When We Were Young

These were my favorite games to play growing up! Read on for more classic activities of a childhood without video games

Today I was watching an episode of the Brady Bunch whilst enjoying a steaming mug of hot cocoa during this lovely Winter Vacation from school. One of the scenes cut to Peter and Bobby having a contest of who could cast a fishing line and land the lure in the target (which was a bucket). I began to think to myself how innately creative children are, and yet in modern times, their minds are not exercised to use that creativity to its full potential. A conversation that I was having with a dear friend and colleague (yes, you, Theresa!) sprang into my mind: so often children have the thinking done for them in play, that they rarely get a chance to think for themselves. With the widespread use of batteries, electronics, screens, and buttons with very specific and very limited buttons in toys, playtime is becoming less and less developmentally helpful. I'll be the first to admit, I'm a tech junkie! I'm in front of a screen more than I should be during any given day...yet I wasn't brought up that way. My creativity and brain flexibility survived, and I believe it was because of my lack of video games throughout my childhood.

Wow, that was a long rant. Anyway, this is NOT supposed to be a scholarly post, but a fun one! That Brady Bunch episode inspired me to compile all the fun games I used to play when I was little into a list for a rainy day...or a power outage! :) I remember being entertained in the same game or dramatic play literally for hours as a child...whereas these days, kids are involved with an activity for a half hour and then they're bored. Actually, that reminded me of my last (or maybe not) scholarly point: I heard on the radio recently that the heavy use of technology actually lowers attention span! Think about it: Are you on your smartphone often? When are you most commonly on your phone? Waiting in line? Commercial breaks? Dare I ask, at a red light? We are so used to being occupied by something that we, as a society, are finding it harder and harder to just do nothing. Go ahead, try to do nothing for one minute, I bet you'll want to pick up that phone after about 20 seconds.

ANYWAY here is my list, broken into categories. No more tangents for me!...Yet... :)

Wait, one tiny side-note: worried your kids won't be into it? Make it into a mini Bucket List to complete over a power outage or school vacation! Do it with them! And while you're playing with them, don't forget to act as immaturely as you acted 30 years ago ;)

Artistic
*Draw
*Paint
*Clay- For the multi-talented artist, make some salt dough so their creation can bake and then be painted
*Design clothing- so fun for your little Fashionista or Fashionisto!
*Writing songs: Let me tell you. My 3 best friends from Middle School and I were in a band. It. Was. The. Sh!+. Kathryn, Molly, Sam, and I were the Ice Girlz (obviously inspired by the genius 90s band the Spice Girls). We would take popular songs and rewrite our own lyrics to them. We wrote them, practiced them, choreographed them, and preformed them. I am shocked that we are not sitting in our Ice Girlz mansion because we were fantastic. Just saying.
*Teach your kids to crochet or knit: This just leads to MORE hours of handmade, creative fun

Dramatic Play
--These are such great ways to practice social interactions!
*Trolls!! (Thanks Jen!) Or any other action figure/doll you can think of
*Play House
*Play School
*Play Store
*Play Doctor
*Playing Salon: I mean...the possibilities are endless. M, J, and I used to play this at the No-Electronics-Allowed Yacht Club they belong to. They would give each other manicures, pedicures, hair styles, massages, and they would have done make up, I'm sure, if we'd had it there. Who doesn't love free spa treatment?! I was always ready to play salon! ;)
*Raft Game: I have no idea where I got the idea for this game, but it's a Christie Millar Original. I would spread a blanket out on the floor, get all my beanie babies and a couple pillows. The blanket would be the raft, the beanie babies: the crew, and the pillows: the cabin. We would sail stormy seas, discover uncharted islands, and go weeks without eating anything but fish! Not sure why that was such a fun game for me because in real life it sounds almost dreadful, but it was my favorite!

Indoor Movement/Outside Games
*Water gun fight: I'm not talking, let's get in a line and spray water...I'm talking military tactic, hunt you down and soak you, water gun fight.
*Bike adventures
*Red Rover
*Capture the flag
*Manhunt (Thanks Niki, Molly, Tom, and Gerri!)
*Go for walks-I feel like this was our original chat room since it was more of a social event than an exercise event
*Host your own Olympics Games (Thanks Sarah!)
*Street Hockey (thanks Dad!) or any other organized sport...but probably not taking place in the street these days, depending on what kind of road you live on.

