Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Each week, I’ve been trying to share some of the packets I’ve made for the kids in the past couple of years. Here are some pages I made for our Rocks and Minerals Unit that you might find of use. Rocks and Minerals Post: We wrapped our chemistry unit and spent a few weeks on vertebrates and invertebrates. It was time to tackle a new unit on rocks and minerals. I’m using a...
History: China Unit / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 1, 2014 · Last modified February 17, 2016
Have you heard of these sayings? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. Respect yourself and others will respect you. Judge others by what you know of yourself. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. It does not matter how slowly you go...
Freebies / Must Read / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 16, 2014 · Last modified September 3, 2020
What is meteorology? What tools do scientists use to study the weather? These are some of the basic questions we covered as we started off our weather unit! Below are the pages we went over on our first day… it covers a few basics and some background about the history of meteorology. I also rounded up some interesting weather facts and we read through those as well. Then we’ll be jumping...
U.S. students lag far behind in their foreign language capabilities compared to students in much of the world. The U.S. has a lot to learn from these countries. There are so many reasons to learn a foreign language. Learning a foreign language helps increase understanding of other cultures and introduces students to new ideas, customs, habits, and values. Put another way, learning a foreign language increases global understanding. It fosters respect...
Yesterday, I mentioned a couple of science books that I bought out to see if they’d be a good fit for our homeschool. I purchased the Physical Science Daybook first. I thumbed through the articles and read some with the kids. I was really impressed by them. They have articles on various topics that are truly interesting and engaging. Yesterday, I shared about the Frog Antifreeze — frogs who freeze...
History: Africa Unit / History: American History / History: Slavery and the Civil War / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 30, 2013 · Last modified January 31, 2019
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in America As many of you know, we have been studying Africa this year in our homeschool. As we finished up our studies of West Africa, we spent about a week learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and about slavery in general. My kids had not yet studied this in history. We read a number of books… most of them had an incredible impact on...
Freebies / History: Africa Unit / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 28, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We have spent two weeks learning about the history of West Africa. The kids did a lot of different West African art projects and while they worked on those, I would read aloud to them. After the camel was introduced in the 7th century or so, West Africa began trading more and more with North Africa. West African gold, salt and slaves moved north, while goods, ideas and Islam came down...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 10, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Any child can participate in the world’s largest education event! Signup is now open for entry into the World Education Games. It is free to participate and last year there were 3.5 million players from 197 countries around the world!! This is an online global challenge to get kids excited about learning. The competition is split into three days: World Literacy Day – 5 March 2013 World Maths Day –...
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...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2023
Hi! How do you know what to teach? You and the kids get to decide! This is the final email in this series. A few days ago, I talked about planning in a general way. I shared our free curriculum resource guides as well as the free printable Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School and a similar Similarly, this history checklist might help you choose the time...
History: China Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 5, 2022 · Last modified January 1, 2024
100+ page Ancient China Packet Are your kids studying dynasties of Ancient China? This 100+page Ancient China Unit covers nearly 3,000 years of ancient Chinese History from the early cultures of the Neolithic period to the end of the Song Dynasty. This packet includes notebook pages, timeline cards, worksheets, geography materials and more! The link to purchase this is down below. Look for the red, Add to Cart button. Early...
Australia - Geography and Animals / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2022 · Last modified October 16, 2022
New! 75-page Australia Unit Do your kids know the states and territories of Australia? Perhaps your kids can identify a kangaroo or koala, but can they identify a numbat, bandicoot or quokka? Do they know that some mammals lay eggs? Do they know the terms marsupial or monotreme? This new Australia Unit will help kids become familiar about some basics about Australia. This 75-page Australia Packet includes worksheets, notebook pages...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 8, 2021 · Last modified December 30, 2022
How to Pay with a Credit Card You do not need a PayPal account to purchase our packets. Here are instructions for how to use a credit card without creating a PayPal account. 1. You will select the blue Checkout button. 2. Select the grey button that says Checkout as Guest. This Grey Button might say “Pay with a debit or credit card or PayPal credit.” I’ve seen both options...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 6, 2020 · Last modified September 5, 2022
Frequently Asked Questions About Me: I’m Liesl and I have been an educator my entire career. Before I had kids, I taught high school (history and German) and college history. Since having kids, I started making and sharing curriculum packets. I love trying to make units engaging and hands on, yet in depth! It’s my passion! We have homeschooled right from the start. You can read more about our homeschool...
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.
