Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

A Very Long Search for a Pumpkin in a Pumpkin Patch

October 17, 2012 By Deirdre

After the children in JDaniel’s preschool class had the parts of a pumpkin and the rules for holding a pumpkin explained to them, the headed into the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin to take home.

The lady giving us the farm tour said to search for just the right pumpkin for you. When you found it, you were to stand by it with your hand up and someone would come across the pumpkin patch and cut it off the vine for you.

Searching the Pumpkin Patch

Some of the children barely made it into the field when they found the pumpkin they wanted. The lady came over and snipped the vine and they hustled out of the field to wait for the others to pick theirs.

If they had known how long that wait would be, they might have might have stayed in the field a little longer. The early pumpkin pickers ended up having to wait quite awhile for the others to find theirs. Soon few more children found their pumpkins and some kept looking and looking. Just an average pumpkin wasn’t going go home with them.

More and more of the class picked their pumpkins, raised their hand, had their pumpkin’s stem cut, and headed out of the field. Still there was one little boy who had to keep looking.

Despite my questioning whether it was possible to have passed the ideal pumpkin, he keep looking and looking.

“Are you looking for a small pumpkin or a large one?” I asked. He simply shrugged his shoulders and kept looking.

There was so much thought going into a decision that seemed to take others no time to make. He wanted it to be just right. I started to wonder if he would ever find one. We had driven ourselves to the farm. We could stay just a little bit longer than the class if we needed to.

Finally after everyone in his class had found their pumpkin his hand shot into the air. The guide quickly came over to cut the stem of this much searched for pumpkin. JDaniel was thrilled with it. Finding just what he had wanted to really made his day.

What did the perfect pumpkin look like? It is orange with green spots on it. It is on the large size of small pumpkins and it is really heavy. It was too heavy for a now tired from searching little boy to carry any further than the hay wagon we had to taken to the field on.

Just as it is with other things we search for life. Finding just the right thing can take awhile. When you find it, it can make your whole day! This post is part of a blogging link up called Outside Play: Pumpkins and Leaves. If you have a post on this theme I would love for you to link it up below.

This link up is being co-hosted by Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, One Stop Mom Talk, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Usual Mayhem, Here Come the Girls.

Taking Time to Play- The Pleasantest Thing

October 16, 2012 By Deirdre

Carolyn of The Pleasantest Thing is an a expert at helping her children find fun and build memories. Please stop by her blog and check out her wonderful ideas. I love her Halloween Gross (Motor) Fun post. I will be using some of them when plan for JDaniel’s preschool Halloween party. I think the children in his class will love them.

My boys and I have had many fun experiences inspired by the Taking Time To Play series, and I am excited to be contributing to it today.

As a recent play date at the playground was winding down, my thoughts had already turned to packing up the diaper bag, the best way to transition to the car, and the dinner preparations waiting at home. Then we looked across the field next to the playground, and saw that the late afternoon sun left an enormous shadow of a big, beautiful tree.

My friend and I knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. She suggested we pretend to be squirrels, scurrying around the branches, looking for nuts and seeds, jumping, chasing each other, playing. Of course, all thoughts of leaving the park were left behind.

Our play date lasted much longer than anticipated, and ended in joyful exhaustion. We all played together in the shadow of the tree. The kids loved that we got into the game with them. It added that extra measure of delight that happens when adults join in on the kids’ game. I don’t recall what I made for dinner that night, but I clearly remember the squeals of laughter from our time in the park.

Carolyn is a mom to two boys, ages 4 1/2 and 1. She believes play is critical to child development. Her blog, The Pleasantest Thing, focuses on learning and developing imagination through adventure, play, reading, and nature. You can also join in the fun by following her blog on Facebook.

Lunch and Breakfast Ideas with Pumpkins for Kids

October 15, 2012 By Deirdre

October has been a crazy and busy month. On Wednesday we went to the pumpkin patch with JDaniel’s class, rushed from the farm the patch was on to his speech assessment and then to a local park to visit with some playgroup friends we haven’t seen in ages. Thankfully the park is less than a mile from the testing site. The farm was forty minutes away from our church’s school where the testing took place. With so much going on I created lunch and breakfast ideas we could take on the go if we needed to.

