Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2018 · Last modified November 2, 2022
I have just added an entirely new section to the World Animals Packet on Animals of the African Savanna. This includes worksheets and other activities. This section covers about 25 different African animals. For younger kids there are tracing pages and self-correcting matching cards. There is also a notebook page about the African savanna and blank notebook pages for all of the animals. There is also a country map of...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 15, 2015 · Last modified February 17, 2016
About the same time we studied the world biomes years ago, my son was *really* into reptiles. I made some cards for him back then and made them into pin-map pieces that he placed on our world map. There were reptiles from the rainforest, desert and tropical savanna. I also used the cards as Montessori 3-Part cards (where he matched the name with the photo). You’ll find those larger cards below....
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 6, 2013 · Last modified April 27, 2016
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom Last night I read about the passing of Nelson Mandela,...
History: Africa Unit / History: Geography Activities / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
We are winding down our school year and will be bringing our Africa unit to a close in the next week or so. The past couple of weeks we’ve been reading about East Africa. We’ve read about a number of countries and then learned a bit about the Maasai people. The Maasai are semi-nomadic people who live in Kenya and northern Tanzania. They have quite distinctive customs and dress and live...
History: Africa Unit / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 17, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
It has been quite a while since I talked about our African Unit. I think the last time I wrote, I shared the history pages I made about the Ghana and Mali Empires. We had also learned about some famous Africans such as Sundiata and Mansa Musa. The past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning more about contemporary Africa. We’ve been doing a lot of reading from Journey into Africa:...
Freebies / History: Africa Unit / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 28, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We have spent two weeks learning about the history of West Africa. The kids did a lot of different West African art projects and while they worked on those, I would read aloud to them. After the camel was introduced in the 7th century or so, West Africa began trading more and more with North Africa. West African gold, salt and slaves moved north, while goods, ideas and Islam came down...
History: Africa Unit / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 27, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Once again, we brought out our pin maps as we learned about the countries of West Africa. We used the flags of Africa from Montessori Materials to create country pins for our pin map (African Flags-page 1; African Flags-page 2). You can download and print out the map from the African Learning Pack I made back in September. I used a plain cork board underneath the map. As we were talking about the trade between...
Arts and Crafts / History: Africa Unit / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 22, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
This year we have been studying world cultures focusing primarily on Africa. We started out with some basic facts about Africa and then moving on to Egypt including a study of Ancient Egypt. From there we studied the Islam and its history. We learned about the spread of Islam and moved on to a study the countries of northern Africa. We looked at some of the beautiful examples of Moroccan...
History: Africa Unit / Recipes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 26, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2016
As you probably know, the kids are studying world cultures this semester and the focus has been on Africa. Last week, the kids and I made several African and Middle Eastern dishes for dinner. We used the Kids Multicultural Cookbook and Cooking up World History for ideas. We made korma chicken (we added broccoli) with rice: The next night we made almond soup and Moroccan couscous. The almond soup was very, very...
Freebies / History: Africa Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 7, 2012 · Last modified February 17, 2016
As I’ve mentioned before, we are studying World Cultures this year and are starting with Africa. Last week we started with some basic facts and the geography of Africa. We’re using a really terrific basic textbook on Africa that has lots of pictures and is wonderful for the ages of my kids. The first few days we worked through this Africa Learning Packet I created that was loosely related to the...
Here are some fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer with everything from making pony-bead lizards and bead bowls to marbleized paper! Have a great summer! ~Liesl A Huge List of Summer Activity Ideas! Nature Scavenger Hunt: Send your kids outside to complete this scavenger hunt! This printable is free! 🙂We also have a photo hunt: Have them take photos of the things on the...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2023
We have hundreds of resources on our blog. Many of them are free! Hi! Again, I’m so happy you joined our newsletter! I’ve been blogging and writing about our homeschool life for many years now! I ♥love♥ what I do! It has allowed me to “meet” homeschoolers (just like you!!) from all around the world! I’ve become friends and gotten to know educators from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New...
Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Science: Dinosaurs Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 24, 2022 · Last modified December 11, 2022
Newly Updated 100+ page Dinosaur Packet! Our Dinosaur Unit is a multi-age packet for 3-8 year olds. It is now well over 100 pages and include a wide variety of activities including games, worksheets, notebook pages (with tracing or fill-in-the-blanks), foldables and other activities for 3-8 year olds. I have added in over 40 new pages of notebook-style pages and worksheets with basic information about the Mesozoic Era, dinosaur information...
History: Age of Exploration / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 26, 2022
Age of Exploration Packet Update! We are just finishing our unit on the Age of Exploration and I wanted to let you know that I have added a lot of new materials to this packet including new notebook pages, map worksheets and a new lapbook/interactive notebook activity! This time as we started the Age of Exploration Unit, we went over some background about world trade at the time. We talked...
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.
