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+.

How to Make a Cardboard Sled

January 18, 2011 By Deirdre

When the snow arrived last week, we found ourselves without a sled. With the amount of snow, we get each year it never occurred to us to buy one for JDaniel. Thankfully I remembered using cardboard sled during a Let’s Pretend session at the library in the fall. Once I had gathered the materials it was so easy to put together.

Materials:

4 or 5 feet of rope or clothesline
A cardboard box
A pencil
A yardstick

Directions:

1. Fold a cardboard box flat (Having 2 layers adds strength to the sled)
2. Using a yardstick mark seven inches from the front of the box on the left and right sides with a pencil. (This will be where the rope enters the sled from the handle.)
3. Using a yardstick mark seventeen inches from the front of the box on the left and right sides with a pencil. (This will where the handle begins.)
4. Using a yardstick mark twenty-two inches from the front of the box on the left and right sides with a pencil. (This will be where the handle ends.)
5. Using a yardstick mark twenty-four inches from the front of the box on the left and right sides with a pencil. (This will be where the rope comes back up from the underside of the sled so that it doesn’t drag and slow the sled down.

Using a knife or scissors carve a hole of about two inches just inside each of the marks.
Fold the rope in half in front of the sled to ensure you will have the same amount of rope threaded through both sides of the cardboard.
Beginning on the left-hand side thread the rope down through the first hole.
Thread the rope up through the second hole and then down through the third. Leave enough of the rope sticking up between the second and third holes to create a handle.
Thread the rope up through the fourth hole and tie a loose knot to keep the rope in place.
Repeat steps 8-10 on the right side of the sled.
Adjust the tension of the rope under the sled to keep the rope as tight on under section as possible while still having comfortable handles and enough rope for the handle to pull.
Tighten the knots above the fourth holes when the rope is as you would like it.

This post is linked to ABC and 123: Show and Tell and Show and Tell Saturday.

Muffin Tin Monday- The Weather Outside Was Frightful!

January 17, 2011 By Deirdre

Well, the weather outside was frightful but, the lunch inside was delightful. We had snow! We had snow! We had snow! With all the snow and ice we had in South Carolina I went with a snow and ice theme for the muffin tin.

I started a simple turkey and cheese sandwich cut it out with a snowman cookie cutter. The scraps from the sandwich were placed in the adjacent muffin cup. The second row contains snowman parts. The carrots could be used for a snowman’s nose and olives that could be used for a snowman’s eyes or smile. The third row contains popcorn puffs of snow and lemon ice chunks.

The lemon ice contains juice from the last of the lemons I received from Mrs. Matlock. It was sour and sweet rolled into one.

Here is the recipe for the lemon ice:

Ingredients:

2 cups of water

1 cup of sugar

Pinch of salt

2/3 cup of lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)

Directions:

Bring the water, sugar, and salt to a simmer over high heat and stir until you no longer see the sugar. Take off heat and stir in lemon juice.
Pour into a 9×13 pan and cool from 15 minutes.
Cover the pan with plastic and place in the freezer for one hour.
Take the pan out of the freezer and scrape lemon ice from edges to the center of the pan.
Return the pan to the freezer and freeze one more hour.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Virtual Valentine’s Day Party- Feb.6th- 14th

January 15, 2011 By Deirdre

Beginning February 6th JDaniel’s Mom will be hosting a Virtual Valentine’s Party. There will be four giveaways offered during that nine day period along with a Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up.

I wanted to give you a heads up in advance so that you could plan to be a part of the festivities.

Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up

I am going to provide a link for you to post your Valentine’s Day Party related posts. Each family friendly or child related post linked up will need to have a Virtual Valentine’s Day Party badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up. One of the people that link up a post that contains a badge or link back will be randomly selected to receive a $10 Visa Gift Card. You may link up to four posts.

Here are some ideas for party related posts:

children’s Valentine’s Day game

party food
party favors
books you could read
decorations
crafts
fun songs or finger plays

You can create a post that contains many Valentine’s Day ideas, but each link up must be a different post.

Here is the badge:

What party is any fun without guests?

I am also going to randomly pick a comment stating the two link up posts a commenter has visited to receive a prize too. You will be able to leave a comment once a day making the above statement.

Giveaways

I have secured a wonderful Valentine’s Day book collection from Tiger Tales and a yummy food related giveaway for party guests. Both giveaways will be launched on February 6th and will run until the 14th of February.

I hope you will consider attending my Valentine’s Day event.

Read.Explore.Learn- Playing in the Snow

January 14, 2011 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 and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

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:

Snow by Cynthia Rylant describes snow this way it comes softly in the night like a quiet friend” or falls so “heavy [it buries] cars up to their noses. The story describes all types of snow and shares a grandmother and her granddaughter enjoying the snow by sledding, making snow angels, and more.

I love the illustrations by Lauren Stringer that are filled with joy and paint beautiful images that fit perfectly with Cynthia Rylant’s words.

Snow Sensory Box

JDaniel used his chopsticks to give snowballs a haircut.

He went on to shovel the snow.

Outdoor Cleaning

JDaniel and the next-door neighbor Nathan dusted off all the lawn furniture and railings on the deck.

Snowflake Quesadilla

After all the time outside, I made snowflake quesadilla for us to share. It was so easy to cut out a tortilla and warm it on the stove along with the second one in a frying pan with olive oil. Once both tortillas were browned I placed turkey and cheese between the tortillas.

I am also linking this to Feed Me Books Friday.

They Make My Heart Melt

January 13, 2011 By Deirdre

The last time my heart melted was because…

I spend all kinds of time with JDaniel due to the fact that we are home together all day. I love to hear and sometimes watch my husband playing and chatting with JDaniel. It just melts my heart.

