Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2020 · Last modified February 10, 2021
Earlier this week, I had a wonderful back-and-forth email conversation with a reader about literature and language arts in our homeschool. She had questions about the literature book/s we were using when my kids were in grades 2, 5 and 7. I thought I would share a lot of that conversation with you today. It highlights some of the language arts books/texts/resources we have used over the years. Plus, I’ve...
I just wanted to let you know that I added a new video to explain why and how we used a Writing Workshop in our homeschool. You’ll find that at the Writing Workshop page – homeschoolden.com/writing-workshop Just click here: In this video, I didn’t realize I should drag it and make my screen bigger… so I’m like 1/2 an inch as I talk!! Ah well… live and learn! But, the...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 11, 2019 · Last modified July 1, 2020
This Writing Resource BUNDLE will help you take your kids’ writing to the next level! It includes five huge action-packed pdfs! For the last year, I have been trying to compile and put ALL (300+pages) of our writing materials and resources into a more convenient packet. It’s been a huge undertaking! I thought it was about time to release it… even though it is always a work in progress! 🙂...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 21, 2019 · Last modified July 1, 2020
We have been using a writing workshop model in our homeschool for many, many years. It has brought a lot of joy to our writing time. My kids are not at all intimidated by writing now… even high school essays! I have a lot of posts about what a Writing Workshop looks like in our homeschool and also have a lot of posts about the various mini-lessons we used to...
History and World Cultures Units / History: American History / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Language Arts: Writing / Starting to Homeschool / WWII
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 18, 2018 · Last modified December 29, 2018
History Portfolio Projects have student focus on one theme, topic or time period and can include an array of writing, art, and geography assignments that are compiled together in a final product. While we did a couple of portfolio projects when the kids were in elementary (age 8 -10 or so), Portfolio Project really become a powerful tool during the middle and high school years! History portfolio projects require students...
History and World Cultures Units / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 6, 2018 · Last modified February 1, 2019
Today I have a free Biography Writing Paper Packet to share with you! These writing pages include famous Americans as well as famous historical figures from King Tut to Marie Curie, Albert Einstein dozens more! These can be used with the biographies my daughter read (more details about those below) or just as quick assignments when you have the time. 🙂 My youngest has been working independently on these for...
September 11th is coming up on Tuesday. We are going to spend a couple of days writing about the events of that day. I wanted to make the kids some writing paper for this project. These September 11th writing pages are free to download. I hope they are helpful! ~Liesl Here are some suggestions for using these blank 9/11 writing pages. Research and write about the events of that day....
At the beginning of the year, many students are asked to do personal or narrative essays… my kids are writing personal essays as well! I came across this writing resource that has 500 writing prompts and felt like it was such a great writing resource, I wanted to share it with you. It’s a free printable. These are generally for older students, but below I’ll also add in the link...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2018 · Last modified January 14, 2019
We have been using this fairy tale stationery in our Writing Workshop to practice creating stories with dialogues. Specifically, the kids are focusing on using quotation marks and commas properly. This packet has writing pages for these fairy tales: Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, and Frankenstein. Mini-Lesson: Before we began writing, we talked about the many variations and stylistic differences among...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2018
How do you help kids improve their essay writing skills? For many years, I worked on essay writing with students (I taught high school & college history) and now as a homeschooler, I’m working on essay writing skills with my own kids. I thought I would share some of writing strategies that I am using with my kids as they learn to write in this genre. A few days ago,...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 15, 2018 · Last modified January 8, 2018
Today, I have some free creative writing paper for you. This set includes various mythological creatures: dragon, centaur, dwarf, gargoyle, goblin, dryad, and so forth. My girls thought these were neat and I have printed out these pages to store in our Writing Workshop area for when they are in the mood! Down below, I’ll include some of the links to why we started using a Writing Workshop in our...
Freebies / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 12, 2017 · Last modified November 20, 2018
My girls thought it would be really fun to spend some time writing about the holidays and writing Christmas stories. 20+ Holiday Writing Prompt Ideas Here are just a few of them: If I could do one thing to make the world a better place this year, what would it be? What is your favorite (and/or least favorite) thing about this time of year? Write a story about the lost...
This past summer, I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what LD would do for 9th grade writing. Last year we used Cover Story and the kids continued doing a lot of independent writing. They also had to do some writing for history, but we hadn’t delved much into formal essay writing. It was time for LD to start writing more polished pieces, but I wasn’t quite...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 23, 2017 · Last modified February 21, 2017
The past couple of days, the kids have been writing their own Haikus during our writing workshop time. Your family might have fun with this too! What is a haiku? It is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. These seem simple as they are only three lines, but the kids found it to be tricky! A haiku has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5...
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.
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.
