Monthly Archive: December 2015

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Homeschool History: Our Year in Review and What’s Coming Up

What a successful year!  As the year draws to a close, I love taking a look at what we’ve accomplished not only in school, but in life in general.  I’m not one to make “resolutions” per se, but I do enjoy thinking about what’s to come and seeing just how to make that happen! This year was a *huge* one for my blog.  January 5, 2015 was my last official...

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Happy Holidays!

I love our breaks as much as the kids do!  It’s a time to relax, re-group, and get refreshed and reinvigorated for another semester!  Time-off is as important to our homeschool as going full-tilt with school! It’s time to kick back, read and relax a bit, enjoy the family and the holiday season! Wishing your family a wonderful holiday season! ~Liesl and the Kids  

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Animal Unit: Vertebrate-Invertebrate Animals Worksheet Packet (100+ Pages)

Animal Unit We have a 100+ page packet all about animals! The Animal Unit covers various topics such as body coverings (feathers, fur, scales, skin),  the different types of animals (vertebrates, invertebrates), animal characteristics, insects vs. spiders, domesticated vs. wild animals, animal tracks, animal homes and shelters, herbivores, carnivores & omnivores, and much more! In our animal unit, we spent quite a bit of time on animal classification. First, we...

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Christmas Math Review Sheets (Grade 2) – Free

Here are a few math review sheets I put into ED’s math workbox this week.  (I almost forgot to share it!)  So better late than never, right?!!  These pages have a little bit of everything–addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  She has just started on double-digit multiplication, but she likes having “fun” math sheets too. Hope someone else can use these! 🙂 ~Liesl  Christmas Math Worksheets   You might be interested...

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15 Chapter Books My 7 Year Old Loved

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about books here in our homeschool. I thought I would spend some time highlighting the books my 7-year old has read and loved this fall. This past summer I bought a huge selection of chapter books that were reasonably short (roughly 100 pages or less). Last year she read through 35 of the Magic Tree House books. (affiliate link).  Just like my son, she...

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Christmas Addition – Subtraction Worksheets (Minecraft, Pete the Cat, etc!)

Today I wanted to share some of the free Christmas-themed addition and subtraction materials I’ve made for the kids over the years. Here are some basic addition worksheets. These are for kids still working on their basic addition facts: Christmas Pets Addition Practice Worksheets Last year, my kids were especially wild about Minecraft.  ED asked for some Christmas Creeper practice pages… It seemed easy enough to make, so I made...

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Crusades Worksheets (Middle Ages Unit)

The past 3 or 4 weeks, we have been working on our Middle Ages unit again.  We had covered up through the 1200s or so last spring and we’ve been studying the 1300s — the Crusades, Black Plague and the Hundred Years War. We had a lot of fun watching Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives (affiliate link, but I suggest you look on youtube to see if it’s available).  The 8...

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Minecraft Christmas Creeper Multiplication, Division and Fraction Worksheets (Free)

Here are some Minecraft Christmas Creeper practice pages I made for the kids. They are free to download. There are four math worksheets. Two have multiplication and division problems. The other two pages have fraction problems. There’s one column of reducing the fractions and one column of equivalent fractions. We have math textbooks that the kids do as well, but they enjoy having their own “fun” math worksheets as well....

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Christmas Music for Beginners

It has been quite a while since I last talked about music in our homeschool.  Things are going really well for the kids.  Right now we’re using a number of fun Christmas music activities to help the girls learn the notes and symbols. We’ve been playing Susan Paradis’ Christmas Light Bingo to keep reviewing the various music symbols: Although ED learns to play pieces pretty quickly on the piano, she...

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Earth’s 4 Major Systems (Free): Atmosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere

As we start off our new science units, I wanted to be sure the kids remembered Earth’s 4 major systems (or ecospheres): atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere.  We spent several days just reviewing these four Earth Systems in a general way.  You know me, I also made the kids some notebook pages and review cards to go along with our discussion!  I thought it might be helpful for some of you...

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Place Value Math and Favorite Math Activities for Ages 4-6

I have a ton of math activities and free resources to share with you in this post! We started working on Place Value when my kids were about 4. We came across some free Montessori materials and used them for years and years. I thought I would spend a little time highlighting these activities again because I know they’ve gotten a lot of hits through the years.  These activities are...

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Giveaway of Molecules to the MAX! — IMAX Film Newly Release onto DVD (Now Closed)

Just as we were finishing up our Chemistry Unit on the periodic table, the team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute got in touch with me to see if I would be interested in reviewing and/or hosting a giveaway of their  Giant Screen animated film, Molecules to the MAX! This film has just been released on DVD and Blu-Ray. I talked with the kids (and we watched the trailer www.moleculestothemax.com) and decided...

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Challenging and Inspiring Students without the Overwhelm or Fear of Failure

We all want those things in our homeschool or classroom, right?! In this series, Thoughts on Teaching, I’ve been diving into some of the deeper issues we have as educators. How do we create an environment that helps students blossom and reach their full potential? Today I’m going to talk about the fear of failure and the struggle that can create for some students. In some ways, I notice that...

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Holiday Dishes to Share: Coconut Yummy Bars

This is another recipe our family has made for a long time. My Mom got it from a colleague at work years ago.  It was in our old tattered family recipe box as “Coconut Yummy Bars.” The kids love these and they are really quick to make.  Again, this is something a bring only if I know that it is acceptable to bring desserts with nuts in them. Melt 1...