Indoor Games
*Slinky Races (provided you have a staircase)...need I say more?
*House- wide hide and seek (this would be REALLY fun in a power outage)
*Board games- any good ol' classic board games!
*Create your own game! For example, the first game I'll create will be to upcycle a Monopoly board to Harry Potter Monopoly!

Scientific/Nature
*Building a fort
*Building SOMETHING (Legos, blocks, LINCOLN LOGS!!) Architecture at its finest.
*Making fairy houses...No! Not the kits! I mean go into your back yard and scavenge for items like a REAL fairy would do ;) No manmade materials! You need something stuck together? Get some sap. You need to tie something? I hope you have long blades of grass in your yard.
*Climbing Trees: Thrilling and an immense feeling of accomplishment! Also, good exercise :)
*Scavenger hunt
*Experiments (just please don't harm any animals!)

There are millions of other things to do, I'm sure. And if you've read this blog and you would like to contribute I ENCOURAGE you to email me, leave a comment, or find me on Pinterest and comment there.

Thanks so much for reading, and may your New Year be filled with love, health, happiness, and a good dose of creativity!

xo Christie


**Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the safety or well-being of any people participating in any of these games in their personal lives. It is a sad truth that some of these games are not as safe to play as they once were, so please be smart and safe in every choice you make!**

"I'm thankful for..." Ornaments

About a month ago, I wrote a post about different Christmas Traditions you may want to start with your family or friends. My all-time favorite on the list was the "I'm thankful for..." ornaments. It's a dual-holiday tradition, so on Thanksgiving you all write why you're thankful for each other on a strip of paper. Before you decorate your tree, make ornaments our of the papers, and you can read them aloud while you adorn your tree with so much gratefulness!

I just HAD to start it this year. Before Thanksgiving, I made this image on Photoshop:

I opened a new file, set the paper size to US Letter, and used an image of ornaments from a Google search which I then reduced the opacity. Though I used Photoshop, I'm sure you could use Word just as easily. I printed and cut them out, and on Thanksgiving, we filled ours out together.

I went to one of the craft stores near me and bought:

A pack of glass ornaments (enough to have one ornament for each participant)

Some shredded glitter snow stuff, kind of like this

Opaque paint markers

I used a piece of paper as a funnel, stuffed some snow in, and shook it around to make it stick to the sides. Then I rolled the "I'm thankful for..." paper up and put it in the ornament. These were kind of a pain because the paper flopped around a lot. Next year, I think I'll leave extra room on the paper so I can make it wider...that might stop the rolling around. I've also thought about using fishing wire to "hang" it from the opening of the ornament. Not sure, I'll have to experiment. Last, I used the opaque markers to write the year on the bottom, very important! This is how they came out:

I'm in love with them! Can you imagine...in five years, we'll have 15 ornaments of why we're thankful for one another. Now THAT is what Christmas is all about.

If you're looking for a slightly less pain-in-the-ass approach, you could just Mod-Podge the pieces of paper on to little wooden shapes you find at the craft store, paint them, glue on a ribbon, and be done with it! That would make them so much easier to read. Get creative!

TIP: If you do the craft snow, make sure a hand-vac is close by. That gets everywhere!

Hope you liked my ornaments just as much as I do. To you and yours, have the most wonderful Christmas Season!

xoChristie

Christmas Traditions

Tom and I always have super crazy holidays! Between visiting each of our parents' families, plus spending as much time with Molly, we are always go, go, go.

This year, we are going to try to slow things down to remember what the holidays are truly about: being with who you love. This led me to the idea of starting some Christmas Traditions that Tom and I can start together to continue when/if we decide to have a family together.

All of this brainstorming occurred when we were on our way home from a day trip to Maine, and we shared a lot of good ideas! Okay...mostly I shared and Tom listened ;) I loved talking about it so much, that I'd love to write it all down and share with you my thoughts. Maybe you could find something that would fit in with your family's holiday cheer!

