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+.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Balancing Your Wants and Those of Others

July 6, 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.

I am participating in the MeMe Tales #readforgood Readathon 2012 this summer. During the Readathon, anyone who signs up on the MeMeTales site is given access to the books being featured for free. Each week the books follow a theme. The theme this week is character development. The books being spotlighted this week are StickFiggy and the Piggy-Monkey, Good Habits to Have, and Ditto the Butterfly.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I chose to focus on the book StickFiggy and The Piggy-Monkey this week. We really enjoy the other two book featured in the MemeTales Readathon this week, but StickFiggy and the Piggy Monkey hit home with some of the issues four-year-olds deal.

You may remember StickFiggy from last week. He is a happy go lucky guy who wants to be friends with almost everyone. The one person he doesn’t want to be friends with it PiggyMonkey.

PiggyMonkey is selfish. He wants all of the raspberry pie that StickFiggy makes and when he just gets one slice he throws a tantrum. He has previously cut the cord to StickFiggy computer as a joke and let StickFiggy play the computer repair bill. He is a real mess.

PiggyMonkey needs to find balance in his life if he is going to have any friends at all. He will need to learn that if people share something with him he can’t demand that they be more generous. He loves to wear a crown which I think means that he wants to be king of all things. What he really needs to learn is how to serve others! It is hard for balance your wants and others needs.

What did we do with this book?

Made a Frozen Raspberry and Strawberry Pie

StickFiggy and Piggy Monkey - Frozen Raspberry and Strawberry Pie

I found a really simple frozen raspberry and strawberry pie on the Cool Whip website. The recipe called for a graham cracker pie shell, two small cartons of raspberry yogurt and a container of Cool Whip. All you have to do is mix the yogurt with the Cool Whip and place the mixture into the pie shell.

The pie will need to freeze it for a couple of hours and you may want to garnish it with a strawberry or two before you serve it. ( You could garnish it with raspberries if your store has them in stock. We tried two stores and there wasn’t a fresh raspberry to be found.)

We really loved this dessert.

Finding Balance Activity

StickFiggy and Piggy Monkey Finding Balance

I found a clown balancing activity on the Discover Primary Science site. The idea is that placing two pennies on either side of clown printed on cardstock will give the clown help in keeping his balance.

It worked. JDaniel was shocked that it really balanced on the edge of a cup. He kept turning the cup around to see if the clown would fall.

Piggy-Monkey needed balance in his life. He just kept thinking about what he wanted. He didn’t think about how his behavior affected others. Piggy Monkey gave us the opportunity to talk through choices and their effects on others this week.

What have you been reading this week?

Disclaimer: I have been given access to the MemeTales: Readathon books and will receive copies of the books. All the thoughts and information in this post about the books are my own.

Reaching for Freedom and Making Good Choices

July 5, 2012 By Deirdre

JDaniel has decided at age four he know what he needs to do, when he needs to do it, and if your choices for him are going to make him happy.

He wants the freedom to make choices his life and so he is given some.

JDaniel needs to learn about making good choices, about consequences to making bad choices, and how to make them when mom isn’t around to bounce the choices off of. Giving him a little more freedom has given him the chance to learn.

His day starts with choices. He gets to decide what he would like for breakfast as long as it isn’t popsicles and sweet tea. Then he gets to decide if he want to watch a show and which show he wants to watch. When that is show is over, he gets to help decide his clothes and whether he will wear his red boots or sneakers.

Some of these early morning freedoms of choice are open ended and others have limitations. He sometimes fights these limits. He knows of better choices like watching a whole morning of television and wearing pajamas outside the house.

There needs to be some freedom to given to him to test out whether his choices are good and valid ones to make. Reading a book about microorganisms before heading to the grocery store turns out to be a great choice while spreading every toy out on the floor and suggesting that they be cleaned up later much later proves to be a bad one. It turns out later means wanting to wait until tomorrow and mom won’t let you watch a video on robots with dad until your room is clean.

As the day continues there are more opportunities for choices and learning about making them away from mom. JDaniel has always fought going to the playroom or the gym at the Y. He wants to be by me at all times when he is around people he doesn‘t know. I have been pushing him to play in the gym. There is a track right above it he can see me walking or jogging on. He still fights it. He will go in and sit along the wall and watch me for thirty minutes before he will make the choice to play. I have to fight the desire to help him make the choice to make new friends and play. I walk around the track praying they next time I am in his view he will be up and playing. It will take time. For the past three times we have gone he has repeated the same choice even though he has the freedom to make a change to it.

