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Welcome to 2008! In this month’s newsletter you’ll find two exciting family activities, making snowman sandwiches and snacks and creating thank you cards and gifts tags from your Christmas and holiday cards. There’s also a fun math activity, Rock Around the Clock. It helps children learn the numbers on the clock and begin to have a basic understanding of time. The Story Pyramid will be a great way for you and your grandchildren to write about an exciting event that you shared during the previous year and keep it in your memory. I had a fun afternoon with my granddaughter and my nieces decorating Bling Bags. They enjoyed personalizing their bag and they came up with some creative designs. Order a Bling Bag Kit for you and your grandaughters order a Bling Bag kit. I hope you’re able to enjoy these activities with your grandchildren. Go to my Blog and let me know how they turned out or if you have any suggestions.

Instead of throwing away your Christmas and holiday cards and leftover pieces of ribbon, recycle them into thank you notes and gift tags.
With your grandchildren you can cut out pictures from the cards and glue them on cardstock to be used like a postcard. Then send it as a thank you note. You can also make gift tags to save for next Christmas. There are many pictures on cards that can be used for tags all year ‘round.

Download Rock Around the Clock
Getting Started:
1. You will need a set of cards for each player.
2. Each player places their cards face down in a circle like the numbers on a clock. The 12 is the only card
that faces up in the 12 o’clock position.
3. The remaining cards become the “draw pile”.
How to Play:
The goal of the game it to be the first player to turn over all the cards in their clock. You do this by taking turns drawing for the draw pile and placing the card in the correct position. The card you replace goes to the bottom of the “draw pile”. If you draw a card that is already in the correct position, you skip your turn.

I had so much fun with my grandchildren making snowman sandwiches. I had 3 different sizes of circles for the kids to cut their snowman parts. I used an empty soup can, a small funnel and a lid from a peanut butter jar. They pressed the shape into the bread to make the 3 parts of a snowman. Then they spread tuna salad, peanut butter and jam on the sections. The face and buttons were raisins, olives and cashews. We also made snowmen from oranges slices. I sliced the orange and let them create their snowmen. You can also use cookie cutters and make different sandwiches throughout the year depending on the season.

Download Story Pyramid
Print out the Story Pyramid template with the lines and write a story with your grandchild about any event you shared together this past year. It could be about a birthday celebration, a holiday, a vacation, or a visit to a museum or park. If you are not able to be with your grandchild, each of you write about the same event then exchange them. It will be fun to compare. You can also print out a blank pyramid for younger children to draw pictures of the event. Be sure to have them tell you about each picture.