Here are some other wonderful Easter activities for kids:
Experiments with Egg Parachutes
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.
growing & learning with him
By Deirdre
Experiments with Egg Parachutes
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.
By Deirdre
Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.
Steps:
My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:The book Whose Garden Is It? By Mary Ann Hoberman is such fun to read. A mother and her son stop by to admire a neighborhood garden while out on a walk.
Mrs. McGee comments and asks who owns it and the man tending the garden says that it is his.
Mrs. McGee hears voice after voice claiming that the garden is theirs. The rabbit, bees, rain, sun, dirt, worms, seeds and about 15 other animals and elements of nature claim that it is theirs.
This book is in rhyme and is such fun to read. The words flow easily of the reader’s tongue and give young children the opportunity to guess that the last rhyme of each page will be.
The pictures are gorgeous. The watercolor painting will each page and surround the words.
This books has quickly become a favorite.
What did we do?
Planted Seeds
I found some wonderful seed kits at the dollar store that contained peat pods, pots, and seeds. The coolest part about them is that the peat pods grow when you place them in warm water. It is amazing to watch the soil rise.
Then we placed the pots into a cute metal tub I aslo found at the dollar store. Oh! We put paper towels under the pots to absorb the water that drained out of the pots.
Created a Upcycled Watering Bottle
What have you been reading and creating this week?
By Deirdre
We are limiting our time outside to an hour or two a day due to JDaniel’s allergies. It is so hard. He loves to play outside, he is learning to ride a bike with training wheels and he helps with yard work like a pro but, his body makes him pay for too much time exposed to pollen.
During one of our recent brief excursions outside, JDaniel decided we needed to get rid of the weeds in front of the house. “Weeds do not belong here!” he declared.
We started in on the weeds that make their home amongst the monkey grass on either side of the steps. JDaniel just reached into the grass and pulled the weeds out. He started to grow quite a pile of them which pleased him a lot.
He noticed that my removal of weeds was taking much longer and that my pile was much smaller.
“I am winning!” JDaniel announced. Winning has become very important to him in the last year.
“It just looks like you are winning,” I said quietly to him.
“No, look I am winning,” he said firmly pointing to the pile.
“It isn’t winning if you weeds will grow right back,” I told him.
“When you just yank the weeds out, you leave their roots. With roots still growing underground, the weeds will grow right back up.” I continued.
“Oh!” he replied now pulling the weeds a little more slowly and checking for roots.
Sitting with JDaniel in the sun pulling weeds up by the roots caused me to think about the sin I have been praying will be removed from my heart. I have been challenged about working with God to remove some things that have taken root in my heart just as the weeds have in the monkey grass.
Sins like pride, selfishness, and impatience seem to have become more of a challenge since JDaniel was born or maybe they are just more visible. I can hear them in my voice when I talk with him. I can hear them in his voice as he responds to me.
Sometimes God speaks to you while doing everyday things like weeding your yard. I am so glad I was listening to him this time and was able to start praying for help with the weeds in my heart that have taken root.
The same lesson JDaniel learned about weeds can be applied to sin. Sins can not be pulled out quickly without leaving roots. They are going to take time to work on.
Someday I hope to share this object lesson about sin with him, but for now, I will leave him thinking weeds.
This post is linked to the third in a series of posts focusing on my heart. The first is called Knowing There is Scar Tissue on My Heart and the second is Opening My Heart to Motherhood.
This series is a departure from my regular posts, but it is where God has been working on my heart to help me grow as a mom. Since I write about being a mom, I think sharing how I am growing as a mom fits the mission of my blog.
By Deirdre
I love to visit Sue’s blog Sue’s News, Views ‘n Muse. She has a wonderful writing style that flows. Sue is a huge fan of spending time with family. The posts that she shares about her family as some of my favorite. I met Sue via Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday. She is regular on the hop. I am so blessed to stop by to visit on Thursdays as well as other days of the week.
Thanks to our good friend JDaniel4’s Mom for inviting me to guest post. This blog is always a delightful place to visit, and I am excited to be a part of it today. I especially like the idea of pausing life for a moment, and though I’m not always good at it, I’m a lot better than I used to be!
By Deirdre
March here in South Carolina has come in like a lion every year for the last four years. Odds are that it will come in like a lion this year too although if it decided to come in as a lamb I would be really excited.
We have had a mild winter here in the Upstate. We have had no snow. There have been many days that have been in the 60s. JDaniel hasn’t worn his mittens or his woolen hat this year at all. It looks like a lamb year might be in the making.
