Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Freebies / Holiday: Thanksgiving / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2017 · Last modified December 6, 2022
Today I thought I would share some of the free fall and Thanksgiving printables we have tucked away here on the blog. In this post you’ll find tons of resources for kids from ages 3 to 13! Over the years I’ve made various math worksheets, games and activities, language arts materials, a Spanish fall-themed freebie, and other things that might be useful. Click on the post links below if you...
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 11, 2017
Last week, I managed to get our Science Year in Review post done. I had hoped to get the history post done too, but life got away from me! It’s ready for my this week, though! So, here’s our HISTORY year in review! There are quite a number of freebies in addition to the more in-depth packets I made this year. 🙂 This year my kids were in Grades 8,...
When we are doing history units, I’ve always tried to bring in a rich selection of literature. Historical fiction is a powerful way to make readers feel more connected to that period. A book like Johnny Tremain (affiliate link) has a rich cast of memorable characters that helps the period, in this case the American Revolutionary period, come to life. We have brought in a wide selection of books for...
Ancient World History / History: China Unit / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 9, 2017 · Last modified September 5, 2022
Free China Geography and Landmark Packet As many of you know, last semester we read the Story of the World, vol. 1 (affiliate link). Initially, I was just reading it with my youngest, but my older two wound up listening in too. 🙂 When we came to the first chapters on Ancient China, I wanted to go over some basic facts about China including the geography, government and some of...
History: Ancient Egypt / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 6, 2017 · Last modified September 29, 2023
We love hands-on projects and ED had fun at the end of last semester learning about Ancient Egypt. I thought I would share the cool project she made (mostly on her own!). My youngest and I read through the Story of the World, vol. 1 (affiliate link) about the ancient world. ED loved the way this book is written. (She is 8.) At the time, my older two were doing...
Homeschool Den / How to Start Homeschooling / Kindergarten / Science / Science Experiments / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 4, 2016 · Last modified September 29, 2016
A reader sent me an email asking about homeschool science for her daughter who is in kindergarten this year. She said she was feeling overwhelmed about science and wondered where/how to start. She said she hadn’t done any science yet and wondered if the States of Matter unit was a good place to start. I wrote her back and shared the free printable resource/checklist I made last year about some...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 29, 2016 · Last modified March 1, 2024
Homeschool History Units I wanted to make a page that will make it easier to see what history resources we have available on our blog. These are some of the history units we have covered so far in our homeschool and the posts I’ve written related to each unit. As many of you know, we *love* hands-on activities and have done lots of creative activities along the way. 🙂 You...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2017
So, what does our family do for our homeschool language arts curriculum? I’ll share what we’ve been using for 1st through 6th grades. Over the past week, I’ve gotten three separate emails and FB messages asking about what we use for language arts — spelling, grammar and literature. It must be that time of year again when we start thinking about our plans for next year. 😉 I’ll start with...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 22, 2015 · Last modified June 30, 2022
Homeschooling in Elementary, Middle School and High School One of the questions I am asked the most is “Where do I start?” “Do you have any tips for me, my child is in x-Grade?” These free guides (Creating a Homeschool Curriculum) might provide a starting point for those of you just starting your homeschool journey and may give you an idea or two if you’ve been at this homeschool thing...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 17, 2015 · Last modified August 31, 2020
Preschool at Home: Engaging Activities for Little Learners ages 3-6 or so When my kids were little, we were very active. We were much more likely to be found jumping and feeling, searching and exploring than sitting quietly doing worksheets. I tried to bring in a wide variety of activities to keep the looking forward to “doing school!” Theme Tables: We often did themed weeks… which helped me rotate in...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2014 · Last modified January 1, 2015
A week or so ago, a reader asked me if I had any other tips about homeschool planning. She had read the posts I had put together on short term and long term goals and planning, but wondered if I had any other thoughts. She wondered how I make sure we keep tabs on the resources and books and planning things out in general. I spent a lot of the...
History: Geography Activities / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 12, 2014 · Last modified September 22, 2023
There are so many fun things you can do with your kids to help them gain an understanding of the geography of our amazing world! Here are some of the geography activities we use in our homeschool. Over the years we have made maps… with sand, dirt and grass seed like our Nile River Valley Out of clay, like our Ancient Greece (and Mediterranean Sea) map (Ancient Greece Geography Project, Ancient Greece...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 11, 2014 · Last modified February 22, 2015
When we first started homeschooling, I read The Well Trained Mind. The thought of covering history in four year cycles sounded like a wonderful way to approach history. After all, the kids would build on their former knowledge… learning about the ancient world several times, but going into more depth each time round. History was broken into these four year cycles: Ancients Middle Ages and Early Renaissance Late Renaissance/Early Modern...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 8, 2014 · Last modified March 18, 2018
There are so many fun things you can do with your preschooler (or elementary kids) to help them gain an understanding of the geography of our amazing world! You can make all kinds of maps to enhance your preschooler’s knowledge of the world. Over the years we have made maps… with sand, dirt and grass seed like our Nile River Valley Out of clay, like our Ancient Greece (and Mediterranean...
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.
