Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2010 · Last modified February 21, 2016
The theme time table is working really well and only takes 10-15 minutes to cleanup and change over. It’s been great to bring in such a variety of books into our day again. And as I said in an earlier post, having things out on display work really well to ‘lure’ the girls (ages 2 and 4) in when they are interested. Obviously the theme of this table is ocean...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Montessori (general info) / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2010
After talking about the various layers of the rainforest and why animals would live in particular levels of the forest, the kids sorted the animal cards into the various layers. You can find lots of information online about the layers of the rainforest; I made my own cards and explanations. It’s available over in right sidebar downloads area if anyone’s interested.
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Montessori (general info) / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2010
I don’t think I ever talked about the kids’ sorting of the rainforest animals. We have two packs of 3-part cards — the Amazon and the African rainforest animals. Both sets of cards are from the Montessori Print Shop for less than $2US each. As always, we started with our continent song and the general pin map of the 7 continents (not shown in the photos here). Then we looked...
We did a country box exchange with a family who livesin Singapore. The kids were SO excited by all of thegoodies. We rushed to the map to locate Singapore,then tried playing the kids games, looked through thebrochures and postcards. We’ve done this with several families, but wewere “burned” by a family in Ireland who exchangedaddresses, but never sent anyone in our exchangegroup a reciprical package. Seems a shame and youwonder...
This week, we didn’t do a science experiment. Instead weread all about germs, what kind of germs there are(bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa), what is good and badabout germs, where they live and so forth. Then we all createdour own books (with lots of silly germ pictures!):LD, top leftme, top right (I enjoyed it as much as the kids!)ED bottom leftDD bottom right
LD was REALLY into this activity. He worked on it frombefore 10am til after 2pm and only stopped for lunch whenit was plopped in front of him. You can see he came up withsome great ideas. And the best thing? He actually said,“I like writing.” His book was 17 pages long. (Lots of pagesare included here for Grandma and Grandpa, Grams andGramps to admire!!)
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 2, 2010 · Last modified July 17, 2020
I needed to do something a bit different for my two and four-year olds, so I’ve decided to set up a theme collection each morning. It’ll help me rotate in some of the preschool games and toys we have and to bring a new selection of books out. And, while the workboxes work well, by having a display out on the craft table, ED (age 2) is much more drawn...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 1, 2010
It’s amazing how many books and things you findin various nooks and crannies around the house.We had quite a large selection of dinosaur books,puzzles, animals (mostly from my childhood!).I added in a puppet, board game and made amath worksheet for DD. (You can download itat the right if you’re interested.) The wonderful thing about this was that ED andDD spent a LOT of time here today doing thingsindependently (though I...
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 1, 2010
Last night, our dog woke us up. She’s normally quietat night, but she barked and whined around 3am. Something seemed amiss and though I couldn’t findanything wrong, I had trouble going back to sleep. Ifinally got up and snuggled up with a book for therest of the night. This morning, we figured out what bothered our dog!
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 1, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
It’s been raining a lot. This afternoon it was just a misty drizzle, though, so I decided to take the kids out for a little hike. This is just three blocks from our house, but leads out to expansive crown lands. There were hundreds of grasshoppers and LD and DD had a fabulous time tracking down little critters!
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.
