Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 7, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Sometimes it’s enough to get the bags packed and the kids ready; the snack food and water tucked into the car… but there’s not always a big plan when we head off… just a vague notion of where we have to go and who we plan to see. We definitely keep our eyes open for fun activities along the way. That’s how we wound up going into the Smokies, visiting...
Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Division / Must Read / Outdoor: Fossils
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 6, 2013 · Last modified February 8, 2019
Can you believe how quickly Valentine’s Day is approaching? Here’s a game I made to practice division. These games are free to download. 🙂 To Play: The first player draws a division card. She determines the answer and places a token on the heart. If another player has a token on the heart, the player can bump the other player’s token off and replace it with her own token. When...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Science / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
While we were on our road trip we had the opportunity to visit an amazing Nature Center in Nashville, TN with my Sis and her (homeschooling) kids. It had everything from taxidermy animals to look at, nature drawers to explore, microscopes, bird watching and identification, creative play with puppets, puzzles, costumes, blocks and more. I wish we had a place like this near us!! There was a full size...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2013
Today in their writing notebooks, the kids had to practice writing something with a dialogue. It didn’t matter what they wrote as long as it had people talking. DD’s entry made me laugh pretty hard and with her permission I thought I’d share it here. Mom said, “Do your math DD.” DD said, “No, I’m playing.” Mom said, “You better do your math!” Seventeen hours later Mom said, “Bed time DD.”...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2013 · Last modified February 8, 2019
Doubling Practice – Games and Worksheets I made a Valentine’s Day Bump Game for my daughter who is still learning her addition (doubling) facts. We worked on these and from there we’ll move on doubling higher numbers 7 through 10s. After that, we’ll work for a while on “what comes after” and then go on to problems like 6+7. This is a game to practice doubling (1+1, 2+2, etc.). To...
Freebies / Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 3, 2013 · Last modified February 8, 2019
Today, I thought I’d first share a couple of the games I made for the kids for Valentine’s Day since it’s quickly approaching. These games are free to download. 🙂 The first set are multiplication worksheets and game boards to practice the 4s and 6s times tables. **DD only started working on these today (Monday) and I saw there was an error on her paper. I corrected it and re-posted the...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We spent an amazing afternoon at the Aquarium of the Smokies. It was really fabulous. There were all different kinds of displays from the Tropical Rain Forest, penguin display, sting ray bay, underwater sea life, whale skeletons, a coral reef, and much more. I’ll try not to overwhelm you with pictures–just putting together a few collages, but it was such a great day it’s been hard whittling down the pictures!! The...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / sports / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 1, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
One of the fabulous things about being homeschoolers is that we can travel when it suits us. We often homeschool when other kids are not in school (for example, we often start back to school in early August and don’t take the same breaks, holidays or snow days that other kids in traditional schools take). Then, when the opportunity arises we head off for a family holiday. We actually got...
Health / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read / Outdoor Fun / Science / Science: The 5 Senses
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 29, 2013 · Last modified December 31, 2014
We’ve all heard the experts tell us that time outside has huge benefits for kids. It helps them concentrate and focus in school, boosts learning, helps fight obesity, and is even beneficial for social development. Research has proven that recess is good for kids: “A recent multicenter study of more than 11,000 eight- and nine-year-olds, led by pediatric researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, showed...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 28, 2013 · Last modified February 23, 2019
One of the wonderful things that has been happening here at the Homeschool Den is the amount of independent work the kids have been doing. DD is always asking to learn more about animals so at the beginning of the semester, I downloaded Erica’s wonderful Expedition Earth: Discovering God’s Animals over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. It is a free animal unit study. Erica has made animal mini-books for close to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 27, 2013 · Last modified July 17, 2020
After our study of earthworms and flatworms, we went back to talking about vertebrates. One day last week, we learned a bit more about domesticated animals. We talked about some pretty fascinating things with DD and LD. Can you guess out of the millions of animal species how many large animals have been successfully domesticated? I’ll tell you in just a minute below! For ED we pulled in a few Montessori...
Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Fractions / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 25, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
For the past couple of weeks, LD has learned about equivalent fractions in math. A week or so ago, I shared a couple of the packet and equivalent fraction cards I had made for him. We also bought a equivalent fractions dominoes game (and a fraction dominoes game for DD) and now that we’ve had a chance to play it a few times, I thought it was worth a mention...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 24, 2013 · Last modified June 12, 2017
The kids spent a couple of weeks learning about perspective in their art class. Even ED did her own drawing! They came home with some really pretty art work! Here is LD working on his homework for art class: The kids used oil pastels to add color to their drawings. If you are interested in doing a lesson on perspective with your kids here are a couple good resources:...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 22, 2013 · Last modified March 9, 2018
Planarian are a type of small flatworm. My homeschooling friend had some Planarian she had ordered and shared some with us! What a great friend to share her worms! 🙂 Heh heh! Let me first share a picture of these little creatures and then I tell you some really cool things about them!! Planarian are amazing because they have the ability to regenerate! If you cut a Planarian in half...
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.