But…
March has a way of changing the weather here dramatically. JDaniel’s birthday is on March 5th and he had interesting weather each of his almost four years of life.
His Birth Day
The day JDaniel was born there were huge downpours of rain. We could hear the rain pounding against our hospital room windows. I was so grateful to be in a warm and cozy room with my guys. I remember thinking the weather really didn’t match how I was feeling on our first day as a family. It looked so grim and wet outside.
Year One
We had a snowstorm right before JDaniel’s first birthday. I dragged JDaniel outside in a snowsuit that I didn’t think we would ever need to take pictures of.
He was so bundled up that he probably couldn’t have moved his arms or his legs if he tried to. I am not sure what he made of this cold wet snow that I sat him in to take a picture. He didn’t fuss but, I am not sure that he liked it too much.
JDaniel’s playgroup came over for his first birthday party a few days after the storm hit and most of the snow had melted. The weather had warmed up so much that I had bottles of sunblock for the children to put on when we went out to play on the deck. There was still snow in a few places in the yard but, I don’t think any of the children had coats on and many had sun hats or baseball caps.
Year Two
After having mild weather the year before, I decided to have JDaniel’s birthday at the zoo. The weather was cold and a little windy. It was fine we were running through the zoo. It was cold when we stopped moving to have monkey cupcakes under one of the pavilions.
That year all the children had on woolen hats or hoods and most wore mittens until it was time to have cupcakes. I think I decided to bring his presents home instead of opening them there. It was just too cold.
Year Three
JDaniel wanted a construction site party. I thought our yard would be the perfect place to dig in and play with JDaniel construction equipment. The weather was cold and windy once again after being pretty the week before.
The children crowded into our kitchen to have lunch and eat cake. They played in our two upstairs bedrooms with the construction equipment while the moms chatted in the living room.
Our Cape Cod-style house was okay for eight children and their moms when JDaniel was one but, it felt really crowded with eight three or close to three and their moms.
I decided that the party needed to somewhere else the next year and it would probably need to be inside.
Year Four
I don’t know what kind of weather we will have next week for JDaniel’s birthday. I do know that I have been stuck by the decision to have inside somewhere outside of our house.
We will be at Chuck E. Cheese next week where there is plenty of room to play and where they will do the clean-up even if we have to dig out our driveway to get there.
By Deirdre
Last weekend was a mixture of wonderful sunshine and a bit of cold rain. While we wish the cold rain had been snow, we loved the days of sunshine that allowed us to be outside in light fleeces and long-sleeved shirts.
My husband and I sat and watched JDaniel try to catch pretend butterflies as well as swing around just enjoying the feeling of the soft breeze through the net. There is something magical about watching your child spin in sunbeams.
It was grand to sit on a sun-warmed driveway and watch your son find such joy. It is moments like this that make me reflect on how big he is getting and how he is aging right before your eyes. It is as if each spin moves him one step forward in time.
When the net is tucked away, it becomes time to aid JDaniel in the gathering of sticks for his beaver dam and find hiding places that will keep the big beaver (my husband) from depositing them in the woods. It had been a while since we had gathered sticks. There were many to pick up from under the great beach trees and carry to safety. Gathering sticks is something so simple and yet fills him with such a sense of accomplishment and the bushes with stacks of twigs. Thankfully the big beaver returns them to the woods often.
Following the branch collecting, we finally held our heart hunt. JDaniel and I had both been sick earlier in the week and the hunt had to be delayed. I don’t know who was more excited about finding chocolates in the hearts JDaniel or my husband. They both love chocolate.
What do you do to top an afternoon of stick gathering, butterfly catching, and heart hunting? You are left with sweeping the yard. Yes, our yard in the front has now been well swept as has the curb. There wasn’t much to sweep in the grass this time of year.
After having very little fly up from the ground when JDaniel was sweeping the grass, he decided he would fly himself. What fun it was to watch him zoom from the front yard to the backyard! It made me want to grab a broom from the garage and fly around the yard myself.
We have been blessed with many warm days this winter that I haven’t captured in pictures. I am so glad that I was able to capture this wonderful afternoon. It was definitely one to remember.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday, Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, and Memories Captured.
By Deirdre
Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.
My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:
This wonderful book An Orange in January follows the travels of an orange as it makes its way to a boy’s home. I love the warm pictures in this book and the opportunity to share how food gets to our table.
