I'm so ready for Christmas.

Maybe getting up this morning and making treats for an event we're attending tonight wasn't the best way to get into "school mode". Or it may just be this Christmas party at night, schoolwork during the day lifestyle we've been living. It could also be that we are just plain ready for a break from school. Whatever it is, this feels like a long week (and it's only Monday).

To appeal to the Christmas spirit and stay in the schoolwork mode I came up with a fun learning craft for River this morning. I must admit that this wasn't my idea, I found it on the Internet last week but I have no idea where, so if you know the original creator of the idea feel free to post it in the comments and I'll add it in.

River has reached a point in his Logic of English Foundations book where he's reading real words (be still my heart!).

For this project I used the words he's been learning.

I took a piece of paper and drew lights on it (don't be jealous of my art skills, ha ha) and made as many copies as I thought we might need.



I then went through his book and copied the words he's been learning, writing them in the center of the lights in white crayon - making them invisible.


River colored the lights with watercolors from his art kit.


As he colored the word in the light would begin to appear, magically (the wax doesn't take the watercolor so the Christmas lightbulb remains white where the letters are).


This project is a great chance to reinforce words, or letters, or numbers, or adding facts, or whatever else you're working on while doing something fun - painting. Combining colors and seeing what happens creates another lesson to learn.


After River finished the page I hung it on our sliding glass door so he could continue to read the words and admire his festive holiday handiwork. As he makes more pages I'll tape them together, creating a string of word lights.


Pages that we don't complete this week he can take with him to visit other relatives. It's a great simple project that only requires watercolors and a paintbrush, so he should be able to do it just about anywhere - and it will help keep those words fresh over Christmas break.

A variation on the project ... ask the painter to find one special word that's on the page (ie - cat) and uncover the words until he finds that one. Until he finds the special word, and when he does, he'll have to sound out each of the words he does uncover (to see if they are the special word). I suggest a yummy, edible motivational prize when he finds the special word.