Making Tiny Clay Pumpkins

 

Last week, the twins (4 years old) and I made some cute little pumpkin decorations out of Crayola  Model Magic.  It was super easy and lots of fun.  Here's how we did it..

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Week 6

After going to two fall festivals last weekend (and another one this weekend), we've all been enjoying some autumn-themed learning activities in our homeschool (like the autumn leaf scratch-art in the picture above).  It's amazing how some simple seasonal crafts can elevate the girls' level of enthusiasm about school.  Here's what we did this week.

Learning About Desert Habitats - Pre-K/ Kindergarten Unit

The Geography workbook we're going through (Evan-Moor Beginning Geometry Grades K-2) includes overviews of the various types of animal habitats, and I wanted to extend this into a series of mini-units.  After watching The Magic School House Dries Up, the girls and I explored desert habitats further with some fun hands on activities and crafts..

Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Week 5

L and E are doing great with homeschool Pre-K/ Kindergarten this year.  We engage in learning activities 7 days a week, so some days end up being more formal instruction (activity trays that I set up for them to complete) while other days are filled with reading together and playing.  Here's a recap of what we did this week:

Draw Write Now Review

My 4 year old twins are little artists, and in the search for drawing books for them I ran across the Draw Write Now series and bought the 1st (farm animals) and 8th (land animals) books for the girls.  My kids have been enjoying learning to draw animals using this program so much that I felt compelled to write a review..

Tot School 24 Months {Yes, My baby is 2!!}

I'm still in shock that my little dude is 2 years old!  My tiny helpless baby has turned into such a sweet, amazing, and independent toddler.  I've been having a great time playing alongside him and watching him learn and grow in leaps and bounds.  Here are some of the activities we've been enjoying together lately during our Tot School sessions..

Egyptian Hieroglyphs Free Printable Worksheet for Pre-K through 2nd Grade

During our study of Ancient Egypt last month (for Story of the World), I had a hard time finding activities for learning Egyptian Hieroglyphs that were appropriate for my 4 year-olds.  After a lot of searching, I decided to just make my own worksheet, which I'm sharing with Learners In Bloom readers for free at:  Egyptian Hieroglyphs Printable Worksheet for Little Kids .  Here's what's included..

Cooking with Kids: Watermelon with Goat Cheese Snacks

I've been cooking with my twin girls (4 years old) since before they were 2 years old.  Now they're finally starting to be real helpers and we've been having a great time trying out all sorts of recipes together.  It's a great way to practice Montessori Practical Life skills, fine motor skills, math, and to get the kids to experiment with trying new foods.  A couple weeks ago, we tried out a flavor combination that was completely new to us - watermelon with goat cheese.  Here's how we made them..

Homeschool Kindergarten Math Lesson Plans - Month 1

The twins and I have been having a great time "playing math" during our first month of Homeschool Pre-K / Kindergarten.  The system that is currently working for us for learning math is to cover a variety of topics every week and then revisit them later in new and interesting ways.  This seems to work better than trying to drill a certain math concept until the kids get it - I'd rather demonstrate math in context using hands-on activities and games.  I know that they will get an understanding of each topic when they are ready.  Here are some the math skills we've been working on and the activities we do for learning them..

Tot School - 23 Months

Baby H will be a 2-year-old in less than a month!  He is such a fun little kid to play with and I find great joy in our special Tot School time when I can interact with him one-on-one.  Here are some of the learning activities he's been enjoying this month...

Ancient Egypt Unit: Building a Pyramid

A couple weeks ago, my girls learned about Ancient Egypt in our homeschool Kindergarten.  We read about Egypt in The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and then added additional books, videos, and hands-on projects for enrichment.  One of the activities we did for this learning unit was to build a pyramid.  L and E worked on their pyramid every day for an entire week, and it turned out great.  Here's the process we went through..

Homeschool Kindergarten Typical Daily Schedule

We don't have a strict schedule for our homeschool Kindergarten work, but we do have a basic daily rhythm that we follow.  As part of the iHomeschool Network's "Not" Back to School blog hop, homeschooling families we'll be sharing a "day in the life" posts this week.  Here's a glimpse into one of our typical days..

Pony Cake for 4th Birthday

 

With all the educational fun the kids and I have been having lately, I almost forgot to post a photo of the pony cake I made for the twins' 4th birthday.  This is about as close as I'm going to get to a Martha Stewart moment!

It's surreal to think that four years ago I was taking care of two little preemie babies and now my little girls are already school-age and constantly impressing me with all the incredible things they can do...

Kindergarten Curriculum for Our New School Year

This month I am joining other homeschool bloggers at the 5th Annual "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop.  The topic for this week is "Curriculum".  L and E just turned 4, but they are reading at a mid-first-grade level, and have mastered about 75% of the items in Common Core for Kindergarten Math, so I'm just going to go ahead and start Kindergarten with them this year (with some first grade materials thrown in as well).  We already started our school year earlier this summer, but I think the first month was more for getting into a rhythm and seeing what will and won't work.  Here's our curriculum right now...

Tot School - 22 Months

Baby H (22 months old) has been getting lots of Tot School time every day in his high chair while his older sisters complete their worksheets.  I've been trying to provide a variety of games and learning activities for him, but I'm honestly having a hard time keeping up with this kid since he picks things up so quickly.  Here's what we've been up to...

Early Mapping Skills - Picture Copying

This simple learning activity doesn't take many materials or preparation, but it boosts all sorts of cognitive abilities in your little ones...

Releasing Our Butterflies

Last month we had the delightful experience of raising our own caterpillars and observing their amazing transformation into butterflies.  Releasing our ten Painted Lady butterflies out into the world created some magical moments for the girls..

VocabularySpellingCity

If you follow my blog, you know that my twins are now reading.  The next logical step (other than improving their reading fluency) is to work on spelling.  Thus it was quite timely to receive an invitation to review VocabularySpellingCity.com.  I'll be trying it out with my girls and then posting my feedback on this blog.. stay tuned!

Disclosure: I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Unscramble, Hangman, WordFind, and Crossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Multiple Meaning Words and Possessive Nouns . Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.

Observing Caterpillars

Two weeks ago, we received some mail-order caterpillars.  The girls (and I) have been having a great time observing them and learning about the butterfly life cycle...

Tot School - 21 Months Old

H is 21 months old - I can't believe that 2-years-old is just around the corner! Lately, I've been really absorbed in working with H's older sisters (almost 4 years old) now that they've started reading, so getting that one-on-one Tot School time with my little boy is really special for us both.  H is such a quick learner that I often have a hard time keeping up with him and thinking up activities that are enough of a challenge for my clever little dude...