We really loved getting to read about how one of JDaniel’s favorite foods gets to our house. We also loved the boy’s brainstorming at the end of the book as to what you could use an orange to do ie: juggle with one.
What did we do?
Mapping
We took out our atlas and looked for Peru. Peru is the homeplace of the oranges we purchased from the grocery store
Craft- Making Orange Circle into Something
I put out paper with orange circles glued on them and had JDaniel transform the circles into something else.
By Deirdre
Mama Kat lists several topics to write about in her Writer’s Workshop each week. One of the ideas for this week was 22 things you have never done.
Wanted to be R2D2 for Halloween.
Wanted to be told robot stories several times a day while traveling in a car.
Desired to wear my red rain boots on the wrong feet, because I like the fit better.
Slept in a bed surrounded by zillions of my favorite stuffed friends.
Jumped and out of bed with the desire to grab a front loader and pretend to dig up the blue carpet in my room.
Finger painted with toothpaste on the bathroom mirror.
Squirreled away television remotes, shoes, and other assorted items under couches and behind loveseats.
Been obsessed with recycling so much that I check the bottles abandoned on the beach to see if they have triangles on them.
Been thrilled to gather sticks for hours on a Saturday to build a beaver home.
Wanted to spend hours on Youtube watching C3PO.
Crawled on the floor and pretended to be a cat.
Wondered why R2D2 and C3PO don’t have parents.
Loved to sit in the bathroom with an iPad because I might have to go to the bathroom sometime in the next few hours watching PBSKids.org.
Made a play area out of bed sheets because they were fun to lie in. ( I have laid in a pre-made play area.)
Picked up a broken piece of sidewalk outside of church and then run to the curb every Sunday like clockwork.
Told my mom I hated her and then kissed her face all over.
Danced with a broom while sweeping and listening to Old McDonald.
Relished the samples at Trader Joe’s, Williams- Sonoma, and Publix so much that I can’t stop talking about them.
Said that I loved everything so I didn’t have to remember specific things I loved about school.
Named almost every stuffed animal and sleepy time item what it is + y. We have Rabbity, Liony, Bluey ( The blue blanket), Greeny ( The green blanket) and so on.
Found joy in rolling down the back passenger window with my foot to see if my mom would noticed.
Pretended to fix my car with plastic tools.
I have done some of these things, but never in the way my son chooses to. Maybe I need to before I turn fifty. Living like my three year old in many of these ways sure sounds like fun.
This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.
By Deirdre
“You can not serve two masters,” I tell Jdaniel when he questions why something he is doing or has seen is bad or just not good.
We have started going over scripture memory verses with JDaniel at meal times using a verse packet called Foundation Verses from Desiring God Ministries and “No one can serve two masters” from Matthew 6:24a was one of the first ones.
He has been told that it means you can’t do what God wants and what you want if they are two vary different things.
As a three year old with tons of his own ideas, he understands that he doesn’t always get his own way. He would love to master of all things, but he really wants to please God too.
We have reminded him that it isn’t his way or our way. It is God’s way we are all trying to follow. He has been reminded that Mom and Dad still struggle with this too.
He seemed to be understanding what we were saying, but we weren’t sure.
Then something happened that made it crystal clear for him. We got three boxes of cereal in the mail with Star Wars characters on them. If you put the boxes together they made a panoramic scene.
JDaniel had no idea who they were or what they were from, but he was fascinated by the robots in the picture.
I tried telling him a little about each of the characters and we watched some short clips on Youtube that weren’t violent. They mostly concentrated on R2D2 and C-3PO. He loved watching them.
Then he started asking about Darth Vader. He has a large picture on the third box. Who was he? Was he bad? Why does he look like a robot?
“Well, Darth Vader was a man who had to make a choice,” I told him.
“He had to chose who to follow and he chose the wrong master,” I continued.
“So, he was bad?” JDaniel asked.
“Yes, he was bad and he didn’t turn away from bad things when he could have (Yes, I know he did in the end.),” I replied.
“Not good,” JDaniel replied back.
“Really not good,” I answered back.
We haven’t really gotten to all the Darth Vader does in the movies series. My husband did show him one of the scenes where Darth Vader is fighting with a light saber. We have chatted more about making good choices and following through with doing the right thing.
I am going to be hosting a giveaway that includes the three cereal boxes with the Star Wars scenes and a $25 Walmart gift card this Sunday. I hope you will stop by and enter it. You never know what conversations the boxes could stir up at your house.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.