Oh, look! Our first Christmas Tree in our first apartment! :)

Christmas Movie Marathon

-Kid Friendly (3 and up)
-Free
-Quiet
-At Home Activity 
-Easily Modified

Yes, this is one of the simpler ones on the list, but I love it! How nice does it sound to cozy up to your snuggle-bug to watch a few hours of Christmas movies actually ON Christmas? Just add some hot chocolate and cookies and you are set for a night of pure Christmas bliss! I don't know about you, but it seems that every year, Christmas comes and goes, leaving me feeling like I haven't watched a single movie. I'm so busy in the days leading up to it and surrounding it that I don't often find my tooshie planted in front of the TV for any yuletide programs. This reminds me of something I learned about Tom our first Christmas together: he'd never seen A Christmas Story!! You know, the classic that plays every Christmas Eve for 24 hours? Yup, that one. This would be a perfect tradition to start so you can always stay in touch with your favorites and welcome some new gems into your collection!!

Ahhh crockpot hot chocolate, Christmas movies, decorations, and a very helpful Molly!

Tee Shirt Making

-Crafty
-Kid Friendly (2 and up)
-Pet Friendly
-Not Expensive-Moderately Expensive
-Quiet or Boisterous
-At Home Activity
-Easily Modified

I don't know about you, but I'm familiar with the stress of "WHAT DO I WEAR ON CHRISTMAS?!" Well, you could nip that right in the bud with a homemade tee shirt tradition! A day or two before Christmas, maybe the weekend before, get together as a family to make a custom holiday tee. They can be as simple (strictly markers and paint) or creative (i.e. cutting up the tee and adding battery-powered Christmas lights) as you want!

If you have toddlers, you could use non toxic tempera paint and festive sponges or stamps for your little ones to decorate their hearts out! I just don't think you'd be able to wash it :( I'm sure you could look up the best ways for smaller children to decorate tees; I bet there's some genius mom who's figured it out!!

If you have mellow pets, make some shirts for them as well!

This tradition could be completed quietly talking among your family, or while blaring your favorite Christmas tunes!--I'll stick with the latter ;) And who says it has to be tee shirts? Maybe some year it will be jean jackets or baseball caps?! Mix it up!!

I'm Thankful for ____ Because... (Dual-Holiday Tradition)

-Kid Friendly (4 and up)
-Pet Friendly
-Semi-Crafty...don't be intimidated if you're not a crafting superstar!
-Quiet
-At Home Activity
-Not Expensive-Moderately Expensive

This is actually my favorite tradition that I'd really like to start this year. On Thanksgiving, everyone gets a small piece of paper that might look like this:

I literally made that up in 3 minutes, I'm sure you could do way better if you spent some time on it! :) Each person would fill it out, anyone needing help could, of course, have some help writing! Then you roll up the paper with the writing facing the outside, and stick it in a clear glass ornament. When you decorate the tree, you can all read why you're thankful for one another.

This would be such a beautiful tradition to keep alive over the years! Reasons we're thankful for one another change ALL the time. Plus, it would be hilarious to see what your kids write about you :) Each person could even have their own separate box that's kept with the ornaments. You could sit around the tree and read all the ornaments from over the years to each other. This tradition is truly what family and love are all about!!

A modification for this tradition could be to write your favorite moments of the year! What a way to reminisce :)

Christmas Day Photo

-Kid Friendly (Birth and up)
-Pet Friendly
-At Home Activity
-Away from Home Activity
-Free
-Quiet

This is simply what it states, take a family picture on Christmas! I would love to combine this with the tee shirt tradition! To do this in the same place would be a great way to document how your family changes and grows with each passing year. You could do a simple picture or a crazy and extravagant one. Take multiple photos and add them all to a slideshow every 5 years! There are infinite possibilities with pictures :)

Game Night

-Kid Friendly (Ages depending on game)
-At Home Activitiy
-Quiet or Boistrous
-Free
-Ability to Modify

This would be such a fun tradition to start! Infinite possibilities and laughs to be had on a Family Game night at Christmas. Options include typical board games, Christmas-themed board games, movement games (hide and seek etc), OR you creating your own Christmas Board game! Think of Monopoly...if you had an old version of the game, it would be so easy to make a Christmas Monopoly customized to your own family! The first year you start the game tradition, make your own board game, and be sure to include it in the game lineup of the following years :)

