Activity Village News

12th December 2008

A Message From Lindsay

UK schools are beginning to wind down and break up for the Christmas holidays, so you'll need plenty planned to keep everyone busy over the next few weeks. We hope we can help! Scroll down for lots of new crafts and printables as well as jigsaws to download and play, links to explore and more ...

Here are some quick ideas for activities you could do over the next couple of weeks:

• Go for a Christmas walk - spot the Christmas decorations and choose your favourites
• Plan a holiday scavenger hunt - write a list of things for your child to find on your walk or drive. You could look for pine cones, robins, blue Christmas decorations, a reindeer decoration, a silver Christmas tree, etc. Make the list appropriate for the child’s age if you have more than one.
• Find an outdoor ice skating ring (you may have to book!)
• Track down a Christmas concert, nativity play or pantomime.
• Make treats for the wild birds in your back garden, like our bird cake or pinecone bird feeder. Or just string up some apples on red ribbon.
• Got snow? Time to make a snowman, snow angels, leave tracks in the snow, build an igloo...
• Bake Christmas cookies and make home-made hot chocolate (look for Christmas recipes here or try some Jumbles - our favourites!
• Make some homemade Christmas cards (we'll be adding even more ideas for cards over the weekend)
• If you haven't done it already, write your Letter to Santa (use some of our lovely Christmas writing paper or Christmas Fold-ups)
• Put on some popcorn and watch a Christmas movie!
• Get crafty!
• Go the library and spend an afternoon reading all their Christmas stories!
• Help someone else – donate some of your child's outgrown toys, help decorate an elderly neighbour's tree and tidy up their front lawn, or visit your local old people's home. Perhaps you could print out some of our Christmas coloring pages and Christmas puzzles and take them to your local hospital's children's ward?

What's New At Activity Village?

Don't forget to visit our online advent calendar every day, for new Christmas printables, puzzles and coloring pages, as well as a great Christmas website activity every day!
Advent Calendar 2008 (UK and Europe)
Advent Calendar 2008 (Australasia)
Advent Calendar 2008 (US)

We have new New Year coloring pages and a 2009 coloring card, too
New Year coloring pages

We've also got some fun new New Year printables, including acrostic poem printables, New Year Resolution paper, and more
New Year printables

You can also try your hand at our new New Year puzzles - perfect for keeping busy while waiting for midnight!
New Year Puzzles

If you haven't been checking the advent calendar every day, we have just begun to add some of the new puzzles created for it to the main pages within Activity Village:
Christmas Puzzles and Mazes

We have added 4 more Christmas games ideas to the site this week, including this cute printable Christmas T-shirt matching and sorting game. We have a great collection of Christmas games now - for parties, family gatherings, or just a long afternoon...
Christmas Games

Chinese New Year is early this year, and The Year of the Ox is welcomed in on 26th January! Find out all about The Year of the Ox and enjoy our newest printables and puzzles, including this gorgeous Year of the Ox calendar, some printable lucky money envelopes and an ox lacing card! (We've got lots more planned, as well as some fun Year of the Ox crafts, which we will be adding over the next few weeks)
Chinese New Year

We've been adding to our stock of jigsaws this week, and you'll find fun new jigsaw puzzles for Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year. These puzzles come in all different sizes to suit all ages, and you can download them to your computer to play over and over, burn them onto a CD to give to friends, or play them straight away without saving.

Hanukkah Jigsaws

Christmas Jigsaws

New Year Jigsaws

Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday celebrated mainly in the US for the week between 26th December and 1st January each year. For those of you who celebrate Kwanzaa, or who are interested in finding out more about it, we have new crafts and printables this year:
Kwanzaa for Kids

We have a new collection of notebooking pages and mini foldable booklets of famous African-Americans.
Famous People Notebooking Pages NEW!

New at AV Baby this week:

Baby Photo Of The Week

Diary of a New Mum - Week 28
Where’s My Mommy Gone?
In which we discover separation anxiety and become attached at the hip!

Recommended Product

Goal Setting For Kids
Ever thought about Goal Setting for Kids? Goal setting is one of the most important skills that a person can learn, and the earlier this skill is learned, the more chances there are for successful outcomes in a person’s life. Adults know that goal setting is all about planning, making progress with that plan and reaching final goals or achievements. Once a child learns how to do this, they can use this tool for more success in school and at home.

Goal setting for kids will help your children to do well on their school tests and in activities such as sports, music programs or outside academic or arts programs - even at home, and with their personal finances. Teaching your child how to be a goal setter will give them a sense that they are capable of whatever they want to do. That’s valuable!

To learn more about Goal Setting for Kids, go to 4lifehappykids.com.

Reader Tip

This month's tip is from Susie, in Hertfordshire.

"Find a large cardboard box for each member of the family (the supermarket is a good place to look when you next do a food shop). Get your kids to cover them with cheap gift wrap and make a large name sign to stick on the front - this can turn into an enjoyable project and in our family it is part of anticipating Christmas!

Use the cardboard boxes on Christmas Day to store your presents as they are opened. We have a rule that the kids can play with their things as much as they like during the holidays, as long as they are put back into their own Christmas boxes before bed each night. And on the day that we take down the Christmas decorations, we also have to "find a place" in the normal toy cupboards for our new Christmas things.

If you want to keep the boxes to use again next year, you can use them to store your Christmas decorations."

A Giggle!

"One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child's name and how old he or she is."
Erma Bombeck 

Have You Seen?

Our lacing cards make a quick gift and a good time-filler activity for little ones - especially if you have access to a laminator.
Lacing Cards

Something To Think About..

"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me."
Jim Valvano

A Poem..

What I Should Like

On Christmas Eve I'd like to lie
Awake, when stars are in the sky,
And listen to the sound that swells
From Santa Claus's jingling bells.

I'd like to hear upon the roof
The patter of each tiny hoof
Of Santa's reindeer overhead,
When I am snug and warm in bed.

But Mamma says I must not lie
Awake, or he will pass me by;
He does not like the girls or boys
To watch him when he brings the toys.

I think I'd better go to sleep.
I guess the presents all will keep,
Then in the morning I shall be
Glad to think I did not see.

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