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+.

Muffin Tin Monday- Friendship and the 4th of July

June 25, 2012 By Deirdre

JDaniel and I recently had friends over for lunch. It was great to get together with friends. Since school got out, JDaniel has missed seeing some of this favorite people. I thought they would enjoy having a Fourth of July themed lunch.

While I put together muffin tin meal for the kids, JDaniel set the table with placemats and napkins. He wanted the table to look just right for his friend.

Even though the Fourth of July was still a few weeks away, I went with a Fourth of July theme. The tins were filled with turkey hot dogs wrapped in bread stick dough (I thought they looked liked the stripes in the flag.), frozen yogurt smoothie stars, sliced tomatoes, catsup for dipping, blue corn chips, and blueberries.

JDaniel ate all of this lunch. His friend inhaled the berries and chips. I guess they weren’t really into the other foods. While they are not a picky eater, they really seemed to know what they like.

While they are great friends, I guess they like to eat different things. I will have to check with his mom and see what his favorite foods are so I can serv them next time.

If you like this lunch idea, here are several more you are going to love:

Kid’s Lunch – Apple Chicken Salad Bento

Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Sandwiches

Butterflies in a Bento

Christmas Tree Themed Bento

I wanted to mention that the theme is Friendship on the MemeTales Readathon 2012 this week too. If you are interested in downloading onto an electronic device free books on friendship for the week, please visit MeMeTales for more information.

Disclaimer: I will be receiving this week’s collection of MemeTales books to download for JDaniel for free in exchange for mentioning them in this post.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday!

Small Hands Creating Hope

June 23, 2012 By Deirdre

I have been blessed to “meet” amazing people that I may never really see in person. They have touched my life and made it better. When an opportunity comes up to reach out and help one of these wonderful friends, I jump at it.

MaryAnne of Mama Smiles is one of those amazing people. When she asked if there was anyone who would like to help her celebrate her anniversary of being cancer free, many bloggers jumped at the opportunity along with me.

Cancer runs in my family. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer in her late sixties. She too was a survivor.

It was in her honor that JDaniel and I created this paper plate bowl with woven ribbons. When she along with many others with cancer spend or have spent time in the hospital, they receive lots of cards filled with good wishes. Some may choose to hang them up on the wall to look at them and remember the people that send them to them. My grandmother loved to read cards. She likes to have them at arms reach.

This bowl made with loving hands would have been a wonderful place for her to store her cards. It could be set on a bedside table for her to reach in and grab a card or two and read the wonderful messages loved ones had sent her.

Our projects have been compiled into an ebook, which we are sending out to anyone who donates at least $15 to the American Cancer society. An email with the download link, as well as a second link that allows you to purchase a hard copy of the book at production cost will be sent once we receive your donation.

If you donate but do not receive this email for any reason, or if you have trouble with the download, email smallhandsproject at gmail dot com. MaryAnne at Mama Smiles compiled this book as a way of celebrating thirty years of cancer survivorship! (Yay MaryAnne!)

We are hoping to raise $3000 by July 4th, and we are running a blog hop from May 14th until July 4th to celebrate and raise funds so that, in the future, thirty years of cancer survivorship will be the norm, not the exception! Learn about each of the bloggers who participated in the book by visiting each blog on their assigned dates – a few bloggers will be running celebratory giveaways, too!

14 May Mama Smiles
15 May Artsy Craftsy Mom and Rainbows Within Reach
16 May B. Inspired, Mama!
17 May Rainy Day Mum and Imagination Soup
18 May Inspiration Laboratories
19 May Experimenting Mom
21 May NurtureStore
22 May Living Montessori Now
23 May Mess for Less
24 May Having Fun at Home and CraftoArt
26 May Angelique Felix
27 May Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
30 May Mommy with Selective Memory
31 May One Perfect Day
1 June The Educators’ Spin On It
2 June Kids Stuff World
3 June Rainy Day Mum
4 June Teach Preschool
5 June Dirt and Boogers
7 June Montessori Tidbits
8 June Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
9 June The Iowa Farmer’s Wife
10 June Scribble Doodle and Draw
11 June Learn with Play
12 June Kitchen Counter Chronicles
13 June CRAYON Freckles
15 June Wise Owl Factory
18 June Lessons Learnt Journal
20 June Growing a Jeweled Rose
21 June Growing Play
23 June JDaniel4′s Mom

Read.Explore.Learn.- Retelling The Five Little Ducklings Activities

June 22, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explore the book 5 Little Ducks.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

We have been reading a lot of the animal books that are being featured on MemeTales: Readathon 2012 this week. The one we focused on was The Five Little Ducklings.