Story Telling/Reading

-Kid Friendly (Birth--yes, birth--and up)
-At Home Activity
-Away from Home Activity
-Quiet
-Free

This is quite possibly the most cliche holiday tradition; think of all the beautiful Christmas stories out there! Between The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol, plus all of the children's books out there, you will never run short of beautiful stories to share as a family. I'd love to do this tradition with my children, just to further encourage reading in all aspects of their lives. Remember, it's never too young to begin reading with your children, and that's why it says from birth! How amazing would it be to watch your children be able to read more and more as the Christmases pass by?

Yes, I'd probably end up reading Harry Potter to my kids every Christmas...and every other night of the year ;)

Imagine story time around this beauty!

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The following traditions are those that my friends submitted to me via my Facebook page

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Sarah's Ornament and Stocking Making

-Kid Friendly (Birth and up)
-Pet Friendly
-At Home Activity
-Quiet
-Not expensive

Here is how Sarah describes this tradition in her family:

Whenever we have a new addition to the family, be it a new baby or a new pet or a new spouse, everyone gets an ornament made of their name. Solid color glass ball with the name written in glue and covered in glitter. We even make multiples so everyone has a "name ball" for Gramma's tree and our own! Same with stockings, making these are a big deal in our family and it's our way of inducting "newbies" to the family. :)

Thanks, Sarah! I imagine it gives a real sense of love and unity when you see all of your names on the tree and mantle. :)

These are ornaments I made of all our names last year. Simple clay recipe with watercolor paint, and you're good to go!

Trista's Burning of the Wish Lists

-Kid Friendly (3 and up)
-At Home Activity
-Free
-Quiet or Boistrous

Here is what Trista has to say about one of her family's traditions:

My family and I burn our wish lists outside every Christmas Eve and we go to bed straight after. The burning of the list is how the list gets to Santa (by the smoke, its magic) its also how he knows you've gone to bed. Everyone in my family does this no matter where we are in the world, so even when we are apart we still have something that brings us together.

What a wonderful tradition to start, especially if there are people who travel a lot in your family! I adore the magic piece, and what a clever way to get the kids to bed ;) Thanks, Trista!

Is this fire too big? I didn't think so!

Another burning tradition: The Burning of the Tree!

Marge's Running of the Bare Feet

-Kid Friendly (to the discretion of the parents)
-At Home Activity
-Weather Permitting
-Pet Friendly
-Free
-Boisterous 

My dear friend, Marge, shared with me quite possibly one of the most unique and out-of-the-ordinary traditions I've ever heard. I love it!

We run around the house in our bare feet in the snow and thaw them out in front of the fireplace. My father was a strange man.... It was great fun!

Marge, your dad sounds fun and fancy-free to organize that beautiful memory! Definitely a good tradition for the more adventurous families. Thanks so much, Marge!

See? It IS pet-friendly!

This might be a wee bit too deep...

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Writing this post has certainly pushed me head-first into the Christmas Spirit! I'm just itching to begin these traditions with my family, and I hope my friends and I have inspired you to try something new, also.

Thank you from the bottom of my jolly heart for reading! As always, email or comment any questions you have. If YOU have some great holiday traditions that you think I should include, please let me know and I will add yours in!

All the best to you and yours.

xoChristie




*Disclaimer: All of my age suggestions are just that, SUGGESTIONS! I am not responsible in any way for the safety of your children while practicing these traditions. Have a safe holiday season!

Freezer Paper Tutorial

This is my first video tutorial!! I really hope you guys like it. 

 

xoChristie

Harry Potter Club

Hello friends! Today was the last day of my Harry Potter Club at school. There were 6 weeks of Potter fun; I loved it so much, that I really want to share with you all the activities we did.

Before this session of After School Activities, I came up with a list of things I wanted to do. I was also lucky enough to get a bit of funding from the program to buy some supplies I needed. I knew I wanted to make wands, make HP tee shirts, play some Potter Pictionary, Jeopardy, Charades, and watch a movie. Read this post to see how I did it!

