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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

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+.

Embracing Reading in the Summer and All Year Round

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ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: Activity Ideas from R-Z

I have always been fortunate that my two years old has loved being read to. From the beginning, I read to him. He didn’t like to sleep much as an infant and I had a lot of time to read to him. It seems that I read Good Night Moon a million times. I started reading it in funny voices or singing the words to familiar tunes.

 

Now that JDaniel is two I still read to him a lot. He has been “reading” to himself for about nine months. He isn’t really reading he talks to himself about the pictures and retells the parts of story he has memorized.

 

How am I trying to keep him interested in books:
    1. I have surrounded him with books that he loves. We have books in almost every room of the house and in the car beside his car seat.

 

    1. We make going to the library an adventure. A library visit is a mission to find books on the shelves that he loves, capture them in our library bag, and bring them home. Right now that means checking a lot of books out of the library about trucks, front loaders, and trains

 

    1. The library’s summer reading program has excellent prizes. I mentioned earlier this week that JDaniel earned a pass to a water park and free Ice Dream from Chick Filet-A. Even someone that wasn’t a reader might have been motivated for the prizes.

 

    1. JDaniel can see that we enjoy reading. He sees us check a book out of the library for us to read. We can be found reading when the other parent is playing with him. Right now he models a lot of what he sees.

 

    1. I picture walk (tell a revised version of a story while looking at the details in the pictures) him through books that have too many words, but pictures that will interest him. As he gets older we will revisit these books and read the actual story.

 

    1. We have one of his stuffed animals join us in reading. Later I tell him the animal wants to hear the story again. When he doesn’t want to read with me, he likes to read with them. If JDaniel has a sibling, I would have him read to them.

 

    1. We talk about books we’ve read as we go through everyday life and encounter things we have read in books.

    2. We act out stories with toys.

    3. We go to the library’s website and reserve books that we have loved and want to read again. When we go to the library and they are there, it is so exciting.

 

  1. Visiting a bookstore on a field trip to read is fun too. Sometimes they have story hours. JDaniel loves to read the book someone else is reading.

  2. Journaling about what you like and don’t like about books is also a great idea. It helps you remember the books you have read and enjoyed. I hope to start this with JDaniel when he gets older.

    You may have your own great ideas. If you have some you would love to share, please leave a comment. I am always looking for new ways to encourage reading.

 

Books on Summer and Craft

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We read a lot of books this week most of them about construction equipment and trains. We did fit in two books about summer.

The link below is an affiliate link.

It’s Summer by Jimmy Pickering is a fun book about a girl and her dog enjoying the season. They love all the aspects of summer from when it’s hot finding a cool water spot to selling lemonade, meeting a crustacean on the beach, and so much more. We love rhymes at my house and this book is all in rhyme.


The second book we read is called Alaska’s 12 Days of Summer by Pat Chamberlin-Calamar. This wonderful book could be sung to the 12 Days of Christmas literally. The sheet music is the back of the book. JDaniel loved looking for the animals on each page. As your progress from one to twelve, the animals move all over the page to make room for new animals. I loved the facts that were on the bottom of the page about each animal.

Art Project

After reading the books, JDaniel painted a paper plate with an orange bingo marker. The sunspots are where he got a hold of a blue bingo marker and added a little blue to the project. On the outside of the plate, we glued tracings on his hand.

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Wonderful Water With Cousins

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My sister Michelle’s sons spent time at my house over the weekend. It was hot and sticky during the day on Friday. Really too hot for man or beast to be outside. After dinner, I decided we needed to get out of the house and do something fun. I changed JDaniel into his bathing suit and had my nephew get in their bathing suits. We then loaded into the car to visit the fountains in downtown Greenville. The space they are in is designed to look like a train track. JDaniel is so into trains right now.
The fountains are located between artist studios, a hotel, and restaurants and the Reedy River. I was so thankful that there were other children playing in them when we got there. We would have looked a little strange to the couple’s strolling along the river before or after their dinner all by ourselves.