The ducklings in this story one at a time keep heading away from home even with Mama Duck quacking they should return.

JDaniel and I did four retelling activities to go along with this book. We usually do a variety of different types of activities with a book, but different ways to retell the story kept jumping into our heads.

Retelling Activity One: Furniture Retelling

JDaniel decided that this chair on the deck would be a great place for the ducks to climb away from the mama duck. The ducks tucked easily into the various crevices in the chair. Notice the mama duck is at the bottom watching over them.

Retelling Activity Two: Water Table Retelling

We put the ducks into JDaniel’s water table. The section divider made a great hill for the ducks to cross as they went on their way.

Retelling Activity Three- Painted Ducks on a Cooling Rack

We painted some paper ducks and put them on clothespins. The clothes pinned ducks were then put on a cookie cooling rack.

We were able to move the ducks around the cooling rack as they went away and came back.

Retelling Activity Four- Pom Pom Ducks

The pom poms had been taken out for a different activity, but JDaniel thought they would be great to use with a clothes pin to retell the story.

He simply picked up a pom pom to represent a duck in the story and moved him far away.

Next week we will be looking at the MemeTales featured books on friendship.

Disclaimer: I am being given the MemeTales: Readathon 2012 featured books for free in exchange for providing a post about them. We are really enjoying them.

Memories Captured- Enjoying Summer Rain

June 20, 2012 By Deirdre

Today I am sharing how to make Red, White, and Blue Frozen Smoothie Stars on Come Together Kid. If you get a chance, would you please stop by and check it out.

Some afternoons when you head out to play, you find that along with the bright sunshine there is a light sprinkle of summer rain falling.When you see the fine rain from the edge of the garage, you don’t hesitate to walk out into it. You already have your red boots on and you know your mom is standing right behind you. If she didn’t want you to be out in the rain she would call you back in.

Though you know she won’t. You know she will take a few pictures of you walking and spinning in the rain. Then she will put the camera down and join you. Walking, dancing and spinning in the rain are fun for her too.

It is only a little rain after all! Clothes will dry off and damp hair will too. The puddles will only be here for a short time before the hot Carolina sun causes them to evaporate. Sometimes you just have to get out and dance! You really need to enjoy the rain and capture a new memory! This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday and Memories Captured.

Puffin Muffin Recipe Served in a Bento

June 18, 2012 By Deirdre

I came across a wonderful recipe for The Magic Puffin muffins. They sounded like the perfect thing to serve my husband for breakfast on Father’s Day. Last Tuesday JDaniel saw the movie Happy Feet 2 and it had a puffin in it. Along with the puffin muffin I created a tortilla puffin, I wanted to share with you and the meal I wanted to make. Recently I served both them to JDaniel in a Bento container.

What is in the tin?

The box contains two puffins. I made one puffin out of a dyed tortilla cut out with a pattern of puffin that I made out of clip art picture from the internet. He was given a carrot eye with a raisin added, carrot feet, and part of his beak is made of carrot pieces. The rest of his beak is made of yellow pepper.

The second puffin is the pancake muffin I will tell you more about later.

The sun shining over the puffins is filled with delicious strawberries and blueberries. We have gotten the best tasting fruit this summer.

Making Puffins

JDaniel and I had the best time making these wonderful puffins. He loves to help in the kitchen and jumps at the opportunity to help all the time.

His first job was to place the liners in the pan. He has become an expert at pulling the liners off the stack and placing them into the pan.

JDaniel’s favorite job is mixing the ingredients. He loves to sneak his fingers into the mixing bowl. I try to keep them out of the mixing bowl, but he is very sneaky.

The final step after placing the mix in the liners was to sprinkle on crushed bacon. JDaniel loves bacon. He wanted some of the bacon to not make it on the puffins. Some of it conveniently stayed in the bag for him.

If you like this puffin muffin recipe, here are more recipes you will like:

Easy to Make Yogurt and Fruit Muffins

Breakfast Rice Recipes

Dried Fruit Teepee Snack

Read.Explore.Learn.- That’s Not How You Play Soccer, Daddy!

June 15, 2012 By Deirdre

I love the dad in the book That’s Not How You Play Soccer Daddy by Sherry Shahan! The dad in this wonderful book realizes his son is taking his job as team captain and his playing of soccer over seriously. He wants him to enjoy the game the way the other kids do.

