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: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Plant Unit / Science: Rain Forests
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 26, 2016 · Last modified May 10, 2016
Today I wanted to share a fun activity we did about rain forest plants. As many of you know, we are doing a large biology unit on biomes, ecosystems, biological interactions, animal relationships, and so forth. At the end of last semester we went over basic animal characteristics — the 5 vertebrate groups, the main invertebrate groups, and some fun activities for my youngest daughter — spiders vs. insects, domesticated...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Holiday: Thanksgiving / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 16, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2022
This packet has various Thanksgiving printables for preschoolers including clothes pin letter matching and counting cards. It also has a 2-letter word file folder game for kids who are a little older. For the counting cards and upper and lower case letter matching, be sure to print the pages out on card stock. Have your child place a clothes pin on the correct answer. (This is also really good for...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2015 · Last modified September 25, 2016
Are you looking for free fall printables for PreK-K? Here’s a huge list of fabulous FREE fall-themed packets that have been shared by generous parents and teachers. Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some of these fall-themed activities and printables. You will find everything from puzzles, counting and letter recognition activities to writing, do-a-dot pages, dot-to-dots and more! Fall Pack from 3 Dinosaurs: Leaves Unit by...
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 / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Reading / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 31, 2015 · Last modified January 22, 2019
Are you looking for a phonics program to help your kids learn to read? I’ve put together some of the phonics readers that we used with my three kids. As you’ll see, all three of my kids had different preferences! I know I have a lot of new readers, and several people reached out to me recently who have preschoolers and are just starting out on this homeschool journey. I...
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) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 26, 2015 · Last modified August 23, 2015
When my kids were first learning to read, we used to play a LOT of games. I had a number of file folder games ready to rotate into their work boxes. I made this two-letter file folder game a while back, but hadn’t gotten around to post it. Better late than never, right?!! So, I hope those of you with young ones on the brink of reading find this useful! ...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info) / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Garden Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 20, 2015 · Last modified May 13, 2021
This is definitely the perfect time of year to study frogs, toads, and salamanders! I made some Montessori 3-Part Cards with some of the common amphibians of the northeast. This would be a perfect addition to the free Frog Lapbook over at Homeschool Share! You can download these Montessori 3-part cards by clicking on the link below. These are currently free to download! I would love it if you could help...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Kindergarten
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 5, 2015 · Last modified May 4, 2015
Yesterday, I mentioned the butterfly and insect lapbook that DD made when she was in PreK. It had a lot of shares over on Facebook. Two things came to mind. First, that I should make sure I also mention this cute butterfly lapbook here on the blog for those of you who don’t use Facebook or missed that post. And the other thought I had was that I had purchased some really...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: Easter
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 25, 2015 · Last modified March 26, 2015
Today I have two free printable Easter games for you. One is a Word Family Game for -at -it -ot words. The other is a math game for practicing number recognition, addition, subtraction or division. Egg Races Math Game: The first is a math game that you can adapt for any math practice as long as the answer is between 4 and 9 — number recognition, addition, subtraction or division. Print out...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 2, 2015 · Last modified February 20, 2017
How do you help your child build early literacy skills? Here are 12 fun activities to help build early reading skills! These are activities we did with CVC words and basic sight words to make the learning process fun and engaging!! The first step in learning to read is to make sure your child knows their letter sounds. We shared lots of ideas about that in our Preschool at Home...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Sign Language
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2014 · Last modified February 19, 2017
Signing with Your Baby and Toddlers Baby Signing — Our family decided to sign with each of our babies/tots. Our children all had normal hearing, but I learned that kids could control their hands and fingers and could therefore communicate by sign much earlier than with speech. It seemed like a good idea and most of my friends were doing simple signs with their babies/tots too. We were SO glad...
Ages 2-6: Apple Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 27, 2014 · Last modified September 19, 2015
It’s apple season! The perfect time to do apple-themed activities with the kids. When my kids were little, we played Math Grid Games all the time. I made an Apple-Themed Grid Board to share with you today. Here’s a picture of the game board: How to Use Math Grids with your Preschooler: Print 2 Grid Boards per player Gather two different sets of tokens and one die. For Younger Kids: Take...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 9, 2014 · Last modified May 14, 2015
When it’s really hot outside, it’s great to have a project indoors to keep the kids entertained. One year we made Mushroom Playhouses. The kids still have their mushrooms… and they have been used as fairy homes and the Littlest Pet Shop’s play houses. Here’s how you and the kids can make your own mushroom playhouse: 1) We covered rolled-up cardboard and a balloon with paper maché. [1/2 cup flour +...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 28, 2014 · Last modified November 2, 2018
This Spaghetti Yarn Art is a cute, quick craft you can do with your 2-5 year old. This was a really good project even for ED, who was age 2 at the time. She could pretty much do it on her own as long as I reminded her of the steps along the way. For this activity we needed cooked spaghetti (we used fettuccine), bits of yarn or string, and glue. We had one bowl of...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2014 · Last modified January 24, 2019
In this post I’d like to share a dozen activities that we did with the kids to help foster early reading skills. These are activities we did with CVC words and basic sight words to make the learning process fun and engaging!! 🙂 The first step in learning to read is to make sure your child knows their letter sounds. We shared lots of ideas about that in our Preschool...
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.