Timeline

Week 1: Begin making the wands (tutorial here!)
            Pictionary
Week 2: Paint the finished wands
            Charades
Week 3: Harry Potter tee shirt making with freezer paper stencil (tutorial here)
            Charades and Pictionary
Week 4: Tee-Shirt touch up/finish up
            Jeopardy
            Vote for movie
Week 5: First half of movie
Week 6: Second half of movie
            Special snack!

Pictionary and Charades

The Pictionary and Charades were SO easy to do. Ahead of time, I wrote out Harry Potter words on pieces of paper and put them in a little bin for the kids to pick from. Even if the same cards were chosen in both games, different things happened and it was very entertaining.

One of the cards said Fred and George Weasley and one of my kids asked me to help. She wanted to play the scene where the twins put their names in the Goblet of Fire, turn into old men, and start fighting. Of course, there was no real violence involved in our portrayal, and it was absolutely hysterical! The other kids guessed right away. I lucked out with some real HP experts for my first session!

Jeopardy

The Jeopardy Game lasted about 15 minutes, I was shocked! Next time I would do much harder questions but most of the kids were in 4th grade, so I didn't want to make them too difficult. I underestimated them for sure! HERE is the link for the game. Bear with me, this is the first time I've shared a PowerPoint, and I'm not sure how it will work. There SHOULD be links set up so you just have to click the box with the amount of points to go to that specific question for that category. PLEASE let me know if it is not working right, I want to fix it so you can use it. I believe if you just download it, all the slides should work the way I intended.

BE WARNED! One of the questions has the wrong answer because I forgot to edit it. (When I was making the game, it was easier to make one slide with the proper edits and animations, copy and paste the whole slide a bunch of times, and then just change the words in the questions and answers, but I missed one!)

Freezer Paper Stencils

Here are some of the awesome freezer paper stencil tee shirts!! *Note: Not everything was done as a stencil, as the kids were free to add to the shirt after they stenciled

An awesome Death Eater and Dark Mark shirt by one of my Slytherin kids

A blue Phoenix

Black Dementor

This girl is an amazing artist. The bottom right is the sweetest and most adorable cartoon dragon, but I didn't get a picture of the finished product

Harry Potter and a Lightening Bolt

The Harry Potter logo

The Movie

Most of my kids were in the 11-12 range, so I wanted to keep it as kid-friendly as possible. We all know that there is much more killing and violence as we progress through the series so I let them pick between the first three films. The majority voted for the Prisoner of Azkaban! It was all well and good until this line happened: Marge: "If there's something wrong with the *****, then there's something wrong with the pup!" WHOOPS! Forgot about that little tidbit. It was okay. I just reminded them that this is British language and the context wasn't intended as a swear (I explained this in Kid Words, of course). They were quite mature about it!

The Last Day

The last day was low-key. We watched the second half of PoA and we split this beauty:

I kept it simple; just a Stop and Shop brownie square that I decorated with pre-made Betty Crocker icing. The kids loved it, and of course they all fought over who got the Lightening Bolt!

All in All

I really loved this club. I would do it all three sessions a year if they let me! I had so much fun with the kids, and seeing a younger generation appreciate Harry like I always have gives me solid confidence that it will be around for years and years to come.

As always, thanks for reading!

xoChristie

Magic Wand Tutorial

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for the terrible quality of pictures. The only camera I had available was my phone, which has an awful blue-ish tinted flash. Again, I'm sorry and I hope it's not too unbearable!

I made these with the kids in my Harry Potter Club and they really loved it! It kept them busy and I liked that I did it in the early weeks because it gave them a chance to talk and get to know each other while they were gluing and doing the papier mache.

I did not come up with the idea for this on my own. I looked up a bunch of tutorials and I modified each of them and combined them in my own way. Unfortunately, I don't remember which ones I used but if I find them, I will put a link in this post to the blog sites.

Here are the materials you will need.

BBQ Skewers
Pipe Cleaners (aka Unicorn Hair, Dragon Heartstring, and Phoenix Feather etc)
Glitter (aka Magic Dust)
Newspaper (one full sheet and a good amount of strips
Tape
Papier Mache mixture (I believe I used 1 part water : 2 parts glue)

Next you want to tape two or three skewers together with a Magical Core!

