Acts of Kindness- Montesorri Style

Toddler Approved is hosting a wonderful project called the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. I love the idea of JDaniel and I doing things for others between Jan. 15th and Valentine's Day.Each week she puts up a challenge for you to complete as some of your 100 Acts of Kindness.

This week's challenge was to perform  five acts of kindness for members of our family using a Montessori technique. The challenge was issued by  Living Montessori Now!


Here is what we did:

Act One

JDaniel helped me volunteer at  Angel's Attic consignment sale at my mom's church. We were asked to help move all the bikes and vehicles outside. When that was done we were asked to help people that were looking over them to know how to take the stickers off them and where to go to purchase them.

He followed his interest of car care. How? JDaniel used a pretend gas pump to fill all the Cozy Coupes up with gas and test out the seats in all the wagons and cars.

Act Two

JDaniel practiced transferring coins with chopsticks into a baby bottle that I was given at church.  The money in the baby bottle with go to help a local women's center.

Act Three

Our third task was laundry. JDaniel helped me fold  laundry into almost neat piles. We will need to keep practicing this skill.



Acts Four and Five

JDaniel helped me pour more soap in our soap dispensers. He loved using a funnel.

We tried just dumping it in but, it went in to slowly for JDaniel.



He decided to help the soap along by pushing it in.

Finally he squeezed the remaining soap into the bottle.

For more information on the 100 Acts of Kindess Project please visit this post on Toddler Approved.

Read.Explore.Learn.-If You'll Be My Valentine

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:

• Link your activity below.

• Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
                                                         
  
  
  

<center><a href="http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/"><img alt="Shibley Smiles" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wYnCaxCjpQ/TIbl9KccMVI/AAAAAAAAB98/vjalStjjb-I/s1600/ReadExploreLearn.jpg" alt="jdaniel4smom" width="150" height="150" /></a></center>

• Please try to visit at  least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

• If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

JDaniel is very much into rhyming words. He loved the rhyming poems in If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant. I love how the little boy in the book created cards for all his friends ( stuffed animals and pets), siblings and grandmother.

I love how the card is shown on one page of the book and the memory that inspired it is on the opposite page.

What did we do?

Craft- Valentine's Day Cards

We recieved tons of political mailing right before  the South Carolina primary. I decided they would be great for creating Valentine's Day cards for JDaniel's sleepy time friends and robots.

I put out the mailings, markers, stickers, and crayons to make the cards.

Here are the cards:

Pretend Play- Valentine's Day Post Office

While JDaniel was a preschool, I converted his McDonald's  counter into a post office. I placed  post office signs on  most of the McDonald's related ones and put some stamps (stickers) into the register.

One of our reusable bags was labeled a mail bag. JDaniel was able to use the bag to deliver his cards to his toys.

This post is linked to Lets BEE Friends, Play Academy and Link and Learn.

Just Looking at Pinterest Can Lead to Coveting

Do you love Pinterest? I have really come to love it. It is my go to place to search for crafts, recipes, and store wonderful visual links to my favorite ideas.

How else have I used it?

I have set up boards to display the muffin tin lunches  I have made along with the crafts we have done.

I have posted visual links to ideas I have found on friends blogs that I want others to see.

I have made it my go to place to store links instead of having them in folders.


My Problem

I do have problem with Pinterest. A problem that I think some of you might have too.

When I look through all the pictures posted in Pinterest, I start to covet.


What is Coveting?

Coveting

1. to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property.

2. to wish for, especially eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted.



Why has it caused me to covet?


Perfect Homes

The houses on Pinterest have lovely furniture that has not become scarred by toys lawnmowers. The couch haven’t been torn when it has been used to build forts.

The children’s idea rooms are immaculate. All the toys are picked up and the beds are made.

Clothes

The pristine outfits haven’t been scrubbed with Shout and don’t have worn out knees from crawling on the floor while playing trains.

Those same outfits don’t look like they have been hanging in a closet for four years or more. Many of mine best articles of clothing are from the days when I worked outside the home four years ago.

Food

The dessert and casseroles are delectably perfect. They don’t appear to have been prepared by mom with a three year old standing on a stepstool trying to help.

The cookies are elegantly decorated with frosting used to create complicated and amazing designs.


　

Pinterest is a little like what the Sears Wish Books was like for me when I was little. It can make me wish for things that I don’t really need but, look wonderful.


Avoiding Coveting

I have to be careful to enjoy the things displayed on Pinterest for what they are. They are amazing ideas that I can enjoy and don’t have to have.

If it spurs on a new idea for using things I already have in new and different ways, it is a great thing. If I let it make me feel unhappy with all the wonderful things that I have been given it is a bad thing. I am the guard of my heart.

I have to make the choice to enjoy Pinterest but, not covet the items it displays.



This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thurday and Things I Can't Say's Pour Your Heart Out.