With all that going on I knew I needed to pack JDaniel a bento lunch to have at some point. He ended up having it in the waiting area of the testing center. I was so glad I had brought it with me the testing ran over an hour and it was 1:30 p.m. before he finished. The tester commented that he had so much to say it was hard to move on to the other questions on the language part of the test.

Lunch Ideas

What did he have for lunch? He had pumpkins spice marshmallows, pumpkin spice cream cheese spread on a flour tortilla and cut into sections, carrots (left uneaten), red grapes, and ham and Colby Jack pumpkin cutouts.

Breakfast Ideas

A breakfast muffin tin meal with a pumpkin theme was also served this week. JDaniel has started asking for a flour tortilla and Colby Jack cheese for breakfast. Some mornings he gets all the ingredients out and makes it himself. This lunch features his favorite breakfast sandwich in a the shape of a pumpkin. He also got sweet potato french fries leftover from the night before, pumpkin spice marshmallows, red grapes, raisin bran, and frozen yogurt pumpkin.JDaniel doesn’t usually get dessert at breakfast time, but he loves the marshmallows and I thought I would spoil him a little.

We have loved taste testing pumpkin relate products we have found at the store.

More Lunch and Breakfast Ideas

Breakfast Ideas Kids will Love

Breakfast Rice Recipes

What is your favorite pumpkin product?

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn.

October 12, 2012 By Deirdre

Have you ever had a dream that you found gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, a hen has a dream that she will find a hidden treasure trove of corn and she sets out to find it in this wonderful book called Gimme Cracked Corn and I will Share by Kevin O’Malley.The hen convinces another hen to help her seek out the corn that she has dreamt she will find. They have quite an adventure. Yes, they do find the corn.

What did we do with Gimme Cracked Corn?

Corn Cob Math Match

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn- Math Match

I made three corn stalks out of construction paper. Each corn stalk had a number on it. JDaniel had to shift through the corn cobs and find the cobs that matched each number.

Some cobs had dots on them that represented that number. Some had shapes with that number of sides. Some cobs had pictures with that number of objects on them. Corn Cob Painting

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn - Corn Cob Painting

I found some pretend corn cobs at Hobby Lobby and decide that would be great for creating corn paint prints. We filled our turkey roasting pan with newspaper, construction paper, and paint.

12 Top Montessori Activities 2012 - Corn Cob Painting

We put blobs of paint on the right-hand side of the roasting pan and the construction paper on the left-hand side. Then JDaniel rocked the roasting pan from side to side.

When he painting was done, he decided he would be the photographer and I would do the painting. He zoomed up close to the corn cob for his shots. I think he did a wonderful job.

The corn made a really pretty print onto the paper.

Apple Pie Popcorn

I found an amazing recipe for apple pie popcorn on Super Healthy Kids and had to make it with JDaniel.

We mixed 2 cups of microwave popcorn, a dash of cinnamon and 1 cup of apple cinnamon dried apples. Then we put them in a mini pie plate to have for the snack.

Another Fun Corn Activity

B-Inspired Mama had a great guest post exploring concepts based on the book There Was An Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything on her blog. The guest post was written by Educator’s Spin On It.

Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share- Read.Explore.Learn. - Scarecrow Activities

How have you been exploring books this week

Halloween Tips : Trick or Treating Etiquette

October 10, 2012 By Deirdre

As Halloween draws closer and closer I thought it would be a good time to think about they kind of etiquette we would like our children to display while they are trick or treating. Trick or treating around our neighborhoods gives us a wonderful opportunity to interact with neighbors and share our attempts to help our children learn to display good manners.

We still have long way to go in displaying all the great manners that I would like JDaniel to display. There are areas that I have gotten lazy about enforcing. Developing this list of etiquette rules is as much for he and I as it is for you and your family. We are going to rehearse some of them at my house before we trick or treat and others will be just talk about.

