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+.

Capturing Memories- Our Journey to NY

June 6, 2012 By Deirdre

Two weeks ago we headed north toward to my sister Kate’s house with my mom and my sister Michelle from Atlanta’s family.

We knew it would be a long trip so, we divided the journey to NY into two travel days. We drove to see family in Virginia the first day and then headed to Pennsylvania on day two.

Day one had a late start for various reasons and he got to Virginia just around dinnertime. After a good night’s sleep and one of us really needed a nice long sleep after a grumpy dinner, we headed to Amazement Square in Lynchburg, VA.

We didn’t need to get to the place we were staying with a different family member in Pennsylvania until bedtime. Amazement Square was the perfect place to spend time.

We started in the canal exhibit. JDaniel was very happy to learn from his cousins how to control all the levers. I think we spent our largest amount of time there.

JDaniel loved the bug and creepy crawler section. He got to look at me with compound eyes.

He crawled up a hill like an ant would using Velcro paddles. This is not as easy as it looks.

After lunch, we continued our journey north. We traveled for a few hours and decided to stop to explore Gettysburg. While most of the family was excited about seeing the cannons and monuments, JDaniel was most excited about finding dandelions.

He has been collecting them like crazy at home and was thrilled to know that dandelions grow in Pennsylvania too.

The following day we headed to Hershey Park. This is a picture of JDaniel and three of his four maternal cousins. He had such a good time going on the tour of the Hershey factory with the big boys.

Hershey Park is filled with lots of wonderful rides for four-year-olds Many of the kiddie rides had little or no line the day we were there. The roller coasters for big kids and adults were packed. JDaniel’s older cousins ended up getting to enjoy fewer rides than he did.

JDaniel loved getting to fly a plane. My husband loves planes and attending air shows. I suggested that he ride this one just for dad.

Well, we haven’t made it to New York yet in this post. I thought I would divide our trip in two days of posts. Tomorrow I will share with you pictures and activities we did when we got to New York.

I hope you will stop by and check out my sister’s amazing yard, a great tree fort, and a visit to a farm open house.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.

Pause Life for a Moment- Faith Filled Food for Moms

June 5, 2012 By Deirdre

Having Shari Lynne here today is a great treat! Her wonderful blog Faithfilled Food for Moms is amazing. She shares everything from how to make your own cheese crackers, to reviews, giveaways and beautifully insightful posts like the one below. After you read her wonderful post, please pause for a moment to leave her a comment and visit her blog.

Proverbs 22:7 says – “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a servant to the lender.”

So what in the world does that have to do with Time, Masters or Slaves?? I like to manage my time well. Get my chores done, make sure my meals are somewhat planned, calendar updated. Well, you get the picture. However a couple of years ago we moved. In between moving, we stayed at a friends house for 2 and half months until we got into our home. It really threw me for a loop. I have been all discombobulated ever since then.

I normally have a plan for my day. It’s written down and I can pretty much follow it. Lately, however, the day will come to an end and I feel as though it has frittered away in the wind. I look back and feel not so productive. The thing is. That I have accomplished much…BUT..was it what I needed to accomplish? Was I putting out fires? Dealing with the “tyranny of the urgent”. Was I mastering my time with the important things?

Just as the borrower is a servant to the lender so we will become a servant to our time if we do not manage it well. So I have gotten my calendar in order and my meals all planned and my ducks in a row…so why do I still have that nagging feeling that I am still being a Slave to my time rather than the Master?

So this is what I feel the Lord has shown me. It is all good and well to have our calendars and to manage our time well, but we mustn’t think that we can put off some of the most important things for tomorrow that might not be on our calendars. A walk at the park with our husband, kids, grandkids or friends. A puzzle or paint project. A relaxing dinner with our hubby’s. Those quiet reading times all snuggled up with our loved ones.

We mustn’t think as the borrower does. Time cannot be borrowed for we do not know what the future holds. The borrower receives money with the intention of paying back…but anything can happen…a loss of a job..economy goes crazy and before you know it the debt cannot be paid.

And so it is with time. We intend to spend these precious moments with our loved ones and suddenly something changes. People get sick or move away or even die. Or the kids grow up and move away. We really must pause for a moment and ask ourselves “am I the master of my time?” or “am I the slave?”

