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+.

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

Starfish Muffin Tin Meal for Kids

September 27, 2012 By Deirdre

Yes, I know I am a day behind. I usually share a food creation with you on Monday, but this week I am running a little behind. I did make a fun starfish muffin tin meal for kids to share with you.We were at the beach most of last week and I am a still trying to get back on course. We had a wonderful time away, but now I am trying to get back to our regular routine. I have been doing laundry, grocery shopping and housekeeping like crazy to get on top of things.

That said I hope you will enjoy my starfish and beach themed muffin tin. It is filled with some of JDaniel’s favorite foods.

Starfish Muffin Tin Meal for Kids

He loves all kinds of cheese and cheese flavored products. Cheese crackers were his snack request for the beach trip. I try to bring a bag or a box of everyone’s favorite snack to the beach. Amazingly enough we had leftover cheese crackers in the box to use for this lunch when we got back from the beach. The cheese cracker sun is surrounded by strips of dried apricots.

The starfish is a piece of toast covered in blackberry ham, red grapes, an apricot smile and Oreo eyes. I peeled the filling out of an Oreo and cut it into quarters. Two of the quarter are the whites of the Starfish’s eyes and cookie pieces are his pupils.

The starfish is dipping his toes or lower arms. (Starfish don’t really have toes.) into blueberry yogurt with blue sprinkles in it. Blue is JDaniel’s favorite color right now. Blue foods make him really happy.

Beside the starfish is the sandy shore or beach. The beach is made of homemade applesauce sprinkled with granola and cinnamon. When the starfish steps onto the beach, he may complain of the roughness of the sand. JDaniel on the other hand loved all the components of the beach and ate them all without a fuss.

More Meal for Kids Ideas

Apple Chicken Salad Bento Lunch

Lunch Ideas with LEGO

Minion Lunch with Blueberry Overalls

Spending Time at the Beach

September 26, 2012 By Deirdre

Last week we headed to my family’s favorite place to vacation in Myrtle Beach. My guys love the Dune Village Resort. It is right on the beach and has two indoor water park areas. JDaniel started counting down to the day we would leave for the beach a week earlier. Every morning started with a call down the stairs asking if it was time to pack his suitcase and go.

He was so excited when I finally set out his suitcase and he could throw in his bathing suit and sun shirt. As you can tell from the picture above, we packed a few more things including his bug repellent hat. We didn’t have water shoes for JDaniel so, we picked some up at the store at the beach.

Our first day of the beach was sunny and warm. We had to apply sunblock multiple times on Monday. All that was on the agenda was collecting shells, digging in the sand and playing in the water. We spent most of the day on the beach. Lunch in our room was really our only foray into the hotel. I really don’t like sand in our food.

The water was placid and warm. It really was a perfect day.

After a perfect day, we had a not so great day. We knew storms were coming, but had no idea that the lifeguard would post signs for no swimming and that we would get to see palmetto trees sway wildly in the wind.

JDaniel wanted to see what it was like on the beach after breakfast. He literally had to hold the hood of his windbreaker on to keep it in place.

Tuesday turned out to be a great day to be in the water park area and to visit the aquarium. The morning was spent in the waterpark area until thunder and a loud crack sent all the parents scrambling for their children and the exit into the hotel. The sides of the water park area are open to the elements and the crack we heard was really loud.

The aquarium was fully enclosed and rain free. We wove around each of the exhibit areas a few times to fully talk in all that was there. JDaniel loved watching the sharks swim over our heads as we walked through a tunnel that was part of an exhibit.

The rest of the time at the beach was wonderful. The temperature was a little cooler, but the water stayed warm enough to play in and the waves returned to being much smaller than we had seen on Tuesday.

We started Tuesday morning with a long walk on the beach. My guys started out walking together ( I was walking behind to take pictures), but after a short time JDaniel walked ahead and seemed to being having a wonderful time. I am not sure if he was singing to himself and moving his arms to the music or what. I love that I could capture the dramatic nature of whatever it was that had him so animated.

Following the storm we expected to find lots of shells on the beach. What we did find were mostly shell fragments. I am so glad we were able to collect some beautiful whole shells on Monday.

JDaniel really doesn’t care if a shell is whole or not. He really loves the different colors and textures they have. He would run ahead and shout, “This is a glorious one!” When I raced to see what it looked like it would be a few ridges of a broken orange shell with rough edges.

