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+.

Muffin Tin Monday- Memorial Day

May 31, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel loved his star themed lunch. He sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star when I sat his tin down on the table. The tin had watermelon stars, Colby cheese stars with a turkey burger underneath them, yogurt, honey wheat bread stars, cherry tomotoes, and apple stars.

The cherry tomatoes were supposed to represent poppies that are used to remember Memorial Day. The stars are to remember all the stars of the military that serve our country near and far. The yogurt has no meaning. JDaniel just likes it.

What Are the Rules At Your House?

May 28, 2010 By Deirdre

Everyone seems to have their own set of rules for their house. Some rules may be the same from one house to another while others may be a unique to a house or two.

Here are some rules I have come across in the last couple of weeks:

You have to take your shoes off when you come in the door. I get this rule. It helps keep the floors clean and cuts down on the wear in your carpet.

You have to ask permission to leave the table at the end of a meal. I like this rule too. We haven’t started it with JDaniel yet. His friend Joseph has started to have to ask permission at his house.

If you find a penny on the ground, you have to give it to the closest business or give it to charity. It isn’t yours so, you can’t keep it. One of my sisters has this rule.

Cough into your elbow. Elmo tried to teach us this rule during flu season. I didn’t teach it to JDaniel and probably should have.

You have to put your toys away as soon as you finish with them. Some people wait until the end of the day to clean up toys. I won’t be able to get around my living room if I waited until the end of the day. I am sure waiting until the end of the day works for lots of families.

You have to take at least one bite of everything on your plate. It is called a “thank you bite”. Several families I know enforce this rule.

You can’t take a drink or food out of the kitchen. I don’t like sippy cups out of the kitchen. Most of mine leak and little drops of milk are not fun to clean up all over the house.

If you don’t pick up a toy, it can get a time out. A mom is playgroup shared this rule. She says it really helps her son remember to clean up.

What are rules at your house?

Books on Manners and a Craft

May 27, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel and I read a number of books on manners this week. Some got to read only once and then were taken back to the library quickly. Why did they go back so quickly? Many of the books on manners spent the first half of the book describing bad manners and they spent the second half of the book pointing out good manners. When you have a little boy who doesn’t miss anything, he picks up as much on what he shouldn’t be doing as much as what he should. Some books covered things he hadn’t thought of yet. I skipped over those new ideas.

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There were two really good ones we read. Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners by Laurie Keller and D.W.’s Guide to Perfect Manners by Marc Brown. Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners had too many words for JDaniel to sit through. I did picture walk through him and tell him the manners the rabbit wanted his new neighbors the otters to have. D.W.’s Guide to Perfect Manners is right about his alley. It highlights a lot of good manners and mentions a few bad manners to avoid and why.

After reading D.W.’s Guide to Perfect Manners, we made Arthur puppets with paper plates and had them practice the good manner.

Can you tell which one JDaniel made?

Sitting Straight on the Sofa on Sunday

May 27, 2010 By Deirdre

My parents were divorced when I was eight. My sisters and I got to spend time on Sundays with my dad. More often than not he took us to his mother’s apartment. We called his mother and my grandmother Gigi. Gigi was a very formal lady who believed young ladies should sit straight and tall on the sofa. She would chat with us about school and ask my dad about his week. Sometimes my sisters and I would look through copies of her McCall’s or Good Housekeeping magazines as we sat. Other times my dad would put on an old movie or a sports program and we sat silently and watch it too.

Things would liven up at three o’clock when Gigi would put out a bowl of corn chips and a plate of Lemon Cooler cookies. She would also pour everyone mixed drinks. My dad, sisters, and I would have Coke with orange juice mixed into it. Gigi would have rum and Coke. (I didn’t realize until I was much older than she had rum mixed in her drink.)

Once the snack was over we would help her gather up the glasses and bowls and take them to the kitchen. Then it was time for quick hugs and goodbyes before we headed back to our house.

I never remember being bored or feeling stifled by the Sunday we spent at her apartment. I do remember thinking that she expected our best manners and liked order. My other grandmother was the direct opposite, but she is another story for another day.