Actually, the other kids would gather explore an anthill rather than plays soccer. Mikey thinks every rule should be followed.

After practice, his dad takes to a different part of the park for lunch and to play. Mikey just wants to practice.

Mikey’s wise dad thinks he should play shoeless, with the family dog and with his hands. After a tickle fest with his dad, Mikey agrees with his dad.

Sometimes you just have to have fun.

What did we do with this book?

Created a Game with Tomato Cages

I planted two tomato cages across from each other in the yard imagining we would play a game that combined soccer and basketball.

JDaniel looked at the cages and decided that one cage was the starting line. You then had to run around two bushes and a tree before heading across the yard to drop the ball in the far tomato cage.

My game was a little simpler, but his game turned out to be lots of fun. Sometimes it is fun to just take out some materials and see what fun game you can create.

Made Ice Tea Playdough

Sun Hats & Wellie Boots, Nurturestore, & The Imagination Tree are asking bloggers to take the PPlaydoughPledge this week. What is the pledge? It is to try to make a new kind of play dough this week.

JDaniel and I started with the basic no-cook play dough found on Sun Hat & Wellie Boots using flour, salt, oil, and boiling water. We added to it a packet of ice tea powder. JDaniel’s dad loves sweet tea and since we had read a book about a dad, I thought it would be fun.

The play dough we made turned a tan color, but really didn’t smell like sweet tea. I didn’t dump in a full packet of Lipton’s Tea and Honey and that may have kept the full scent of the tea from coming to the surface of the playdough.

We had fun playing with it anyway.

What adventures have you had with books this week?

Playing Outside: Chalk

June 14, 2012 By Deirdre

This is the time of year when many of our family’s spend time playing outside. Whether it is early in the morning or late in the afternoon in warmer climates or all day long in cooler ones.

Children need to time to play and explore the world outside their homes. The fresh air and the sunshine do them good in my opinion. Because I believe that statement I am going to co-host a series this summer called Playing Outside with a number of wonderful bloggers. Today posts on chalk sometimes called sidewalk chalk begins the series there will be linked up for posts on playing outside with water in July and one on outdoor games in August.

This month’s co-hosts are Reading Confetti, Rainy Day Mum, The Iowa Farmer’s Wife, JDaniel4’s Mom, T Kitchen Counter Chronicles, and the Inspiration Laboratories.

This series is open to anyone desiring to share an activity that involves children playing outside with chalk. The link you share does not have to be recent. We are hoping to end up with a wonderful collection of activities that be the done with children while playing with sidewalk chalk, because of that recent as well as loved activities from the past are all welcome.

What did we do with sidewalk chalk?

Drawing with Chalk Under a Tree

We setup JDaniel’s easel under a tree in the front yard. It was a cool place to draw pictures and stay out of the sun.

Giant Chalk Letters on a Fence

Gigantic chalk letters on the fence in our backyard were great fun to draw on and spray with water. The idea was that JDaniel could trace the letters with water. He decided it was just fun to spray them.

When we were done, the letters came off when we rubbed them with a wet rag.

Chalk Number Line in Driveway

Hopping on a number line in your driveway is a lot of fun. Driving over the numbers one at a time with your bike and calling out the number you are driving over proved to be even more fun.

Sorting Object in Colored Chalk Circles

We have treasures on a shelf in the garage and in JDaniel’s water table. After drawing colored circles in the driveway, JDaniel gathered objects that matched the color of the circles we drew.

I can’t wait to see what you have been creating with sidewalk chalk.

Pausing Life for a Moment- Remembering My Dad

June 12, 2012 By Deirdre

Father’s Day is right around the corner so, I thought I would pause for a moment to thank my dad. When I sat down to write this, I realized that I probably haven’t even mentioned him on the blog. He lives about seven hours away from us and we get to see him a few times a year, but he hasn’t appeared in a post yet.

When I was growing up, I had a Leave It To Beaver attitude of what a dad should be and I thought my dad should be just like that dad.

My idea of what a dad should be involved going to an office during the week in a suit and tie. He listened intently to what he children were saying and gave hugs at just the time you needed them.

Well, my dad listened intently to my chatting on and on about writing and encouraged me to do more with it. He was not the type of dad that wore suits to work. Actually he probably wore them when I was very little, but I don’t remember them as I got older.

