Christmas Gift Ideas for Moms

Christmas Gift Ideas

This is my list of ideas for MOMS! Moms always come last, huh?  I meant to have this list updated over a week ago but life got in the way.  In case you missed my other posts, here are links: Gift Ideas for Tots, Preschoolers, & Boys. I link to everything where I find the best online price {most of the time it is Amazon}. Most links are affiliate links, some are not {if I am not affiliated with the particular company}. If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, you give back a percentage to our family…thanks!  

Gift-Ideas...moms_thumb Books

Little Stuff

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  Gadgets

  • Laminator {everyone knows how much I love this, right?} I use these pouches.
  • iPod Dock {we use ours for school, we have this exact one but got ours at Target, it’s a bit pricey (it was a gift) but I bet a less pricey model would be equally as wonderful!}
  • Label Maker {don’t know how I lived so long without one-got ours and get our refills at Costco}
  • Cuisinart Hand Mixer {oh how I LOVE this little gadget}
  • Clarisonic Mia ~ I used a gift card and got one of these about 6 months ago and am SO glad I did!  I LOVE it!

image116 image113 image114 image115 Clarisonic

The BIG Gift {just in case Santa still visits any of you}

iPad  The best price I have seen for iPads is straight from Apple’s site, we have a refurbished iPad 2 and got it for $349, but have seen the iPad 2 WiFi 16G as low as $319! The refurbished stock varies, so you have to check back to get what you want!

Canon Digital Rebel {I personally own the 40D, but the rebel is the best starter dSLR} I get asked a lot about which model of Rebel is best. Honestly-if this is $your first dSLR, the lower priced model is great. If you can afford the higher priced model-go for it. BUT-it is not necessary. That is my personal opinion and I know others may disagree. I say the price difference isn’t worth it unless you have future professional plans-and then you’d more than likely move beyond a Rebel anyway. I don’t own either but have seen both and used older models of both.

Photography Stuff…

  • 50mm lens {if you like the blurred background and the ability to shoot in lower light without a flash, you want this lens!}
  • See all of my photography info here in my Behind the Scenes ~ Photography post
  • A great photography book is: Better Photo Basics, I have a few and this one is my favorite for beginners.
  • A Light Scoop is an inexpensive way to soften fill flash light indoors, I have one and use it in my schoolroom for most of my blog photos that are taken indoors.
  • Vitamix ~ I got mine from Costco about a year ago and I can’t believe I waited so long!  We use it almost daily, mostly to make healthy smoothies.  It is about the only way I can ensure green veggies get into Ladybug! Here’s a post sharing what I usually put in our green smoothies.
  • Keurig Since my husband and I like different coffee, a Keurig has been a lifesaver!  This is our 2nd one, the first one lasted about 2 years.  We upgraded to the deluxe model and got it along with a bunch of K Cups at Costco a few months ago for 149.99.
  • Dyson Vacuum {we own this exact one, the DC25 and we ordered ours from Amazon about two years ago. We LOVE it and yes it is all that. I hesitated for years to spend the $$ but I am so glad we saved up and finally got it!}
  • Projector ~ we got this for our schoolroom and watch all of our school PowerPoint shows on it, it also shows our Wii and DVD player. It is wonderful!

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Vitamix Keurig


 

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Tot School ~ Letter Z

~ Ladybug is 43.5 Months Old ~Tot-School_thumb3_thumb_thumb_thumb_


Animal-ABC-Button62222 

Z is for Zebra! I can’t believe we are done with our Animal ABCs! This program was perfect for her and we had a blast going through the alphabet together and exploring animals and the letters and sounds. I am already gathering our materials to begin again with letter A through Raising Rock Stars Preschool starting in January!

She loves digging through it her letter basket!Tot School-4946

Alphabet Soup set, ABC peg set, Magnetic Letters, Ladybug Alphabet Puzzle, many zebras – even Ziggy from All About Reading, and more!Tot School-5004

See more about letter baskets here!

The printable items shown below are all available here on the Animal ABCs webpage. {files are released for free when they are posted on the Totally Tots blog for the ABC feature, letter Z  is not free yet, but it will be}

Coloring zebras…Tot School-4982

She wanted to put stickers all over her letter craft this week!Tot School-4972

Here’s my Pinterest boards that might be helpful, Zebra Theme, and Z is for…

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We are back to doing All About Reading Pre Level 1 once a week. I am not expecting mastery from Ladybug, just using this program as a way to expose her to the Big Five Skills.

