Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 18, 2012 · Last modified February 6, 2023
Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2012 · Last modified March 22, 2016
We’ve been having a discussion of what makes something living. Living things eat drink (need water) breathe grow reproduce We’ve been observing mealworms for the past couple weeks. We saw evidence of their growth because they shed their exoskeleton. Yesterday we noticed they had transformed completely into darkling beetles! We’ve been keeping track of the growth of three sunflower plants out in the garden. Our sunflowers have grown an inch...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 21, 2012 · Last modified March 21, 2015
It’s been a while since I talked about the books we’re reading. We have lots of books around, plus we check out lots of books from our local library (50+ at a time!). I thought I’d highlight ten books that have been on the repeated request list. While we’ve read other books in the past couple of weeks, these are the books that I have read again and again (and...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 20, 2012 · Last modified November 13, 2020
The science curriculum I’m using this year suggests letting the kids observe and work with mealworms. This is part of our discussion of what makes something living or not living. I purchased some from a local pet shop and came up with a few activities for the kids to do as they observe and learn about their mealworms. Before I even uttered a word, I simply handed the kids their...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 17, 2012
We had some free-form science play for a couple of days earlier in the week. The kids made a number of slime concoctions using various recipes from a science experiment book LD has. I’m not quite sure what the kids learned from this, but LD made a bit of “dragon’s blood” yesterday by mixing various ingredients (corn syrup, peanut butter, dish liquid soap, dye, etc.). Maybe a bit about viscosity?!...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 5, 2012 · Last modified May 18, 2015
I meant to talk about this a couple of days ago right after the lemon soda post, but life’s been full and fun and I didn’t get around to it. This is another great activity to do with ingredients I’m sure you have in your kitchen. We did this a while ago, but if the weather’s hot, your kids might enjoy being spies for the afternoon! We used two different...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2012
If you’re trying to find a way to keep the kids occupied this summer, why not turn to science?!! There are so many experiments you can do together with your kids. Or if you’re like me, you can hand them a book and they can do it on their own! LD (age 8) flipped through a science experiment book and was excited to make his own Lemon Soda! What to...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 3, 2012 · Last modified March 3, 2016
In honor of last weekend’s science celebration I wanted to put together something to inspire other budding scientists out there! I put together a packet of a dozen science experiments that my kids have loved. These are easy-to-prepare experiments and you should have most items on hand around the house. The download is free! Download the Science Experiment Packet At this post you’ll find three more science experiments and another free...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 1, 2012 · Last modified March 20, 2018
We were so impressed and inspired by the science festival that the kids begged for science experiments during collection (our group time). Our experiment today was the Fireworks in Water experiment. I saw over on A Bit of This and A Bit of That back a half a year ago or so a twist on the experiment we’ve always done. We took shaving cream, sprayed it on top of...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Physics Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 30, 2012 · Last modified February 4, 2016
Beep, Beep! Class, it’s time for another field trip! We went to participate in the largest science celebration in the U.S.A. The kids got to participate in hundreds of hands-on exhibits! We got up really early and drove down to the 2nd annual USA Science and Engineering Festival last Friday. It was phenomenal! The mission of the festival was “to re-invigorate the interest of our nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and...
Science / Science Experiments / Science: Physics Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 13, 2012 · Last modified July 18, 2018
We have been gearing up for these activities for a long time. Back in January I mentioned the kids read the Physics, Pre-Level 1 (Real Science-4-Kids) book. LD read it on his own while I read it together with DD. I thought it was a wonderful introduction to some basic physics concepts. Then as you’ve seen we did some background activities on Newton himself (the geography of England/Britain/UK; the Black...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 2, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Whales are able to survive in the frigid waters of the Arctic. In this series of activities the kids and I explored how that is possible. First, not directly related to the whales themselves, we talked about icebergs. We took giant cottage cheese cartons and froze big blocks of ice. One of those blocks had our wooly mammoth plastic creature. I had the kids guess how much of the ice...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
One of the days we read books, I stopped frequently to explain things and do activities with the kids. Whale Migration: For example, we talked in quite some depth about whale migration from the Arctic down the west coast of North America and back again. I pulled out an Arctic Pin map I made and the kids placed the various countries that make up the Arctic region. You can download...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 26, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Have you ever started a unit and then something else unfolds? Well this is a unit I started to put together on the Arctic. You might even recall that we covered Antarctica for a couple of days to lead up to this unit. The more we got into it, the more this turned into a full blown study of whales! We spent more than a week reading, doing experiments 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.
