Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Must Read / Science: Rain Forests
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 21, 2013 · Last modified November 2, 2022
World Animal Packet: 100+ page packet focusing on the animals on every continent! It includes Montessori 3-Part Cards, Activity Sheets for every continent, printable continent cards, a world animal game, world animal pin map activity, and more! As I mentioned on Friday, ED has been working on her world geography. She has spent a couple of weeks going over the 7 continents again and working with some Montessori 3-part cards...
Ages 2-6: Flower Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Lapbooks / Must Read / Nature / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
It has been a while since we’ve done any lapbooks. I saw this free robin lapbook over at Dynamic 2 Moms and asked the girls if they would be interested in doing one on robins. ED and DD both said, “Yes!” So, I printed everything out and the girls set to work. If you’ve never heard of a lapbook, it is a cute way to display small folded mini-books, flaps, pop-up...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Digestive System / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 6, 2013 · Last modified August 21, 2022
We did a lot of hands-on activities over the course of two or three weeks. I’m going to put them all into one post. These hands-on activities are all activities we did as we went through our Digestive Unit. Be sure to check out our 150+ page Digestive System Packet too! Esophagus Activities: Does food fall down to the stomach? We proved that muscles helped move the food bolus down to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 4, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
We love books! When we lived overseas, the local library was quite lacking and we wound up with quite a collection of board books by the time all three kids were born! ED still looks at these books pretty regularly and we’ll keep them around as she becomes a more confident reader (she’s still just reading simple 3 and 4 letter words). We actually have gotten rid of lots...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 3, 2013 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Amazing, Fun Science To Wow the Little Ones! One of the wonderful things I love about homeschooling is all the hands-on activities you can do with kids. In the preschool years, I scoured the Internet and various science experiment books to find things that would intrigue and excite the kids… and that they could have a hand in doing. Most of the things we did were done using household ingredients....
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 19, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
ED really enjoys writing… Here’s a picture of ED writing in her journal from last January. The kids and I made a special trip to Staples for them to pick out their own journals. I offered to write whatever they wanted for them, so they could record things about their day. While I wrote heaps for DD and LD, much to my surprise, ED insisted on writing in her journal...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 15, 2013 · Last modified April 29, 2016
It’s been a while since I talked about ED’s preschool math work. Here are some of the things we’ve been working on together during her math time. We’ve been starting by blasting off to space… 10, 9, 8, 7… or counting down from 20. (Yes, ED is in her pjs!) She’s practiced using tally sticks to lay out (or identify) numbers up to twenty. I’ve also been having her identify...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 4, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2022
After we did an overview of all of the different body systems, we spent a couple of days reviewing the skeletal system. The skeleton provides support, structure and protection for the body and its organs… and because it had been nearly a year since we went over the names of the bones it was time for a review. The kids put together our skeleton puzzle and then identified all the...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2016
It has been ages and ages since I’ve written about ED’s math activities. A lot of ED’s math happens naturally over the course of the day — counting objects in a picture book, counting by 2s, 5s and 10s when we brush teeth and do dental floss, counting money together, looking at numbers at the store, in books, etc. Numbers are a part of daily life and we take advantage...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 10, 2013 · Last modified March 1, 2017
I made these game boards for ED. It’s a race to 50 (or a race to 100). Print out one game board for each player. The players take turns rolling the die (use a 20-sided die in the race to 100) and covering the squares on their game board with tokens. The first to cover their entire game board wins the game. You can download these free: St Patricks Day...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 9, 2013 · Last modified February 17, 2016
This activity was a huge hit with ED this past week. I chose some words from ED’s phonics readers and wrote them out on some shamrocks and taped them on popcycle sticks. I covered an empty cereal box with construction paper and wrote the words out on the box as well and used a knife to create a slit for the Popsicle sticks. I sat with ED each time she...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading / Science: Dinosaurs Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 25, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
A couple of week or so ago I highlighted 14 picture books my girls have been enjoying lately. Today I thought I’d share a few of the chapter books we are enjoying. Each day during lunch I read a chapter from Chronicle of Narnia. Last week we finally finished The Horse and His Boy (affiliate link) and loved every minute of it! It seems that everyone knows and talks about The...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 14, 2013 · Last modified April 23, 2021
Here’s another freebie from our Rocks and Minerals Unit: Free Printable Montessori 3-Part Cards on Famous Rocks Around the World! If your students are studying Rocks and Minerals they might enjoy this activity about Famous Rocks Around the World! This set includes the Sphinx, Stonehenge, Mt. Rushmore, Uluru, Arches, the Rock of Gibraltar and others. Hope you find these helpful. 🙂 Have a great day! ~Liesl Famous Rocks Around the...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 11, 2013 · Last modified March 1, 2021
Are you studying Rocks and Minerals?! This post has a free packet, great for supplementing your Rocks and Minerals Unit. Find out more below! And be sure to check out the links to some of the fun hands-on activities we did while studying sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. We wrapped our chemistry unit and spent a few weeks on vertebrates and invertebrates. It was time to tackle a new unit...
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.
