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+.

12 Ways to Learn Using Plastic Easter Eggs

April 2, 2010 By Deirdre

1. You can place a toy in a stack of eggs and search for the one with the prize.

2. You can put a capital letter on one end of an egg and its lower case letter on the other. Break them open, mix them up, and have your child search for the match. I did eggs with matching capital letters for JDaniel.

3. You can put together a set of toys or pictures and have your child put them in the egg that has the beginning letter on it.

4. You can put a number on one end of the egg and a set of corresponding dots on the other end. They can then match the tops and bottoms or place the correct number of objects in the egg.

5. You can mix up the colors of the tops and bottoms then have your child match the colors correctly.

6. You can make maracas with whole grain circular cereal. Just watch that is doesn’t come apart and become a bowl for a snack.

7. You can put objects in the eggs and have the children match the sounds like Activity Mom did this week.

8. You can put them in a plastic spoon and try to carry them around the house.

9. You can sort them by colors.

10. You can use them like cupcake liners for Muffin Tin Monday.

11. You can make a nest with blocks; fill it with eggs, place in a toy bird, and talk about signs of spring.

Plastic Egg Activity - Sorting Eggs by Color

12. You can read the list of 50 Uses for Plastic Easter Eggs found of Geeky Housewife’s blog.

Kate and One Special Egg

April 1, 2010 By Deirdre

My mom loves to tell the story of my sister Kate and her one special egg. Mom and Kate were at an Easter egg hunt that featured one special golden egg. For some reason my mom decided that egg was going to be theirs. Kate must have been about two and at this hunt two year olds were allowed to have their moms accompany them on their hunt for eggs. My mom spotted the golden egg in the field and tried to guide Kate to the egg. Kate had another plan. She had noticed a plastic egg sitting in the grass that she really wanted. Once she reached the egg she had been focused on, she sat down and started playing with it. My mom could still see the golden egg out of the corner of her eye. She really wanted to go over and pick it up for Kate, but decided not to. If Kate had the one special egg she wanted, that would have to be enough.

The way my mom tells the story I don’t think she has fully gotten over Kate’s deciding not to go for the golden egg. I hope that I will let JDaniel find and appreciate the things he enjoys and not pushing him to go for my golden egg dreams.

Almost Wordless- Easter Eggs and Books

March 31, 2010 By Deirdre

Today I am going to share with your an Easter egg dyeing experience JDaniel has with his friend Morgyn. At the end of the post, you will find some of my favorite Easter egg themed books. You may want to read with your children before they dye eggs.

JDaniel and his friend Morgyn had a great time dying eggs.

JDaniel and I read these books about Easter eggs before Morgyn came over.

These are the finished eggs.

These Easter egg hunt books would be fun to share.
The links below are affiliate links.

Remembering Blessings Daily

March 30, 2010 By Deirdre

A few weeks ago the pastor of our church encouraged us to think about praying as he does. He starts by thanking God for all the blessings of the previous day. Then he prays for the things and people he will encounter on that day. Finally he prays for things that are coming up that week.

Here are some blessings from yesterday:

JDaniel and I had a wonderful time at playgroup. We are so blessed to have wonderful people to play and visit with each week.

JDaniel took a nice refreshing nap yesterday afternoon. He has been hit or miss with naps lately. It was refreshing that he took at great one yesterday.

We have house with a big backyard to play in. The weather warmed up and we had a great time playing.

My husband has a job to go to. Not everyone can say that. We have friends that have been out of work for several months. They have said Monday is the hardest day of the week for them.

Muffin Tin Muffin- Blue and Purple Foods

March 29, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel and I had fun tracking down blue and purple foods. BiLo had purple cauliflower on special this week and we found the purple potatoes from Peru at Whole Foods.

His tin contained blue tortilla chips, blueberries, purple potatoes (They are boiled in the picture above. I later mashed them.), meatloaf (non-purple meatloaf), a blueberry muffin and a little of the purple cauliflower. I was shocked when he asked for more potatoes and cauliflower. I wasn’t shocked that he wanted more of the muffin.

He Hunted! He Found! He was Thrilled!