 

JDaniel loved trying to catch the water in his hands while the water enjoyed spraying his upper thighs.

 


I wasn’t sure that a seven and ten-year-old would get into playing in the fountains. They seemed to enjoy it as much as JDaniel did. The words in the window say,” More and more and More.” That’s how long they wanted to stay and play.

JDaniel took notes on a few new tricks he learned about playing in the water. If you flick the water coming out of the fountains, you can get other people really wet. Can you see the wheels turning in his head as he watches his cousin Jason?

 

 

Washing Your Cozy Coupe

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JDaniel has missed his outdoor toys while we have been inside avoiding pollen. I decided to have him wash his Cozy Coupe a few weeks ago so that we could bring it inside the house for a while. He had a blast.

 

 

Summer Reading and Garbage Monsters

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JDaniel and I read at least an hour a day together. He also “reads” some on his own too. It was really easy for us to complete the first ten hours of our library’s systems reading program. I think the librarians would have been surprised at how fast we completed them. Thankfully we went to visit my mother-in-law out of town and the library is closed on Sundays. It looked like it took us longer to complete.

The prizes for first ten hours read were really nice. JDaniel got a free pass to a local water park and a free child’s size Ice Dream from Chick Filet-A. I knew two of my nephews were coming this past weekend and picked up packets for them too. Last Friday we went out for their Ice Dreams and on Saturday the boys went to the water park. The Ice Dream coupon was only worth 79 cents each. The admissions passes to the water park saved me $21. Of the two the water park was the most popular. JDaniel loved having buckets of water dropped on his head. My nephews loved the Boogey boarding attraction.
The prizes for fifteen hours were a rubber spider yo-yo and a free child’s meal from Chic-Fil-A. We didn’t collect the child’s meal yet. I am hoping my nephews will urge their mom to have them come back later in the summer to collect their prize.
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As you can see we have spent a lot of time in the library. There has been one additional reason for visiting frequently. JDaniel loves a DVD called Garbage Monsters. I am really not interested in watching garbage being recycled and moved around the dump over and over again. ( It was a relief after watching Thomas the Train for months. I like Thomas too. I just don’t like watching him over and over again.) We returned Garbage Monsters after having it out for two weeks a month ago. Every week since we returned it we have checked the shelf it is housed on regularly. It was finally there. We have it back for two weeks. After that, I am thinking that there is a child somewhere in Greenville that really needs to have it visit their house.

Muffin Tin Monday- Best Chicken Salad Under the Sun

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I am part of the Swanson’s Mommy Blogger Challenge. The challenge was to come up with a recipe using Swanson’s canned chicken. I decided to make a try and make chicken salad with a twist. What did I come up with? It is called Fruitful Chicken Salad. My family has been eating a lot of it as I try to tweak the recipe.

JDaniel even ended up with some of the chicken salad in his tin. He also had sunlight peaches, mandarin oranges, and cheese pieces on the top row. Besides the chicken salad, he had goldfish swimming in jello on the bottom. The fish inflated a little as the jello set. I thought they looked icky. He loved them.


Please take a moment to check out the Fruitful Chicken Salad recipe and enter the giveaway I am hosting for cans of Swanson Canned Chicken.

Happy First Day of Summer!

Great Posts I Came Across This Week- June 19

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

 

Mom Related Posts:

 

Dancing in the Rain wrote a beautiful post about taking care of a sick child at night called The Sun Does Rise! The photos she chose to go with the post are wonderful.

 

I’m a Full-Time Mummy had a great post called It’s Not Fair. I really needed to read this post this week.

 

Just Beautiful Posts:

 

Dropped Stitches wrote of the simple things in life that make her happy. She called the post They Make Me Happy.

 

Child Relate Posts:

 

Quirky Mama wrote 40+ Tips for Road Trips with Toddlers and Preschoolers. This is a wonderful list that covers it all. While you are on the Quirky Mama check out her Edible Paint post too.

