Learners in Bloom

Hidden Words Reading Game with 3D Glasses

2013-05-02T06:39:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago we got a game with 3D glasses and a workbook with objects to find in a Chick-Fil-A kids meal. The kids enjoyed playing the game as intended, but were particularly fascinated with the glasses. I made them a fun reading game with hidden words that could only be read using the 'magic' glasses. You can make this game using any red tinted see-through object (color paddles, Magna-Tiles, etc..). This game provided lots and lots of entertainment (and reading practice) for my kids. Here's how it's done..

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Teach Your Preschooler to Read!

2013-05-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

Today I am participating in a guest blogger series on teaching your children to read on Life & Lessons from a Country Road. In my guest post, I describe some of the lessons I've learned as I taught my twins to read by age 3.5. Please head over there and check it out!

Homeschool Preschool - April

2013-04-29T08:12:00.002-06:00

The twins are 3.5 years old. I hope some readers have stuck around through my blogging hiatus this month. We're moving (again) so April involved a lot of sorting through all the kids' toys and homeschool activities and organizing/packing everything. We still do Homeschool Preschool twice a day, but the packing has drained my creativity so we've stuck with activities that are already on hand. Here are some highlights..

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Tot School - 18 months

2013-04-02T07:18:00.002-06:00

Baby H is 18 months old. I haven't been keeping up with taking photos of all our learning activities and explorations lately, but I really want to write about all the neat thing my little boy has been doing...

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Apple Peanut Butter Crunch Snacks for Kids

2013-03-25T08:48:00.002-06:00

My kids absolutely love snacks that they can make themselves, and this apple peanut butter crunch do-it-yourself snack fits the bill perfectly! It's really simple, fun, and tasty. Here's how we made it..

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Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 29 & 30

2013-03-24T08:43:00.000-06:00

L and E are 3.5 years old. If you follow this blog and have been wondering what has happened to my plan of doing a book-related activity every day in March, well we've actually been sticking to it. However, my kids have been doing so great with our Homeschool Preschool sessions lately (2-3 times a day for about an hour each session), that I've kept the book activities pretty simple. Sometimes we read a book and then watch a YouTube movie about the subject, or complete a puzzle on the theme, etc.. nothing that would be interesting enough to blog about. Here's a little glimpse of what we've been working on in preschool over the past two weeks..

Rainbow Toast {Painting Bread}

2013-03-22T08:36:00.000-06:00

When the girls saw Rainbow Toast in their Highlights High Five Magazine (back-issue from 2007 from Ebay), they begged me to let them try it out... so we did! This activity was a great way to make a snack using all sorts of Montessori practical life skills and creativity. Here's how to do it..

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Indoor Penguin Snow Play! {Antarctic Antics and My Penguin Osbert}

2013-03-13T08:49:00.002-06:00

It snowed this past weekend, but instead of bundling the kids up in layers upon layers of winter clothing, I decided to bring the snow play indoors this time! And why not integrate it with a mini-unit on penguins? Here's what we did..

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Paper Rainbows Activity {What Makes a Rainbow}

2013-03-11T22:20:00.000-06:00

Rainbows seem to be a popular theme in March for St. Patrick's Day, so today the girls and I joined in the fun and made our own paper rainbows. Our book of the day was What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz, and this little activity was a nice way to wrap up our afternoon session of Homeschool Preschool. Here's how the girls made these lovely rainbows..

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Dog Stencils {Hairy Maclary Activity}

2013-03-10T15:50:00.001-06:00

I like to take a break from blogging on the weekends so I can spend time with my kids. We haven't been slacking on our book-a-day challenge for March, though. Yesterday I read the girls a couple books in the Hairy Maclary series by Lynley Dodd, and our activity was to use make artwork using dog stencils.

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Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 27 & 28

2013-03-08T09:18:00.001-07:00

L and E are 3.5 years old. The whole family is now feeling better after nearly a month of being sick with various colds, so we're back to doing more Homeschool Preschool activities. Here's what we've been up to...

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Brown Bear Straw Toppers

2013-03-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Aren't these straw toppers / puppets adorable? Our book of the day was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, and I surprised the kids with these super-cute straw-topper puppets. They were so much fun to make, and we had a great time retelling the story with them...

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Sorting Art Cards {Fancy Nancy at the Museum}

2013-03-04T19:01:00.001-07:00

Like yesterday's selection, today's book is a vocabulary-builder as well: Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor. The Fancy Nancy books are early readers so they aren't literary classics by any means, but my girls (3.5 years old) enjoy them a lot. In this story, Nancy goes to the art museum on a class field trip. After an eventful bus ride, the class finally gets to the museum where they are shown the difference between portraits, landscapes, and still life paintings. Our activity expanded on this concept, as the girls sorted art cards..

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Alphabet Soup {Carmine: A Little More Red}

2013-03-03T10:10:00.001-07:00

I read somewhere that children's book authors are sent a list of words (mostly sight-words) that they are 'allowed' to use in their books. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it makes me sad. That's why I'm always excited to discover a new book that will expand my children's vocabulary. I absolutely love the book Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet which has taught my 3-year-olds some wonderful new words. The story starts out by explaining that Carmine's grandmother taught her how to read by making alphabet soup. It then proceeds to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood where each paragraph highlights one word that starts with each letter of the alphabet. For our activity today we made our own version of alphabet soup...