I commented to my husband that it is so great that JDaniel can find beauty in small imperfect and broken treasures. As adults we tend to look for the beautiful whole shell that has made it through the rough ways to call beautiful. JDaniel changed the way we looked at and for shells for the rest of the walk.

Other than looking for shells, Wednesday was a time to get as sandy as possible. Yes, when you are four that can be one of your goals for the day.

After getting rid of all the sand and putting on a sand free suit, we worked on our big project for the beach. We built our very own tide pool. I will share with you on Friday the steps we took to build one.It was great fun to all work together to dig and dig and dig.

We came home on the next day and so we didn’t have a full day at the beach Thursday. In fact JDaniel didn’t even want to go onto the beach. We did want to play miniature golf at a tiny course behind the hotel and play hide and seek.

What a joy it was to getaway from our everyday life and just be together as a family! JDaniel is already asking to count down the days until we go back next year.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.

Homemade Halloween Costume Parade

September 24, 2012 By Deirdre

Have you started to think about Halloween at your house? JDaniel announced early in September that he wanted to be Fetch the dog from the Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman show on PBS. I hadn’t been thinking about Halloween at that point in time, but apparently, it was on his mind. Knowing I wouldn’t find a Fetch costume at the store. I knew I would have to put together a homemade Halloween costume.
Then he announced that he wanted to be Chet the mouse from the same show. I decided that I could pull together a mostly homemade Halloween costume that would look like Chet. I told him I would start putting together the costume when it got closer to October.

Here is what we have for the homemade Halloween costume so far:

I bought JDaniel a fuzzy gray sweatsuit and a gray turtleneck as the base of his costume. When he tried it on, the pants looked a little short. I will have to exchange them at Walmart for the next size up. I also found a really cute mask on Amazon that has a squeaker in the nose.

The base of the costume isn’t homemade, but the rest of the costume will be. I need to make JDaniel a tail, some mice hands, and a trick or treat bag.

I am thinking of trying to make a bag that looks like Swiss cheese. Gray mittens with pipe cleaners woven through them to create fingers would be great too. The tail is something I still have to figure out how to do. I am not sure if it should be like a bathrobe belt soft and easy to sit on or wiry and has a bend in it.Are you putting together a homemade Halloween costume this year? Sun Scholars, All Done Monkey, Crayons Freckles, Red Ted Art, B-Inspired Mama, The Educator’s Spin on It, Mamas Like Me, Kitchen Counter Chronicles and I are!

If you decide to create a post on creating your homemade costume or already have, please link your post below I would love to see what you have created. I am starting a homemade costume Pinterest board if you link your post below I will add it to my board.

Ten Red Apples from Pat Hutchins : Read.Explore.Learn.

September 21, 2012 By Deirdre

We read the book ten apples this week. What fun counting book! The farmer tries to count the apples and his animals want to eat them. This book is filled with humor, problem solving and cute pictures.

What did we do with the book Ten Apple?

Apple Core Puzzle

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins - Read.Explore.Learn.

I cut out an apple core out of white paper and cut it into puzzle pieces. One side of each piece would match only on side of another piece. Then I glued the red top and bottom the core pieces that would end up of the top and bottom.

JDaniel’s job was to put the pieces in order and then glue them onto a piece of blue paper. It took a lot of figuring to get the pieces just right.

Ten Red Apples Button Count

A counting strip with ten red apples was placed out with a cup of buttons for JDaniel to count with. He started by counting from 1-10. Each apple core needed to have the correct number of buttons on it.

Then I took away all the odd numbered sets of buttons and we counted by twos. We could have added the button onto the apple cores by twos instead. Maybe we will do that next time.

Here are a few wonderful posts that others linked up last week:

Ten Apples: Read.Explore.Learn.- Yarn Apples

3 Dinosaurs made a wonderful apple yarn craft to go with the book Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple Picking Time!

After studying books on the octopus Joyfully Weary made this really cute octopus craft. The bubble wrap tentacles are super cool!

If you like these Ten Red Apples activities , you will like these apple activities too!

Red Apple Spelling Game

Preschool Activities- Five Little Apples Rhymes and Crafts

Building Word Families – Worms and Apples

Cool Math Games for Kids -Appleseed Counting

Sight Word Games- Apple Tree Words

Mrs. Mariner’s Homemade Applesauce Recipe

September 20, 2012 By Deirdre

I have been dying to go to Skytop Orchards with JDaniel to get apples and make applesauce. Yesterday I showed you pictures of our trip to the orchard and today I am going to show you how we made applesauce.

