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+.

A Stepstool Can Lead a Toddler to Trouble

August 24, 2010 By Deirdre

A stepstool looks a harmless kitchen tool until you see what a toddler can use it to help him do. I have had the same white plastic step stool for years. This step stool is light and easy to move from one location to another. It is a great thing for me to have in the kitchen. At 5 feet 3 inches tall I have needed one to reach high shelves and clean the top of the refrigerator.

It is unfortunately a tool JDaniel loves to use to help both him and me. He uses it to help get himself into his booster seat. Next he may use it to help him climb into our bed. He may than pick it up and use it to help him get into the sink to “help” clean the dishes. It can be moved to the counter to “help” me make dinner. The stool may then be taken to the living room and be used to reach our books that interest him. If I haven’t remembered to close the bathroom door, it could be used to explore the bathroom counter.

If he needs it and it is somewhere else on the first floor stand clear, JDaniel will rush off to get it and bring it back. I could be working on dinner and get nudged by the step stool to make room for JDaniel to stand on it. He just wants to see what is going on and “help”.

The step stool has gone into timeout from time to time. If it is used in a way that leads to trouble, it sits on our bed for a time. Without it JDaniel can’t climb into our bed to retrieve it. It has to sit there and wait to be retrieved by an adult.

My husband has suggested that maybe the step stool could go away permanently. I hate to take it away forever. Without it I can’t reach the top shelf and JDaniel can’t get into his booster seat.

Facture Looks Like A Great Photo Gift

August 24, 2010 By Deirdre

I just read about a wonderful new product on Twitter Moms called Fracture. It is product that combines a digital picture and a shatterproof piece of glass. It looks so cool. The sleek lines would look great with any décor. I am so excited about trying this. I think it would make a great Christmas gift. All I will need to do upload a picture and they will print it on glass.

The company mentions the following:

Fractures are very safe: all sharp edges are removed, and they are completely okay to touch and handle.

Fractures are durable: the prints are shatter proof (unlike traditional glass frames), and the images will not fade for years beyond average prints.

If I am among the first 100 participants, I will be writing a follow-up post about Fracture with my feedback after testing it out.

Disclaimer: “I wrote this blog post in response to a TwitterMoms RAMBO alert, making me eligible to get a Fracture picture frame for review. You can learn more about Fracture at http://www.fractureme.com/.”

Reading! Reading! Books and Words Everywhere!- Print Motivation

August 24, 2010 By Deirdre

Last week I started a series on Setting Up a Literacy Center with vocabulary related activities. This week we are going to look at print motivation. Reading words and books everywhere we go.

Ways to work on Print Motivation

Birth to 5-years old

- Read to your child even as a newborn. You can talk about the pictures as well as read the words.

- Engage your child in the story by pointing to the repeated words or phrases and “reading” them together.

- Make book sharing a special time to cuddle and be close to your child.

- Let your child see you reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

- Give books or gift cards to bookstores as gifts.

Visit your public library.

Here are some ways we do this:

- We read our environment. We read boxes, signs, mail, words on trucks, store signs and billboards.

- Books are located in every room of our house. Yes, we have them in the bathroom.

- JDaniel loves to “read” his dad’s book on Fighter Jets. We have been picture walking them for over a year.

- I leave out words in sentences of books JDaniel is familiar with to have him fill in the blank.

- We visit bookstores and the library to look at books a lot.
- Reading stories before bedtime is part of our nightly routine.

- My husband and I have our bible reading times with JDaniel nearby.

- Sometimes I read while he is playing.

We pick up grocery circulars when we go to the grocery store. JDaniel loves to “read” them on the way home and while I get dinner ready.

If you are not a strong reader, you can:

- Check out books with CDs or tapes from the library. You can listen and “read” the books with your child.

- Take your child to storytimes and have them listen to others read.

- Listen to storytimes on the radio or internet together.

Ask your librarian for high interest low vocabulary books. They are available on all types of topic and easier reading levels.

Muffin Tin Monday- The Alphabet for Breakfast

August 23, 2010 By Deirdre

Muffin Tin Monday has started their themes back up for the fall. The theme for this week is the A,B, C or alphabet related tins. I decided to stick with my theme for Muffin Tin Mondays this month which is breakfast and make an A, B, C breakfast.

The breakfast came out yummy. I know because I made a tin for myself. JDaniel was allowed to select which tin he would like to eat from. He chose one and then he wanted the other. It might have had something to do with the fact that my tin still had a doughnut in it or maybe it was because he is two.

The A, B, C breakfast tin contained strawberry applesauce, blueberry pancakes, a cereal mixture, a piece of doughnut, eggs scrabbled, and a fruit salad.

This Little Piggy and a Craft

August 20, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel is working a lot on fine motor skills with his fingers. One way we have been working on fine motor skills is to do the finger plays in the book This Little Piggy and other favorite action rhymes by Hannah Wood. He learned several of the rhymes in this book from Miss Donna, the teacher of the Mother Goose Class we attended at the library. The some we had never heard of like Round and Round the Garden and Horsey Horsey. We love to look at the book. Hannah Wood’s illustrations are colorful, fun, and helpful. Yes, helpful. It helps for JDaniel to look at the pictures in the book for guidance as to what the rhyme is about and what we need to be doing as we act out the rhymes. He seeks this book out over and over again.