Does my time have the heart of God, where people come before projects? I have really gotten off kilter with this. I’m back in the saddle with my calendar..but I had fallen back off with my priorities. I had become a slave of my time. Rather than the Master who is in charge of my time and can STOP and take that time for the important. Because I’m the BOSS you see! Well, that is after the Lord!

So do you think you are a Slave or a Master of your time?

Muffin Tin Monday- A Frozen Banana Buffet

June 4, 2012 By Deirdre

My son just loves muffin tine meals. Sometimes he helps me move his dinner into a muffin tin! There is something special about have a meal or a snack in one. JDaniel loves to have a snack after his “quiet” time in the afternoon. I decided to surprise him with a frozen banana buffet for a snack late last week. He was thrilled.
JDaniel really enjoys getting to dip foods and I have told him that he can’t double dip if other people are sharing the dip with him. This muffin tin was his alone and he was able to dip as much as he wanted to. We have a found the key to success dipping is to only put a small amount of each sauce into the muffin cups.

The buffet tin is filled with two dips and four toppings. The dips are chocolate sauce and honey. The toppings are coconut, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and cinnamon. If you children don’t like any of these sauces or toppings, please feel tree to substitute them with one that your children like.

It was a lot of fun to watch JDaniel try a variety of combinations. He loved the sprinkles and coconut with honey and chocolate syrup. The cinnamon was mixed with honey more often than not.

Tip: I gave JDaniel a whole banana and it was really too big for a snack. JDaniel ended up putting it in the fridge for later. It would have been better to give him small sections of banana. The sections could have been placed on small fork or toothpick for dipping.

If you like this frozen banana snack idea, here are some more snack ideas you will love:

Decorated Cheese Trees
Applesauce Toppings Bar
Easy Sight Word Snacks
4th of July Sundae

This post is linked up to Muffin Tin Monday.

Our Summer Bucket List

June 2, 2012 By Deirdre

While there will be many things that we do this summer that we decide to do at the spur of the moment, I thought it would be a great idea to create a resource list to place on the fridge. This list would be called Our Summer Bucket List.

Rather than have one long list of ideas, I decided that our list would have sections that would make it easier to find things on our list.

Our Summer Bucket List is divided into several sections. We have an At Home section, an Away from Home-Any Day section, and an Away from Home Specific Day section along with several subcategories

Summer Bucke List Activities

At Home

Water

Play with Spider-Man sprinkler
Chase my mom with a crayon water gun
Play with water balloon pinatas
Make pretend alphabet soup in the bathtub
Create and play with sponge stars
Make a giant squishy sensory bag like The Mommies Made Me Do It did.
Paint the driveway

Dirt and Sand

Search for bugs in the dirt
Tend to our sunflower plants
Dig the biggest hole possible
Build a big sand building

Cooking

Bake a raspberry cake.
Make ice cream in a can
Make sugar cookies
Make smoothies
Create Fourth of July sundaes
Make different types of powdered tea

Crafts and Building

Make a mobile
Make a windsock
Paint with different kinds of paint and brushes
Build a marble ramp
Make an Olympic event in our yard
Dye Pasta and make bracelets

Other

Clean out closets so JDaniel can look for treasures.
Pendulum paint

Away from Home- Any Day

Go to Kids’ Planet park
Go to the children’s museum
Go to the library to get books for the reading program
Go to the fountains in Greenville to play
Go to park and have a breakfast picnic

Away from Home- Specific Day

Go to Library programs
Go to the Farmer’s Market
Go to Aunt Shell’s in Atlanta
Go to an outdoor concert
Attend a parade

What do you have planned for the summer? Leave a comment sharing your plans with me or a link to your bucket list. I look forward to hearing from you.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth

June 1, 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 explored books.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Roslyn in Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth by Marie- Louise Gay loves to dig. One day she decides to dig a hole all the way to the South Pole to see the penguins.

I love what her father tells her when she announces that she is going to dig that far. He tells her to remember to bring a sweater because it is cold down there. He is such a great dad.

Once she tries to decide she is going to dig, she has to decide where to start digging. She can’t dig in her dad’s carrot patch and she finds she can’t dig where other animals have their burrows.

