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) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2012 · Last modified March 9, 2016
This week we’ve added in a bit of domino math to ED’s math time. I know there are lots of domino math sheets out there including the domino mats and cards from mathwire.com, at Making Learning Fun (domino addition, subtraction or multiplication), and a domino worksheet made by Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I needed one that wouldn’t overwhelm ED, though. I wanted just a few problems on the...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Geometry / Montessori (general info) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2012
As I mentioned last week, we started a new unit on geometry. We’ve been busy talking about rays, intersecting lines, parallel lines, line segments, angles and more! Over the weekend, I came across a set of geometry cards made by Homemade Montessori that will come in handy! I thought I’d share this great find in case anyone else finds them useful. I am always so grateful to people who share...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2012 · Last modified August 3, 2016
One of the things I’ve been doing since returning from our trip is to continue planning for our homeschool. I came across an email from ReadingTeacher.com. [Added in 9 months Later: These are no longer available for free from ReadingTeacher. Instead I wound up visiting Dr. Mariott’s website and downloaded them from there. We wound up using all 52 of these readers with ED, my youngest. They really worked well...
Active Math Games / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 6, 2012
Have you heard of File Folder Games? They are quick games to help build skills in math, reading, science, social studies and more. We use them lots and lots in our homeschool. Here are a couple examples that ED, my preschooler, has played recently. This File Folder Game has her practicing counting by 10s and 1s: Here are a couple other examples. One has the child fill in the missing...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2012
If you’re trying to find a way to keep the kids occupied this summer, why not turn to science?!! There are so many experiments you can do together with your kids. Or if you’re like me, you can hand them a book and they can do it on their own! LD (age 8) flipped through a science experiment book and was excited to make his own Lemon Soda! What to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 19, 2012 · Last modified March 7, 2016
We are using the Bob Books to help ED learn to read. She is just learning to sound out CVC words. While my other two kids learned to read early (age 3) using the Bob Book series (and others), my third child has her own pace and style of learning. She is excited about writing words, loves to color, and has amazing pencil skills. I made these worksheets for her. These would never (never,...
Freebies / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Rain Forests
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 14, 2012 · Last modified November 15, 2015
On Tuesday I shared the biomes pin map that the kids and I used. We looked not only at where the desert, tundra and grassland regions were, but took note of the rain forest regions of the world. Next I brought out the rain forest plant cards I had made several years ago. Although our main goal was to look at a history of chocolate to go along with our...
Freebies / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 12, 2012 · Last modified February 16, 2016
Are you asking yourself, “What in the world is a biomes pin map?” It’s a map that shows where the rain forests, deserts, grasslands, forest and tundra regions are located. A pin map is when you stick straight pins into the labels so kids can pinpoint where things are located. There you go, sounds fancy, but really it’s not! 🙂 Before we really delved into our study of rain...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2012 · Last modified April 2, 2021
Since I talked so much about the ocean yesterday, I thought I would share some of the ocean related freebies I made for our ocean unit last fall. I hope someone finds these helpful. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean). This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 24, 2012 · Last modified January 3, 2020
DD loves to write little notes and stories, so I made this sort to help her understand how/why past tense -ed verbs are formed. She’s a creative speller and will often end her verbs in -t or -id. This is a lesson covered in All About Spelling, but she won’t be up to this lesson (in volume 3) for a while yet. This is just a more colorful version of...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2012
Can you believe it? Summer time is almost here. My friend’s kids get out of school this week! Our family is busy working out our summer plans. We plan to do several road trips and are trying to find fun (and educational) things to do with the kids this summer. We’ll be heading to Arkansas and Missouri, for example, and plan to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Mammoth...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 14, 2012 · Last modified March 4, 2016
Last week we spent quite a bit of time outside enjoying the wildlife in our yard. We are really lucky in that we see a wide variety of critters every day. We spotted a little Northern Brown Snake, a small mouse that was in the strawberry garden (corralled briefly in an empty pot and then released) and a toad. We also came across a large millipede (probably four inches or...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2012 · Last modified January 24, 2015
Another word sort I made for the kids was for words ending in the /shun/ sound. DD chose the theme this time! I printed the first page out in normal size and the other four pages two-per-page. You can print out your own copy of this tion sion cion cian word sort Hope someone finds this useful!
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 3, 2012 · Last modified March 3, 2016
In honor of last weekend’s science celebration I wanted to put together something to inspire other budding scientists out there! I put together a packet of a dozen science experiments that my kids have loved. These are easy-to-prepare experiments and you should have most items on hand around the house. The download is free! Download the Science Experiment Packet At this post you’ll find three more science experiments and another free...
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.
