Saturday, November 3, 2012

8th Annual Homeschool Blog Awards


I've been nominated for the Best NEW Homeschool Blog in the 8th Annual Homeschool Blog Awards.  If you enjoy reading Learners in Bloom, I'd love your vote!  You can vote once per day from each device.  Thank you so much for your support!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Homeschool Preschool Week 10

L and E are 39 months old.  This week's preschool time was less organized than usual due to Halloween and the fact that I have a nasty head cold.  Rather than our typical math and reading lessons, we spent most of the week trying on different costumes and going on imaginary adventures, rediscovering games that have been sitting in the closet for a while, building things, and playing miscellaneous logic/memory games that I made up...

Super Easy Game to Improve Memory

I try to fit in logic puzzles and memory games in our Homeschool Preschool every day.  My 3-year-olds always have a good time with them and I've seen great improvements in these skills over the past couple months.  Here's a simple game we play to improve memory.  All you need is a set of small objects, magnets, or flashcards.  There are two ways to play...

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Homemade Tangram Puzzle Cards

I'm so proud of how neat these homemade Tangram puzzle cards turned out, that I just had to share.  They only took about half an hour to make (maybe less), and my girls (3 years old) absolutely LOVED playing with them all evening.  Can you guess how they were made?

Glitter Gourds Autumn Table Decoration

A little glitter goes a long way in making ordinary objects look more festive.  This autumn/Thanksgiving centerpiece is ridiculously easy to make, but really looks beautiful (I don't think the photos captured it well, so you'll have to take my word for it).  As a bonus, my 3-year-olds were able to create it pretty much by themselves.  Here's how it's done...

Monday, October 29, 2012

Montessori Monday - Visual Discrimination with Cans


One of the activities I set up for my girls (3 years old) last week was to sort various cylinder-shaped containers and cans from our pantry.  The challenge in this exercise lies in the fact that the containers vary in two different dimensions - height and base diameter, so they can actually be sorted in two different ways.  The kids had to focus on a single dimension to make their comparisons.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Baby School - Colors Theme

Baby H is 13 months old.  Although I try to always point out colors to H as we're playing, I thought I'd try a 'colors theme' for Baby School this week and focus on activities that will help him with color recognition.  I don't want my baby to learn things by staring at flashcards, but rather by touching, playing, and experiencing the world around him.  So that's what we did...