Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Here’s a little activity I put together for theseason. I got some cheap little ornamentsto hang on this little Christmas tree. I madethe tree out of pipe cleaners and placed someself-hardening clay in a little plastic cup sothe tree would stand up. I wound up needinga bit more support for the tree, so used thebottom of a paper cup to make it a little morestable.
The girls have been enjoying these Christmas lacingcards from http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_lacing_cards.htm. I used some yarn with a short pipe-cleaner twistedtogether at the end instead of a needle.
LD has always loved jets (his grandpa was a propulsionengineer and worked on the development of the JointStrike Fighter). He and I worked on this paper plane,a model of the Nighthawk.
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 18, 2009
Here is a foam map of Australia that DD and LD enjoyputting together.
Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 18, 2009
The older kids are always given a small pitcher to pourtheir milk into their cereal. ED now has a very smallpitcher of milk to pour into her bowl. (She’s been doing thisfor a couple of months now, probably starting around 20months old, I think.) If she dribbles any milk she knowswhere the washclothes are and will go grab one out of thedrawer to wipe the table.
One question that I’ve been asked pretty regularly is “how do you homeschool with kids of such different ages?” My first response lately has often been, just imagine taking your three favorite students out of a class of 25. They have different needs and abilities, but so do the kids in a traditional classroom setting. I get to work every day with the kids that I most enjoy being with...
Homemade Graham Cracker Recipe
While we were away, I was doing some browsing online and found a recipe for graham crackers (which my kids love — I even have had people send us boxes from the States!) We gave the recipe a try and they turned out wonderfully. In fact, we made TWO batches in the past couple of days. I rolled ours out really thin, so they are very crunchy. LD said they...
We just got back from our three week holiday down toAdelaide, South Australia. We drove down. If you’veever wondered what the Australian Outback looks like,here are a few photos that are pretty representative ofwhat it’s like for 1200+km. There are lots of smallshrubs. Sometimes there are occasional hills, but mostlyit’s flat. Every now and then (somewhere between 50 and250kms) there are roadhouses where you can fill up onpetrol/gas. Most roadhouses...
This is pretty typical of the petrol stations you’ll find incentral Australia… not a town, but just a few buildingsand then nothing again for a LOoooong time!
Arts and Crafts / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2009
I had lots of crafts ready for the kids to do in the car. Thepom pom was a huge hit. This isn’t the way I grew upmaking them, so I thought I’d post a few pictures in caseothers of you hadn’t seen this method. It was greatbecause even ED, now 22 months, was able to wrapthe yarn around. Be sure to cut out two circle shapes to make it easier...
Arts and Crafts / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2009
The kids also really enjoyed decorating Chinese food take-away boxes (that I got in the local dollar store). I gavethem Christmas stickers and all three kids spent a lotof time carefully covering their boxes. Later in the tripI gave them markers to decorate the box. They also enjoyedcoloring in wooden Christmas ornaments. DD really enjoyed the felt board materials (I added asnowman, Christmas tree and ‘ornaments’, and things likethat. I...
Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 12, 2009 · Last modified May 18, 2015
We stayed in Coober Pedy on our way down to Adelaide. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town. It gets very hot (45+C in the summers, 110+F), so many of the houses and hotels are underground. The kids were really excited to do some noodling of their own. They had great luck in the museum noodling pit, but not quite as much luck in the public noodling area.
Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 12, 2009 · Last modified May 18, 2015
We did find a lot of gypsum in the noodling area, a kind of delicate, flaky rock that disinegrates into fine strands. We all thought that was pretty neat. The last picture above is just to try to show how many mounds dot the landscape. It’s quite a strange place!
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.