By Deirdre
Xanthous- Of the fair haired type; having brown, auburn, yellow, flaxen or red hair.
Mary Lee sat in one of the rocking chairs just outside of the general store located on the Nevin’s farm. She was surrounded by pumpkins off all shapes in sizes. The three pumpkinsat her feet would be going home with one her grandchildren. She was asked to guard them while the children went to explore the play area in front of the general store. Guarding pumpkins while getting to rock on lovely day had sounded like a wonderful idea to her.
It had been a wonderful morning. Mary Lee’s daughter Sarah and her three children had come to get her at about 9 and they had arrived at the farm by 9:30. Thankfully it was short ride from Simpsonville to the Nevin’s farm in Woodruff. It is had been even a minute longer Davey, Martha’s three year old, would have jumped out the car and run the rest of the way. He was so excited about picking out a pumpkin and getting to go on hayride.
They had barely parked the car when Davey and his older brother William and other sister Lydia had all run to check out the John Deere tractor attached to the hay wagon.
Following a very bumpy hayride each of her grandchildren has taken a very long time selecting just the right pumpkin. Just when it looked like the right one had been found a more right pumpkins would come into their view.
Once they had made their final choices. They had wanted to check out the farms animals. What fun it had been to see a small pink pig kissing a neighboring donkey! All of the children had giggled! Mary Lee and Martha had both smiled at how adorable they looked.
After all the animals had been oohed and ahhed over,children had been ready to bound to the swinging tunnels and play teepee.
Martha had helped Mary Lee gather up the pumpkins and bring them around the rocking chairs before Martha head off to see that the children had gotten up to.
While the children played and Martha tried to keep an eye of her wild tribe, Mary Lee rocked and took in the beauty of the farm.
Mary Lee had spent many summers working on a local farm detasseling corn and doing whatever else Mr. O’Brien needed done. The work was hard under the hot Carolina sun, but Mrs. O’Brien would always send out gallon jugs of sweet tea and lemonade to cool the work crew off and they had paid a very fair wage.
Getting to work beside the O’Brien’s oldest son John made the time fly on days when they were given the same area of the farm to work on. John had blonde hair that glistened in the sun and smile that would brighten anyone’s day or at least Mary Lee had thought so. John wasn’t a big talker. He tended to concentrate on the job at hand. Mary Lee really didn’t care. Just being near John was enough to set her heart a flutter.
John had been a senior in high school when Mary was a freshman. She had known who he was, but hadn’t really spent much time around him until her Uncle Budd had mentioned to her that the O’Brien’s were looking for summer help.
For the past three summers she had looked forward to getting to see John while she worked. He seemed to grow taller and more handsome as each year past. She had heard that he would be leaving in the fall to start a job in Chicago. Mary Lee would have to go out of her way to catch as many glimpses of him as she could she had decided at the beginning of the summer.
She had been quite surprised when he offered to get her a glass of cool lemonade on a particularly hot day in July. She had been barely able to nod her head yes and say that she would love some.
When he returned carrying glasses brimming with cool lemonade and motioned to a bent old apple tree, she had barely been able to move one foot after the other to get to it. The world seemed to have started to moving more slowly.
Yet she tried to look calm when she finally made it there and sat down beneath the tree to wait to be handed her glass.
She tried to remember what they had said as they sat under the tree so long ago, but she couldn’t remember specifically what either of them had said. She did remember smiling a lot and taking really small sips of the cool lemonade. There had been a cool breeze under that bent old tree and she remembered she had felt like she was floating on a cloud.
From that day on John had talked to her frequently. He would ask about her family and her how she was doing. He had never asked her to go to the movies or offered to drive her home.
She would have been over the moon if he had, but she knew that he was moving away at the end of the summer and she tried to enjoy every moment that she was around him.
“He was wonderful boy,” Mary Lee whispered to herself.
She had heard that he still lived outside Chicago. He had married a girl he had met at church and had five boys.
“Remember John today was special, but I am sure glad that the man waiting at home for me make his lunch is Frank,” Mary Lee said to herself as she rocked back and forth in the autumn sun.
There was no man that had ever made her heart flutter more than that dark haired man she met in college her sophomore year. It was Frank that had lengthened days and made her truly feel she was floating.
Watch for the story of how Mary Lee met Frank! It will appear on the last Thursday in October.
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday and I’m sharing my it with Momma Made It Look Easy. You can too.