We’ve had a lot of fun working on our DIY Advent Calendar, and made some really lovely crafts in our first and second weeks. Noah got very used to the routine of working on a craft every day, and would ask to “do craft” daily. Although I had to help him quite a bit with most of the crafts, he enjoyed colouring the pieces, and hanging them up on the tree. I had to help him to put most of them up over these two weeks, because the bottom part of our tree was too crowded with his works from the previous weeks.
Day 15: Samson
I’ve collected tons of toilet rolls, and have been trying to find ways to craft with them, so I was pleased to have found this simple craft. We used glue on the main body, but ended up using double-sided tape for the head and arms, because Noah couldn’t wait for the glue to dry.
Checking the Advent Calendar
The Story
Close-up
Mandatory pose
Day 16: Jonah and the Whale
Noah really enjoyed this story, and talked about how the whale swallowed Jonah quite a bit. For some reason, he insisted on colouring most of it black, despite my suggestions, and after a while, I figured I should just let him be. After all, it’s his craft, not mine!
Checking the Advent Calendar
Reading the story
Colouring
Hanging it up
Close-up
Mandatory shot
Day 17: Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Noah liked this story as well, and I got him to show me how God sealed the lions’ mouths when Daniel was in their den. He was also familiar with the craft, as we had done it before during our playdate.
Checking the Advent Calendar
The story
Showing me how God sealed the lions’ mouths
Working on his craft
Close-up
Mandatory pose
Day 18: Five Loaves and Two Fishes
Noah really liked the craft for Baby Moses previously, and this was very similar to it. I had trouble arranging the five loaves and two fishes in the basket, and on hindsight, I should have pasted them onto a piece of paper, before putting them into the basket.
Checking the Advent Calendar
The Story
Working on the craft
Close-up
Mandatory pose
Day 19: The Nativity Story
I realised that I made a mistake and didn’t plan for a craft for this day, so since we had just listened to the Nativity Story during our playdate the previous day, I figured I could just read the story again, and get him to do a simple colouring activity based on the story. He wasn’t quite in the mood to colour that day, and I ended up doing most of it, while he scribbled randomly over my work.
Checking the Advent Calendar
The Story
Working on the craft
He got distracted and went to play after a while
Close-up
Day 20: Jesus the Teacher
I stretched this theme/story over three days, because I found three crafts for it. Not the best of reasons, but I was being practical! For the first day, I got Noah to create a pencil out of three different shapes, and let him colour it a little, because he wanted to.
Checking the Advent Calendar
The Story
Working on the craft
Close-up of his craft and the rainbow loom version
Mandatory pose
Day 21: Jesus the Teacher
This was a fun craft to do, and Noah was most amused by how God could “hug” him. He also had fun colouring “Noah”, and kept wanting to colour it red, for some reason.
Checking the Advent Calendar
Colouring
Close-up
Rainbow loom baby
Day 22: Jesus the Teacher
I read the story of the Good Samaritan to him, to highlight the idea of love. This was a really simple craft, although I don’t think it can even be considered “craft”, since all I had to do was cut some strips of paper, and staple them together. Noah wanted to help with the stapling, but his fingers aren’t strong enough yet, so I still had to help him a little. I chose red and green for this, but on hindsight, should have stuck to red, since the green doesn’t stand out against the green tree.
Checking the Advent Calendar
Working on the craft
Showing it off
Up on the tree
Day 23: The Nativity Story
We made the angels during our last playdate, but Noah wanted to make more, so we did! I taped a little twine behind the angels’ heads, so that they could be hung on the tree, and it worked because the angels are quite light.
Checking the Advent Calendar
Holding the angels
Close-up
Rainbow looms
Day 24: The Nativity Story
For some reason, I had difficulties getting the ice-cream sticks to stick together with just craft glue, so I ended up using some washi tape to hold them together instead. I also decided against sprinkling glitter on them, because I wasn’t in the mood to clean up after that.
Checking the Advent Calendar
Pointing out the star in the story
Holding up the colourful star we made
The star at the top of the tree
Day 25: The Nativity Story
I needed a simple craft for this day, because I knew it was going to be a really busy day, so all Noah had to do was colour this huge paper ornament.
Checking the Advent Calendar
Colouring
Close-up
When I first came up with this idea for our advent calendar, I wasn’t sure if it would actually work out well. I didn’t know if I would be able to get Noah to sit down for a story and craft daily, since we don’t have a fixed routine for that usually. Thankfully, Noah really enjoyed it, and I think it helped that the crafts were quite simple, and usually only involved colouring. I really love how our tree turned out, and hope that Noah has learnt more about the different Bible stories we’ve read this month. Now to start thinking about next year’s advent calendar!
Our Christmas Tree 2014
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