a little Alphabet Advent and we are having so much fun. My son is really, really enjoying this. And for me, it's so nice to see a little plan.
But I know some moms make paper chains with the titles of their books (Paula does this) and others wrap in wrapping paper a book for each day to read.
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Paula in MN
Forum All-Star
Joined: Nov 25 2006
Location: Minnesota
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4064
|
| Posted: Nov 30 2009 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
JennGM wrote:
| But I know some moms make paper chains with the titles of their books (Paula does this) and others wrap in wrapping paper a book for each day to read. |
|
|
Why, yes, I do!  It's working well, although we are opening several links every day. We are also incorporating Jenn's wonderful "Biffi" and "Alphabet Advent" plans. Basically, we are just doing a lot of reading - what fun!
__________________
 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JennGM
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 17702
|
| Posted: Nov 30 2009 at 6:29pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'm glad they are working for you, Paula! My son tries to guess what the next letter might stand for, and is adding to the list all the possibilities for the alphabet.
And the Biffi books are so wonderful. This is the first I've read them to my son, and sometimes it seems it might be over his head, but the images are just perfect text painting. The explain and elaborate and reinforce all that I read. I love pointing out the pictures while I'm reading...it's really making an impact.
Reading is our favorite thing to do, so it never seems like too much!
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
joann10
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 10 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3493
|
| Posted: Nov 30 2009 at 6:58pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
We have done the wrapping Christmas books thing around here this year. It seems to be working great. I know some folks mentioned the cost of wrapping paper, but what we did was use purple and pink $1.00 plastic table clothes for wrapping--for $4.00 we had them all wrapped.
We are unwrapping one a day--and spending extra time with this "special" book of the day. That might mean we think of a craft or activity to go along with it or just read it a couple times.
Our regular picture book time is for our other Christmas books--because, we do have many, many books, and more arriving from the interloan library system all the time.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Babs
Forum Pro
Joined: March 07 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 162
|
| Posted: Dec 01 2009 at 11:25am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Jenn, Paula, and Joann,
Thank you so much for the great replies. I am going to sit down later today to and read through your ideas and blogs and consider what might work best for us this year. It is always so helpful to see how other families do things and you are all so generous!
Thanks and God Bless,
Barb
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: Dec 02 2009 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Barb,
I'm late to your question, but I wanted to respond.
I do have some books that are specifically for certain Feast days - St. Lucia, Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc. For those that don't fit on a specific day (books like Little Match Girl, The Gift of the Magi, The Donkey's Dream) I place in a basket on the coffee table. We're pretty relaxed about how we approach them...sometimes we sit down and binge read for an afternoon, sometimes I pull out a book that I really want to read, and tell the kids they can pick one out after I read, and sometimes they request a favorite and we read that...over and over again. It's all good! Whether you organize your Advent reading or just set out all those lovely Advent books in a basket and let the kids pick and choose, your Advent reading will be lovely and blessed I am sure!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385
|
| Posted: Nov 01 2013 at 9:25am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Bumping this as Advent is upon us!
I am (finally) using Jenn's wonderful Alphabet Advent plans this year and drawing heavily from Jen's Advent list as well. So thankful I don't have to start from scratch! My advent calendar cards I've used for the past couple of years as a count down with activity met the fate of the toddler last year, but I like the format, so I bought some pretty little striped kraft bags similar to these to rebuild our system, which we liked.
Our Christmas book collection is admittedly a bit piddly. I figured out from booklists, past library loves, etc... which books to buy to fill out our collection to bring us to 24 picture books. I combined H with I and Q with R to make 24, and I think I might actually leave it that way, adding some more general books at the front end in future years where Advent is longer. This way, I don't have to juggle the list so much each year.
I really like the wrapping idea, but that sounds tedious to do every year, and I don't think I have the energy or time with a three month old to sew bags, which would be my ideal, so I bought some of these, which should be big enough for most of the books, and if one or two don't fit, I can wrap those in a Trader Joe's bag or something. Maybe I'll have the boys help me stamp them with the alphabet stamps.
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JodieLyn
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234
|
| Posted: Nov 01 2013 at 10:04am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have some specific Advent reading and after we've read those then the kids get to pick a picture book. Often it works out that we get one new picture book to read and one that gets read every day. But I let them pick but I also get to pick so that we do get to read all of our books.
__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
Forum Locked) 
4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Christmas Books
