Jessie’s January Roundup
Yes, I know. It’s supposed to be Woody’s Roundup (Toy Story 2). But we are all about Jessie in this house. Jessie was, hands down, one of Madelyn’s favorite Christmas presents (although it was a VERY close tie with the playhouse ). Given Jessie’s favored status in our house right now, I thought it might be fun to have Jessie be Mama’s helper for a while.
While scrolling through Pinterest during the Christmas season, I couldn’t help but notice all of the 101+ ideas for Elf on the Shelf. Never heard of this Christmas tradition? Neither had I until it stormed the Christmas Pinterest boards. The idea of creatively hiding elf every night in December leading up to Christmas seems like a lot of fun, but also a lot of work - especially during a season that is traditionally very busy for us. That led to the idea of doing something elf-on-the-shelf-like throughout the year (once a month is hopefully realistic for me) and using Jessie instead of Elf. The rough idea is to have Jessie appear once a month with an introduction to what we will be doing that month. So, without further ado, I give you JESSIE’S ROUNDUP for January in the Olson Household:
The obvious big-ticket item for the January Roundup is Chinese New Year’s. The other fun items on the roster this month include a trip to the beach with our friends and trips to the AC Gilbert’s Discovery Village and a bookstore at Bridgeport that benefits a Portland-area non-profit with a goal of getting a million books into the hands of kids who need them. Madelyn was pretty excited about the list and seemed to love the idea of Jessie telling her about it - so we may have a family tradition in the works - we shall see!
I tried to put one “educational” item on the list, which was learning about winter during the craft and learning projects we do at home. One of the ideas that I have already tried with Madelyn is a lesson about hibernation. To start, we watched a Sesame Street clip about hibernation and read Curious George A Winter’s Nap. Per the book’s activity suggestions, we then set about helping some of her stuffed animals to hibernate. First we fed them some almonds so that they wouldn’t get too hungry while they slept.
Then we decorated their caves with a few sparkly touches.
Finally, we helped them settle in for their long winter’s nap.
They are still there - under my desk until Spring. We also found a little Hibernation Song that Madelyn likes to start singing at the most random of times.
Another fun online find was pom pom magnets that you can easily make (even if you are non-crafty like me) and then use to teach color recognition, counting, sorting, sequencing, and dexterity skills.
We originally got the idea here. Jury is still out on how Madelyn will take to this activity. When I tried to get her to put the magnets on a 2012 pattern (found here), she was more interested in putting two pom poms together, calling it a “biscuit” and serving it to “guests.” However, when Troy tried it with her, they accomplished this:
I MIGHT have tried too hard to get Madelyn to follow the patterns, while Daddy made it into a fun game…
One other cute find of the month: Mini Boden.
Madelyn totally scored and got a Mini Boden outfit from her Great Grandma for Christmas. The outfit will certainly appear in upcoming picture posts - I’m totally in love with it and secretly wish I could wear it myself.
I also discovered that Mini Boden is having an awesome year-end sale. Unfortunately, I had already spent Madelyn’s clothing budget for the year - so I will have to remember to try to save for a few Mini Boden items at the end of next year. One end-of-the-year sale item I totally scored on though?
Converse Glitter One Stars! I have had my eye on these for Madelyn for months now - originally $25 and I got them for $8.75. Now Madelyn can start the new year with some very fashionable footwear that fits (Sadly, I have been cramming her previous pink glitter shoes onto her foot for some time now!)
Happy January Roundup!
-Tricia Olson, 2012
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