Category: Homeschool Den

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Dinosaur Packet for 3-7 Year Olds – Dinosaur Lapbook, Montessori Cards and More!

DD had an amazing time with this Dinosaur Unit!  She did everything from learning many of the dinosaur’s names, to finding out what they ate, what period they lived in, and a number of dinosaur games along the way! This packet covers 15 dinosaurs: Allosaurus, Ankylosaurs, Apatasaurus, Brachiosaurus, Herrerasaurus (one of the earliest dinosaurs), Iguanodon, Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurus, Pteranodon, Quetzalcoatlus, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor. There are Montessori 3-Part cards...

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Note Taking and Research Skills in Our Homeschool

How are we introducing note taking and research skills into our homeschool? One skill that middle and high school students (and beyond!) need is the ability to take notes–either by picking out important key points from books and resources they read or from listening to a speaker or lecturer.  In the elementary years, I’ve slowly been trying to help the kids build these skills. I wanted to write this post...

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10 Posts From the Past

Hi Everyone, Not everyone uses Facebook and  with the way Facebook works now, the majority of my readers don’t see what I post to Facebook.  So, I thought that I’d highlight some of my older posts here on the blog as well every now and then. 20+ Thoughts for the Busy Homeschooling Family: 11 Year Old Shares Her Thoughts About Homeschooling Last winter on a snowy day like this one, I...

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Blog News: Homeschool Resource Page and Updated List of Free Homeschool and Teaching Resources

Homeschool Resources: Today I have several great resources for you. The first is a new page of some of the books we use in our homeschool.  You’ll see that new button in the left side bar.  I hope to keep a fairly current list of recommended books from different subject areas (history, science, language arts, math & critical thinking, art). How to Find Homeschool Curriculum: Since the list above is mostly just...

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Writing Workshop: Conflict in Literature (Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, etc)

We absolutely love our homeschool writing workshop. We don’t use any special homeschool writing curriculum, instead we’ve designed a writing routine that works really well for us. (In fact my reluctant writer now really loves writing! More about that in How/Why we needed a change in our writing program!)  Today, I wanted to share a mini-lesson series I did with the kids on the literary device, conflict.  I learned these...

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Viking Unit – Norse Myths, Woodburning Craft and More!

Last week, we combined our study of the Vikings with a new art project — woodburning!   We have just started a new unit on the Middle Ages. Last week, we focused on northern Europe and the Vikings/Norsemen.  We started by learning the location of the Scandinavian countries. We talked about the “barbarian” invasions of the Roman Empire and read that section in our history book. The spine for our...

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Reptile Cards From Around the World – US Australia South America Africa

About the same time we studied the world biomes years ago, my son was *really* into reptiles.  I made some cards for him back then and made them into pin-map pieces that he placed on our world map. There were reptiles from the rainforest, desert and tropical savanna. I also used the cards as Montessori 3-Part cards (where he matched the name with the photo). You’ll find those larger cards below....

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World Biomes Pin Map – Rain Forest, Desert, Savanna, Tundra and More

If you are studying about different animal habitats or the word biomes, you may be interested in this free download. I made this world biomes pin map for the kids years ago.  It includes a world biomes map and legend has pictures of the boreal and deciduous forests, rain forest, grasslands/savannas, chaparral, and tundra that the kids can stick onto the map. How to Make This: Print out all three pages on card...

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Homeschool Motivation – 10 Ways to Keep Going!

It’s mid-winter. It’s cold and there’s still plenty of school left in the semester.  How do we keep ourselves motivated to homeschool? I’ve been thinking about that a LOT lately. When working with the kids, it’s not just having the activities ready, the books out, worksheets printed out. It’s the smile and positive energy that really inspires our homeschool. In that regard, there are times when I’m not doing my job.  Call it...

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Valentine’s Day Skip Counting Mazes for 2s 3s 4s 5s 6s

A number  of people asked for skip counting mazes of 4s and 6s, so I went ahead and made those for this week! This packet contains 7s mazes total: Free Valentine’s Day Skip Counting Mazes Valentine’s Day Skip Counting, Addition and Subtraction pages: This is the packet I made for my daughter. It is also free. She is just learning multiplication (2s 5s 10s). The packet also includes some addition/subtraction...

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Quick Valentine’s Day Craft

The girls did this very quick Valentine’s Day craft last week.  We’ve been doing this nearly every year since they were toddlers. 🙂 It adds such a pretty splash of color this time of year! You might be interested in these Valentine’s Day Resources:  Valentines – First Multiplication Page-Skip Counting-Addition-SubtractionPractice Valentine’s Day Addition Pages (free) Valentine’s Multiplication Worksheets and Game Boards Valentine’s Bump Game Doubling (Addition) Valentine’s Bump Game —...

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Valentine’s Day Math Worksheets: Multiplication, Skip Counting, Addition, Subtraction

I made these Valentine’s Day math worksheets for my daughter who is *just* learning about multiplication.  She knows how to skip count pretty well and has been asking to learn multiplication.  These sheets are pretty basic and cover multiplication by 2s, 5s and 10s. Several of the pages have clocks at the top (to help her see that she already knows 5×3, 5×6 and 5×9).   There are also a...

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Earth Science Packet: Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, 4 Types of Mountains and More!

This 150+ page Earth Science Packet includes worksheets about the solar system, the layers of the Earth, plate tectonics, the ring of fire, earthquake activity and volcanoes. I also included instructions for more than a dozen hands-on activities we did with this unit. This includes activities about plate tectonics, using a compass, earthquakes, volcanoes,  instructions on how to make a shake table and more! My kids were in Grades 1, 4,...

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Earth Science Activities: Earthquakes, Plate Movement and Mountain Making

Last week I explained how we made an Earthquake Shake Table and shared a quick video on how we made ours.  We first tested it with marshmallow structures.  A couple days later, we made “brick” structures out of sugar cubes and peanut butter.  We put on the documentary, Deadliest Earthquakes, and set to work. We all built our structures and then brought out our shake table to test them out! The most exciting...