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 at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 14, 2014 · Last modified February 21, 2016
Here are some alphabet activity ideas you can do with your little one: At first we played these activities just for letter identification, but as the kids learned their letters we would play these games and identify the sound/s they make. Above all, be enthusiastic and have FUN with the kids!! Jump on Letters:We did this activity with everything from contact paper in the kitchen to letters written in chalk on...
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 / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2014 · Last modified December 30, 2014
When my kids were little I bought a set of Pattern Blocks. It’s been one of the most enduring resources we have. We still bring them out occasionally and also use them for math now and then. The kids have used templates like these: And they’ve also used the pattern blocks for free play: There are lots of places where you can find free pattern block templates: One of the...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: Easter / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 13, 2014 · Last modified January 26, 2017
EggSperiment #4 Will an egg float or sink in water? What happens when we add salt to the water? We added a lot of salt to one cup and had plain water in the other cup. The egg in salty water floated, while the other egg sunk. We talked about why that was the case and how salt molecules changed the density of the water. Egg Activity #5 Do eggs...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool Den / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2014 · Last modified January 26, 2017
EggSpect the UnEggSpected with this series of fun Science EggSperiments! In this series you’ll find a dozen terrific egg activities to do with you kids. So… for the first EggSperiment… Because Easter is coming up, we devoted the past week to some fun science EggSperiments. This experiments requires you to soak a raw egg for two days in vinegar, so I’ll share this experiment first so you have time to...
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) / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 9, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Yesterday, I shared a lot of activities that you can do with maps. Today I want to share some other geography activities that my kids loved. After reading through Me on the Map (which is just perfect for the 4-6 year old crowd), I had ED do an activity that focuses in on where we live. You have the kids color in and paste their location, pinpointing their location by going from...
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) / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 8, 2014 · Last modified March 18, 2018
There are so many fun things you can do with your preschooler (or elementary kids) to help them gain an understanding of the geography of our amazing world! You can make all kinds of maps to enhance your preschooler’s knowledge of the world. Over the years we have made maps… with sand, dirt and grass seed like our Nile River Valley Out of clay, like our Ancient Greece (and Mediterranean...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 11, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2016
There are such wonderful resources out there for those of you planning to do some St. Patrick’s Day activities with your kids. Here are some of the free St. Patrick’s Day units and printables I’ve come across: 2 Teaching Mommies: St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Pack; St. Patrick’s Day Kindergarten Extension Pack St. Patrick’s Day Play dough Activities at Living Montessori Now: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards...
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) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 5, 2014 · Last modified July 3, 2020
It is animal week for my youngest daughter. We’ve been touching on vertebrates and invertebrates since the kids were little, but I wanted to go back and make sure ED really knew the characteristics of these groups and how animals are classified. First, we went over the difference between Vertebrates and Invertebrates again. We brought out our model frog skeleton again for a closer look! Then she went over the...
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 / Freebies
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 26, 2014 · Last modified January 17, 2015
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a post about how to create your own preschool science curriculum at home (mostly with materials you’ll find around the house). I realized it has been a long time since I shared our long list of preschool activities. I wrote this post last year when ED was 4. The activities in this list really actually range from 2-6 year-olds or so. I’m a...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Kindergarten / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 21, 2014 · Last modified March 20, 2018
The kids participated in a science fair event a couple of weeks ago… where kids and adults could share their favorite science-related collections, photos, experiments, and knowledge. Some adults set up a slide show of their astronomy photos, sharing bone collections, a cartographer shared some of her materials, kids brought in their rock collection and more… My kids set up a science activity station with the Color Explosion in Milk....
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) / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 13, 2014 · Last modified February 20, 2016
Have you heard of a seguin board? It’s a Montessori math tool for helping young kids understand place value. When ED was little (about 3), I made a printable and used it to work with her when she was ready to tackle the teen numbers. She used to skip some of the numbers after 13. I used a homemade version of the Montessori seguin board (download the seguin board activity...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: Valentine's Day / Kindergarten
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 11, 2014 · Last modified January 22, 2015
I wanted to share this printable I made for ED a couple of years ago. Below you’ll find the link to print out and make your own activity. It took a bit of cutting, pasting and laminating, but ED loved this activity!! Anyway, here is the post from a couple of years ago with various Valentine’s Day activities and links: Make Your Own: Valentine’s Day Clothes Pin Word Match-a-words ED...
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) / Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2014 · Last modified February 8, 2019
There are so many wonderful free Valentine’s Day resources for preschoolers out there. I thought I’d highlight a few in case you’re planning to pull some Valentine’s activities out for the kids in the next couple of weeks: This Reading Mama: Matching letters and sounds, math grid game, maze and more Over the Big Moon: Prewriting Practice Sheets, Cutting Practice, Which one is different, Finish the Pattern Sheet, Size Sequencing Sheet, Valentine Strip Puzzle, 4-piece Puzzles,...
Active Math Games / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 29, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
We have had the Math Mat Challenge (affiliate link) for years now. It is one of those games that go in and out of the cupboard. For a family like ours — with three kids each two years apart, this game has had a long shelf life. The kids love leaping and jumping on it and it has help up well. Since it has been too cold to go outside to do...
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.