Here is my Ultimate Guide to Halloween Tips for Great Etiquette:

Please and Thank You

At some houses you visit they may offer your child a type of treat that they absolutely do not like. Some children will be tempted to say to you or the person offering the treat that they don’t like that candy or they do not want it ever.
There are two ways to handle this dilemma. Your child can tell the neighbor “ No thank you! Can I have a different candy in the bowl instead.” The alternative is to accept all the candy offered and pull it out of their candy haul when you get home. Just because it has been accepted doesn’t mean that you have to eat it. The unliked candy can be given to someone else. (More on that later.)
It may be hard to say thank you for a coconut and almond candy bar that you really don’t like, but it is really important to say thank for candy offered. I think it is good practice for all the thanks you may have to give for presents you don’t love. (Example: A rhinestone Thanksgiving sweater for your birthday. Yes, I got one last year and I thanked the gift giver for it.) Giving thanks for the thoughtfulness of being given a gift is an important lesson to learn.

Crossing Neighbors Yards

In my neighborhood there are no sidewalks. There is a real temptation to run across neighbors yards to get from house to house rather than back down each home’s driveway and then along the curb to the next house.
There are a number reasons for not running across neighbor’s yards. The first is that they may not want you walking across lawns. Some shoes can tear up lawns. If there has been rain, you could even leave dents in their lawn.
There are also safety concerns for you and your family. There may be sprinkler heads that don’t recede into the grass the way they should and neighbors with children may not pick up all the toys that have played with that day. It is very possible that your child could trip and fall.

Introduce Yourself

We haven’t had a lot of neighbors move in or out of the neighborhood this year. In some neighborhoods, there have been a lot of neighbor changes. Trick or treating is an opportunity to introduce yourself to neighbors you have never met.

We have met a number of neighbors while treat or treating in the past few years. We don’t see many of them in the course of a day, week or even during the rest of the year. If we do, it is nice to be able to call them by their names.
If you don’t know the neighbors or the people you are visiting while trick or treating and you don’t feel comfortable sharing your name, I think that is fine too. We live in interesting times and you might not want to share your child’s name with some on you don’t know.

Butting in the Candy Line

We go trick or treating with our next door neighbors. That means there are three boys rushing to get from door to door. I really don’t want JDaniel pushing to the front of the line to be first. The truth is the neighbors are probably going to give the same candy and in the same amount to each of the children. Being first isn’t really going to benefit JDaniel and will just make him seem pushy. This is one of those Halloween tips that will make your neighbors smile.

Going to the Door, But Not in the House

As I mentioned we have met many of our neighbors, but I can’t say I really know each of them well. We will be going to their doors and if we get asked to come in we might. If someone asked JDaniel to come into see how their house was decorated or to see their cute pet on his own, I will be having him say “No”. There are just too many things that are happening to children these days.Each family will need to decide how to handle this. I tend to be a helicopter mom and watch my son closely.

Candy at Home

This is one of those Halloween tips you will want to do before heading out. I think it is really important to discuss that will be happening to the candy after it gets home. Once you have checked over each piece and made sure that the packaging isn’t torn or preopened, there are four w’s to be discussed at my house before we even head out to trick or treat.

The First W is Who

Who will have access to the candy is the first W? Do mom and dad get a cut of the candy or is it all the child’s? The candy bag at my house is a universal bag. We can all take candy from it. If you have more than one child, you may want a universal bag or bowl or each child could have their own bowl.

The Second W is What

What will happen to the load of candy the child has brought home? Will some of it be donated to a charity that will send it to the troop overseas or another charity? Will some be left out to eat and some be put away later.

The Third W is Where

Where will the candy be stored? Is it going to be left out in a bowl on the kitchen table to take from at a approved time? ( It would be dipped into often that way at my house by all of us.) Will the candy be placed in a container in the pantry or on top of the fridge to be doled out when they parents think it is the right time.

The Final W is When

When will the candy be given out? Will it be a piece or two after dinner? Can they take a couple piece in their lunch? Deciding when to give the candy out is up to each family. Some families may decide it is two pieces a day when the child chooses to have it.

Unwanted Candy

If you end up with candy you don’t want, you can give it to a charity or take it to work to place near the community coffee pot. In homes with more than one child you can have them trade candy. I decided when JDaniel was little to put together treat bags to give to neighbors as we trick or treat.

Giving Back Halloween Tips

Halloween can be a time of getting and I really want JDaniel to know how to give to others. I simply place a few pieces for candy into a plastic bag with note saying “ Have a Blessed Halloween! From the Smith’s”.

