Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
We looked at the organs in the human body in thebook that Grams gave us and I penciled them inlightly on outline pictures of the kids’ bodies (bythis time DD wanted her outline done — and thenED immediately lay down on the paper and wantedhers done too!) I suggested to LD that he colorthe organs in (the book had them colored). Heoutlined them instead. DD and ED spent a lot...
We’ve been reading, learning and doing activities relatedto (American) Thanksgiving this week. I found a tree thatlights up at the discount store (Mad Harry’s, which soundslike it’s like the “Dollar Tree” I always hear about online). Anyway, this week I printed out some leaves on differentcolored paper. The kids had to think about what theywere thankful for. Each day I wrote down one or two oftheir ideas on a leaf...
Living where we do, our kids really don’t hear orlearn much about Native Americans. (On the otherhand, we have learned a lot on Aboriginal culture.)Anyway, this week I introduced them to some ofthe Native American tribes (in a VERY basic way). We read The Magic Tree House: Buffalo BeforeBreakfast. We watched the buffalo hunting scenein the movie, Dances With Wolves. And we pulledout some of the Native American items we...
LD and DD were especially intrigued by the dream catcher.They decided they wanted to make one of their own. Theyeach wrapped yarn around a clothes hanger wire that Ihad shaped into a circle. LD worked very hard (and lateinto the night I might add!) and did his without any parentalhelp. He was very proud of his work. He also tied all theknots on the spider’s web (we haven’t worked much...
The kids have really enjoyed this game this week. I gotthe turkey print outs from mathwire.com . I used somecraft cubes and wrote numbers on the dice 0-5 on twoand 6-11 on the others. It was good practice countingfor my preschooler. I made the spinner using a templateonline which I printed on cardstock and glued on cardboard.I put a brad through (it’s sticking up a bit) and used one ofthe...
The other game we played this week was an odd-evengame called Dino Math Blast also from mathwire.com.The dice were craft cubes. I used blue, green and yellowcubes and wrote the numbers 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17. Thefirst player rolled the die of the color space they werecurrently on. If the number was odd the odd dinosaurmoved ahead one space, if the number was even theeven dinosaur moved ahead. Then it was...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Holiday: Thanksgiving
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 15, 2009
This is a little Thanksgiving pattern activity that DD worked on last week. It’s from mathwire.com.
I put a recipe for DD in her workbox thisweek. It was an easy recipe to make “acorncookies.” DD had other ideas, though, andwanted to make gingerbread men. We didthat instead (though I have no picture ofthe actual gingerbread men because theywere the first to get eaten!). Then I had alate night call from my sister and made theacorn cookies myself. It was lovely kickingback and having a tea and...
This week our reading related to Thanksgiving (manyof my read alouds were Thanksgiving books) and LDread a number of Thanksgiving stories and readers. We’ve been busy with all the kids’ outside activities: Kindergym, Tues mornings — mostly for ED but LD’sfriend stays home from school, so he gets to hang outwith his friend all morning. We go early because I helpset up each week, hauling all the mats and equipmentout...
Peggy Kaye’s books have been a WONDERFUL additionto our homeschooling curriculum. LD is not thrilled aboutwriting, but using ideas like this one from Peggy Kaye’sbooks have made a HUGE difference to the enjoymentand pleasure he gets out of writing. I got this ideafrom Games for Writing and LD is tickled by the sillysentences that he’s had to write like this one: A robot sang a song in the White House...
I just posted this in one of my yahoo groups. Just thought it might be of use to someone else (though I’ve mentioned many of these websites already!) She was asking for skip counting websites and games. This is what I wrote: Last week I came across a wonderful resource. It’s long list of interactive websites for playing math games online. It’s at http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st_math_new.htm I haven’t used the Internet very...
LD has decided he loves the last piece inhis piano book. He’s been working very hard tolearn it — it’s amazing what self-motivationdoes. He’s really improving a lot sincehe first started a couple months ago. Today we did crayon melts. The kids werevery excited both in shaving the crayons in thesharpeners (the one on the box worked well,but LD used a hand pencil sharpener he had).They just loved the results.
We pulled out the continent pin-map and the countingbeads this week. DD remembered the Continent songwith no trouble.
Last Thursday we went to the Desert Park.That’s our equivalent of a zoo except that ithas lizards, snakes, kangaroo, emu and anassortment of other desert-dwelling marsupials(mala, Western quoll, bilbies, wallabies, andso forth). It’s always enjoyable for the kids(and for me!)
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.
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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.