He loved music, art and plays. So, that is what he took us to. We spent hours in museums looking at modern art, attending concerts or sing a-longs, and once a year going to a play at the Kennedy Center.

He took us to his mother’s apartment too. She lived not to faraway our house. I wrote about visiting her on Sundays in my post Sitting Straight and Tall on Sunday awhile back. She wasn’t always an easy person, but my dad taught me that treating her with dignity was important.

My dad was raised in a very formal home by parents that loved him, but weren’t big on letting him know that or that is the impression I have always had of them. He is not very formal, but he brought with him into adulthood some of the formality he grew up with. Although he has more and more shared how much he loves me. I don’t think his parents were big on saying words of love.

I grew up knowing my dad knew about a lot of things. He was always reading book and newspapers to gain more knowledge. You could ask him about any topic and he seemed to know something about it.

It was hard to really feel like I really knew him when I was little. My parents divorced when I was eight and we saw him mostly on Sundays. As I grew up, I got to know him better and learned that there are many dads that don’t wear suits and every dad is unique and special.

As I mentioned, we don’t get to see him often, but JDaniel has recently decided he likes to call him on the phone and draw him pictures. I am so glad they have made a connection.

I am also thankful that my dad is part of my life and that he shared with me the interests that he loved.

This post is linked to Pour Your Heart Out and Alphabe-Thursday.

Muffin Tin Monday- Father’s Day Fish

June 11, 2012 By Deirdre

The father fish in this meal is trying to head of a couple of his little ones that are heading for the worm dangling from the hook in the corner. They don’t seem to have learned that gummy worms are carrot hooks lead little fish to become tiny fish sticks for someone else’s meal.

Many of his other fish children have learned the lesson. They are swimming away for the hook or staying with their dad. They will make it swim another day.

Father Fish is made of Pepperidge Farm’s Honey Whole Wheat bread. He is filled with bacon, cheese, ham, and tomatoes. His children are Whole Grain and Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish. These are my son’s favorite flavors of fish! You can use your children’s favorite fish flavors!

A lovely cantaloupe sun is shining down on the fish family to warm up the cool waters and brighten their day.

Although this meal celebrates fathers and how they care for their children. It might also be called a mom’s day off lunch. Mom isn’t pictured in this lunch. In my mind mom is sitting at home catching up on her favorite blogs or doing a little summer reading. Maybe she is finishing off the bag of gummy worms. I know that is what plan to do with the gummy worms that we have left.

If you like this fun food creation, here are more lunch ideas you will love:

Mardi Gras Mask Lunch for Kids

Apple Chicken Salad Bento Lunch

Lunch Ideas with LEGO

Minion Lunch with Blueberry Overalls

Healthy Snack for Kids- Butterfly Bento

Star Wars Food Creations for Kids

Bento Lunch with Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Bento Lunch

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Disclaimer: I was not paid to mention Pepperidge Farm products. We just really love them.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Gilbert the Goldfish Wants a Pet

June 8, 2012 By Deirdre

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Gilbert in the story Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet by Kelly Dipucchio is lonely and really wants a pet. He has a number of animals visit the outside of his bowl. Each time a new pet stops by Gilbert gets excited and swims around in circles and the new pet runs around his bowl.

Each possible pet ends up leaving him, wanting to eat him, or gets squashed (the fly). Gilbert’s little heart then goes pitter- patter- plop.

Finally having much disappointment, he does get a friend. You will be surprised to find out what it is.

What did we do with the book?

Create Goop and a Fish Wash

Gilbert the Goldfish- Exploring Goop in a Watertable

I found a recipe for goop on the internet and we tried having JDaniel’s ocean bath toys swim in it. It turns out they needed a friend to help clean them up after they played.

We then created an animal wash in the second section of JDaniel’s water table.

Here is the recipe for Goop:

1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
small bowl, tin pie plate, water table, etc..
A little more water
Food coloring

Add the water to the cornstarch in a small bowl, tin pie plate, etc. Mix it together using your hands

Fish Counting

I created a sheet with a number of fish bowls on it. I then wrote a number on the rim of each bowl and JDaniel had to put the correct number of fish in each bowl.

Talking about Possible Fish Friends

I created a sheet with a giant fish bowl on it and put a big plastic fish in it. JDaniel then selected various plastic animals and told me why they would or would not make a great pet.

Talking about the pro and cons of each animal encourage JDaniel to think at a higher level. He had to analyze and sort through real reason they would or would not be good pets.