Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Just a few days ago, the kids and I got back from a 7,000 mile cross-country trip. We visited more than 10 national parks and monuments as well as a number of famous state parks. We spent time looking for diamonds in the world’s only diamond mine open to the public, had a long tour of Canyon De Chelly which we had studied about this spring with a Navajo guide...
Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 13, 2016 · Last modified May 16, 2016
Here are some fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! A Huge List of Summer Activity Ideas! Nature Scavenger Hunt: Send your kids outside to complete this scavenger hunt! This printable is free! 🙂We also have a photo hunt: Have them take photos of the things on the list:Set up an Outdoor Treasure Hunt with QR Codes! Kids use the QR code reader to find...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 8, 2016 · Last modified November 13, 2016
Today I’m going to share a list of chapter books for older kids. This is a great selection of books. We’ve now read every book on this list (and then some!!). Many of them we read aloud together. I loved Hatchet so much that I read this aloud with LD and then read it again to DD just this year. Sometimes its fun to share the excitement together. Our family...
Engineering - STEM Activities / Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 6, 2016 · Last modified May 6, 2016
Here are some fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! Today’s post highlights some fun engineering, science and math activities you can do this summer! Summer Fun: Science, Engineering, and Math Ideas Egg Drop Challenge: Give the kids various supplies (cups, paper bags, yarn, scissors, hole punch, tape, and some coins). Have them design a parachute that will safely let an egg drop to the...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 1, 2016 · Last modified May 9, 2016
We absolutely love reading. This is a book I compiled one summer of the books our family loves! Just click on the picture or link below to print out the list. Books–25 Beloved Books Free Printable Lists 25 Beloved Books for 4-8 Year Olds (In no particular order) These are affiliate links. Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág Miss Nelson Is Missing!by Harry Allard Strega Nona: Book & CD by...
There are so many amazing activities that kids can do that don’t involve electronics. This is a HUGE list of fun activities that will get your kids ENGAGED! Here are some examples: Cabin Camping, Camp Fire Songs, Candle Making, Candy Making, Candy Tour, Canning, Car Wash, Card Games, Card Making, Cardboard Boat Race, Carnival, Caroling, Cave Tour, Cemetery Walk, Ceramics Mug Pottery Wheel, Challenge Course, Chemistry Day, Chess, China, Chili...
Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 25, 2016 · Last modified June 27, 2016
Today I have a free USA Road Trip Travel Log for you!! Hopefully, this will help you keep your kids entertained if you plan to travel a lot this summer. Plus, I’ll share some of the travel activities to make the car trip more fun!! So first, about the printables: I made this Travel Book for the kids for our huge trip out West this summer. It’s about 40 pages,...
Highlighting Past Posts / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science / Science Experiments / Science Units
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 24, 2016 · Last modified May 15, 2016
Today I’m going to talk about the science units we covered in our homeschool this year AND what we didn’t get to because we ran out of time!!! My plans are always a bit more ambitious than what we actually cover, but even so it felt like we accomplished a lot! 🙂 This year the kids were in Grades 2, 5 and 7, but below you’ll also find some resources...
Freebies / History and World Cultures Units
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2016 · Last modified May 15, 2016
In today’s post, I thought I would re-cap our school year. Looking back, it’s been a really great year! The chart below shares links to some of the history units we covered in our homeschool. As you’ll see below, I made notebook pages and packets to go along with most of the units we covered. 🙂 This year the kids were in Grades 2, 5 and 7. We do our...
Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 18, 2016 · Last modified July 3, 2018
Multiplication and Division Bundle – 250+ pages of Worksheets, Games & Activities (15 pdfs and growing!) When my youngest was 8, she took on the big math task of learning all of her multiplication tables. As my daughter moved into learning her multiplication facts I looked around for the kind of multiplication practice that would help her. The math book she was using went through the math facts a bit...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 17, 2016 · Last modified February 9, 2020
In today’s post, I thought I would re-cap our school year for German. These are some of the conversation units we did, books we used, and children’s books we listened to. Since the kids are no longer beginners, I’m calling them “Level 2,” though more realistically I would call them “advanced beginners.” I thought I would share some of the resources that worked well for us this year. We use...
Homeschool Den / Science: Natural Disasters Unit and Activities / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2016 · Last modified January 24, 2021
Our Natural Disasters Packet has notebook pages and worksheets as well as some hands-on activity ideas covering the following events: Flooding Mudslides Tsunami Tornado Hurricane, cyclone, typhoon Blizzard Heat Wave Drought Wildfire Sinkholes In this packet you’ll find one page on each of these events. Often, natural disasters occur because of geologic changes or extreme weather conditions. Students explore the cause of each of these events. They also find out what ...
Free Calendar Planning Pages / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 15, 2016 · Last modified May 16, 2016
Hi Everyone, This is going to be a bit of a random post so bear with me! I’m going to talk about 3 separate things in this post. 1) Our free calendar printable and homeschool planning pages 2) A free end of year questionnaire for students and parents and 3) a random chat about our Homeschool Writing Workshop. Free Calendar, Homeschool Planning Pages and Homeschool Supply List: First, as many...
Active Math Games / Ages 2-6: Clocks - Telling Time / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math--Addition / Math: Preschool Math / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2016 · Last modified March 16, 2019
One of our most visited posts through the years has been our place value activities. I thought I would put together a video to share how we covered place value in our homeschool (we did these activities regularly when the kids were roughly 4 to 6 years old. I also have a huge packet of materials (over 100 pages!) that include these hands-on math manipulatives as well as some other...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
To read more about us CLICK HERE.
Click on the image to find out more about the units and packets we have available.
This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
Click the image to check out our packets on Earth Science, Rocks and Minerals, the Atmosphere, Weather, Energy and More!
Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