When we finally find a spot, she digs and digs. She would probably keep digging past lunch if her dad didn’t bring her a carrot sandwich.

There is a wonderful surprise at the end of this book. I hope you will seek out this book and find out what it is.

What did we do to extend concepts from this book?

Created a Sand Tunnel

We took a wrapping paper tube to a local playground’s sand table to create a tunnel for some of JDaniel’s cars.

Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth- Building a Sand Tunnel in a Sandbox

It was a lot of fun covering the tube with sand and packing the sand down around it.

The cars tended to get stuck half way through the tube. JDaniel discovered that if he stuck the handle of the shovel behind a second car and shoved it into the tube both cars came out of the tube.

Practiced Cutting on Odd Shaped Lines

A couple of sections of newspaper stacked together and painted brown added depth to mom drawn lines once JDaniel had cut them out. I tried to draw a variety of lines to give JDaniel more experience in cutting different types of lines.

Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth- Cutting Paper Lines

The cut out lines looked a lot like tunnels Roslyn might have dug in the story.

Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth- Cutting Paper Tunnels

What have you been working on this week?

Fun Things For Kids To Do- Building A Summer Bucket List

May 31, 2012 By Deirdre

For many of us school is out for the summer and the long summer vacation is looming before us. If school isn’t out for you yet, your time is coming soon. You will be looking for fun things for you kids to do to fill those days at home.
Across the internet, people are posting their bucket list of summer ideas and activities they plan to do with their children. The lists contain wonderful things they plan to do with their children during the summer vacation.

I have never put a bucket list together for our summer, but decided that this year I really wanted to. While we were traveling last week, I asked JDaniel what he wanted to do during summer vacation and he didn’t have any idea what we should do.

My question was probably too broad for my four-year-old to wrap his brain around so, I decided to gather some resources to help us make our list. I also create a list of things that he could choose from. This seemed to make creating a bucket list much easier.

Here’s what I did to help gather resources and ideas for fun things to do for our bucket list:

Visit the library

While visiting the library can be a bucket list item on its own, we used the library as a place to gather ideas too.

There was information on the summer reading program and the special presentations offered this summer. We will be attending many of the events and definitely do the reading program.

Look for books about your children’s interest or hobbies that may contain bucket list ideas. Cookbooks, crafting books, science experiment guides and outdoor game books are all filled with great ideas.

Search for books you are interested in reading and that contain concepts you might want to create foods, crafts or activities based on.

Find a local parks listings and activities on the internet

Many parks offer special events during the summer. We have movie nights, train rides, and more offered at our local parks.

Breakfast and lunch picnics are great fun to plan at a park. We have several favorite parks, but have others we haven’t been to in awhile that would be great to visit.

Gather brochures for local farms and farmer’s markets. Both are wonderful places to explore and come up with bucket list ideas. You could search for new foods to try or local products to cook with.

Search your newspaper

Your local paper may list upcoming festivals, concerts, and events that are free or nearly free that you may want to go to

Search online for summer reading programs

I found a wonderful list of programs on My Frugal Adventures. Her post is called Free Summer Reading Programs.

Starting Our Bucket List

Once I had a few books and resources to look through, I sat down with JDaniel and asked him which of these ideas sounded good. Based on the ideas I was sharing he was able to come up with ideas of his own.

Once we had ideas flowing, I pulled out our planning document.

Creating the List

Our list is divided into three sections: At Home, Away from Home Any Day, and Away from Home Specific Day. I have seen lists that had categories for Home, Close to Home, Day Trips, and Overnight Ideas too. You can easily come up with a variety of heading for your list if none of these work for you.

The At Home section was divided into several sections. These sections were based on JDaniel’s interest, You may have sections on your list that fit your children’s specific interests too. Our sections were water, boxes, dirt, cooking, and crafts. I knew he would be able to come up with several ideas that fit into these areas without much effort. He had already come up with some when we first started brainstorming. We also added a section for Other. There are so many things we can do at home and some don’t really fit into the sections I had mentioned. Things like build a fort and experiment with simple machines can be home at home or elsewhere.

The Away from Home-Any Day section is where we placed our park visits, the children’s museum, a trip to the splash pad in Downtown Greenville, and activities at the pool that we could do. We also included play dates, a date to get ice cream, and local family visits JDaniel wanted to have here.

