Teacher Christmas Gift: DIY Crayon Wreath

Trying to come up with an original, heartfelt teacher gift can be tough.
Here's a fairly easy, super thoughtful craft that would look great hanging in the classroom.
A Crayon Wreath.

It's colorful and you can add any cute, personalized kid art.

This particular wreath has two wooden embroidery hoops (6 and 10 inch),
two and a half 24 pack crayons, some ribbon, a few wooden shapes and plenty of hot glue.

I made one of these last year for his preschool teacher and gave it as an "end of the year" gift.
I basically used the same technique, with a few minor changes.
This time I tied the ribbon that would be used to hang the wreath to the actual hoop.  Last year I hot glued it.  Ryder colored the wooden heart, added his name and picked out the apple and owl to personalize it.
Definitely lay out all the crayons first to make sure they are straight and you have enough.  I had to dig in to our reserves, as I only bought two boxes.  Luckily I had some unused ones on hand.
And be careful not to touch the tip of the hot glue gun to the crayon wax. I learned the hard way that the color will transfer to anything else it touches.
It came out great and I know she will love it!  
I think rulers and/or pencils would be cute too.  Maybe next time.....

Also, here is what I did this year....Teacher Christmas Gift: Cookies in a Jar
I will happily answer any questions, so feel free to fire away...

Update September 2014:
My sister in law got a new job as a guidance counselor at an elementary school.  What better gift to spruce up her office?!  So I made another.  ;)

 

 

 

They are all over the web now so I got a few tips and added some accessories. Perfect!

Our very first kindergarten parent teacher conference

Ryder.  He's such an amazing child.
As a baby Ryder was very needy.  As in, always "needing" attention, always wanting to be engaged in an activity with another person and always wanting to learn.  He is still like that.  He loves to interact and share his findings and information.  He is constantly memorizing names of creatures and habitats. Whether he's learning about ocean animals or fictional moshlings, it's amazing to see his little brain stock piling all the information in front of him.
He started playing on the computer when he was two.  And back then it was mostly playing.  I would have to sit with him and navigate the pages.  He quickly caught on to the mouse and playing simple games on websites like pbskids and nickjr.  By four years old he was pretty much self sufficient.  Occasionally he needed a parent to read a tidbit or two, but that was it.  Words like 'log in, scroll down, click, website and .com' were in his everyday vocabulary. 
He would sit and listen to as many books as you would read.  Sometimes 4 or 5 in a row, fully attentive the entire time.  It's quite remarkable.  Now with a few months of kindergarten under his belt, he's learning to read.  I believe his desire to play all the computer and nintendo ds games on his own motivate him more.  I can hear him sounding out words from the other room on his own without being prompted.  It makes me so so proud.  Words cannot really justify the feeling, Like a peacock all puffed up showing off his feathers, that's how I feel.
Math seems to come easy as well.  I think all the sesame street and nick jr helped jump start this as well.  The basic sorting and counting that they are covering now are things Elmo and Mickey have been teaching him for years.
But there's nothing like getting the conformation from his kindergarten teacher.
As parents we think he's the smartest, funniest and best kid EVER!  When the teacher has nothing but great things to say, the proud parent feathers totally puff out.
Not only is he one of the top of his class, but he's polite, stays still and attentive and shares lots of stories with the class. 
Two stories in particular stood out with his teacher, Mrs. Pena.
One was a story about a mother chimpanzee taking care of a wound on her young.  The story was great, because Mrs. Pena was having a teacher observation day and the subject matter was animal families.  Ryder's story was relevant and in full detail.  Good job, buddy!
The second story was also relevant and quite comical to the entire class.  They were talking about firemen and their jobs.  Ryder shared the story of a time before his second birthday, when he got a potty training toilet seat stuck on his head.  Danny was working over an hour away so my mother and I had to call the fire department to help get it off.   He remembered all the details.  From describing the seat to the fire truck.  What I remember most is that as soon as the seat came free, Ryder looked up with a tear streaked face and in the cutest tiniest, voice said, "Thank you, Mr. Fireman."

