Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
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 May 3, 2016
Someone once asked me, “How do you plan for your school year?” Here are 10 steps you can take to figure out what next year’s homeschool will look like for your family. These are some of the questions I ask myself as I try to determine what we’ll cover and what skills the kids need to develop. Remember, your path as a homeschooling family will be completely different from anyone...
Freebies / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 1, 2016 · Last modified September 3, 2020
Today I have some free cloud worksheets for you. Why? I’m in the process of making a Road Trip Travel Log for the kids for a cross-country trip this summer. This is just one of the sections, but it made sense to share this as a separate pdf file as well so that those of you working on a weather unit can find these pages more easily if they are...
Critical Thinking Activities / Games for Thinking and Learning / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 28, 2016
With our yearly testing behind us, we are going to spend some time on another side of math — analogies, logical reasoning, and math puzzles. These help kids develop logical thinking, analytical abilities, and mathematical reasoning. I thought I’d share some of the resources we use in our homeschool. My kids were SO, SO excited to get back to these activities!! With life as busy as it has been, I can’t...
Homeschool Den / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 26, 2016 · Last modified May 1, 2023
I created this Ocean Unit because I could not find any curriculum that tackled all the topics I wanted to cover. In our ocean studies we explored Marine Habitats Coral Reefs Tide Pools Water Form Words (bay, estuary, lagoon, fjord, etc.) Features of the Ocean Floor (trench, seamount, guyot, etc.) Ocean Navigation (early navigation with astrolabes & the constellations, modern SONAR) Salinity Tides Ocean Currents (Surface & Deep Sea Currents)...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 26, 2016
This week our family is doing Standardized Testing to fulfill the requirements of our state (to show “proof of progress.”) For our family, doing testing is easier than creating a portfolio of work or meeting with a certified teacher. I know that I would spend endless hours pulling together a portfolio… and meeting with a teacher to discuss the kids’ work doesn’t appeal to me again because I know I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 21, 2016
One topic that I don’t hear discussed much in my homeschool circles (or online) is taking time for review. My guess is that it’s not quite as exciting to talk about going backwards (so to speak) as finding new topics and new curriculum. But I find it important to review some of the topics and units we’ve covered in the past. We do that on a daily/weekly basis (with cards...
Earth Day is April 22nd! The celebration of Earth Day began over 40 years ago. It is a day to celebrate our planet and think about how we can help our environment. Did you know that the Environmental Protection Agency was established not long after that first Earth Day in 1970? The Clean Air Act also passed that same year. Now Earth Day is celebrated in more than 175 countries...
Ages 2-6: Clocks - Telling Time / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 18, 2016 · Last modified December 7, 2020
My kids learned to skip count by 5s roughly at the same time they started working on clocks and telling time in 5 minute intervals. Today I have a free printable that combines both of these. There are two pages that have the kids practice skip-counting by fives and fill out a skip counting maze counting from 5 to 55. Kids count by 5s along the sides and try to...
Homeschool Den / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 14, 2016 · Last modified September 15, 2020
In this part of our unit we talked about the ocean zones and spent quite a bit of time talking about the creatures that live in these different zones. Some organisms spend the day in the darker zones and then travel up into the upper zone at night to feed. We also talked about bioluminescence in quite a bit of detail. We found it fascinating that because there are so...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 14, 2016 · Last modified September 19, 2023
This is a free printable map of the European countries and their flags. We are talking about the countries of Europe at the moment and I thought the flags would be a fun way for the kids to review what they’ve learned so far. I’ve included a couple of different blank maps of Europe. You can print the maps in either portrait or landscape. Both are available in this PDF....
Today I want to share some of the activities we did as they learned the basic prepositions. In German, prepositions can be grouped into different categories based on the definite articles that are used with them. We learned these in a fun, active way. I’ll share our resources with you today! 🙂 The kids have made a lot of progress this year in German. We spent a long time on...
Homeschool Den / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2016 · Last modified September 15, 2020
I have two really neat hands-on activities to highlight as we learned about the features of the ocean floor. Over the past few weeks, we learned about the basic features of the ocean floor: the continents shelf, continental slope, seamounts (and islands), guyots, and trenches. The pages below are in our ocean packet. We also learned a *ton* from the Blue Planet (affiliate link – available on DVD and Amazon...
Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 7, 2016 · Last modified April 8, 2016
This time of year, we spend quite a bit of time polishing skills and reviewing material. ED still needs more practice working on to/two/too, there/they’re/their, and some other homophones. Plus, I thought she could also use some practice on plurals and adding endings. She has that down most of the time, but not always. So, if anyone can use these, they are FREE to download! The answer keys are also...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Simple Machines Unit / Videos
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 5, 2016 · Last modified September 15, 2020
Enjoy this one minute video about our Simple Machines Unit when we studied the lever, inclined plane, wedge, screw, pulley, and wheel & axle. I showed many of the hands-on activities we did. This unit is great for early elementary kids. 🙂 Below you’ll find links to everything included in the video: links to the hands-on activities and for the Simple Machines Packet. Simple Machines Packet (About 30 pages) –...
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.
