Is your Elf on the Shelf Naughty or Nice?

What's your take on Elf on the Shelf? Love him or hate him? 

Some elves out there on the Internet are so very mischievous I admit I was kinda 'scared' of getting one for the crew when they first became 'visible' to us human's as part of their 'helping Santa with his list making'! Seriously there are whole pages on social media devoted to Elves Gone Bad!

As a result of the shock of this 'tradition' gone wrong when the first set of kids started talking about the 'elf on the shelf' and asking would be coming I wrote a letter to the North Pole and told Santa that we would love to welcome an elf to our home to help Santa with teaching the children about the importance of spreading Christmas Cheer but that we would totally have to send an elf like the one's I'd seen showing up online back to the North Pole for some 'retraining' because we do not have time for a naughty elf that makes huge messes around the house ~ I mean sure we all slip up now and again but some of those elves are just in need of an intervention!

So our elf Ian arrived shortly after and he has been a seasonal favorite every year since ~ sure sometimes he will lack some impulse control and 'get into' an invitation that he brought while the children were having rest time but overall he is a great little role model! 

He is due to arrive today in the program once again for this year's crew to enjoy ~ as Santa already knows our crew is working really hard to be kind, gentle friends so instead of Ian being here focused on watching for when they mess up and threatening to be reporting that back to Santa as his story book implies Ian instead  brings the kids challenges for random acts of kindness and some fun holiday invitations and traditions to enjoy to help spread the message of Christmas and bring joy to others in our lives! 

The great thing about traditions such as outlined in the book is that you can make any tradition your OWN with a little bit of TWEAKING so I change up the story that came with it to be more focused on 'spreading cheer' than on not making the naughty list because I am a firm believer that when we focus on what we WANT from children than that is what will manifest verses when we focus on the negative well we end up getting more of that! 

This is our Day 1 Arrival Poem that we will read with the book when the kiddies wake up ... plus for some magic since my crew cannot 'read' yet the welcome and all the 'invitations and challenges' come on a tiny little Ian sized scroll with 'illegible squiggles' on it cause it is so tiny it magically 'unravels' to be a full size letter for me to read when you blow on it ...  children love the magic of illusion and a quick slight of hand can swap out the tiny scroll into your bigger one ~ it is just such a giggle for them! Sometimes it's those small little moments that make childhood magical for them ~ when they are still innocent and full of that kind of wonder!

As the month goes on we will share some more of this year's inspirations but if you are looking to plan ahead for your own crew with some random acts of kindness I highly suggest the following website Random Acts of Kindness Foundation as an amazing resource for ideas for both adults and kiddies  as well as I have a Pinterest board of ideas for keeping kiddies busy during the month of December that you are more than welcome to follow. 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Totallyawake4-life

Halloween Party Prep

Only a few more sleeps until Halloween ~ my other half is getting stoked and the older kids in the daycare have started to show some interest in 'pumpkins and ghosts' so we've started to play some games in the program and I have added a few 'costumes' for them to explore with including the Witches hat.

Here are two of our favorites DIY Halloween games we love to play

Witches Ring Toss 

What You Need

• Witches hat ~ we got ours at the Dollar Store
• Florist Wire
• Washi Tape

What You Do

•  Make 'circles' with the florist wire and twist the ends together to close into your ring.
• To protect little fingers wrap Washi Tape (or duct tape) around the twisted ends to keep them covered while playing.
• We used my 'yoga' mat for the play surface ... children at one end of the mat and the hat at the other end and they 'tossed' the rings trying to get them onto the point of the hat. 
• So as my crew is all under 4 at the moment so they do not need to keep score in a game ~ the game is practicing taking turns and cheering others on!However with older children you could 'score' your ring toss like you would Horseshoes based on how close their ring gets to being 'on' the witches hat.

 

 Pumpkin Toss

What You Need

•  Jack O Lantern or a Cauldron or other equally fun 'Halloween Themed' bucket
• Styrofoam Pumpkins (good ole Dollar Store) you could also use 'orange socks' or soft balls or pom poms or something else to decorate as a pumpkin

What You Do

•  Again we used our trusty yoga mat as our game surface and we tossed the pumpkins into the bucket ~ my crew is all under 4 at the moment so they do not need to keep score in a game ~ the game is practicing taking turns and cheering others on! 

 Other Ideas for Party Fun with things around the house

• Witches Limbo ~ use a broom to play Limbo game to some fun Halloween Music
• Pin the Tail on the Cat ~ make a big black cat silhouette for the wall and some 'tails'... no black paper? No worries use a washable marker on a patio door to draw your cat! When you are done wash it off! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret
Life Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Totallyawake4-life