More Halloween Tips

Halloween Candy Corn Match Game

Halloween Frisbee Game

Halloween Trick or Treating Safety Rules

Lunch Idea- Fall Bento Lunch

October 8, 2012 By Deirdre

JDaniel has started to have lunch at school on Wednesday. They call it late stay at his preschool. I call it more time to work on socialization and have lunch at school. Oh! and time to run an errand after the Mentor Mom’s group ends at 11:20 a.m. I guess it doesn’t matter what we call it. We both get a just a little bit longer to get things done. Here is a lunch idea I recently made for him.We still do muffin tin lunches at home ( I am going to feature one next week), but for school, I purchased some Easy Lunch Box containers to serve him bento style lunches. I asked some members of a bento bloggers Facebook group what container would be best and this is the one that they recommended.Last week JDaniel took the lunch above to school. I went with a fall theme and tried to include as many as his favorite foods as I could plus one that is not a favorite.

His sandwich is whole grain sandwich thins with leaf shapes cut out of it. Inside the bread is a slice of Colby Jack cheese and honey baked ham.The upper left-hand corner compartment is filled with dried cherries, dried blueberries, and dried figs. They have a golden harvest moon represented by a dried apricot. We love dried fruit at our house.

I ended up toasting the leaf shapes from the sandwich and tossing them with olive and Parmesan cheese. They ended up being a little more oily then I wanted them to be. Last time I cooked leftover cutouts I fried them in olive oil and coated them with cheese. They were much better. I think I will go back to that way of preparing them.Beneath the cutouts were small carrots. JDaniel isn’t big on raw carrots, but if I don’t send anything more fun to eat he will usually eat them. This time he didn’t the carrots returned home alone in the bento box. I am going to keep trying to put veggies in his late stay lunch. Carrots may have to go on a fall break, though.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves- Read.Explore.Learn.

October 5, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we looked at the wonderful book Fletcher and the Falling LeavesFletcher the fox finds that his favorite tree has started to lose its leaves. Fetcher panics. He does everything in his power to help the tree keep its leaves, but it seems futile. The leaves keep falling off and other animals keep carting them off.By the end of the book, Fletcher understands more about the life cycle of a tree and how the tree can be given a new look for the winter.

What did we do with Fletcher and the Falling Leaves?

Foam Tree

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves- Read.Explore.Learn.

I created leaves out of foam for JDaniel to play with the fridge after dipping them in water. I also placed a paper tree trunk in a plastic magnetic sleeve that normally holds JDaniel’s preschool calendar. I love found it at The Christmas Tree Shops and it is great for school calendars and artwork.

JDaniel was able to place the leaves on the tree in the sleeve.
Oh! These leaves could also be played with on the side of a bathtub or on a shower door.Leaf Counting

JDaniel had to place the correct number of leaves on a plate to match the number on the center of the plate. We used leaves that we had gathered at a local park and from our yards.

Word Family Trees and Leaves

I created trees with word families on them and JDaniel had to match the leaves that word family. He isn’t reading yet, but he can look for a word with the same ending. We read the words on the leaves together.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves- Read.Explore.Learn.- Word Family Trees

Here is some wonderful post that linked up last week:

Learning is Messy shared her take on Ten Red Apples. I love the flannel activity she used to retell the story.

What have you been doing to explore books this week? Disclaimer; This post contains affiliate links.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September

October 4, 2012 By Deirdre

Every one in awhile I like to give you heads up on guest posts that I have written for other blogs or websites.Today I thought I would share them with you. If you feel so lead, I would love for you to visit them, but I totally understand if all you have time for is to read over the list below.

Guest Posts from Other Sites

Guest Posts for Kids Activities Blog

This paper plate fall-themed barn is a great way to display symbols of fall.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September - Pumpkin Cling

We had the best time exploring ribbon and creating a pumpkin window cling. It is still hanging up in JDaniel’s room.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September- Stencil Painting

We have used cookie cutters for years for Muffin Tin lunches, cutting cookies, and play dough play. This time we used cookie cutters as stencils for painting.

