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Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2011 · Last modified January 27, 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 this past week: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards; Powerpoint Explanation about St. Patrick and how he brought Christianity to Ireland Musings of Me — St. Patrick’s Day Teacher’s...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 9, 2010 · Last modified November 25, 2016
We’ve been doing lots of holiday-related activities. Today we brought out our hammers and cans (filled with ice) to make lanterns. LD especially like this, though I was impressed with how long ED worked at it as well! Once the ice melted, we were ready to light them with small tea candles inside and set them along the driveway to welcome Daddy home! You might be interested in some of...
Top Left is by ED, Middle Top is by DD, Top Right says (from bottom to top Time To et Me — Time to eat me — by DD). Bottom cards are by LD. This past week we’ve been singing this lovely Thanksgiving song together called “Thanksgiving Day” by L. Maria Child during our collection time: Over the river and through the wood To grandfather’s house we go; The horse...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Holiday: Halloween
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 2, 2010
It’s probably too late to be of use to anyone else, but I stillthought I’d share these puzzles that I made for my kids(4 and 6). If you look at the left sheet above, you see there are twogrids. After looking at the two puzzles, the kids have toplace all 9 pieces on the blank grid to make ONE puzzle. I also made an answer key (for each of the...
Our family went out to view the Christmas lights aroundtown last night. The winning families spent days settingup their display. The family pictured below spent 12 fulldays and 15 half-days putting up their display. Anotherfamily started putting up lights in September. In the second photo below you’ll see Santa on his sleigh with“Six White Boomers” (or kangaroos). This is in reference to asong by Rolf Harris. Since Santa’s reindeer can’t...
I made a batch of Christmas candy that was a big hit withthe kids. I used the candy corn recipe, and added greenand red food coloring. It took long enough that I had toplace the candy mixture in the microwave for 10 secondsseveral times, but I thought it turned out well. What doyou think? I also made a small batch of fudge today from the BetterHomes and Gardens Cookbook: *Cook...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 20, 2009
Because of our road trip and swim lessons, we haven’t been doingmuch in the way of academic school work lately, but I thoughtI’d share a math-game I put together this weekend. This is a place value game I made using two sets of dominoes pictures fromhttp://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_dominoes.pdf Both LD (6) and DD (age 4) enjoyed playing the game, thoughI only had LD tell me the number value of the dice(ie. saying...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 20, 2009
Each player gets one figure (Santa, Rudolphor the snowman in each of the four colors) On the player’s turn he/she rolls all four dice and placesthe proper color on the dice board. (See 2nd picture) The player moves each of his/her Rudolphs (orSantas or Snowmen) the number of spaces indicatedby that color dice. I have my older child say one thousand, two thousand, etc.or ten, twenty, thirty, etc. as he...
I love this recipe and it’s really easy to make, especiallyif you need something quick and easy for holidaycelebrations. They are VERY rich. MELT:1 cup semi-sweet choc. chips2 oz (2 squares) unsweetened choc, chopped2 Tbsp. butter ADD and MIX:2/3 cup sugar2 eggs1/4 cup all-purpose flour1 tsp. vanilla1/4 tsp. b. powder1 cup chopped pecans or other nut BAKE:8-10 minsat 170/350 in the oven By the way, you can store this dough...
Here’s a little activity I put together for theseason. I got some cheap little ornamentsto hang on this little Christmas tree. I madethe tree out of pipe cleaners and placed someself-hardening clay in a little plastic cup sothe tree would stand up. I wound up needinga bit more support for the tree, so used thebottom of a paper cup to make it a little morestable.
The girls have been enjoying these Christmas lacingcards from http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_lacing_cards.htm. I used some yarn with a short pipe-cleaner twistedtogether at the end instead of a needle.
We’ve been reading, learning and doing activities relatedto (American) Thanksgiving this week. I found a tree thatlights up at the discount store (Mad Harry’s, which soundslike it’s like the “Dollar Tree” I always hear about online). Anyway, this week I printed out some leaves on differentcolored paper. The kids had to think about what theywere thankful for. Each day I wrote down one or two oftheir ideas on a leaf...
Living where we do, our kids really don’t hear orlearn much about Native Americans. (On the otherhand, we have learned a lot on Aboriginal culture.)Anyway, this week I introduced them to some ofthe Native American tribes (in a VERY basic way). We read The Magic Tree House: Buffalo BeforeBreakfast. We watched the buffalo hunting scenein the movie, Dances With Wolves. And we pulledout some of the Native American items we...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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
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