Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Part III: Float a Penny Test how many pennies can be placed on an index cardbefore it sinks. Do the same with a popsicle stick. See how many rocks/pennies can be placed on a pieceof bark before it sinks or tips over. Part IV: Float AND SinkTry to make the following items float. Then try to makethat same object sink. Do not place anything on it. Try: aluminium foilclaya plastic...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 25, 2010 · Last modified July 14, 2015
When we looked at the geography of Greece last week we had talked about the importance of boats both for trade, transportation and as warships. Our science center led naturally to the construction of their own “Greek” boats. We looked at a couple of books we have, brought out LD’s saw, glue, tape and off they went! We tested their boats in our pool afterwards. Related Posts you May Be Interested In: Ancient Greece Geography...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 24, 2010 · Last modified February 10, 2021
I think I mentioned last week that we started a new unit on Ancient Greece. (We studied Ancient Egypt last semester.) We’ve been quite busy reading and crafting and LD seems to be having a lot of fun with this unit! LD and I worked together to on this wonderful Parthenon craft that we found at http://www.stormthecastle.com/paper-castle/paper-parthenon.htm. All we needed was a printer, scissors, glue, tape and a cereal box! We visited this Art History...
We learned about the ancient Greek olympicsand talked about the modern Olympics. Wewatched a video of the 2004 Olympics inAthens and LD made an olympic victorywreath. Of course the 2010 winter Olympics beginFeb. 12 and we will do some activities totie into that. Activity Village has some activitiesand website links about the Vancouver olympics.Here are a couple other resources that I mightcheck out in more detail about the winter Olympicssoon:...
History: Ancient Greece Unit / History: World Religions
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 24, 2010
We read a wonderful book about the Ancienct Greek gods and goddesses of Olympus by Aliki. The book had very visual pictures that went along well with the short myths about each god or goddess. It captured LD’s imagination and he really learned a lot from its simple retelling. We read through the entire book and LD has asked me to re-read sections again. We also read the myth of...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 24, 2010 · Last modified July 14, 2015
Today the entire family sat down to make scary Medusa masks. LD was the only one who had the patience to glue his snakes onto the top piece. DD said to put it into her workbox for later and spent the next hour playing with the three masks she had made.
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 24, 2010 · Last modified July 14, 2015
Related Posts you May Be Interested In: Ancient Greece Geography Project (part 1) Ancient Greece: The Importance of the Seas Ancient Greek Unit — Read Aloud Books (The kids were 2, 4 and 6.) Parthenon Craft
The kids did this quick camouflage activity (from Take itTo Your Seat Science Centers, Grade 1-2). We alsodid an online game trying to find the camouflaged animals.Find the frog, ibex, snakes, fox, insects, turtles and more.The kids played that for a little bit, but we also just enjoyedlooking at images on the computer such as this websiteabout animals that change colors:http://webecoist.com/2009/02/22/color-changing-strange-animals-species/
LD has been visually working on double digit addition.We put 10 mini erasers into Ziploc bags (and stapledthem shut so ED wouldn’t get into them!). Shown here is 19 + 27. He simply lays out 19 (1 bag +9)and 27 (2 bags +7). When he counts how many singleerasers there are he exchanges 10 singles for one bag of10. With this and the exchange game LD seems to havereally grasped...
Here’s a peek at a couple things DD did this week in herworkbox. The plant sorting activity was from kidssoup.com.It goes along well with some plant related games from theTake it to your Seat Science Centers we’ve had in theworkboxes this week. Where’s the Fairy? — Reading/Word GameThe second activity uses Ami’s household word cards atHomeschool Share– Workboxables. Since DD is on thecusp of learning to read (but doesn’t want...
Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 19, 2010 · Last modified May 15, 2016
This post was one I wrote when my son was 6 years old. Now on to this entry… We continue to review/reinforce basic math addition facts. I made this little rocket/planet activity that LD and his friend have enjoyed. We also reviewed place value: We built the number 1783 (which separate into 1000, 700, 80 and 3 and stack on top of one another) Picture (below): I put a few 1000s together...
Our big project this past week has been making mushroomplay houses. 1) We covered rolled-up cardboard and a balloonwith paper mache. [1/2 cup flour + 1/2 cup water, stirin 2 cups of boiling water; let it cool and then dip thenewspaper and cover]
After lots more steps (attaching the balloon and stemparts with more paper mache, painting them, and coveringit with acrylic sealer) we cut out doors and the realfun began! We did a small step each day and overall ittook a week+ to make. The kids were really proud oftheir mushrooms when they were done.
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.
