Sunday, August 25, 2013

Reviews: 6 Mindful Learning resources, all in one bundle!

Mindful Learning eBundle Sale

Hobo Mama wants you to know she's a professional blogger! Look at how professional she's being!

I'm pleased to announce that the Mindful Learning eBundle Sale is now live!

I collected the resources for this bundle myself, so I got to read and hand-select all the books in advance, and let me tell you:

I'm excited.

These six resources are an incredible wealth of information about learning methods and practical tools to help you in your educational goals.

These are six amazing resources that will help you practically and philosophically as you guide and nurture your child's learning:
  • Everyday Sensory Alphabet Activities — encourage educational sensory exploration
  • You Can Read! — teach early reading
  • Book Love — nudge a reluctant reader
  • Montessori at Home! — implement Montessori ideas into your everyday life
  • What Will We Learn Today? — inject educational fun into your homeschooling
  • Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning — have your questions about unschooling answered

That's over over 1,200 pages of learning resources with a huge assortment of hands-on printables.

Grab your chance to get these six incredible e-resources at 75% off — that's only $12.50 for over $50 worth of learning materials!


Reviews of the resources

Since I've had a chance to enjoy all the ebooks in advance, I'll bring you my honest reviews of each. Read on!

Mindful Learning eBundle Sale

Montessori At Home! by John Bowman of Montessori at Home, 520 pages and numerous printables, value $10.95

Montessori at homeThe Third Edition of the Montessori At Home! eBook is incredibly thorough. If you ever wanted to incorporate Montessori techniques at home with your young children? Look no further than this mind-blower of a book. It weighs in at 520 (!) pages, and that's not counting the printables! I seriously couldn't even count them all. (I must not have had enough Montessori educating….)

I am beyond impressed with the scope and details of this book. It gives the background of Montessori learning and then takes you into the nitty-gritty of implementing it with your children. If you are interested in Montessori or would like to learn more, you need this book.

You can Read! by Carisa of 1+1+1=1, over 300 pages, value $10

You Can Read Button 200x200You Can Read is such a unique resource, because it's aimed at precocious readers. If you have a young child who can't seem to wait to read, this is the hands-on guide you need. It's a set of multiple printables, fun activities, and practical posts that will help you nurture your early reader's abilities. I was an early reader myself (or so my mom tells me), but I don't remember just how I learned to read. That's why it's invaluable to have a resource like this around if I turn out any early readers of my own!

Plus, as the parent of a six-year-old who's starting to get interested in reading, I have to say that I think many or most of the activities would be just as effective and helpful for on-schedule or older readers as well. They're fun and emphasize sight words and sensory exploration.

Everyday Sensory Alphabet Activities, by Melitsa Avila of Raising Playful Tots, 99 pages, value $9

Speaking of sensory exploration, Everyday Sensory Alphabet Activities is perfect for learning the alphabet in a way that engages young, wiggly toddlers. All the activities are hands-on and ideal for young kids who want to connect with these early-reading basics in a fun way. The book has simple activities to do for each letter of the alphabet.

The simplicity is the brilliance. You don't need any fancy supplies or a ton of time. Just a few minutes a day will help your preschooler learn to look for letters in everyday places. This is something you can do before or after preschool without adding any added bulk of "work" to you or your little one's day.

I especially appreciate Melitsa's book recommendations sprinkled liberally throughout her resource, because they're multicultural and introduce children to a range of experiences. That's something I look for in my own children's book selections, so it's a treat to see a broad and recommended list presented to me!

Book Love: Help Your Child Grow From Reluctant to Enthusiastic Reader, by Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup, 130 pages, value $9.97

I have to admit, I was nervous about this title from the premise of encouraging reluctant readers. Was it some sort of shaming book that put children on an artificial timeline to learn to read, and castigated parents who hadn't forced the issue?

Thankfully, my fears were completely unfounded. In fact, they were blown out of the water. I love this book. Like, love love.

Melissa has identified four key reasons kids don't like to read: too tricky — too blurry — too boring — too sitty.

Then Book Love gently and gracefully offers ideas to overcome those obstacles and infuse enthusiasm into even the most hesitant reader. As someone who loves reading, and someone who hates to see reading transformed into a chore for kids, I was so inspired and impressed with the open-hearted and infectious joy Melissa has for the subject of reading.

As just one example of something I adored: She recommends getting a head lamp instead of a futzy reading lamp for night owls who want to read before falling asleep. Brilliant! (Literally!)

Included in the text are book lists by interests, alphabet and phonics activities and crafts, sight word games, favorite reading products, rhyming word play games, printables, and more. If you want your child to love reading, you want Book Love.

Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning, by Sara McGrath, 120 pages, value $4.99

Sara's Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning is a practical handbook on the sometimes little understood method of home education known as unschooling. As an unschooler myself, of course I had to see if Sara got it right — and she did, bang on!

This book answers pretty much any question you might have about unschooling and how it affects your family, your children, and their future educational options. It's part-philosophy but a whole lot of practicality. Wondering about how unschooling compares to different homeschooling styles? It's there. How about unschoolers' use of screen time and media? Yup. Want to know what a typical unschool day looks like? Wonder if a child can transition from schooling through deschooling and out the other side? Worried about how to document your learning to abide by homeschooling laws? Wondering if an unschooled child can get into college — or get a job? It's all covered.

If you're intrigued by unschooling but unsure about the details, or if you want to unschool or already do but want further guidance and resources, pick up Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.


What Will We Learn Today? Easy Homeschooling Activities, by Lauren Wayne of Hobo Mama, 154 pages, value $5.99

This is mine — whee!

I am so very happy I finished this book in time to include it in the bundle! I'd had it in mind as a great idea, and it's such a pleasure to see it in book form.

So, obviously, I can't review my own book, but I can give you a preview! I'll write a bit more about it in a future post, along with some excerpts, but here's a summary for now:

What Will We Learn Today? is an ideabook of more than 550 fun and creative ideas that teach and reinforce learning under eight key curricular subjects. Whether you’re homeschooling, unschooling, or regular schooling, your preschool and school-age kids will enjoy these quick activities that engage their minds and creativity.

The ideas are time- and child-tested activities that our kids enjoy. For them, there’s no division between "learning" and "life" — it’s all of one piece. These idea-joggers use very little in the way of special materials or money but give a lot in terms of natural learning and family connection.

Plus: They're fun! Honest. Mikko always loves our hands-on experiments and games.


Don't wait!

So there you have it. Six solid resources; many, many good reasons to buy them all. And you can — at a whopping 75% off the cover prices! This is a deal that's too good to last, and it's true: This sale will be around for only 4 days. Once Wednesday night comes — poof! — the bundle disappears.

So grab your chance now to get $50 worth of educational resources marked down to only $12.50!

I personally recommend and admire every resource in this bundle, and I hope you'll love them, too!

You can find out more about the Mindful Learning eBundle here, or you can pop it into your shopping cart right away:


Buying this bundle is a fabulous way to support this site and my writing, since I'll earn an affiliate commission for each sale through my links. Thank you!

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