Wordless Wednesday- Sharing Toys with a Friend

May 26, 2010 By Deirdre

Yes, Ma’am

May 25, 2010 By Deirdre

I hadn’t realized the many ways I say yes to JDaniel during the day. It really wasn’t until I decided to have him say, “Yes, Ma’am” the way my husband does that I really picked up on what I had been saying and how JDaniel was saying “yes”. There was the yup, yeah, uh-huh, right, ya, and yes.

When you are trying to correct him by saying, the words “Yes, Ma’am” you notice that “yes” is said many times in every hour. I haven’t been keeping count, but think it must be at least twenty times yesterday morning. He says it enthusiastically when he really wants something. When he doesn’t, he slips back to “uh-huh” or “ya” a lot.

I know it is an old fashioned way of saying yes to any adult. There are many of you that may think it is outdated or just be thrilled your child is saying anything that sounds like “yes”. There are probably a few of you if you live in the South that think there isn’t any other way to say “yes” to an adult.

I didn’t grow up saying “Yes, ma’am”. At my husband’s family gatherings I am the only one who doesn’t say it naturally as if from childhood. Since they say it, I thought I would teach it to my son.

Muffin Tin Monday- Exactly What He Likes

May 24, 2010 By Deirdre

I decide to do an egg theme. JDaniel doesn’t like eggs. So, I tried to make some of JDaniel’s foods look round like eggs this week. I am not sure I succeeded. He ate grape tomatoes, sweet peas, roundish watermelon, turkey lunchmeat (It comes from a bird that hatched from an egg, leftover stuffed bread that looked speckled like an egg, and roundish sweet potatoes.

This isn’t the best example of this week’s theme. You will have to visit other Muffin Tin Monday Moms to see that. JDaniel did think that this tin was filled with foods exactly the way he likes them.

Movement Activity: Veggies on the Move

May 21, 2010 By Deirdre

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We read the book Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres about how some vegetables grow up, while others grow down, and others grow round and round this week. After reading Up, Down and Around, I thought it would be fun to make vegetable flashcards for JDaniel to act out. He needed to stoop down low for the carrots and potatoes. Then JDaniel stood really tall with his hands over his head for the celery, cucumbers and the cauliflower. Finally, he spun around and around for the tomatoes.

Retelling or Reenacting Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

May 20, 2010 By Deirdre

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JDaniel and I read the book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming about three rabbits that use their cunning to outsmart Mr. McGreely who is trying to keep them out of his garden. He puts up a wire fence and then a wall. Then he makes a moat and a huge structure. While they can’t get over the huge structure, they outsmart him by entering the structure in his harvesting basket.

I decided it would be fun to try retelling and reenacting this fun book with JDaniel this week.

Retelling Activity

I made a flipbook for JDaniel on the Read Write Think website. If you haven’t been to it, you really need to. You can create a book that is designed and illustrated completely online or you can create the pages online and use the print outs to illustrate your book. I put in the name of each way the rabbits outsmarted Mr. McGreely at the bottom of a flipbook page. JDaniel helped me look for fruit and vegetable pictures in magazines to place on the garden page. I cut out pieces of construction to represent each of the structures Mr. McGreely used to try to restrict the rabbits and then set JDaniel lose with his crayons. Once the pictures were done we could retell the events in Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! as we flipped through his book.

Reenacting Activity

JDaniel and I gathered up three of his stuffed rabbits and then started building structures that Mr. McGreely used to try to keep them out of his garden. I took JDaniel’s plants and put them a construction paper fence about the casserole dish that contained them. Then we lifted up the dish and put a shoebox to represent the wall. Next, we put blue paper under the shoebox to represent the moat. Finally, we put all of it into a cardboard box. JDaniel had a lot of fun trying to help the rabbits get to the garden.

Almost Wordless Wednesday- Helping Others with the Harvest

May 19, 2010 By Deirdre

Our local emergency food center decided to use a piece of land in front of it to help others grow fresh vegetables. Anyone can come to help with the planting and care of the vegetables. If you help with the garden, you get to share in the harvest.