The Away from Home- Specific Day is where the library presentations, a trip to see my sister in Atlanta, and other activities that would need to be scheduled or attended on a special day.

How to use the bucket list

Now that we have our list done, for the most part, it has been placed in the fridge. It will be a great thing to go to when JDaniel says he is bored or we need something to do. I am going to treat it as a resource. We will do the things that we decided we want to and skip over the things that don’t seem as exciting now that they are on paper.

Now that we have our list done for the most part and we have placed it in the fridge. It will be a great thing to go to when JDaniel says he is bored or we need something to do. I am going to treat it as a resource. We will do the things that we decided we want to and skip over the things that don’t seem as exciting now that they are on paper.

By the end of the summer, we will probably have done many things on our bucket list and come up with great and fun things to do to make summer memories that we hadn’t thought of at the beginning of the summer.

I will be posting our completed list on Saturday along with a place for you to link up your list.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.

Pause Life of a Moment: Packing Prayers Before A Trip

May 29, 2012 By Deirdre

Last Wednesday JDaniel and I headed up north with my sister Michelle from Atlanta’s family to visit my sister Kate in New York’s family.

I knew it was going to be a long car trip. Each family and each member of each individual family was going to come into the trip with their own needs, plans, and timetable.

I tried to anticipate everything Jdaniel would need for the car trip and I asked my mom, who lives in the same town I do, what she would need. I spent time trying to think of every scenario that I thought could and how to be prepared for it.

There was:

A bag of snacks and cooler of drinks.

A bag of activities and a few of JDaniel’s sleepy time friends

The iPad had a few new apps on it and JDaniel got new headphones for the trip.

A backpack contained a change of clothes, bathing suit, and towels for a planned stop at a pool.

I tried to have everything under control.

Preparing for Unplanned Events

Before we left I was reminded by our pastor in his Sunday sermon that , I wasn’t really going to be in total control of the events of the trip. Despite all my planning, things were going to happen or be said that I couldn’t control.

There were going to be six people in the car and I wasn’t going to be able to make decisions for anyone, but me. (Although JDaniel was going to given a lot of guidance.)

The pastor mentioned that God would really be the only one that would be in control and that I needed to lean on His understanding and not my own.

Other people in the car would say and do things that I could over think, react badly too, and not anticipate. I have done that on other trips before.

So after I packed each bag I sent up a prayer.

After I packed the bag of snacks and cooler of drinks, I prayed that we would feel refreshed by our time together and be filled with deliciously wonderful memories.

After I packed the activity bag, I prayed that we would be comfortable with each other and that our words would actively help us grow together as a family.

After I packed the swimming backpack, I prayed that the activities that we would do on this trip fun for all and that we would try to put others first.

Finally with all the bags and our suitcase of clothes packed, I prayed that I would be consistent with JDaniel in what I expect from him. Once we met up with my sister Kate from New York, there were going to be four moms on this trip. Each with different expectations and ways of interacting with their children. I really wanted to be the best mom for the one child I am a mom too and a good aunt to the four children that I am not a mom too.

We don’t get back until tomorrow afternoon! I promise I will let you know how the trip went. Just know that it was probably filled with more prayers of supplication and maybe a little repenting for things I tried to take into my own hands.

This post is linked to Pour Your Heart Out.

Read.Explore.Learn.- That’s Not Fair, Hare!

May 25, 2012 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badgeon your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

This super clever tale of the turtle and the hare by Julie Sykes and Tim Warnes is really fun. In this versions, the hare thinks he has totally outsmarted the turtle only to find the turtle has put one over on him.

The turtle wants to share the cabbages in the farmer’s field and the hare does not. He challenges the turtle to a race. A race he thinks he can win.

Along the way, the turtle’s friends try to cheer him on and they need rescuing. The turtle is sure she will lose when she has to stop and help them.

In the end, the turtle tricks the hare into to giving them all to her. You will have to read to see how.

What did we do with the book?

Ribbon Spool Race

We placed pictures of a hare on one ribbon spool and a turtle on another spool and raced them.

Animal Name Letter Search

JDaniel had to search in magazines for the letters needed to spell out the words turtle and hare. When we had found all of the letters we glued them over the letters on this page.