Lately he has had more friends coming over to play and they have been given the freedom to play in his room with my checking in on them. Some friends have made choices that JDaniel knew weren’t okay and he has sought me out to tell me about them. There have been other choices that were not good that I have found out about later and he has denied they happened. He has had to learn that freedom to make choices especially bad ones come with consequences. He has also learned that the truth may not set you completely free, but it does go over better with your parents.

JDaniel will have years of making choices and searching for more and more freedom in his life. I am so hoping that the foundation he is building now will help him make good choices in the future.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday!

Great 4th of July Crafts and Snacks for Kids

July 4, 2012 By Deirdre

The Fourth of July has always reminded me of fun and easy foods. People just seem to want to a cookout or have picnics with great food that doesn’t keep them tied to the kitchen. The Fourth of July ice cream sundae at the top of this post is such fun to put together and so easy to make. Actually, your guests make it for themselves.

Great 4th of July Crafts and Snacks for Kids

All you need to do is setup an area on a table with ice cream sandwiches, your favorite ice cream toppings, whipped topping, cherries, and sprinkles. Your guests construct the sundae with their favorite things.

I have been serving them on plates, but they could just as easily served in bowls.

Below you will see several 4th of July crafts and food creations I have shared here or on others blogs in the last week or two.

The cardboard flag mobile was part of a post I shared on Not Just Cute last week. The post was called Book Activity: Pledge of Allegiance. I shared a wonderful book called the Pledge of Allegiance and how it helped me explain the Pledge to JDaniel. The mobile now hangs in JDaniel’s room under his ceiling fan. It is one of my favorite 4th of July crafts.

I have shared these Red, White and Blue Frozen Smoothie Stars with you in a muffin tin meal. The post on how to make them was a guest post I did for Come Together Kids. It was my post, but Laura did the layout for this picture. She did an awesome job.

JDaniel created a wonderful 4th of July crafts idea for chalk drawing. It was shared on Kids Activities Blog called Craft for Kids: 4th of July Fireworks! We had fun adding the ribbons on at the end!

You may remember seeing the post for Memorial Day Recipe- Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars right here on JDaniel4’s Mom at the end of May. I thought these stars would be great for the 4th of July too.

4th of July Snack and 4th of July Muffin Tin Meals of the Past

July 2, 2012 By Deirdre

The Fourth of July and pinwheels got linked together in my head for some reason. I mulled over several ways to create a pinwheel and end up with a tortilla cut into a pinwheel for this 4th of July snack.The pinwheel didn’t seem to lend itself to becoming part of a sandwich so, I decorated it with sprinkles, red frosting, and a cherry. The blueberries and grapes not only covered the red and blue colors needed in a 4th of July snack but added a healthy touch to it. The bacon in the star-covered muffin liner is there because JDaniel likes bacon. It does look a little like the red stripes in the flag. JDaniel ate the pinwheel, the cherry, and the bacon. He decided the fruit could be used for lunch the next day. I did serve him the fruit along with tiny star sandwiches the next day for lunch and he ate the whole thing.

Below you will find some of the 4th of July snack and meal ideas I have served over the past few years.

The first tin was a snack muffin tin called Very Berry 4th of July and was created for JDanel when he was two years old. It contained blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, yogurt to dip them in, and cereal to sprinkle on the yogurt. The second tin in the first row is the muffin tin lunch I shared last week. The post was called Friendship and the 4th of July. It features a hot dog wrapped in bread stick, a frozen yogurt star, tomatoes, catsup, blue tortilla chips, and blueberries.

The first tin in the second row is a second 4th of July tin from when JDaniel was two. The post featuring it was called Dipping into the Fourth of July. The tin contained blueberries, plain yogurt, spaghetti sauce with meat, tomatoes, noodles, and cucumbers. JDaniel was big into dipping food all by himself when he was two. This tin was filled with things to dip.The second tin in the second row is from when JDaniel was three. The post was called Muffin Tin Monday on Sunday- Happy Fourth of July. It is hard to see what is in the first cup. It was a burger with bread and cheese stars. The last two cups in the first row contained salads. There was a corn and black bean salad and a red potato salad with potato stars. The last row contained strawberries, red grapes, and peanut butter fudge.I really enjoyed looking back on the 4th of July snack and lunch ideas I have made in the past. I hope you did too.What are your favorite 4th of July foods?This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Science Experiment for Kids- Frying Eggs on the Driveway

July 1, 2012 By Deirdre

The last few days here in South Carolina have been so hot outside that you could fry an egg on the driveway. We decided that rather than just talk about the heat it would be fun actually try to fry two eggs out on road at the end of our driveway. It would be a fun science experiment for kids or at least my kid.

