Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 4, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2023
Today I’m sharing the history checklist, not only of some of the basic units I hope we cover K-8, but also of some of the historical skills I want the kids to start to master and some of the activities that can make history really come alive for them. In the early years, it’s easy to make history fun with hands-on projects… We have grown the Nile River Valley and made...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Science Units / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 2, 2015 · Last modified March 15, 2024
Science in the Elementary and Middle School Years – Free Homeschool Checklist – K to 8 When I’m planning our units for the upcoming year, I think a lot about the science topics should we cover in our homeschool by the time they finish 8th grade. I have a general checklist of topics that I go consider… and try to fill in the gaps as we go (and as the kids’ interests...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 1, 2015 · Last modified April 23, 2021
I typed up a list of more than 350 activities, projects, trip ideas, and patches the kids can work on this summer. When I handed these pages to the kids you should have seen them pour through the list! Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads, they were so excited! Each of the items on this list have patches that scouts (and others!) can earn. But let’s face it, it’s just...
The past week or so we were away from home… enjoying the tranquility and pre-summer crowds of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Since my sister homeschools (and thus also has a flexible schedule), it seemed the perfect time to meet up with her family and my folks! Homeschool Graduate: Before I share a couple of pictures… let me brag on my niece (who has been homeschooled K through 12)....
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2015 · Last modified March 17, 2016
I got an email from someone a few days ago from someone who said they were in “full blown school panic.” She is considering homeschooling next year and is wondering how to start planning. And not only that, she wondered, “How do you even know what to teach?” I thought it was about time to write about planning again… especially as I start looking ahead to next year. How do you decide what...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 6, 2015
Hooray! We’re done with standardized testing!! The kids are really happy! In those hours and hours of sitting by witnessing the kids toil, I have a come up with a bunch of hands-on activities and blog post ideas! Hope to get those written up soon. But in the meantime, I just came on to celebrate! Jumped through that hoop… Now back to our fun stuff… like our Middle Ages Unit, Human...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 1, 2015
I am drawn to books and stories about amazing teachers and inspiring mentors who help their students achieve greatness. What are great teachers teaching students along the way? To love learning. To learn and think for themselves. And to work hard on the fundamentals. The common thread among many of the inspiring books I’ve read is that great teachers set high standards for all of their students. They believe in...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 17, 2015 · Last modified April 16, 2015
When I posted about the unschooling summit yesterday, I started thinking about how much I enjoy talking with other homeschoolers and learning how homeschooling works in their families. I thought back to the series of interviews I did with other homeschoolers and guest posts I’ve featured on the blog the past few years. I thought I would put those links together for you. I know there are quite a number...
Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Homeschooling in the News
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 16, 2015
Unschooling Summit (Free Online Interviews): As you can tell, we are not unschoolers, but I love reading/learning about homeschooling in its many facets. There are elements of unschooling that appeal to me. I know the kids learn enormous amounts when they are following their interests and passions. It’s fascinating to see how other families are pulling together their children’s education. I really enjoyed listening to the Unschooling Summit interviews last year....
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 10, 2015 · Last modified April 9, 2015
We’ve had such a great week! In early March, the kids were often really testy with one another but ever since our lovely spring break (when my in-laws were here), things have been moving along well! This post actually has nothing to do with the featured image of Starbuck, though she does rule over our homeschool room. She spends a lot of time under the homeschool room couch, but once...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2017
So, what does our family do for our homeschool language arts curriculum? I’ll share what we’ve been using for 1st through 6th grades. Over the past week, I’ve gotten three separate emails and FB messages asking about what we use for language arts — spelling, grammar and literature. It must be that time of year again when we start thinking about our plans for next year. 😉 I’ll start with...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 24, 2015 · Last modified March 22, 2015
Sometimes homeschooling is a delicate balance of Mom’s energy, the kids’ energy, and all the other things we have going on. It’s not unusual for us to take an abrupt, unscheduled detour along this educational journey of ours! As many of you know, we are studying the Middle Ages this semester. But, with everything else we had going on we stepped away from history for a couple of weeks. (We had...
Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2015
It’s that time of year again. We’re trying to schedule in summer camps and family vacations. I work really well with paper calendars for keeping track of things here by my desk. This is the spring-summer calendar I made and just thought I’d share it for anyone else who can use it. 🙂 Free Spring-Summer 2015 Calendar Some of our summer plans? We are hoping to go on another Fossil...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2015 · Last modified March 13, 2015
On the weekends, I’ve been trying to share articles about homeschooling (or parenting in general) I’ve found from around the web. Since not everyone is on Facebook, I thought I’d share some of the recent article links here as well: *I shared this post I wrote last March: Why You Shouldn’t Reward Kids for Learning partly because I saw an article about “Grit” in the Washington post (see the next entry!) *Do Your...
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.
