Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 
May this Christmas be filled with joy, peace, love and hope 
as you celebrate with your family and friends.


Thank you all for your support of Your Kids OT in this first year entering the blogging world. Thank you for reading my articles, commenting, sharing and purchasing from the shop.  I have appreciated all of your support and encouragement!


There will be lots of new content on the blog in 2015! 
Articles will resume on the 19th of January with a special link up to start a Happy New Year with Healthy Kids.  I hope you will continue to find interesting ideas, easy crafts, yummy recipes and improving photography {the last one is wishful}!

This activity is an oldie but a goodie. Do you remember doing "potato stamping" as a child?  Potato stamps are easy to organise and effective in result. Your children can make some lovely home made gift wrap that they can then give to other people in the family.  Your child will be proud of their work and your family will love the homemade touch.

What you need to do?
The preparation is best done by an adult. 

1. Use the knife to cut the potato in half.
   
2. Use the cookie cutter to press into one half of the potato.
3. Use the knife to cut around the outside of the shape.

Ready to use

1. Squeeze some paint onto a plastic plate.
2. Lay out the large sheet of paper.
3. Either press the potato half onto the paint and then onto the paper, or
4. Use a paint brush to paint the potato before pressing onto the paper.
5. Leave your paper somewhere to dry.
6. When dry, the paper makes excellent gift wrap!

This is a great activity for siblings to do together.  The stamps can be placed randomly on the page making this activity great for older toddlers and preschoolers. They will also love seeing their artwork used as gift wrap as they pass their present to "grandma", "grandpa" or any other lucky relative or friend!

Do you need some gift wrap?  Have you made your own?

I will be taking a break over Christmas and early January.  
There will be new content in 2015!

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Gingerbread houses are adorable.  Despite not a flake of snow during a Sydney Christmas, we are still charmed by snow capped gingerbread houses or villages or trees...ok let's be honest, it is probably the lollies that charm the kids!

I have to start with a confession that we did not bake these gingerbread houses. I have tried before with success for a short time and then a collapsing roof when the gingerbread seemed to give way to the heat of summer before any lollies were put on.  

I find it less stressful and just fun for the kids to find a ready-made kit from the supermarket. Over the last few years, there are more of these available and this year I was delighted to find this village kit for $10 from my local Coles supermarket. This kit included the gingerbread pieces, icing (in a piping bag) and an assortment of lollies.  We added a few of our own lollies as well.

The gingerbread village kit was easy to assemble.  I did the piping and assembly of the houses.  The kids divided up the houses and lollies and had a great time decorating. Activities like these are great for kids as there is really no right and wrong.  Miss 8 was careful with placing the lollies to create patterns and Mr 4 just picked and placed randomly.  Everything dusted with icing sugar looks good.

This little village of houses is very cute and we are really pleased with the finished product.  I wrapped the whole thing in cellophane in an attempt to keep out the creepy crawlies until Christmas. We will unwrap it on Christmas day to share with our extended family. 

Have you and your children decorated gingerbread houses?

Note: This is not a sponsored post.  I have no affiliation with Coles Supermarkets.  Comments made in this article are my own.

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Looking for more OT content?  There will be lots lot new content on the blog in 2015!  

In the meantime you can search by categories on the website.

• Bilateral coordination
  
• Cognition and Concepts
  
• Fine motor skills
  
• Gross motor skills
  
• Handwriting
  
• Motivation and Rewards
  
• Planning and Organisation
  
• Play
  
• Self Help Skills
  
• Sensory Skills
  
• Visual Perceptual skills
  

Only 2 weeks until Christmas! Have you done your Christmas shopping?  Have you finished your homemade gifts? If you are still looking for something to make as a lovely gift for a teacher, neighbour or friend...then try these simple white chocolate snowball truffles!

Your children will enjoy pouring, mixing, using the microwave and if you are braving the mess factor, they will also enjoy making the balls, dipping in the melted chocolate and rolling in coconut!

Method
1. Place the butter in a large microwave safe bowl.
2. Place 375g of chocolate melts in the bowl.
3. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for 1 minute.
4. Remove from the microwave and place the cream in the bowl.
5. Stir the mixture.
6. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds (repeat this until the chocolate has been melted and can be stirred).
7. Stir the almonds into the chocolate mixture .
8. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
9. Roll mixture into small balls and place in a single layer on a baking tray (lined with baking paper). Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
10. Place the baking tray in the fridge until the truffles are firm.
11. Place 375g of chocolate melts in the small microwave safe bowl.  Heat in the microwave for 1 minute (with additional 30 second bursts until the chocolate has melted).
12. Place the coconut onto a shallow dish.
13. Dip the truffles in the melted chocolate {I use a toothpick}. 
14. Roll the truffles in the coconut and the place on the baking tray.
15. Repeat steps 13 and 14 until all the truffles are coated with chocolate and coconut.
16. Refrigerate until firm.  
17. Store the truffles in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to eat or give away!

I'm loving the crunch of the almonds, sweetness of the chocolate and coconut covering of these truffles {and I have taste tested quite a few}.


What are your favourite truffle ingredients? 

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Christmas brings happy memories of my own childhood and I'm hoping with the things we do around Christmas time my kids will also have cherished memories.  They may not remember the decorations or even the presents they get.... it is the memories of doing things together that will hopefully last ... baking, putting up the tree, decorating, wrapping presents, an advent calendar, going to church, singing, eating  ....

Here is an easy craft to do with your kids to decorate your place!

What do you need to do?

Trace and cut out a lot of circles.  Each garland we made had 26 circles. I ended up using my craft cutter to cut out the circles as the kids were not keen on cutting out that many circles!

When you have secured all your circles and bells, you are ready to hang!  I used small 3M hooks above our fireplace to hang our pretty paper garland.  This is where we usually hang our Christmas cards and Christmas stockings.  Our Christmas tree sits to the side of this area as well! {Note: The stockings are not a fire hazard as the fireplace does not get used during a Sydney summer...in case you were wondering}.

This activity is perfect to do with your kids at home, at preschool or at school.  It will encourage fine motor skills and bilateral coordination skills in tracing, cutting and threading! Those hand muscles will certainly get a work out if they cut 26 circles! Perhaps your class could work together to make a few garlands? The one-hole hole punch pictured is also a fantastic way to build up hand strength as they squeeze it to punch a hole.

If you find yourself with extra circles, put them to use as lovely gift tags.  

Have you started decorating your place? Where will you hang your paper garland?

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Whether you are looking for Christmas props to take photos with your family this year, puppets to tell the Christmas story, some new playdough mats or some Christmas colouring pages.... this article will have you covered with 10 fantastic FREE printables!  

You will find...
1. Paper Doll Printables- Nativity and Santa's Helpers by Design Dazzle.
2. Christmas Photo props by Party Delights
3. Gingerbread Pom Pom game by Making Learning Fun
4. Christmas Tree Playdough mats by Mamas Like Me
5. Christmas Do-a-dot Activity Sheets by Crystal & Co
6. Colour-in gift tags by Brownhill Bob's Brownhill Blog 
7. Christmas Lunch jokes by Capturing Joy by Kristen Duke
8.Write a letter to Santa - A very curious class
9. Roll a Christmas Tree or Snowman (scroll down the page to find it) by Little Giraffes.
10. Christmas Colouring or scrunch paper art by Your Kids OT

These printables will bring hours of creativity and learning for your kids.  

Which is your favourite CHRISTMAS printable? 

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