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Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 6, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
Since I’m talking about bugs and such, I’ll post this picture I took of stink beetles. They are sometimes called the green carab beetle (though to be honest I’ve never heard anyone refer to them as such). According to an article put out in the local paper, one of their adaption strategies is ‘explosive breeding.’ Sometimes during the summer they swarm really badly around the sports field lights. If they...
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 1, 2010
Last night, our dog woke us up. She’s normally quietat night, but she barked and whined around 3am. Something seemed amiss and though I couldn’t findanything wrong, I had trouble going back to sleep. Ifinally got up and snuggled up with a book for therest of the night. This morning, we figured out what bothered our dog!
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 1, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
It’s been raining a lot. This afternoon it was just a misty drizzle, though, so I decided to take the kids out for a little hike. This is just three blocks from our house, but leads out to expansive crown lands. There were hundreds of grasshoppers and LD and DD had a fabulous time tracking down little critters!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Music / Outdoor Fun / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2010
I love music and it has always been a big part of my life.I play the oboe, guitar and piano and am learning thedulcimer. LD started learning the piano earlier this year and isdoing really well. Still, I wanted the girls to get to sing,dance and enjoy music as well. I set aside two differenttimes to do music activities during the week. One ismore for ED and the other is...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Music / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2010
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Music / Outdoor Fun / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2010
In keeping with our forest theme, we’ve played thisfun game outside the past few days. The object is to grabthe squirrel’s tail while protecting your own. In ourversion we each had a couple of tails to start out with! FOX AND RABBIT GAME: Another good game we played this week was the “Fox andRabbit” Game (from Family Fun website). Two players areblind folded. One is the fox and has to...
Outdoor Fun / Science / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2010
The cicadas are out now and I promised LD that wecould go to the park to hunt for cicadas. I packed a picniclunch and we headed there after Kindergym (for ED). At first the only wildlife we saw were the birds (galahs,middle picture and the crested pigeon, bottom).
Outdoor Fun / Science / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
Then we saw the dreaded bull ant (these ants are an inch long and inject an acid that REALLY hurts). Poor DD has been bitten by these several times (but not yesterday!) I was even nervous taking these photos because the ants are so aggressive!
Outdoor Fun / Science / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2010 · Last modified July 21, 2020
But then after our picnic lunch we went down closer to the (now mostly dry) river bed and saw lots of little critters– a little frog, a cicada coming out of its shell and a large 6-inch/15 cm praying mantis. By the way, once the cicada has dried, it is orange and black we just happened on it in the ten minutes or so when it’s still drying and the...
Outdoor Fun / Science / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 2, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
LD spotted another cicada just about to emerge from its shell (this time in our backyard). I didn’t get the camera in time for the initial emergence, but I promised LD to put pictures up. To be honest, I find this as fascinating as the kids!! How amazing nature is!!
LD told us the other day , “my favorite sports are soccerand mini golf.” Then he went on to ask, “can we make ourown mini golf course?” Today we pulled out lots of stuffand set up the back yard to be our own mini golf course.Luckily we have more than a few boxes from Christmas. LD’s mini golf course had 8 holes. We all had a greattime. Even ED played...
Arts and Crafts / Holiday: Halloween / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2009
A while back I read about a family who put paint inziploc bags and had the kids jump on them. Nowthat the weather is warming up, we decided to giveit a try. Some of the bags we filled with paint andair; some of them we had paint, vinegar and bakingsoda (to expand the bag). LD was able to pop allthe bags (and the ones without vinegar/bs “lookednicer”), but DD and...
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.