Our final upper case letter in All About Reading, letter Z!  She drew stripes on the zebra and the letter Z.Tot School-5002


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We are using the Jesse Tree Calendar Cards, eBook and ornaments and even though the reading is over her comprehension level, she is loving it!  She always loves putting the calendar cards up!Tot School-4980

We are using Truth in the Tinsel printable ornaments this year and also hanging up the crafts we made last year.  She also loves hanging these every day!Tot School-4942

My little book worm, she is OFTEN found like this!Tot School-4995

Or like this, peeking in when Krash is reading to me for his school!Tot School-4963


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Ladybug’s week on Instagram {I am using Printsgram to make the layout for the week!}

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We are 1plus1plus1 on Instagram, follow us here!


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A Few Popular Tot Posts…

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Busy-Hands-Play-Dough-Box2222Printable-Theme-Packs12222Where-to-Begin-with-Tot-School2222Following-the-Lead-of-the-Child12222iPad-Easy-Readers42222Tot-School-Printables42222

See the Tot School webpage here!Tot-School-early-learning-through-pl[1]

  • New to linking up here? Read this first! Basics: write a specific post about what you did with your tot, link up the permalink from your post, link back to Tot School within that post, put your tot’s age in months in ( ) like this: (43 months).

Christmas Guest Posts

I don’t normally guest post, it is a once or twice a year thing for me.  It just so happens that 2 of the times I said yes this year are both articles that are up right now on 2 of my favorite sites! 

The first post I wrote was for the What’s in the Bible Blog, and is about homeschooling during the holiday seasonIMG_7710

 

Jenae from I Can Teach My Child invited me to guest post for her series on Favorite Family Traditions.  You can see my post about our tradition of giving here!

Christmas Alphabet Mazes

Christmas Letter Mazes

My ABC Letter Mazes are one of my most popular downloads so I figured many of you would enjoy a Christmas version!  I changed things up a bit and made these with dots, but the concept is the same; follow the letters through the maze!  There are 13 different mazes, featuring different images and letters.

Christmas Letter Mazes Jesus Christmas Letter Mazes tree

Download Christmas ABC Mazes Here!

If you find a mistake on these, let me know, we haven’t used them yet!


See the original Letter Mazes here, and ideas for how to use them!


Looking for more Christmas fun?

Christmas Printables and More

Animal ABC ~ Lowercase Letters

Animal abc lowercase letters

I have a bonus for all of you who have purchased the Animal ABC Bundle!  I created a separate lowercase letter set, with all new animals! 

Why new animals? Because Ladybug loves animals and half of the fun with this is exploring the animals and not just the letters, so I thought 26 all new animals would capture her interest!  We will be using these after we finish the uppercase set, when she begins RRSP, I will add them in. We will also be entering into the second half of All About Reading Pre, which focuses on lowercase letters.

You might giggle at some of the animal choices I made, finding a 2nd animal for each letter was a bit challenging!  I wrote in the name of the animal on the main letter page in case you are a bit clueless!  Also ~ I usually use short vowel sounds but in the case of letter e, I chose an eagle, since the other choices for e weren’t good images. A few of my more interesting animal choices ~ v-vervet monkey, q-quokka, n-nightingale, z-zebra finch, y-yorkie {dog}.

I hope you have fun with these ~ they are ONLY available as a bonus for people who have purchased the Animal ABC Bundle for now!  I will add them to my Teacher’s Notebook Shop later!

This set contains…

display letters

Lowercase Animal abc

 

blank lowercase letters, full page

Lowercase Animal abc

 

animals to cut out and glue on finished project

Lowercase Animal abc


Feeling a tad bit uncreative with the artsy side of these?  Check out “Ideas for Using Animal ABC Letter Crafts” and get your artsy juices flowing!

Ideas for Using ABC Letter Crafts


If you have already purchased the Animal ABC Bundle, you will need to go back to the private webpage {link in your original email} and download this new add-on!  If you lost the link, just email me with your PayPal email address and I can resend your original email!

If you have not purchased Animal ABCs yet but would like to, you can read more about it and other items I sell here!