We researched the hottest part of the day. It turned out it would be over 101 degrees at 3:30 p.m so, we waited until 3:30 to start the science xperiment.

JDaniel thought my husband and I were a little crazy. People just don’t cook eggs outside he announced to us, but once we got outside he was really excited about seeing what would happen.

A little help was needed by JDaniel to open his egg so, he let my husband helped him crack the egg and spill its contents on the road.

We set the timer inside the house for ten minutes and waited to see if there would be a change. After ten minutes, there was just a little change. We headed back into the house and set the time for another ten minutes. When we check the eggs the second time with a finger test, the yolks were a little hard on the top.

JDaniel’s egg wasn’t hard enough to withstand the pressure that was placed on the egg during his finger pressure test. The yolk split open and oozed all over its egg white.

We headed off to the YMCA to walk on their indoor track shortly after the yolk incident. When we returned an hour later, the whites and yolks were hard and rubbery.

I guess it was hot enough outside to fry an egg!

If you like this science experiment here are some more fun outdoor science experiments:

Measuring Forms of Water

What is Water? Fun Experiments that Explore Water

STEM Engineering- Bridge Building

Friendship: Stickfiggy and Lott Share

June 29, 2012 By Deirdre

I am participating in the MeMe Tales #readforgood Readathon 2012 this summer. During the Readathon, anyone who signs up on the MeMeTales site is given access to the books being featured for free. Each week the books follow a theme. The theme this week is friendship. The books being spotlighted this week are StickFiggy Makes a Friend, Lott’s Tea Party, and Arthur (A dog looking for a home.).

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

While MeMeTales featured three books on friendship on the Readathon this week, we are just going to look at two. Both of the books I am going to share with you feature stick characters that reach out and do something for friends.

StickFiggy Makes a Friend is a very cute story about StickFiggy and an egg. While heading out to play StickFiggy comes across an unattended egg. He decides to stop and watch it until its mom returns instead of going off to play. It takes awhile for the mom to come back. By the time she does it is no longer an egg, but a chick.

Lott’s Tea Party is the tale of a little stick girl that plans a party for her friends. Readers of her story see all that she has to do to get rid of the party and read what it happening in each stage of planning in a single word that is placed on each page. One word is all that is needed to share all that she does to get ready for her friends to come.

What did we do to explore the themes of the books?

Invited a Friend to Play

JDaniel has been missing his best friend from school. I decided to invite him over for a play date so both boys could spend time together.

Made a Friendship Bread

I found a great recipe for Friendship Bread online that didn’t require starter yeast. JDaniel and I had a wonderful time making it. JDaniel had a wonderful time decorating it. We worked on making a StickFiggy character with painted popsicle sticks and a cardboard circle to help us remember to share the story with his friend.

JDaniel and his friends ate one piece. My husband and I inhaled most of the rest. It is really delicious. Maybe it is the chocolate pudding you add to the mix that gave it that little bit of extra something.

Created an Outdoor Tree Play Area

There is a tree line that separates our yard from the next door neighbors. At the end of the tree line is a large magnolia tree that JDaniel and his friend love to climb and play under. The branches of the tree bow down and form a tree play area.JDaniel and I hauled out a blanket, some learning activities, and some toys out to the tree to fill the tree play area.

The area contained the following:

1. Chalk to draw on the tree with.2. A writing a drawing activity that was based on the StickFiggy Finds a Friend story.

3. A cardboard tube that could be leaned against the tree to create a ramp of different levels for a toy truck.4. Activity mats that could be illustrated with small sticks JDaniel and I gathered.

JDaniel decided that there were leaves all over the ground and that they would be fun to play with too. He thought we should reattach them to the tree with clothes pins. I thought was a great idea.

When his friend arrived, they explored most of the playthings and climbed the tree. It was a perfect place for friends to hang out.
What are your favorite books about friendship?Disclaimer: I have been given access to the MemeTales: Readathon books and will receive copies of the books. All the thoughts and information in this post about the books are my own.

Facts I Learned at the Type A Parent Conference

June 27, 2012 By Deirdre

I am so blessed to have the Type A Conference held so close to where I live. It was took me less than two hours to get to Charlotte, North Carolina or conference central.