We worked with our fingers to do an art project too. After reading A Bunch of Keys idea for finger painting with condensed milk, I decided to invite JDaniel’s friend Jake over to paint with us. (We invited his friend Joe too, but Joe isn’t into finger painting yet. He chose to observe.) They had a great time painting and eating with the paint. Both Jake and JDaniel ended up covered in paint and in the bathtub by the time we were finished.

Disclaimer: This Little Piggy is published by Tiger Tale Books and I was sent this book to review by Tiger Tales.

Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts!

August 18, 2010 By Deirdre

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts have been coming out of my son. JDaniel has had diarrhea and a sinus infection this week. There are been great green globs from head to diaper. Thank goodness the Target diapers we use have been doing a great job. Thank goodness I stockpile tissue when it is on sale. We have been through plenty of both. I won’t gross you out with specific details of either. Just know that it is probably as bad as you think. All I can do for now is sing the line from the song above and keep him clean.

I did find this picture on the internet called Great Green Gobs of Gopher Guts. This pasta and cauliflower dish looks better than what JDaniel has.

I am a little nervous about Mrs. Matlock’s Summer School color of the week for next week. What could come out of JDaniel that would be blue?

Setting Up A Literacy Center- Vocabulary

August 17, 2010 By Deirdre

Two friends and I took our children to the Hughes Library in downtown Greenville to experience Laugh’n’ Learn Reading Readiness at the beginning of the summer. It was six interactive centers set up to share ideas on helping your child learn pre-reading skills. We had a great time exploring each of the centers and seeing what each of our children gravitated towards. I decided to share what I learned and how I set up activities for each skill in my home.

Today will begin the first of six installments in the Setting Up a Literacy Center series. We will be looking at vocabulary development and the tools we are using to work on them.

Ways to Work on Vocabulary Birth to 2-years old

Talk to your baby or toddler about what is going on around you.
Listen carefully and respond to your baby’s babbles or your child’s talk.
Ask questions even if your child does not have the words to answer.
Read together every day. Name the pictures as you point to them.

2 to 3-years old

Talk about everything! The more words your child hears, the more they will know.
Be specific. (use the word “rose” rather than “flower”)
Add more detail to what your child says. ( the “red” rose)

4 to 5-years old

Talk about feelings, ideas, and how things work.
Speak in a language that is most comfortable for you.
Learn by reading nonfiction books on subjects your child likes.

Here are some of the tools we are using: Grocery Store We put together a store using a shelf in the pantry. It contains the following

- Empty food boxes
- A shopping basket
- Reusable shopping bag
- An old calculator ( The calculator is used as a scanner and register.)
- Play money
- A grocery store name tag JDaniel was given while taking a tour of a local grocery store.

I am usually the shopper. I ask JDaniel for products and he bags them after scanning them. He loves making the beep sound for the scanner. We talk about what he has available and what he thinks I should buy. JDaniel also loves to shop and sell to himself.

Old Cell Phone Conversations

We have two old cell phones that he chats with on his own or we chat with together.

Old Magazine Picture Walking

I have tons of old magazines and you may too. We just sit down and talk about what we see. I may ask questions to try and get him to give me more specific words.

Muffin Tin Monday- Breakfast with an Ocean View

August 16, 2010 By Deirdre

This week’s tin has water-related animal pancakes. Did you figure out what they are supposed to be? There are fish, flamingo, and dolphin pancakes. They are above a sea made of grape jelly, blueberry applesauce, and red grapes.

JDaniel loved this meal so much he asked for it again later. The pancakes had to be broken up for him for dipping. He tried to break them with his fork with little success. It was really important that each piece be totally dunked in jelly or applesauce. It just had to be. He is learning to be more flexible except when it comes to dipping.

Great Posts I Came Across This Week- August 15

August 14, 2010 By Deirdre

Each week I travel around the internet visiting blogs. Here are a few posts that I loved, learned from, or gave me great ideas:

Child Related Post:

Nurture Store has a fun post on Bean Bag Games. I love chalk and bean bag activities.

A Bunch of Keys has a great idea for Painting with Condensed Milk.

I love the imaginative play in Little Victories post called It All Started With A Box.

Homeschool Creations has a wonderful post on Our Chore System & Chore Chart Printables. I love that there are morning chores, evening chores, and chores that earn money. Even the three-year-old has chores.

I love visiting Counting Coconuts. This week the posting on Beach Theme Activities is amazing. I love all the math and sensory activities.

I Learned Something from This Post:

Owning Single has a great to do list that will make an emergency trip to the hospital go more smoothly. Here post is called I’ve Fallen… I Can’t Get Up. It is filled with great ideas.

Six Feet Under has a great post called Blogging is like being in high school- But, in a good way. It has great tips for bloggers getting started and people who have been blogging for awhile.

Dear Crissy has a great post on The 5 Best Sites for Mom Bloggers to List and Promote Giveaways. I used most of them. Two were new to me. I need to check them out.

Recipe Post:

Banana Split Pops–So Good is a wonderful post by My Family, My Forever.

Two Animal Books and Tracing Animal Textures

August 13, 2010 By Deirdre

This week JDaniel had read Animals Talk and Animals Go by Emily Bolam. These beautiful board books don’t contain a lot of print. Each animal has a single word they would say in Animals Talk. The Animals Go book contains a single word for what each animal would do. They don’t actually show the animal moving or talking. These leaves open the avenue for you to talk about the words and act them out for them or with them. The page opposite each animal has a great textured page that displays the animals covering. JDaniel loves to feel those pages.