Mrs. Mariner's Homemade Applesauce Recipe

I have never made applesauce before or at least I don’t remember having made it before. JDaniel and I checked a book out of the library called Applesauce Season that describes how to make applesauce using a food mill to break up the apples after boiling them.We don’t have a food mill and none of the other mom’s in my playgroup had one either when I checked with them. I turned to the women of my church who have set up a Facebook group to see if any of them had one. Three ladies called me within two hours to say that had one.

The first lady I talked to was Mrs. Mariner. I have never met her before, but she was a joy to talk too. She was so excited that we were going to make homemade applesauce. Not only would she bring her food mill to church to lend to me on Sunday she would take a few minutes on the phone to describe to me each step of the process.

Mrs. Mariner gave us foolproof or should I call it homemade applesauce that is novice proof.

Here is how we made homemade applesauce:

JDaniel and I cut up four pounds of apples. Mrs. Mariner told me to pick Jonathan Gold, Mats, Golden Delicious and Macintosh apples. They would give us a good mix of sweetness and tartness.

Once the apples were cut. I put them in a pot and filled the pot with enough water to cover the top of the apples. Mrs. Mariner told me that too much water would not be good for the apples.

The apples needed to boil for ten minutes and no more than that. They would get to mushy if I let them go too long.

Draining the apples in a colander sitting on top of a bowl was the step. We weren’t going to need all the water drained, but we were going to need some if the applesauce was too dry. (JDaniel loved drinking the apple water after it had cooled.)

Then we took the drained apples over to the food mill sitting on a bowl. The apples were added a little at a time to the mill. JDaniel and I took turns turning the mill and holding the mill onto the bowl.

When all the apples have been milled, you can store the applesauce in the bowl beneath the mill or you can as JDaniel did put the applesauce into plastic applesauce cups we had saved from store bought applesauce. JDaniel said they were supposed to hold applesauce and it didn’t matter what kind.

I think Mrs. Mariner would be thrilled that we did so well at our first attempt at making homemade applesauce. I know that I am.

Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

September 19, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Outside Play a monthly feature on JDaniel4’s Mom that is co-hosted by several other wonderful blogs. This month the focus is on apples. If you have a post on apple picking, visiting a orchard, an outdoor game with apples, a picnic featuring apple related foods or any other apple play, please take a moment and link it up below.

JDaniel and I headed to SkyTop Orchards in North Carolina last week to pick apples and explore all the wonderful play areas it has. He didn’t know we were going ahead of time. I actually didn’t decide until Friday morning while he was in school to go.

It was such a pretty ride heading north. JDaniel silently looked at the beautiful clouds and mountains as I drove.

Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

SkyTop is such a pretty orchard. We had never been there before. Friends had raved that it was the place to go to get apples. It didn’t disappoint.

You have to walk down hill from the store area to the apples. There are over ten different kinds of apples in various areas of the orchard. Many of the trees on the left were not ready for picking. The trees are the right were and so that is where we headed.

JDaniel took charge of the basket they gave us for gathering apples on the way down the hill toward the Jonathan Gold. An apple guide in the store had said that the trees in that section would be just the right size for JDaniel to pick apples from all by himself.

They were right. JDaniel was able to gather a basket full of apples without even having to stand on his tiptoes. The Jonathan Gold trees were loaded down with beautiful apples.

Once the basket was filled, the task of carrying the apples shifted to me. Actually a basket filled with apples is really heavy I don’t blame JDaniel for not wanting to carry it. When you visit apple orchards all the apple seem to call to you and you end up with heavy baskets.

Then we headed over to check out the goats who didn’t seem to hold JDaniel’s attention and the bamboo forest which did.

JDaniel wanted to know if there were pandas in the forest. I told him that there are not enough pandas in the from there to be some everywhere there is bamboo in the world. Outside Play- Apples and Apple Orchards Link Up

The best part of the bamboo forest was this little bridge. It looked like we were entering a foreign land while crossing it.

If you have an outdoor post with an apple or apple orchards theme you would like to link up, please take a moment and add the badge below to it.

This hop is being co-hosted by the following blogs: Angelique Felix, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Fairy and The Frog, Rainy Day Mum, Inspiration Laboratories, Growing a Jeweled Rose, and The Pleasantest Thing.

