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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+.

Memorial Day Book and Craft

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This week JDaniel and I read the book Memorial Day Suprise by Theresa Martin Golding. It is a really fun story that talks about a young boy learning about Memorial Day, parades, and the fact that his grandfather is a war hero.

JDaniel and I made a Memorial Day musical shaker to parade around the house with. I stapled the stars around two paper plates that were filled with dried pasta. JDaniel added the stickers.

We really enjoyed marching around the house with his shaker as we had our own parade.

Thanks to Troops and Their Families

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I am so thankful for all those troops and their families that sacrifice every day for our country. Whether you agree they should be where they are or not, you have to acknowledge that they are giving a lot.
When I watch the troops returning from a tour or mission on television, I can see the joy that they have in being home. You can see the bliss their loved ones have in having them come home. I have read many blog entries in the past few months by wives who have had their spouses return. They write with such gladness about their husbands’ returns.
I have also read several great posts about how families have worked at staying in contact with their loved ones. Some have had their spouses record stories on videos that their children can watch. Others have sent special foods they know their loved ones enjoy. (One mom wrote about trying to send her son a pie. It took many months to get to him. I am not sure why.)
I know firsthand it can be hard to have a loved one far away. My sister Kate had a tour in Iraq. Thankfully it was a short tour. She was only gone for several months. The family was able to come and stay with her husband part of the time to help with her children. We were able to have many family members create birthday cards to send to her to celebrate her 40th. Thankfully she was on a base there the whole time.
There are many of you who have loved ones out in the field. They are asked to take risks every day. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for them or for you. Military families have so much to take on without their loved ones here. I don’t know how children grasp it. There are holidays, birthday and anniversaries that you have to be apart. I don’t know how you deal with all that you have to.
I do know that I am thankful to you and your family members far away. I hold you in my prayers!

 

 

Bouquet of Learning Tools or Reusing Faux Flowers

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Here are a few ways you could reuse these patriotic flowers:

Math

Patterning- You could pattern by the color red, blue, white.

Counting- You could count 1,2,3 and on or skip count by two’s, three’s or four’s.

Word problems- You could make up stories about gathering, arranging or sharing them that involve word problems.

Writing

Rhyming- You could make a list of words that rhyme with red, white or blue.

Story Writing- You could write a fiction story about where the flowers came from.

Pretend Play

Plant a flower garden between seat cushions.

Set up a pretend flower shop and display them in fun vases that you craft with orange juice cans or toilet paper tubes.

Set them in a shoebox and hang them under your child’s window for indoor window boxes.

Work on Good Character Traits

As you pass them to your child or have them pass them to you share something you like about them.

Practice sharing them with stuffed animals.

Write a kind note for neighbors and deliver them with the flowers.

Outdoor Play

Use them like a baton in a relay race.

Stick them in the ground and have your children run around the yard like little bees. They have to visit each flower once.

 

What other ideas do you have?

 

Muffin Tin Monday- Memorial Day

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Memorial Day Muffin Tin Lunch

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.

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Tomato Shack: Child’s Starter Kit Giveaway

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If there is one thing I have learned while playing with JDaniel outside, is that he loves dirt. Whether you have boys or girls or a combination of boys and girls, they probably like to dig in the dirt too. The Tomato Shack has a great way to put that innate desire to dig to good use. They carry planting kits for children. Right now they carry a tomato kit and a strawberry kit. I bet that if your child planted one of them they would love watering; caring for it and watching it grow.
Would you like to win a child’s starter kit?
Here is how:
*Go to The Tomato Shack and tell me something else they carry. (1 entry)
For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.

*Tell me how you see your child growing and changing. (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: TheTomato Shack Giveaway @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. (2 entries)
*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site. (2 entries)
*Leave a comment on Mom Loop. (1 entry per comment)
*Buy anything from The Tomato Shack and come back and leave a comment saying you did. (10 entries)

This giveaway begins May 30th and ends June 12th.

 

That is 14 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/. )

 

Disclaimer: I was not sent anything for hosting this giveaway. All the opinions expressed are my own.

 

 

Great Posts I Came Across This Week: May 29

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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:

Deckside Thoughts has a great post called I’ll Rest When I Get Home about visiting with returning soldiers. It is a simple and short post filled with meaning.

Southern Savers had a post called Free Admission to Military Families that tells about museums military families can visit between Memorial Day and Labor Day for free.

Recipes

Deep South Dish has a post on wonderful Memorial Day Recipes.

Connecting with Other Bloggers

Mayhem and Moxie has a post called Giveaway Link Ups That Show Your Blog Some Love. It highlights their favorite places to link up giveaways.

Mommy Moment has a great tutorial on How to Make a Scrolling Sidebar Widget. I hope I am brave enough to try it.

It’s Come 2 This even had post called Top Ten Reasons Memes have been great for me I read this week.

Needed This Reminder

Ooops…There Goes My Mind had a great post on forgiveness called Erase! Erase! Erase! I needed to read this post.

What Are the Rules At Your House?

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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

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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

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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.

 

 

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