25 Days of Christmas Chain

I am a list-maker. I have them all over the house. I have a running Grocery List, a Weekly Dinner Plan List, a "To-Do" List, and a Weekly Expenses Accrued List. And now that it's the Christmas season, I have Christmas lists.....those for whom I wish to buy things for, things Ethan would like to have/need, things I would like to have/need, Christmas card list and so on. So.....what's a few more lists........

Recently, my girl friends and I have been thinking of doing Random Acts Of Christmas Kindness with our children. Now that our kids are getting older & more aware of Christmas, we want to teach them, not only the real meaning of Christmas, but also about giving to others...not getting for ourselves.

So, what did I do? I MADE A LIST!!!!! LOL!!!!! I made a list of 25 days of Random Acts of Kindness. Then, when I talked it over with my husband, we realized that it was going to be a bit too expensive for us to do something everyday for 25 days......so I MADE ANOTHER LIST! We listed everything that we already had on our calendar, then things we wanted to do with Ethan during the Christmas season, added our favorite Random Acts of Christmas Kindness ideas, and then filled in the gaps with little fun things for Ethan. When we finally had a good balance of each thing, I made a simple construction paper chain....and Ethan gets to rip off one chain a day.....and we do that activity.

Here is our 25 days of Christmas paper chain. As of today, we are on day 8.

As you can see.....there is also a list beside the paper chain. This list is actually NOT for me. It is for Ethan. While learning about autism, we have discovered that having a visual schedule could help Ethan. We have had several of them, but they have all included pictures AND words.  But this visual list, does NOT have any pictures on it?! And here begins my learning experience this week........

When I introduced our 25 Days of Christmas Chain to Ethan, he LOVED it....and wanted to do more than one link a day. We would rip a paper link off, do that activity, and then Ethan would say, "NOW we can do another color." I kept telling him we would do another one tomorrow.....but he kept asking. This went on for a couple of days, and it would always lead to a very frustrated Ethan. But how do you explain a concept like "tomorrow" to a 3 year-old.....I was thinking about ditching the whole thing.

But then something happened. This past Monday morning, as most Mondays go, it was chaos when trying to get me & the 3 kids out the door for school. I forgot at least 3 things....arg. So, Tuesday morning, I grabbed my Crayola Window Markers (which also work on mirrors), and I made a quick list on my entryway mirror.

Yet another list in my house, but the kids are the ones who are enjoying it the most! And, yes, my coffee is that important! LOL!

After I made a quick list, with the help of my 5 year-old nephew, a magical thing happened. I was no longer having to frantically get us out the door without Ethan having a meltdown due to.....well.....to the loudness of me getting 3 kids ready! Instead, the kids suddenly had the power! They would put on their shoes, their coat & get their book bag without me having to tell them what is next.....Ethan could just read it on the list! They were shutting off lights before I even had my coat on! This morning, my nephew brought me my coffee tumbler from the kitchen as I was putting on my shoes! This thing is MAGICAL!!!!!!

Well, as I said before, we have also been doing our 25 Days of Christmas Chain. One of the things I was really looking forward to doing with Ethan was writing a letter to Santa. My step-mom got Ethan this really cute stationary set a couple of Christmases ago, and I couldn't wait to use it! So, this past Monday, we wrote a letter to Santa.....and Ethan LOVED IT!!!!!

As you can see, I would write a little bit, and then we would hand-over-hand write the words he would tell me. After a few sentences, he really got the hang of it. He was dictating to me at the speed I was writing. So his speech was very slow......this is hard to describe, but it was very similar to this you tube video except Ethan would draw out his words. It was so much fun! He was excited....and so was I!!!!

So....all of these "lists" made me think of a way to help Ethan understand "tomorrow". So....we made one more list....and Ethan dictated the whole thing. He was asking for "another color" as soon as he would get out of bed. So, we made our daily steps leading up to the 25 Days of Christmas Chain.

Step 1 - Go To School
Step 2 - Come Home
Step 3 - Eat Lunch
Step 4 - Put Niece Down For A Nap
Step 5 - Pick Another Color on the 25 Days of Christmas Chain

I didn't think these lists would work because there were NO pictures. But, duh, Ethan can read! So, it is working GREAT! When he wakes up in the morning, he goes to the piece of yellow construction paper, reads it, and then is ready to start his day! No more meltdowns over this thing that was supposed to be fun! YEAH!

Want to know our 25 Days of Christmas Paper-Chain Activities? Here's the list!
1. Help a friend decorate for Christmas
2. Send Christmas cards (Ethan put the stamps on the envelopes....it's like playing with stickers!)
3. Breakfast At The Manger
4. Ethan's Church Christmas Program & Riders In The Sky Concert
5. Write a letter to Santa
6. Make gift name tags (Ethan picked out the name tags for each person & is writing his name on them....a couple a day....we have a lot of people in our family!)
7. Color a Christmas picture
8. Watch a Christmas cartoon
9. Drive around looking at Christmas lights & give an award to the best decorated house
10. Make cookies for church's cookie social
11. Go visit Santa & take him a gift....he has been working hard too, you know!
12. Play with a new Christmas toy (Drug stores have the best little holiday toys, and Ethan loves them!)
13. Donate food to the food pantry
14. Make gift bags
15. Give the mail carrier/trash collectors their Christmas gifts
16. Make our teachers' gifts
17. Christmas with out-of-town relatives
18. Take Christmas gifts to church
19. Letter from Santa arrives!
20. School Class party
21. School Pajama Day
22. Christmas craft
23. Christmas movie at the theater
24. Take a gift to the gas station attendant who is working on Christmas Eve
25. Happy Birthday Jesus! Sing Happy Birthday & eat some breakfast cake!