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History: American West Unit / Recipes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2012 · Last modified March 21, 2018
Lewis and Clark Lapbooks: I saw a wonderful set of lapbook materials on Lewis and Clark and on the American West over at Dynamic 2 Moms. We used some of their materials to make notebook pages for the kids’ history notebooks. Also the US mint website had a number of really great printables about the journey of Lewis and Clark because of the series of nickles that were released in...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / History: Geography Activities / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 10, 2012
Our next topic was the Louisiana Purchase. Prior to 1803, the United States territory went only as far as the Mississippi River. Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, needed money for his wars in Europe and sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for $15 million (3 cents an acre!). This nearly doubled the size of the United States. We’ve been using a map that shows the Louisiana Purchase and...
History: American History / History: American West Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 30, 2012
As I mentioned last week, this semester we are studying the American West. We picked up where we left off last semester when we talked about Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. (To the left is Davy Crockett’s birthplace cabin in Tennessee which we visited last Thanksgiving.) We talked about the Ohio Valley settlement and how as settlers made their way west they used the rivers for transportation. We learned a...
Freebies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 16, 2022 · Last modified March 1, 2024
Who are these Famous Americans? Do your kids know who Benjamin Banneker, Dred Scott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Clara Barton or Scott Joplin were? (Mine weren’t sure!) You might want to grab this FREE Famous Americans Packet to help your kids learn more! This packet provides several options for learning about these 20+ Americans. They can research and write down what they learned, they can do some fill-in-the-blank worksheets or they...
History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2020 · Last modified January 16, 2024
Our American Revolution Unit is more than 60+ pages and includes worksheets and notebook pages, a booklet, review cards and new chronology cards. We started the school year with a unit on the Age of Exploration (see more about this unit here) followed by a study of colonial America (see our 13 Colonies Packet here). Then we moved on the the American Revolution! We actually started with a discussion of...
History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 8, 2019 · Last modified January 4, 2020
Today I wanted to highlight a number of American History Resources we have used in our homeschool. In the spring, we tend to do quite a bit of review. One really good overview of all of American History is a video called America, The Story of Us. The episodes are dramatized and really keep the attention of my kids. This is not an in-depth series, just a broad overview, but...
History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 15, 2017 · Last modified September 19, 2023
This time of year, many people study Native Americans and/or the history of the colonies. We have a lot of free resources on the blog that I thought I would highlight again. I also thought I would include some of the books and resources we used along the way. We’ve covered the history and culture of different Native American tribes in different years, so you’ll find that the first resources...
When we are doing history units, I’ve always tried to bring in a rich selection of literature. Historical fiction is a powerful way to make readers feel more connected to that period. A book like Johnny Tremain (affiliate link) has a rich cast of memorable characters that helps the period, in this case the American Revolutionary period, come to life. We have brought in a wide selection of books for...
History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Native American Indians Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 12, 2015 · Last modified May 5, 2023
Columbus Day was set aside as the second Monday in October as a federal holiday in 1934. Slowly celebrations of Native American culture has been gaining recognition as well. For example, South Dakota renamed Columbus Day to Native American Day in 1990. This Columbus Day, more cities are recognizing Native Americans (see this CBS article). According to CBS News, nine cities will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. Those cities include ...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2015 · Last modified September 19, 2023
American Revolution Unit: Worksheets, Review Cards, Lapbook Page, Books, Resources, and More! Our most recent history unit was on the causes and events leading up to the American Revolution. We went into quite a bit of depth on the French and Indian War and how the colonies then became the focus of England’s attention in the post-(French and Indian)-War period as Parliament struggled to cover their expenses and tackle their...
Last week, I talked a lot about our civics and government unit. Today, I thought I would briefly mention the American History books the kids have been reading this year. As many of you know, we started off the year with a unit on Native Americans (We shared a number of notebook pages that are free to download for that unit): Native Americans of the Northeast (Part I: Algonquins) Native...
History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 7, 2014 · Last modified May 16, 2016
I got a little behind posting because it took so long to share our experiences visiting with Pocahontas’s Great-Great-Great (12th Great) Granddaughter. In the meantime, we’ve done another entire portion of our Native American unit. We learned about the Seminole Indians, their culture and removal (for many of them) from Florida. And, we also learned about the culture and tragic history of the Cherokee people. We started the unit with a...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 4, 2014 · Last modified July 9, 2017
With all of my health problems last year, we weren’t able to get away much at all. At the last minute, we decided to throw our camping gear in the car and head out for some adventures! We had a wonderful mix of camping, nature, education and fun. We unplugged for the week… and headed off!! Our first destination was West Virginia. You may have heard of John Brown, who...
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:...
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.