Roll it up in the FOLDED sheet of newspaper. (You know how a FULL sheet is technically 4 sections? I just used HALF (two sections) folded into one section...if that makes sense.

Don't forget to add some Magic Dust and recite an incantation!

Fold the ends of the newspaper over until the crease is just about at the ends of the skewers. We don't want any flimsy ends to our wands!

Now we begin the papier mache. Just dip and wrap! Feel free to let the strips of paper soak while you're working on your wand.

I wrapped the strips all in the same direction so when you smooth it out, it doesn't smooth in some parts and wrinkle in others. Remember, from here on out, it's totally up to the Wand Maker! If your little witch or wizard is not following this exactly, please don't try to micromanage. Just let the tyke be and see what comes of it. Certainly, however, provide help when it's requested!

See how the left side is thicker than the right? The left is where my handle is going to be. (Note, I did let it dry over the bowl in between coats. I believe it's easier to do a little at a time so it has time to dry...then the wet stuff is easier to work with when it's not a huge sloppy, gloopy mess.)

Just keep working it until...

BOOM! Ollivander status.

Now for the bad news. I don't know where the picture of my final product is! I painted mine all brown (dark for the handle, light for the rest), added some silver glitter accents, and dipped it for a silver glitter tip (to look like Lumos!)

For the good news. Here is a picture of some of my kids' wands! They came out great!! My favorite thing, though, is that no child's wand is the same or even remotely similar to another's. Make sure you have a variety of paint and other decorating supplies you can think of so the Wand-Maker-in-Training can exercise full creativity! Aslo, don't forget that NO TWO WANDS ARE THE SAME!

These are the FAB wands my kids at the club made! I love how distinctive they all are!

This Bad Boy is mine! 

I hope you liked this tutorial and I HOPE you will make some wands with your fellow Potterheads.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow me on Pinterest!

xo Christie

Scratch Ticket Bouquet

Hello my friends! Today I'm going to show you how to make a Scratch Ticket Bouquet! My mom looooves her scratch tickets and I end up getting her some for almost every holiday or occasion. I wanted to spice it up a little bit this year and made this:

My inspiration from this project came from this post of a Nip Bouquet (I also have a picture of one I made that I will put up at the end of this tutorial)

Here are your materials: 

- 2 bags of craft sand

- Small tin bucket (found mine at Michael's for about $3

- BBQ Skewers

- Clothes pins from the dollar store

- Acrylic paint (works best on the skewers and clothes pins)

- Glue gun

- Paint brush

- Ribbon

- Scissors

Fill the tin with as much sand as you see fit. I wanted to make sure the "stems" of the "flowers" would stay up so I put about a bag and a half

Not Shown/Optional: Break the skewers...this depends on the size of the bucket and how many scratch tickets you are putting in the bouquet. Just use your judgement. You could break them so they stagger in length, but I just bought different sizes of tickets.

Anyway, whether you broke the skewers or not, you hot glue the non-broken end to the side of the clothes pin that you would pinch to open or close it.

After you've glued them, recruit your boyfriend who is SUCH a good sport ;-) and have him paint the stems. Nice job, Tom!

Now you get to put them in!

I started with the biggest ones and put them toward the back of the bucket

Voila! 

Don't forget the finishing touch!

There you have it. Your own little Scratch Ticket Bouquet! Definitely better than flowers ;-)

Don't worry, I didn't forget! As promised, here are a couple of pictures from my sister's 21st Birthday Nip Bouquet I made for her this week!

If you decide to make one of these instead of the Scratch Tickets, MAKE SURE you use extra skewers! I DID stagger the length this time and I used 3 on each nip. Don't be stingy or your nips will fall over and they will not look good.

Uhh, this apple pie liquor is delicious, just saying.

Did you notice I just re-used the tin and ribbon from my mom's? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, people!!!

That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading. I have a very special post coming within the next few days...and guess what? It is my long-awaited first post that has everything to do with Harry Potter! Very exciting stuff, folks, so stay tuned!!

xo Christie