All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth – Christmas book review
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
by Don Gardner
illustrated by Katz Cowley
Scholastic Australia, Gosford, 2011
Age group: preschool
With a cute monkey on the cover and the title (I sing the chorus of ‘all I want is my two front teeth’ when my kids are missing teeth!), I decided to give this book a chance.
The story
Based on the song “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth“, this book shows an unhappy baby monkey hoping for new front teeth.
My review
My reviewThis book has some very cute pictures of the monkey and his gappy mouth. It also has the added dimension of a Santa snail and a teeth police officer being in the background for children to find (note the police officer is not on every page) – in the way that Graeme Base hides images although much easier to find.
The monkey asks Santa for front teeth, substitutes a drawing of teeth for his teeth and then discovers his front teeth are regrowing – my son certainly saw a connection between the Santa request and the teeth regrowing 🙂
I wasn’t engaged or overly impressed with this book, nor was my six year old – but my eight year old was enthusiastic about having enjoyed it so maybe it’s just a matter of personal taste.
Advent calendars are up to day 14!
“Mummy, would you love a cup of tea?”
My daughter was quite excited tonight to find a teapot and mugs with a table in her Friends advent calendar. The table nicely matches the seats from last night, although the tray of cupcakes won’t fit on the table if the mugs are already there!
Following all the cooking utensils, the cupcakes and Santa’s snack, my daughter asked “why is Lego giving me a feast?” to which my son answered “Well, Christmas usually has lots and lots of yummy food you know!” So it was established that the calendar is fitting the Christmas spirit!
Meanwhile, in Lego City for day 14, a helicopter was revealed for the remote control discovered yesterday. My son is very happy with and enjoyed flying it to the top of advent calendar itself and then having the ice hockey players admire it!
If you have enjoyed reading about day 14, you can go back to day one or even read the 2015 day 14 Lego advent calendar review.
Advent calendars are up to day 13!
We’re now past half way through our advent calendars and Christmas is definitely feeling closer now…
Tonight, we discovered some chairs and a plate of cupcakes for Emma and Naomi, and a man with a remote control device in Lego City.
Remember you can read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on day 12. And if you’re interested in using a Lego advent calendar after reading our reviews, I don’t think it’s too late – the kids will just have the fun of opening lots in one go, or maybe make it two a day until you catch up. Especially as some places may have reduced the price a lot by now…
What’s cooking on day twelve in Lego calendars?
Oops – I’m a bit late with last night’s advent calendar review so apologies for that 🙂
Anyone hungry? The Friends calendar provided my daughter with an array of cooking utensils – plate, knives and forks, along with a hand mixer, frying pan and spatula. Emma was quickly whipping up dinner for Naomi and the two ice-hockey players from Lego City 🙂
Emma using Lego cooking utensils to provide dinner for friends
Over in Lego City, we’ve got a bit more Christmassy light to enjoy… An old fashioned lamp post (not the same as the one we got in last year’s calendar as this one has two lights and a circular wreath) decorated with a Christmas wreath is pretty and welcoming.
Lamps and a Christmas wreath to decorate the Lego City
Which would you prefer to have discovered behind flap twelve – the cooking things or the lamp post and wreath?
If you missed days ten and eleven nine, they are still available – in fact, every day of our Lego Advent Calendar reviews from 2015 and 2016 are online for you to catch up on at any time!
Foam Christmas decorations
My children have made Christmas decorations for the boys in their classes this year, having already made hair ties for the girls.
Foam decorations made by my children for their classmates
We used a craft kit of foam decorations which they decorated and popped into an envelope with a Christmas card.
The kids loved colouring in the ornaments, to the point that my son even coloured along the edges of some!
My children enjoyed making these ornaments (excuse the marked table they were working on!)
Foam decoration kit
The kids were excited and got into the decorating before I got photos taken so I only have shots of the kit in part!
Foam ornament kit from Art Star
The kit made things very simple and the kids enjoyed making the decorations.
The kit contains 12 foam Christmas ornaments (three each of four designs), lengths of golden string, four small textas and some glitter glue. The packet states ’embellishments included’ and there were two tubes of glue so I thought there was something else to glue onto the ornaments – it took a little while to understand it was glitter glue and that was classed as an embellishment.
The biggest issue with the kit is the size of the textas – they were cute being so small but didn’t last well enough for my kids thoroughly colouring in the ornaments and writing messages on the back. In particular, my kids used a lot of red (on Santa’s suit and other decorations) so ended up using their own textas and pens.
But you could certainly use the kit for a quick Christmas activity or as gifts like my children have done.
Days ten & eleven – Lego advent calendars
As day ten was Saturday night, I left that review until tonight so day ten and eleven are together 🙂
The Lego City advent calendar produced a girl dressed for ice-hockey on day ten – my son was very excited to see her! The girl was on the side of the box to show the size of Lego pieces so he has been expecting her…
Time for a game of ice-hockey…
While my daughter was ecstatic to put together a piano from the Lego Friends calendar – she has been looking forward to the piano as it is on the box (and I hoped it was more than just a prop on the background!). I love the fact there is sheet music and how the keys look real – it is based on a white grill piece as the white keys and the gaps look like black keys are there!
Emma at the piano
Tonight, my daughter was extremely excited to find a purple guitar on a stand – purple is her favourite colour so she loves this guitar. “And it’s even a plug-in guitar, Mummy!” Both children are now planning a Lego band with their combined instruments and musical equipment from this advent calendar.
A purple Lego guitar
My son was pleased to get a bare tree (back to the winter concept of deciduous trees) with some Christmas lights on it.
Christmas lights on a tree
Day nine
It’s Friday and we’ve done nine advent calendar flaps now – Christmas Eve is getting closer!