Sometimes I just listen on the fringes of where they are playing. I am afraid to look in and disturb these wonderful moments. I don’t always hold back. There are times I jump in and join the fun. There are times we all have fun together. More often than not when Daddy Time is happening I hang back a little.

JDaniel loves Daddy Time. He has even told me at times that I have jumped in this is “Daddy Time.” They do almost the same things we do during Mommy Time. They play with trucks; chase each other around the house, read, and play hide and seek. It is just different. The things they talk about are different. The way my husband plays with him is different.

Take for example time outside sledding yesterday in the snow. I started out pulling JDaniel around the snow in a sled I had made out of a cardboard box. We had a blast. JDaniel had never sledded before and thought this was a great way to travel over the icy snow. Then Daddy took over. It may be due to the nine inches my husband has on me in height or the speed with which he could pull the sled across the snow. Sledding became more like hydroplaning across the snow and that looked and sounded like it was so much more fun.

Part of me wanted to jump in or take control of the sled and try to make it hydroplane too. Instead, I stood back and took these pictures of my guys playing with a sled in the snow. Hearing the two of them hooting and hollering across the snow did it to me again. I stood there in the cold icy snow feeling my heart melt.

This post is part of Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop.

Not Good Mom!

January 12, 2011 By Deirdre

When we had snow on Christmas Day, I decided JDaniel would need to have his first snowman. At first, he was interested in helping roll the snow into balls. After a few minutes, he picked up his shovel and moved to a different part of the yard to dig in the snow and do work.

I continued to work on the snowman building a second and third snowball. Each ball was a little smaller so that it could be stacked to create the man of snow.

Once the man was assembled I let JDaniel and my husband know I was going inside to get the materials needed to add a face to the snowman. I knew how large I had made the head and grabbed pickles, olives, and carrots that would fit on his face.

When I returned, the snowman had a fourth snowball added to him right on top of the head I had made. I am guessing my husband added the head although no one stepped forward to claim the tiny ball of snow as their creation.

I tried to make the materials I had brought out work. They just didn’t fit this minuscule head. I grabbed a John Deere hat and JDaniel’s sunglasses out of the garage and tried to make the snowman look better.

I asked JDaniel to come over and check out the snowman. When he did the news was accurate and yet disappointing. “This is not good! Mom! Just not good!” I was told.

There was only one way to fix this problem. The small head had to go and the original head then became the top ball and thus the head. I was then able to place the face materials on the snowman minus the pickles which somehow disappeared along with several teeth. Although no one claims to have eaten them my guess is JDaniel has a snowy snack.

I think this snowman looks much better.

I Don’t Like Singing in the Middle of the Night

January 11, 2011 By Deirdre

My sister Michelle gave JDaniel a stuffed rabbit that had Jesus Loves Me embossed across his chest that had been given to her sons almost a year ago. We hate this rabbit my sister had informed me. She also mentioned that her sons loved to throw it into the bedroom of one another after pushing his chest to activate box that causes the song Jesus Loves Me to reverberate from the bunny’s chest. Yes, my loving sister passed to us an irritating toy.

JDaniel calls the irritating rabbit Jesus Loves Me Bunny. For most of the last year Jesus Love Me Bunny has lived at the bottom of the toy basket in his room. The bunny just didn’t interest him.

Last week about 3: oo a.m. I heard a small voice singing Jesus Loves Me through JDaniel’s baby monitor. At first I thought it was JDaniel singing as I listened more carefully I realized the voice wasn’t his but that of Jesus Loves Me Bunny.

I lay quietly in my bed listening to the bunny singing the complete first the verse of Jesus Love Me and waiting to hear if it had caused JDaniel to wake up. There was complete silence. I breathed a sigh of relief and drifted back to sleep.

Two hours later I heard the song again through the monitor. JDaniel slept through a second round of the song, but I lay there wide awake trying to figure out where this bunny was in JDaniel’s room and what was set off the song.

After much thought and time awake to think thoughts I came up with what I believed to be the reason. I had to wait until JDaniel woke up at 6:00 a.m. to see if the hypothesis I had formed was correct.

Do you know what was going on?

JDaniel had taken Jesus Loves Me Bunny and added him to the menagerie of animals that sleep in his bed with him. During the night he had rolled over the bunny in just the right spot to activate the song twice.

Guess where Jesus Loves Me Bunny sleeps now!

He sleeps in the bottom of JDaniel’s toy basket. It seemed like the best place for him to be.

I love singing Jesus Loves Me, but I don’t like hearing it in the middle of the night.

Muffin Tin Monday- Owl Moon Lunch

January 10, 2011 By Deirdre

Owl Moon is one of my favorite wintertime tales. Jane Yolen does a wonderful job involving the reader into a hunt for owls one cold winter night. The pictures by John Schoenherr draw you in and make you want to go on your own owl hunt. JDaniel is now dying to search the backyard in the dark to look for owls.

I decided to create an Owl Moon muffin tin meal for JDaniel and see if he could find the images I was trying to represent in the book while we ate.

There was a cheese moon, yogurt with tiny spoon like footprints, a turkey dog, Christmas fruitcake with the darkest shadows you have ever seen, milk representing snow whiter that milk from a cereal bowl, and finally a sandwich owl. Most of the food was served in silver icicle like muffin cups.

Here is a better shot of the footprints.

He did a pretty good job of finding things mostly though he just wants to go owling. It is snowing here is South Carolina today. We may have to go out at dust, trample through the snow and look for owls.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.