This was my third year at the conference and it was probably the best conference for me.

Why?

Volunteering

I got to volunteer at the registration table and as a badge checker for a party and breakfast.

Fact:
If you volunteer, you get to meet a lot of new people. You are forced to say awake longer at night, attend a party or two, and interact with people you don’t know.

I am not a party girl, but I did go to them and met some amazing people.

Heather Solos’ Bootcamp Sesssion

Every link should have SEO words not click here or too many details.

Fact:
A cupcake recipe link back should be recipe for cupcakes and not ooey gooey chocolate cupcakes. It is broader and will capture Google searches for recipes for all cupcakes and not just the ooey gooey kind.

Amy Lupold Bair’s Time Management Session

Set out a clear list of things you have to do and things you want to do each day.

Fact:
We try to multitask to complete a whole list of things and end up frustrated at the end of the day.

Lynette Young’s Google+ Session

Google+ is a great place to build a knowledge footprint.

Fact:
100% of your followers see you content. They don’t see all of it easily on other platforms.

Google+ places post into searches faster.

Fact: If you have a Blogger blog, it goes in faster than WordPress blogs.

Your Google+ page needs to be public
Fact:
If it isn’t public people can’t see your amazing posts and follow you.

Melanie Nelson’s Facebook Session

Set measureable goals for growing your facebook presence.

Fact:Deciding on a daily or weekly # of posts shared, # of comments, and # of shares given to you or to others will help you grow on Facebook.

Posting just text on Facebook won’t draw readers to your posting.
Fact:
Placing a picture or video on your Facebook post carries more weight than just posting text.

There is a one hour decay rate for things you post on Facebook.
Fact:
Knowing the best time for you to post is important.

There are several great ways to get readers to respond.
Fact:
You can ask them about themselves, ask readers to click “Like” to respond to a statement, ask yes or no questions. If you ask yes or no questions, ask why they chose that answer.

Adam Keats and Holly Hamann’s Beyond Reviews and Giveaways – Blogger Outreach with ROI for Everyone Session

Understand the objective of a campaign or blog project.
Fact:
Find out for the contact you are working with what the single most important things are.

Building and Maintaining Relationships with pr contacts and project managers is important
Fact:
They will know if you are just staying in contact to just get another project or to get to know them as well as their agencies better. They tend to work with people that they know will get the job done and want to work with them.

I could go on and on about things that I learned. This is just a few things I thought you might want to know about too.

This post is linked to AlpabeThursday

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead

June 26, 2012 By Deirdre

I am sharing a post called Book Activity: Pledge of Allegiance and that includes how to make an American flag mobile. After reading this post, I would love for you to stop by Not Just Cute to check it out. Let me share with you why taking time to play is important. Here is special time my son and I had recently taking time to play.

Taking Time to Play

Sometimes I know just what you want to play when I go the closet that houses all of the games, building toys, and crafts supplies.

Sometimes my child knows what we should play together as his eyes scan the two shelves that house their things.

The game or toys just jumps out at them and calls to be played with.

Bristle Blocks were calling to JDaniel last Tuesday when we took time to play together in the afternoon.

Our morning had been busy. JDaniel was in his first day of a three day camp on the Orient at his preschool. I had been rushing around getting things ready for my trip to the Type A Conference and gathering the foods my guys would need while I was gone.

It was wonderful to just sit at the kitchen table and work with Bristle Blocks.

JDaniel had in his mind that we needed to create the building and car on the front of the box. He pointed them out as soon as we sat down.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead - Deciding on a Project

We tried constructing the building just as it was on the box. It was a little difficult though. We bought the box of Bristle Blocks used and I think some of the pieces are missing. We had to substitute some pieces with others.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead -Building a Project

There was also a stability issue with our structure. It kept wobbling and swaying. I suggested to JDaniel that it was caused by an earthquake that we couldn’t feel, but the building could.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead -Building on a Project

He smiled and laughed at me or with me and then tried to help me add blocks to make it more stable. The car he had seen on the box he told me he wanted to create all on his own. He knew how to do it and was going to show me that he could.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead Picture Two

As the sun shone on the kitchen table lighting the way for the car to travel across the road made from the slats in the blinds, JDaniel pushed his car forward. He had created it all on his own.

Taking time to play always gives me insight as to how JDaniel is doing. Today he showed me has the patience to create the replica of a car on box, the desire to work together to complete a task, and great laugh.

I hope you will take time to play with your child today!

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!)