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. – Fall Harvest

October 22, 2010 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 the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on 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. 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

Tractor by Craig Brown describes how each of the tractor attachments can be used to help a farmer with his crop throughout the year. The pictures in this book are amazing. I have to admit that I looked in the glossary in the back of the book to find out what some of the farming terms meant. JDaniel loved watching the fieldwork throughout the planting and harvesting season.

Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher beautifully describes a night filled by the light of a bright harvest moon. I love the wonderful rhythm of the words that describe the night time activities that can now be clearly seen due to the moon. The pictures in this book are amazing. If it weren’t for the fact that JDaniel would probably not sleep well, I would love to have a harvest moon here soon.

Autumn Harvest by Alvin Tresselt shares with its readers the things that can be found in a farm community in the fall. This book contains a lot of words and JDaniel’s attention seemed to wander when I read him this book. I loved the weaving together of wonderful word pictures like “.. the gossipy birds strung along telephone wires, waiting to start their autumn flight.

What did we do?

Farm Equipment Sensory Box

I placed some rice and several types of noodles in a plastic tub for JDaniel to explore. I showed JDaniel the glossary at the back of the Tractor book and the noodles I had selected to represent each tractor attachments. He loved playing with it. He played with it for a long time and made very little mess. The next few times the rice and pasta tub was taken out it made a huge mess. I am still finding rice. My husband mentioned that maybe he was too young for this. I am not sure if he will get neater with age.

Painting Pumpkins

JDaniel got to paint his pumpkin from the pumpkin patch at playgroup this week. The mom who hosted playgroup this week, Jennifer had the children use washable finger paint. It was an awesome idea. The paint stayed on the pumpkins and not the children.

Catching Fall Leaves

JDaniel loves to be outside. He loves to play with leaves. I thought it would be fun to try to catch leaves in a butterfly net. The wind hasn’t been blowing here much lately so, I decided to throw leaves in the air and have him try to catch them. Later he decided to catch leaves out of piles of leaves I had raked.

$90 GC to CSN Winner

October 22, 2010 By Deirdre

Heather won the $90 GC to CSN! I have contacted her via e-mail and let her know about her win.

Exploring Nivens Farm

October 20, 2010 By Deirdre

Yesterday I posted pictures we took at a pumpkin stand in downtown Simpsonville, South Carolina where we purchased a large pumpkin for our front porch. Today I have more pumpkin related pictures to share. These pictures are from a field trip JDaniel and his playgroup went on to Nivens Farm. We got a small pumpkin and bag of apples as part of the farm visit package. I am going to share so of the wonderful things we did and saw while exploring Nevins Farm.

We started with a hayride around the farm. JDaniel clung to me as the tractor took off and only relaxed half around the farm. When I asked him his favorite part of the trip later that day he said this was his favorite part.

Then someone headed off to look for a pumpkin. JDaniel was supposed to select one of the small pumpkins that were already picked as part of our farm visit package. After being guided back to them, he spent fifteen minutes trying to select a pumpkin. I was so ready to select one for him.

After selecting one of the small pumpkins, he jumped on inner tubes.

There was a wood teepee set up. JDaniel waited patiently for his turn to explore the inside of the teepee.

It is hard to see him in the tube. If you squint carefully, you may see his shadow. JDaniel crawled through the tubes many times. He also loved standing at one end of the tube and calling to me on the other end. The echoing effect really interested him.

Almost Wordless Wednesday- Pretty Pumpkins

October 20, 2010 By Deirdre

We found such a variety of beautiful pumpkins at a local pumpkin stand. I had to take a picture of some of the more unusual ones.

I love the lace pattern on these pumpkins

These white and green pumpkins are stunning.

JDaniel loved these too.
He ultimately picked a traditional orange pumpkin.

Harvesting Words- Mom, Tell Me about It

October 19, 2010 By Deirdre

There are times when even I the official JDaniel translator does not understand what he is trying to tell me. Sometimes due to the context of the conversation and sometimes due to where we are when we have the conversation I can figure out what he has just said. When I do not recognize the word he is trying to say, I ask him to tell me about it. Sometimes I ask him the following questions: What does it look like? What is near what you want or see? What color is it? Have we seen it before? Narrowing down the object of discussion usually helps him discern the word he is trying to say.

Lately, JDaniel has been pointing out objects we see when we are out in the car as a fire truck. After getting me to tell him that it is a fire truck, he says, “Tell me about it.” The first time he did this I wanted to break out laughing. I caught myself before the chuckle could escape from my lips. I am so glad I did. JDaniel was being serious. He was giving me an opportunity to share with him what I knew fire trucks. I do not know a lot. Most of what I know about them has come from watching videos on fire trucks with him and he already knows those facts.

I look forward to him asking for me to tell him about things again. This is a great opportunity to talk about shapes, colors, sounds along with introducing new vocabulary words to him.

What are you doing Mom?

This question comes up a lot of car rides or when I am doing the most mundane things. The answer to the question when I am driving the car is to say, “JDaniel, I am driving the car.” I have thought about it and am not sure that is what is asking. He seems content with my answer but, I do wonder if he is looking for more details just as he is when he says,” Tell me about it.” I have started putting what I am doing in sequence with details. “Well, I am driving the car on the highway, because it is the fastest way to the library. When we get there, we can look for books” I say to him.

Does he need all these details?
Yes, he must or he won’t be asking for them.

Do I think taking the time to give him the details helps his brain development?
Yes, I think it is helping him build brain connections that he will use as a foundation to build knowledge on later.

Does he just like to talk like his mom sometimes?
Yes, he most certainly does.

What questions are your children asking?

There are so many decisions families make about Halloween.

Here are a few we have talked about at my house:

Will we trick or treat?

Some families don’t trick or treat. They have legitimate reasons and have decided not to participate. My husband and I both trick or treated when we were little and decided that it would be all right for JDaniel to dress up and visit houses in our neighborhood.

Will you put out a pumpkin?

Yes. We both had pumpkins on our porches when we were little and don’t see this as a problem for us.

Will the pumpkin have a face carved into it?

Yes. We decided that we could have a happy face carved into a pumpkin. I am totally aware of the history of carved pumpkins. A parent wrote me a three-page letter on the horrors of Halloween when I first started teaching twenty years ago. He detailed as much of the ancient history and meaning of Halloween objects he felt I needed to know followed by a declaration that his child wasn’t to participate in any Halloween related activities in the classroom. I think he had a right to share his thoughts about Halloween with me. His feelings on the subject were respected and I let his daughter abstain from activities that would have been objectionable to him.

Will we decorate the outside of the house with skeletons and ghosts?

No. JDaniel recently noticed some Halloween decorations at a friend’s house and was scared of them. They weren’t going to be a part of our Halloween décor anyway. We certainly wouldn’t be doing them even if we had planned to do them with JDaniel’s fear of them.

Will we read Halloween related books?

Yes. I am reviewing one this week in Read. Explore.Learn. I am not pointing out witches or ghosts out and discussing them. If he asks about what they are, I will tell him what they are called. At two he probably won’t want an in-depth discussion anyway.