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Grouping Family Members {Five Creatures}

2013-03-02T19:54:00.001-07:00

Today's book of the day was Five Creatures by Emily Jenkins. It's a fun book about a family with five creatures (a girl, her parents, and two cats) and all the different ways they can be put into groups. For our activity, the girls drew pictures of our family (eight creatures total) and we came up with different ways of classifying ourselves...

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Dr. Deuss Activities for Little Kids

2013-03-02T09:03:00.001-07:00

In celebration of the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2nd, I thought I'd put together a little roundup of the activities we've done over the past year related to books by Dr. Seuss...

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Painting Whales {The Snail and the Whale}

2013-03-01T09:55:00.002-07:00

Today's "Book of the Day" was The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. I love the rhythm of Donaldson's books and they are always a joy to read. I especially like the illustrations in this one (by Axel Scheffler) because the kids get a chance to identify all sorts of different animals and habitats. For our little activity we watched a video of a beached whale rescue and used watercolor paints to color whales..

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Silly Creature Drawing Prompt {There's a Wocket in My Pocket}

2013-02-28T18:39:00.002-07:00

March is National Reading Month and we're going to celebrate by trying to do a book-related activity every day. It may be as simple as a little craft or acting out the story, but I'll also try to add some themed units into the mix as well. We got an early start today by doing a little drawing prompt based on the book There's a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss..

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Tot School - 17 Months

2013-02-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

H is 17 months old. I have to gush about the photo above - aren't those sweet little hands just the cutest? The learning spurt is still in full swing and we've been doing many different activities to stimulate all the senses and practice fine motor skills...

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Journey Through Colorado History {Booking Across the USA}

2013-02-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to be part of the Booking Across the USA project hosted by Growing Book by Book. Today I am joining over 50 other bloggers in sharing a children's book and activity for my state. The Rocky Mountains always come to mind when people think of Colorado, but I wanted to cover a different aspect of the state. I was happy to find a new picture book called Dreaming of Colorado: A Children's Bedtime Story, written by Grant Collier and illustrated by Stephanie Lowman. The book takes its characters through a magical canoe ride backwards in time through Colorado's history. So the girls hopped into their own magic canoe (laundry basket) and we set off on our own historical adventure...

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Sensory Play for Kids

2013-02-24T07:48:00.002-07:00

All play is pretty much "sensory play" as kids use all their senses to explore their world. However, I just love creating novel experiences for the little ones to engage in. It's a joy sitting back and watching the exploration process and the immense pleasure my kids get from simple experiences that adults take for granted like putting their hands in something gooey or smelling something new. Here is a collection of my favorite Sensory Play Experiences over the past year...

Homeschool Preschool Weeks 25 & 26

2013-02-23T09:56:00.002-07:00

The whole family has been fighting some sort of a cold over the past 2 weeks. The kids had horrible coughs for a week, followed by a day of earaches and fever. Baby H had a fever for 4 days straight, rising as high as 103.7 which freaked me out. I ended up with an acute sinus infection which is just now clearing up. Needless to say, homeschool preschool took a back seat as we focused on getting healthy. The kids ended up watching a lot of television when they weren't feeling well. I did scatter some learning experiences here and there depending on how everyone was doing. Here are a couple of the things we did..

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Favorite Preschool Math Ideas

2013-02-15T09:32:00.001-07:00

Math is my favorite subject and I want my kids to love it as much as I do! I think the best way to do this is through lots of fun and creative games that let them explore and discover new concepts about the world of numbers. Here are some of the best Preschool Math activities that I've tried with my little ones over the past year (ages 2.5-3.5)...

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Making Soap With Kids

2013-02-14T07:43:00.001-07:00

I bought a soap-making kit back in December, hoping to make holiday presents for everyone with the kids. We ended up going to visit my in-laws a week earlier than planned, so the soap making never happened. Instead, we made soaps as a little Valentine's Day activity. The girls (3.5 years old) and I had so much fun. It's such a great sensory and fine motor exercise for kids with even a little science thrown in...

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Math Teachers at Play #59

2013-02-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Math Teachers at Play is a monthly Blog Carnival showcasing math activities and puzzles from teachers, parents, and homeschoolers all around the blogosphere. It is organized by Denise Gaskins at Let's Play Math, and I'm very excited to be hosting the 59th carnival on Learners in Bloom.

The number 59 is a prime number, and has a twin prime 61 (a consecutive prime number that differs by 2). It's also the sum of three prime numbers: 17 + 19 + 23 = 59. If you divide 59 by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 you get remainders of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively.

The regular icosahedron has 59 stellations.

Here's a little puzzle for you: 59 is the smallest prime that can be expressed using the digits 1 through 9 in order with only the addition and multiplication symbols between them. Can you find a way to express it with these rules? (one solution is at the end of this post).

And now on to the great ideas that were submitted this month...

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