I asked how hard of a time she has getting him to sit still and stay that way.  She said, "Ryder?  I never have to remind him to sit down or stay still.  He's so well behaved.  If I could I would take him home with me."   I couldn't believe it.  He's so active, constantly dancing around.  But now it makes more sense....all day he holds all that energy in.  He's focused and engaged.  When he gets home he's got a lot to release.  (A LOT)
We also learned that he is loved by the upper class kids, teachers and staff. 
In a nutshell our first ever parent teacher conference was a smashing success.  Our oldest boy is shining like the sun.
We are thrilled for him and love him so so much.
Keep up the good work buddy!  You're the best!
 And you gotta love those huge school picture smiles. :)  "Say Cheese!"

Summer summer time

Well, it's been a while since I've caught up with the blog.
Lots of big things have and are happening.
We moved, went on vacation and Ryder starts kindergarten on Monday.  It's been a whirlwind kind of month.
We are just about all settled in our new house.  We just need a few shelves in a few necessary places and I can get the last of the boxes unpacked.  The boys now share a bedroom and have a playroom.  I'm so thrilled with the playroom.  It's one of the spaces that is in serious need of shelves...but it will be a designated area just for them.  A place were they can make a mess and I won't have to worry about cleaning it up every night.  A place were they can watch Disney Jr, PBS kids or Nick Jr, without monopolizing our TV.  It's going to be just glorious.  And the bedroom will stay nice and organized.  So Thrilled.
The Hubs totally liquidated garage items, so he can also be organized and have a "man cave" aka garage all to himself.  My big space will be our closet, we are getting new shelving put it and I think it's going to be fantastic.  I love the idea of being so organized.  Let's just hope we stay on track. This house is a scosh bigger,but definitely doesn't have nearly the amount of storage space.  You don't realize how much junk you can shove away until you are forced to pull in out and shove it into a smaller space.  When I say junk, I mean junk.  I have no idea why I was storing/saving all that stuff.  We had a yard sale and called the local charity and I immediately feel lighter on my toes.
The new house is great.  It's super light, bright and airy, very exciting.

In the middle of the moving, we went on vacation.  Our destination was Panama City Beach.  It's the perfect middle spot for my parents and I to meet for a vaca.  It rained more than we would have liked, but we had a blast anyway.  It gave us all some very much needed R&R.  Not to mention, that the beaches up in the panhandle are stunning.  The water really does have an emerald color.  All the boys (baby, Ryder and Hubs) loved it.

There's my parents.  As you can see my Dad is very, very cool. ;)

Your classic beach photo, although I forgot to add my ice cold Miller Lite in the shot.

Daddy and baby catching some ZZZ's on the breezy balcony.

The Ryderman is not really into the photos these days, too much fun to be had.

We did have to go up and down to avoid a few of these bad boys.  They roll in fast.

So, in the mix of moving and vacation, we have been trying to prepare for kindergarten.  Although Ryder went to Pre-K last year every day for 3 hours a day, he's very, very skeptical and nervous about kindergarten.  I think with a new baby, a move and now real school, it's just a lot for the little guy.  We are trying to vocalize all the feelings and thoughts to help him transition.  How all kids get nervous on the first day, maybe even the teachers.  How much fun he's gonna have meeting new friends.  How excited he is to learn to read (and get the prizes for his progress).  How it's Ok to miss your family while at school. How big he's getting. How proud we are.  Ya know, the usual big deal stuff involved in a 5 year old life.  I know it's all gonna work out just fine, but I do feel bad for the little guy.  He's so emotional and loving, big changes are a big deal to him.

The Meat has been a handful.  He is in full swing crawl mode....and he's fast.  Hence the no blogs, I only have time to chase him around and pull him off the dog.  He totally loves the dog, it's like an obsession.  The fur, the paws, the tail, it's all so mesmerizing.

He's eating real food along with cereal now and loves it.  His living up to his name and lets you know (very loudly) when it's time to eat.  We eat often, so it's pretty much always loud, unless there is a nap.

I'm hoping to keep a photo record of the before and after of the changes and additions we will be working on in the near future.  I'm also hoping that I'll have the time to document it in blog form.  Kindergarten will keep one busy, but I have a feeling the other one is going to take advantage of the one on one time and become even more mobile.
Maybe I'll finally shed that extra weight he helped me put on.  ;)