Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 26, 2014 · Last modified August 10, 2019
The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. –Mark Twain History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. –Winston Churchill By now you’ve probably heard about the Colorado protests and walk outs by school students and their teachers this week. (See this Denver Post Article or this New York Times article). I’ve been quite caught up with the debates and protests out in...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2014 · Last modified April 10, 2015
For so many of us who grew up attending public schools and being educated among same-age peers, there are real questions about the socialization of homeschooled kids. We remember sitting in classrooms packed with other children and truly wonder how homeschoolers will fill in that “void” of being with other children so many hours of the day. As a homeschooling family, though, I was quick to realize that socialization is...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2014 · Last modified March 21, 2015
There was a really interesting article over at Edutopia last month about the worry some educators have about how technology and testing are affecting the amount of reading kids are doing. Educators have noticed that some kids are struggling to read deeply and comprehend longer texts. Are kids reading books deeply and for pleasure? Since the invention of the printing press, there has been a plethora of reading materials available. Granted, not...
Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 1, 2014 · Last modified April 13, 2016
It’s always time to fill the house with love, right? With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s timely to think about what this means. Sometimes love isn’t just the feelings you have, it’s the actions you take. I wrote this post last year as I struggled with major (ear) problems that led to 6 ear surgeries in 8 months… You can read more at this post, I’m going deaf today. (I am...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 27, 2013 · Last modified July 7, 2020
Yesterday, I mentioned that we’ve added a new portion to our math day. For much of the fall, the kids were simply doing math problems from their math book and they were complaining that math was B*O*R*I*N*G. What? Oh NO!! It was true, though, with everything else going on they were doing straight-forward stuff; you know fraction problems like this… or long division… or a good meaty problem like 5789...
Homeschool Den / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 20, 2013
A couple of days ago, NPR ran a story on All Things Considered about how homeschool students in some states are fighting to play on public school teams. It is an issue fraught with emotion and politics. The laws vary state to state. Policies are changing from year to year. In fact just in the past two or three years, there has been a lot of legislation being considered by...
Health / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read / sports
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2012
You’ve bought the supplies, paid the dues, your child starts an activity… only to announce not long after that he doesn’t want to participate. The shoes are too tight, the coach is too mean, the drills are ‘boring,’ it’s just “not fun.” Yes, extracurricular activities can be enriching and rewarding, but sometimes your child wants to quit not long after he’s begun. What’s a parent to do? We’ve handled this...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Fitness / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read / Outdoor Fun / Running
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 18, 2012
I have had the privilege of reviewing a new board game called Flip2BFit. This is so much more than a board game — it’s a full fitness workout! The kids and I had so much fun with this game. On the first day we tried it out, they liked it so much that they made Dad play it when he got home from work. The kids really enjoyed all the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 9, 2012
If you’ve been over to my facebook page in the past day or so, you’ll see we’ve had a rough time of it. Last week DD was under the weather and slept for a couple of days. This weekend LD came down with a virus and spent many hours hunched over a bowl. Unfortunately for LD, he tends to get illness-induced asthma. So the nasty virus also progressed into a...
I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been seriously reassessing how our homeschool runs. I’m pretty excited about some of the changes I’d like to make– creating more structure yet giving them more independence, or another way of putting that… creating academic work time yet giving them freedom within that, working with them on goal-setting, creating the environment that gives them that autonomy.I read the book The Montessori Controversy...
This year (2009-2010) our main units included natural disasters,China, biomes/animal habitats, ancient Greece (we did ancientEgypt just before this school year officially started and before Istarted this blog), flowers and apples (the last two were gearedmore towards my preschooler). We also enjoyed lots of scienceexperiments (almost weekly) and the younger kids really enjoyedthe theme time tables. We did a lot with geography throughout the year and reallyenjoyed doing country/continent swaps...
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.
