Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2011
I developed this blog in large part for me. It helps me keep a record of what we’ve done and it also helps me stay organized and keep track of websites where I’ve gotten activity ideas and printables. You should see my drafts!! Whenever I’m cruising around trying to find information and activities for new units I create a “draft” and link lots of the websites I come across. I...
I turn to my sister when I need to share news–the good and the bad, the gross (right Sis?!!) and the funny. I turn to my sister when I need to complain. I turn to my sister when I’m overwhelmed (like the many many phone calls at 2 or 3am from Australia when things were overwhelming on our move… luckily for her it was mid-day then!). She’s the one ultimately...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 21, 2010
The kids usually get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then play for a while (at least an hour if not more) on their own before we delve into any school-type activities. This is often some of the most creative play of the day — and I was particularly impressed by LD’s idea today. He took this little jack-o-lantern and some yarn and said he wanted to be able...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2010 · Last modified January 17, 2019
I love visiting people’s blogs when they share a good overview of their daily activities (workboxers call it “What’s in the Box?”). It’s been in the back of my mind to share what’s in our workboxes, but haven’t gotten around to that. Instead, I’ll share some the other aspects of our homeschool environment. Montessori talks a lot about having a prepared environment, one in which the children can choose from...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 13, 2010
LD read a book called “The Knight at Dawn” and decided he wanted to do some sort of knight-related craft. We built castles. I mostly did the big castles (with bits of help from the kids) while they used the scraps to build elaborate small castles (which unfortunately this photo totally obscures!) Dad used the castles as the entrance and exit of an elaborate 3-D maze. It became more and...
Someone asked me a couple of days ago if I have any “girl time.” (And she obviously meant for *me*!) I don’t have too much in the way of outlets yet, but am getting a lot of pleasure out of working on the house and the yard. The moving in process is now going forward at glacial speeds (as the kids take up a lot of my time and energy...
This week was really quite special. As I mention in the post below, LD and I had some wonderful talks about life, the miracles of life, the events that shape us, the paths we take along this amazing life of ours. Something almost as touching, was when I realized that we were here. We have come so far in these past four months and now we are once again a...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 14, 2010
Today Daddy took the kids out to the playground leaving me with an hour or so to myself. I managed to clear stuff off of our craft/science table. Then as I was unpacking one of the boxes, I came across the roll of butcher paper our friends gave us. As I considered where to store it, I realized I could put it UNDER and ACROSS the craft table for an...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 13, 2010
The kids have really enjoyed their summer activities. Just a five minute drive from the house is a really nice gym. LD has been taking gymnastics classes and always glows afterward. “That was SO hard, but SO great,” he tells us! A dance teacher also offers classes at the gym. DD participated in a little dance camp this week. They made all of their props — frog feet, a duck...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Reading / Recipes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 11, 2010
Life indoors still isn’t quite as tranquil as it is outdoors. Still, I have various parts of the house that are really coming together. One of the first areas we tried to get organized was the homeschool room. This is our new book nook. I came across LD reading a long chapter book to DD last evening and just had to take a picture! I thought about picking up the...
This is what life is really like at the moment!! Can anyone else relate?! I shared a few pictures of the activities we did this week, but my work in large part is making this our home. Unpacking, sorting and setting up a new space is wonderful (and tiring!). But it is so fantastic to be on the downhill slope. Sometimes it felt like we would never get to this...
A few days ago we got all of our stuff from Australia. There are boxes everywhere and then there’s all the stuff that’s out of the boxes, but hasn’t yet found a home! Meanwhile, we’re trying to get the kids into a bit of a routine. We’re trying to ease back into our homeschool activities. They’ve also spent hours playing with their toys and re-discovering all their belongings. I finally...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 23, 2010
We made it to our new state last Wednesday and settled on our new home on Monday. Yay!!! It’s been extremely busy unpacking and sorting through the belongings we had in storage for twelve years. We also had to get new driver’s licenses and things like that. But in the mean time we are really amazed by our beautiful new surroundings. What contrast to the Outback; it is so humid...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 17, 2010
We’ve pretty much resorted to ‘natural learning’ these past two months as we travel from state to state making our way to our new home. But in the meantime, I have been planning and preparing for the new school year to come. We use a smattering of curriculum resources which I distribute into workboxes and centers. While we do most workboxes, most days we don’t have a set orders to...
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.