Guest Posts for Kiwi Crate

I don’t think I mentioned that I have started working with the Kiwi Crate to contribute to their Recipes for Fun database. Here are some of the activities I have contributed to them:

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September-Fall Harvest Bento Box

A fall harvest-themed bento with a harvest moon and fruitful tree. I walk you through how to create this meal on the Recipes for the Fun site.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September - Columbus Day Bento Box

I also walk through how to create a Columbus Day Bento Box.

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September - Neon Green Ooze

JDaniel and I made Neon Green Ooze. Can you guess who picked the color?

Some of My Guest Posts from Other Sites for September - Storytelling Stones

We create Native American Storytelling Stones. These have been great for creating new stories about the First Americans.Guest Post Crayon Freckles

I am thrilled to be guest posting on how to create the Columbus boat craft on Crayon Freckles tomorrow.

Here are some posts from right here on JDaniel4’s Mom that I think you will love:

Roll and Cover Corn Mat
Corn and Pumpkin Weaving
Driving on a Corn Stalk

Lunch Idea- Apples for Lunch

October 1, 2012 By Deirdre

Last Wednesday was Johnny Appleseed’s birthday and I made JDaniel an apples lunch. It was filled with all kinds of foods made of apples or made to look like apples.He had a ham and Colby Jack cheese sandwich on the inside of the bread. The outside of the bread had a thin layer of apple butter and I stenciled an apple on the apple butter using cinnamon. JDaniel put the bottom piece of the bread on top and moved the ham and cheese in between them after I took this picture. He said it made more sense. He was right. I just wanted the apple stencil on the outside for the picture. I made one of myself and really enjoyed the sweet ham and apple butter with the cheese.

Apples for Lunch Bento

The top left section of his Bento box contains grape tomatoes. I am not sure that there are apple tomatoes so I went with a tomato that would fit in the box and was red. I thought they would look pretty in the box. I took an apple shaped piece of apple and placed it in with the tomatoes to make that section officially contain an apple product. When you are creating a themed lunch for a four year old, they like it to be offical.

The top right section of the his apples for lunch Bento box contains apple shaped fruits of all kinds. There are apple shaped apples, apple shaped pears, and apple shaped cantaloupe. I decided the meal needed different fruit flavors. JDaniel has been asking for cantaloupe a lot lately. It worked well wit the tartness of the apples.We got an apple shaped drink container when we visited Sky Top Orchards a few weeks ago. Then the container was filled with apple juice. This time the container was filled with apple cider. JDaniel announced that apple cider tastes much better than apple juice.
What do you think? Apple juice or apple cider.

Creating a Tide Pool at the Beach

September 28, 2012 By Deirdre

The book I want to share with you this week Life in a Tide Pool by Allan Fowler. JDaniel loves reading about animal life and I thought it would be wonderful to find an easy reader on beach life for us to look over together.

When we were at the beach we built our own tide pool.

We had to start by digging a big hole in a flat part of the beach. Actually I started digging a hole on an incline and it wasn’t working. My husband suggested that we move to a different part of the beach.

We dug deeper and wider until the whole was big enough to line with an plastic tablecloth. The tablecloth was folded in half after we had finished the project we decided that we should have unfolded it to have a larger areas outside of the hole to cover with sand.With the tablecloth folded in half the tablecloth started to pull inwards as we added water to the tide pool.

When you decide to build a tide pool you really need to bring the big sand buckets down from your hotel room. We tried using a small turtle watering can and a sandcastle making container, but it was taking forever to fill the tide pool up.

Just a few feet away from us was a family building sandcastles with many buckets. I went over and asked them if we could borrow one for a few minutes. Thankfully they said that we could. It made filling the tide pool up much easier.

The water was very shallow that morning so I had to take the bucket out a distance to fill it.

Once the tide pool was filled with enough water, JDaniel decided that we needed to add shells and sand to it. The beauty of a tide pool with a liner is that the water doesn’t get absorbed back into the sand the way a regular sand hole does.

When the sand and shells had been added, JDaniel announced that the tide pool needed a creature in it. Guess what creature it needed? Apparently this tide pool is the home of a human being in a bug repellent hat and a green wrist band.

If you like this tide pool activity, here are some more water activities for kids.

Ice Cream Game with Ice and Shaving Cream

How to Create an Exciting Water Discovery Table

15 Awesome Preschool Activities with Water