Apple Tree Pasta Meal for Kids

September 17, 2012 By Deirdre

Have you ever walked down the aisle of a grocery store, looked at some food item and thought that is would be perfect of a food creation or bento lunch. It has started happening to me. Seriously, I looked at a box of multicolored pasta and thought that it would be perfect to create an apple tree pasta meal or lunch for JDaniel.I had noticed the box before and hadn’t thought anything of it. It was just another box of pasta on the shelf! Two weeks ago suddenly I looked at it and thought it would be great for an apple tree pasta meal.“The green noodles would make great leaves. The red noodles would be wonderful apples. ( The red noodles faded while boiling. I wish they had stayed brighter.) The brown noodles would be great ground cover,” I thought as I stood looking a the box. The pasta meal came together in my mind right in the grocery aisle.

I guess I have been making muffin tin and bento lunches for too long. Food creations just pop into my mind as I walk down grocery aisles.

The apple tree of pasta meal came together so well. All I needed to add to the box of pasta was a few tube sized noodles, a little Parmesan cheese and butter. JDaniel loves buttered cheese noodles. This pasta meal quickly disappeared. I will need to think of more pasta meals. My son really loves them.

If you happen to run into while I am shopping and I am staring at a package of something, I may be reading the ingredients or I may be imagining how it could be displayed in a food creation. It really could be either, but it probably is how it could fit into a meal.

If you like this pasta meal, you will find more food creations on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

September 14, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we explored Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill is a wonderful book about finding hobbies that you love. The main character Chloe tries to love ballet the way her sister does, but she just can’t. Chloe isn’t even drawn to wearing the classic pin leotard and shoes. She would rather wear red, purple and green.The dance teacher tells here she has naughty toes. She just can’t convince them to point. She tries to float like a cloud, but her cloud is filled with too much gusto. Thankfully the class pianist realizes she needs to follow her feet and her feet are leading her to tap dancing.

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

What did we do to explore Naughty Toes?

JDaniel inherited a lot of shoes. I thought it would be fun to use them to create some learning activities. As you can tell my sisters tend to buy brown shoes for their children.

Shoe Patterning

Shoes really lend themselves to patterning. I created the order the shoes should be in my setting out the first four shoes place. JDaniel had to repeat the pattern.

We also worked on abab patterns by having the first shoe pointing up and the next shoe pointing down. The same pattern could be done by have the first shoe vertical and the second horizontal.

Match the Letters Shoe Game

Naughty Toes Activities for Kids- Matching Shoes

I put Post-It notes on the bottoms of the shoes and JDaniel had to match the uppercase letters. This activity could be extend by matching the lowecase letter to the uppercase letter. It could be made easier for young children by have the matching letter on the other shoe in the pair. I had the matching letters on different shoes.

If you like our Naught Toes activities, here are some more book related activities:

Fire Safety Themed Book and Activities

Activities Based on Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

Making a Gnome or Fairy House Based on Bella – The Fairy Ball

Memories Captured- Minor League Game

September 13, 2012 By Deirdre

A few weeks ago we went with some of my husband’s co-workers to a minor league baseball game. JDaniel was excited about going for weeks. The little boy next door had been to a game. JDaniel was dying to be able to say he had been to one too.

Just before we headed out the door I asked him if he wanted to wear a baseball cap. I thought it would keep the sun out of his eyes. No he did not I was informed. He wanted to wear his outdoor bucket hat that has bug repellent in it to the minor league game.

Why wear a bucket hat to a minor league game?

I was told that there are nocturnal mosquitoes. They come out a night and he was going to need protection.

So, off we went to the game. JDaniel acted like a backseat driver the whole way there. He and I had driven past the stadium earlier in the summer. We had been trying to hunt down Waldo for the Where is Waldo? Hunt.

When we got to our seats, JDaniel sat focused on the field clutching his ticket. He just had to hold it between his fingers while he watched the teams throwing the ball back and forth and doing warm up stretches.

For about twenty minutes his eyes stayed glued to the field with his thumb periodically rubbing across his ticket.

Once the game started, he was done watching the players. The ticket was given to me to store in my purse to take home. He took hat came off. All he wanted to do was check out the playground. After that he wanted roll down a grassy hill that is by the playground.

Every once in awhile he would roll to the bottom of the hill. Then he looked over the fence to see what was going on. Then he would trudge back up the hill to begin a roll back down again.

This post is linked to Memories Captured.