March 28, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel went to an egg hunt at a friend’s house and had a blast. He ran around collecting eggs as fast as he could. The other children hadn’t been practicing as we have. JDaniel looked like a professional egg hunter. The other children could have cared less.

My friend gave them each bucket to carry and filled the eggs with toys, jelly beans, and stickers. All the children were happy.

Practice Egg Hunt signature

Yoplait YoPlus “Better for You” Gift Pack Giveaway

March 25, 2010 By Deirdre

We love yogurt at my house. With the weather getting warmer I will need to make sure that if yogurt is going to be on the picnic lunch I bring for lunch that the lunch box stays cool. I was given the opportunity to offer you an opportunity to try Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt and have a great way to take it on picnics. The Yoplait YoPlus “better-for-you” gift pack which includes a coupon for a 4-pack of Yoplait YoPlus yogurt, on-the-go lunch container with utensils, an insulated lunch bag, and a pedometer. The pedometer will be great for counting all the steps you take all day while chasing your children, doing yard work, or any other activities in your life.

Here’s how to win a gift pack:

*Tell me your favorite Yoplait product. (1 entry)

For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.

*Tell me your favorite Yoplait recipe. (1 entry)

*Write about this giveaway with a link back to it on Facebook or another social network site. (1 entry)

*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)

*Twitter about this giveaway with a link back, you must also be following me on Twitter. Copy and paste: YoplaitBetterforYou@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)

This giveaway begins March 25th and ends April 7th.

That is 10 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/. )

Disclosure: I received a gift pack that was provided to me by Yoplait YoPlus through My Blog Spark. It was donated to a charity. My BlogSpark will provide the winner of this giveaway a package. The views of this product were my own.

Jamas Just Around JDaniel’s Ankles

March 25, 2010 By Deirdre

On Sunday morning I left JDaniel in the living room reading a book in his sleeper suit so that I could get ready for church. I knew my husband was in the kitchen and would be moving to the living room to be with JDaniel. Within minutes of getting into the bathroom I heard the pitter patter of little feet and squeals of laughter. I looked out of the bathroom to find JDaniel running round the bedroom with only a diaper on. I called out to my husband to see if JDaniel was running away from being changed for church. “No,” my husband called back, “JDaniel has unzipped his jamas, taken his arms out of the sleeves, and has been running around with the feet still in the sleeper suit.” He had apparently been tripping and falling in this state before my husband had removed the pajamas. Now JDaniel was running around the first floor of the house laughing like a banshee in a diaper. Who knew he had learned to take his jamas off?

Signs of Spring Fingerplays

March 23, 2010 By Deirdre

See, See, See

See, see, see (shade eyes with hands)

Three birds are in a tree (hold up three fingers)

One can chirp (point to thumb)

And one can sing (point to index finger)

One is just a tiny thing. (point to middle finger, then rockbaby bird in arms)
See, See, See Three birds are in a tree (hold up three fingers)

Look, look, look (shade eyes)

Three ducks are in a brook (hold up three fingers)

One is white, and one is brown. One is swimming upside down (point to a finger each time)

Look, look, look Three ducks are in a brook. (hold up three fingers)

Taken from Spring Time Theme

Bunny in the Ground

Here is a bunny with ears so funny (make bunny ears)

And here is his hole in the ground (make a circle with fingers)

When a noise he hears (put hand to ear)

He pricks up his ears, (hold bunny ears up straight)

And he jumps in his hole in the ground! (make hole with one hand and stick finger in it)

Spring Training- Getting Ready For Egg Hunts

March 23, 2010 By Deirdre

We started spring training for egg hunts last week by searching for some of JDaniel’s plastic balls around the second floor of the house. I gave him a plastic basket to collect them in and carefully explained what he needed to do. He had trouble at first finding them even if they were in plain sight. He needed guidance to know what part of the room to look in and once he was there what furniture it was on. After two days of playing find the ball inside, we moved outdoors. He really seemed to be able to find the balls quickly and loved placing them in the basket. When I tried to play find the ball with him over the weekend he was not interested. Yesterday he started playing the game by himself. JDaniel hides the eggs and then finds them. I guess he understood and enjoyed it more than I thought.