Best Meals Happen at Home- Publix $25 Gift Card Giveaway

I have mentioned to you before how much I love shopping at Publix. JDaniel loves the free cookies in the bakery. I love the really helpful staff and the fact that they have wonderful sales.

Another wonderful thing about Publix is the the wonderful cooking station they have set up to show you how to prepared wonderful meals at home. JDaniel loves it when they give out samples on the meals.

Publix just started a Best Meals at home event that you can read more about below. I hope that if you have a Publix near you that you will stop in and check out the event.

• Take advantage of great savings on some of your favorite participating brands during the “Best Meals Happen at Home” event at Publix from January 26th through February 1st .
• As of Jan 26th look for in-store for coupons that will be valid through February 15th .
• Visit BestMealsatHome.com to sign up and receive emails with weekly recipes and coupon offers that will help you save up to $200 this year .

How can you win a $25 gift card?
a Rafflecopter giveaway



Disclosure: The Publix gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.”

Pause life for a Moment- Footprints in the Sand

It is such a shame that Barbara of Footprints in the Sand and I didn't live in South Carolina at the same time. It would have been such fun to hang out with her. Barbara was here for years before I got here and then moved to France.

Barbara is  the mom to two of the cutest boys in France. I loved getting to know her son Nathan through her wonderful post. Now I am getting to know her new baby Noah!

I know you are going to love getting to know Barbara through her post below.

When JDaniel4's Mom asked me to do a guest post for Pause for Life, I immediately thought “YES”!

Then I sat down at my computer and I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually paused.

It seems that when I’m not taking care of my four week old I am trying to keep the two year old from destroying the house. Even though I was spending every waking second with my kids, I wasn’t taking any real time for them.

So that night I asked my husband to be on baby duty. I left him a bottle and told him I would take over the toddler bedtime routine.

Promptly at 8 I led my toddler to his room and tucked him in. We turned on his lamp and watched the stars dance on the ceiling. We sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” at least five times and then my son patted the side of his bed and asked me to lie down.

How could I turn down such a gracious request?

I lay down next to him and wrapped him in my arms. I realized I hadn’t held him like that in months.

When the lamp finally turned off, he grabbed my hand and placed it in his. Minutes later I heard his peaceful snoring and he was finally asleep.

In this moment I breathed in his smell and thanked God for making me a mother.

When I finally emerged from his room, an hour later, I was so grateful I had taken the time to be with him. It definitely was not the normal bedtime routine, but it was so worth it.

The next night he asked me to tuck him in again. I tried to draw the line after the third round of “Twinkle Twinkle”, but I couldn’t resist those chubby cheeks.

Muffin Tin Monday- Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year! It is the year of the dragon! I thought it would be fun to create a dragon lunch for JDaniel.

We had such fun dyeing beige tortilla neon green and cutting them out with cookie cutters for this meal.

The dragon has a ham inner mouth and carrot tongue.The dragon's eyes are black olives with corn pupils. I am not sure most dragons have crests on their heads, but this one has an American cheese crest.

Yes, that makes this ham and cheese sandwich with a few vegetables. JDaniel loves ham and cheese right now. This was a fun way to serve him some of his favorite foods.

Since New Year's is usually celebrated with fireworks, I gave JDaniel red grape, red strawberry, and red grape tomato fireworks to have with his dragon.

I am planning on serving Chinese carryout tonight for dinner. How will you be celebrating Chinese New Year.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

100 Acts of Kindess With Toddler Approved

Toddler Approved is hosting a wonderful project called the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. I love the idea of JDaniel and I doing things for others between Jan. 15th and Valentine's Day.Each week she puts up a challenge for you to complete as some of your 100 Acts of Kindness.

I decided to try to do the challenges she purposed along with working on acts of kindness I would like JDaniel to master like not having a tantrum when I say it is "Quiet Time" in the afternoon and cleaning his room without fussing. Yes, I am straying from the project, but boy has JDaniel toned down his fussing.

Recording Acts of Kindness

The first thing we were asked to do was come up with a way to record your acts of kindness. I decided we would do three things to keep track of our kindess.

1. Create a record sheet to write down what we did. I decided that we needed to show kindness to family, our community, and our world.
2. Mark off a number box on a hundreds grid each time we did an act of kindness.
3. Savor the act of kindess by eating a jelly bean from a bottle labeled with the people group we helped.

This Week's Challenge

 Make 5 "Thank You" cards and give them to people you've never thought to thank before.


What did we do? 

JDaniel and I made thank you cards for his Sunday school teachers. We haven't thanked them for all the work they do each Sunday with him.

We used  watered down red paint, a ball and a salad spinner to create this pretty cards.

On Monday Toddler Approved will be posting the next challenge for the week. I will be posting how we met that challenge next Saturday. I hope you will join me in the challenge!