 

No Time For Flashcards has a great post on a Travel Sized Craft Box. Her idea of using an old cloth placemat in the box is genius.

 

Connecting with Other Bloggers:

 

The Online Nanny Diaries is hosting a giveaway for a $60 CSN GC. If you tried to win one here and didn’t, this is a great site to enter for a chance to win.

 

Swanson’s Mommy Blogger Recipe Challenge and Giveaway ( 4 winners)

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I was invited to participate in the Swanson Mommy Blogger Challenge. Each blog in the challenge was asked to come up with a recipe using a can of Swanson’s chicken. If I can be up front and honest with you, I am not a much a cook. I have just gotten to the point where I can follow a recipe and experiment with it if I don’t have all the right ingredients. The moms in my playgroup know that to come up with this recipe I bounced every ingredient past them. My friend from playgroup Heather emailed me back and forth a few times with ideas too. This recipe for Fruitful Chicken Salad is really simple and may already be something that you make at home. For me this is a new recipe and creates something both my guys wanted seconds of.

 

Below the recipe, you will find a place to leave a comment/entry/ voting area.
What did you say? Well, if you leave a comment is counts as a comment in a giveaway tied to Swanson’s chicken. Five people will receive coupons for free cans of chicken. Each comment also counts as a vote for my Fruitful Chicken Salad. There are five bloggers in the Swanson Mommy Blogger Challenge. The blogger with the most comments/ votes can win $250.

 

Fruitful Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
2 cups red grapes

 

2 cups of cut cantaloupe

 

¼ cup plain non-fat yogurt

 

½ cup Vidalia onion salad dressing (I used Ken’s)

 

1 cup walnut halves

 

1 large can Swanson’s chicken
1 bag of spring salad greens

 

1 packet of Splenda or another sweetener or honey

 

2 tablespoons of honey

 

Cooking spray
Directions:
1. In a small bowl mix the sweetener, yogurt, and Vidalia onion salad dressing.

 

2. Flake the chicken with a fork in a small bowl and add to the dressing mixture to it.

 

3. Toss cut fruit in a medium-sized bowl.

 

4. Pour chicken and dressing in with the fruit and mix so that all the fruit is covered. Set salad aside to work on the walnuts.

 

5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 

6. Spray a metal cookie sheet with baking spray and then spread walnuts evenly across the pan.
7. Sprinkle the walnuts with honey and bake them for ten minutes.
8. Remove the walnuts from the oven and let them cool before mixing ½ the walnuts into the salad.

9. When serving the salad, place it on a bed of lettuce. Sprinkle a few on the remaining walnuts on the top of each person’s serving.

This salad serves 4-6 if used as a main dish.

Would you like to win a can of Swanson’s Chicken? There will be five winners.
Here is how:
*Tell me you would like to try the salad or make something of your own with Swanson’s Chicken. (1 entry)
For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.

 

* Tell me what one of the ingredients is in your chicken salad. (1 entry)
* Visit http://entertainingescapades.blogspot.com/) and tell me something that you learned. ( 1 entry)
*Write about this giveaway with a link back to it on Facebook or another social network site. (1 entry per social network)
*Enter another giveaway that I am hosting. (1 entry for each giveaway you enter)
*Leave a comment on a non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry)
*Follow my blog. Leave me a comment saying that you now follow or that you already do. (1 entry)
* Follow me on Twitter. (1 entry)
* Twitter about this giveaway with a link back. Copy and paste: SwansonsBloggers Challenge@JDaniel4’sMom(1 entry per day)

 

* Subscribe to my blog. Leave me a comment saying that you have subscribed or that you already do. (1 entry)
*Add me to your blog roll. Please leave a link to your site. (1 entry)
*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site. (1 entry)
*Leave a comment on Mom Loop. (1 entry per comment)

This giveaway begins June 18th and ends July 18th. That is 14 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/.This

Disclaimer: This giveaway is being sponsored by Swansons. I was sent a can of chicken and $10 to purchase groceries with.

 

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