Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2014 · Last modified July 11, 2020
Please click through to this post (which has working links to the topics mentioned below): How to Start Homeschooling and visit this newer post as well: How Do I Start to Homeschool?! Help! These posts all exist, but we’ve moved from Parents.com (we were under the Parents umbrella for 3 years)… and I don’t have the links up and running! 🙂 Hope to get them together sometime soon! You can...
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...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 12, 2014 · Last modified September 6, 2018
Layers of the Atmosphere (Now Updated!) Worksheets, Notebook Pages and Hands-On Activities! Our Layers of the Atmosphere Packet introduced the kids to some of the basics about Earth’s atmosphere. We started with a review of Earth’s systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere and then spent quite a bit of time talking about the different layers of the atmosphere (the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere). Our Layers of the...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2014 · Last modified October 29, 2020
This post has links to more than 15 free Fall Activity Packs! Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some fall-themed activities from fall leaves and apples to scarecrows and pumpkins! There’s a huge selection of free packets to choose from… First here are some of our free Fall-Themed Packets: Free Preschool Printable – Words That Start with F Thanksgiving Preschool Printables (free) FREE CVC Words -at...
Freebies / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 24, 2014 · Last modified July 20, 2018
Last year we did a unit on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you today. Our main activity for this portion of...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 8, 2014 · Last modified September 9, 2023
Last week ED I printed out the daily calendar page I made for her last fall. She filled one out each morning as she needs some review on some of the spellings on the days of the week and we needed to review how to read a thermometer. I printed it out on the back of her daily checklist (You can grab our free homeschool planner with these daily checklists...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 22, 2014 · Last modified December 29, 2018
After spending time talking about all the homeschool curriculum choices, I really wanted to talk about what excites me most about teaching and homeschooling… the possibilities!! It really doesn’t matter what curriculum you use… anything can be used as your spine… but (for me) education is going beyond the books. It’s all about the passion, the excitement, the hard work and intensity that comes with learning. When you have those...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
In writing my series for new homeschoolers about choosing a science curriculum, I came upon this post from last year. Since many people are planning or just starting the new year, I thought it was the perfect time to share this again. We have always done a lot of hands-on science. In the early years, I just want the kids to think science is cool!! We’ve done a lot of science...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 13, 2014 · Last modified December 12, 2016
We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start. Real Science 4 Kids NOEO Science R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum Elementary...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 9, 2014 · Last modified June 18, 2020
The end of the school year is coming up quickly. I usually take some time to reflect how the year went for our family. We’ll talk about some of the things we covered this year… everything from really diving into the Writing Workshop for the first time to our huge units on India, Gandhi, the Civil Rights Movement and China… plus our science units on Simple Machines, Weather, Water… our adventures...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 28, 2014 · Last modified February 6, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, we started on a new unit. One that focuses on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2014 · Last modified October 5, 2017
Today I’m going to share some free weather worksheets I made for the kids. This is for our study of the weather: the uneven heating of the Earth and how that affects our weather, fronts, and more! Yesterday, I shared some of the science experiments we did about air. We learned that air has weight, hot air rises and more. We are using a science textbook as the spine of...
Freebies / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 12, 2014 · Last modified September 3, 2020
Last week we had a lot of fun with our Weather Unit. The kids always love when we do science experiments and this part of our unit had a ton of demonstrations. Air has weight: This first activity is pretty self explanatory. We made sure that two balloons balanced. Then we blew up one balloon. It was clear immediately that the blown-up balloon was heavier. Clear or Cloudy Day: The...
Freebies / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 28, 2014 · Last modified July 27, 2021
I thought you might be interested in some of my most popular science posts… The links will take you right to that post. We did a lot of hands-on science activities with these units. Those posts will link to some of our science activities. We will be moving to homeschoolden.com and all our printables will be moving there. Number 5 The Three Types of Rocks– Our Activities and a Free...
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.