Keeping with the ice-hockey player from day eight, Lego City produced a stand (for want of a better word – I don’t know much about ice-hockey!) for holding ice-skates, pucks, etc beside the ice.
Lego City day nine – Ice-hockey equipment for our Lego player
Unfortunately, my daughter was not so happy with the ninth flap of the Friends calendar – in fact there were tears because it wasn’t anything Christmassy and advent calendars should be about Christmas Mummy!”
Two microphones and a turntable were behind flap nine for Emma and Naomi
I thought the turntable and microphone set was quite cute, but I agree it is not related to Christmas as such (but I never expected every day to be directly Christmas related). I guess it is hard because ice skating, fires and hot chocolate and the like are not part of our Christmas celebrations in any way – hopefully Lego will do a warmer weather focussed advent calendar next year (it’s not only Australia that is in summer!)
A turntable is an interesting choice in this digital age!
Day eight is Christmassy!
“Mum, today’s calendar is really Christmassy!”
So yelled my six year old upon opening the Friends Lego calendar this evening and finding a snack for Santa and carrots for the boomers and reindeer.
Getting a snack ready for Santa and the boomers!
Meanwhile, in Lego City advent calendar, my son found a boy with ice skates and hockey gear.
Creating an ice-hockey player!
A bit of applause for Mrs Claus – Christmas book review
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by Susie Schick-Pierce, Jeannie Schick-Jacobowitz, Muffin Drake-Policastro
illustrated by Wendy Wallin-Malinow
Naperville, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2012.
Age group: 3-5 year olds, plus earlier readers
There are many, many books and stories about Santa, but not so many about Mrs Claus. So this book seemed to have a different angle worth looking into, especially as she is getting some positive recognition through applause!
The story
It’s Christmas Eve. Only, Santa is sick so Mrs Claus has to take over so the children don’t miss out on Christmas. It is a Christmas book showing why there should be a bit of applause for Mrs Claus!
My book review
Many parents will understand how Mrs Claus feels with the number of jobs still to be done on Christmas Eve as she has a very busy night. She has to wrap gifts, cook snacks, harness up the reindeer and finish decorating all the trees. Mrs Claus even has to write a pile of letters to children to on behalf of Santa!
The book is colourful and cheery. It has a clear layout and font which helps young children read it.
[Spoiler alert!] While the story focuses on Mrs Claus, the story doesn’t damage anyone’s expectations or hopes as Santa gets better in time to do the Christmas Eve run.
Do I recommend this book? Yes, this is a nice addition to any collection of Christmas books.
We’re up to day seven of advent calendars!
Day seven and the kids had to open the calendars early today as we went to a Christmas celebration.
Do you tend to open the calendars at the same time each day, or just when you think of it? It feels right to us to do it a little before bed time so it is really counting down the sleeps until Santa arrives, but the principle applies whenever you open the flaps!
At first, my daughter was surprised to find a fireplace in the Lego Friends calendar, but then she realised you have to have a fireplace to have a chimney for Santa to come down, plus the calendar setting was cold so a fire would keep Emma and Naomi warm. The tiny instructions didn’t help with getting the fireplace together – it was beyond my six year old and I ended up making it for her.
A warm fire burning beneath and Christmas wreath
Lego City calendar, on the other hand, gave us a green wreath on a …fence? mantelpiece? building top? What do you think the wreath is attached to?
Lego City Christmas wreath
If you have missed them, you can start on day one of our advent calendar reviews, or go back to day six.
Christmas hair ties
My children enjoy making a small gift to put with a Christmas card for their classmates.
In the last couple of years, they have each made something different. But this year they are both making one gift for the girls and one for the boys.
Christmas hair ties
The girls will be getting a Christmas hair tie made by my children.
Four Christmas hair ties
We started with a packet of hair ties and some rolls of Christmas ribbon. Actually, what I used was like a hollow string rather than a ribbon, but any Christmas ribbon will look pretty 🙂
Hair ties and ribbon are all you need!
I cut the ribbon into lengths of approximately 20 cm.
Then we simply tied a piece of ribbon onto each hair tie, making the two lengths equal.
Attaching the ribbon to the hair tie
We then tied the ends into a bow.
A finished bow…
I say simple, but it was more challenging for my six year old than her brother or me – good fine motor skill practice though!
The resultant pile of Christmas hair ties is very pretty and festive! And hopefully will make a number of young girls happy when they open their envelopes.
Cards and Christmas hair ties ready to hand out at school
Other children’s craft
If you are looking for other ideas of things children can make as token gifts to classmates and the like, have a look at previous things I’ve made with my kids:
- glitter stars
- Christmas magnets
- scented sachets
- Christmas decorations
On the sixth day of Christmas…
Our Lego sets gave to us… A snow plough attachment and a little pet!
Just be glad you could hear yourself sing the 12 days of Christmas that rather than me!
So the Lego City advent calendar tonight was an attachment for last night’s machine so that we now have a snow plough and some snow!
A fire fighter driving a snow plough in Lego City.
And I think it’s sweet that there are lines on the diorama to match the
snow mobile wheels!
In the Friends calendar, my daughter discovered a small animal and a partial home for it – complete with a water bottle which is very cute.
Lego Friends gave us a cute pet!
Read all the days in the 2016 Lego advent calendars:
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- Baby’s first Christmas
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- Christmas activities
- Christmas books
- Christmas cooking
- Christmas crafts
- Christmas gifts
- Christmas humour
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- Christmas Memories
- Christmas spirit
- Christmas today
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- Green Christmas
- Happy kindness
- International Christmas
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- Christmas elf fun
- Uncategorized
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