I created this activity by pasting clip art of a turtle and a hare into a Word document and then typing the type of animals under each picture.

If you like these That’s Not Fair, Hare! activities, here are some more book-themed activities:

Coding Activity- Going on a Bear Hunt

Hungry Caterpillar Money Activity

Knuffle Bunny Color Activity and Cardboard Washing Machine

Watermelon Recipe – Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars

May 24, 2012 By Deirdre

Memorial Day is right around the corner and many of you will be celebrating with picnics and family gatherings. During those gatherings, you may want to have a cool refreshing treat for the younger members of your family or your friends family. Flavored watermelon stars are both cool and refreshing. This watermelon recipe is fun and easy to make with your kids.

Watermelon Recipe

You simply cut stars out of the slices of watermelon using a star-shaped cookie cutter. Slices that are about one to one and a half inches thick are the easiest to cut through.

We tested out five varieties of Kool-Aid and one type of green ice tea mix in our flavored watermelon stars. The flavors we used were peach-mango, cherry, strawberry, pink lemonade, and orange. The peach-mango green tea was our local grocery store brand. You could select any flavor you or your family enjoys best or you could randomly select packets as I did.

Watermelon Recipe - Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars Soaking

Each star was dipped in a mixture of a teaspoon of the liquid and a 1/3 a cup of water. The star remained in its muffin cup for about ten minutes. If you leave the watermelon stars in flavored water too long they become very mushy.

When the watermelon had absorbed some of the drink flavors, we did a taste test. Actually, JDaniel did a test taste. He loved all the flavors, but the strawberry watermelon star was his favorite.

If you decide to try this at home, you may choose to only dip our watermelon stars into one flavor. With just one flavor you may decide to place them all into one bowl instead of a muffin tin. When they have absorbed the fruit flavor, you can set them on a platter for your guests.

You may decide you want to have a star dipping food area at your event for children to try dipping star into the flavor of your choice. If decide to do a dipping area, you may want to have forks or tongs available for lifting the stars out. The flavor dipping cups will probably not stay free of germs if little fingers are repeatedly reaching into the bowl or muffin tin to retrieve their stars.

What is your favorite powdered drink?

Accidentally Creating a Star? Star Craft

May 23, 2012 By Deirdre

More and more often JDaniel leaves me awestruck at the thoughts that he is thinking as he creates. Last week we decided to craft and instead of planning the craft for him I asked him to tell me what items he wanted me to take off the craft shelf.

Getting the Star Craft Supplies

He wanted glitter glue, construction paper, and star shaped cookie cutters so, I grabbed each item and headed to the kitchen table. After the items were set out, he took his seat. I didn’t know that he had a plan, but apparently, he did.

Starting the Star Craft

It took no time for him to place a cookie cutter on the paper and start to trace the inside of it with glitter glue. The glitter glue didn’t appear to be working so, I was asked to loosen the top. The top really didn’t need to be loosened. He discovered that fact when the glue oozed all of the insides of the paper.

Spreading the glitter glue

“Help!”

“Help!” he said. “This is not working the way it is supposed to,” he announced.

After screwing the top back on and spreading the blog around the star with a plastic fork, he started the project again with a new piece of paper.

The cap still didn’t seem to be working so, I pried the dried glue off the top. I had noticed the dried glue and had mentioned it, but it had been declared not a problem by JDaniel.

Now when he tried to trace the inside of the star with the glue it flowed easily. He traced the inside of the star loosely. There didn’t seem to be a focus on dragging the glue closely along each edge and each corner of the cookie on some of the stars he made. Other stars were made with close attention paid to their creation.

Tracing around the cookie cutter

Describing His Creation

“Can you tell me about what you are creating?” I asked as unjudgementally as possible. There had to be a reason for the two techniques being used that I just wasn’t wrapping my brain around.

“Mama, some of these are stars and others are constellations!” JDaniel declared. He clarified further by telling me that constellations are not closed up and you have to look carefully to see the picture.

“That makes a lot of sense,” I replied.

“What should be done with them now?” I asked JDaniel.

“At least one should go in my room,” he announced, “ I want to see if it will glow in the dark like a real star.”

I wonder if that was his plan all along or was it just a creative plan that accidentally created a star or constellation.

I guess only he really knows.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday!