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 for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 26, 2011
This was a unit I thought would mostly be fore ED, but all the kids jumped excitedly into it!. My kids know very little about the American deserts of the southwest, though they could tell you heaps about the Australian desert (they were born in the Outback and we moved back to the US about a year and a half ago). So we focused on features and animals of Texas,...
Engineering - STEM Activities / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 24, 2011 · Last modified January 4, 2015
Our last brain-related activity was to design a helmet that would protect our egg pilot in a fall. The shell, I told them, was his skull; the egg white and yolk was his brain. Then I left the kids to it! LD designed a balloon-encased egg protector. DD designed a construction paper protective cloak: Mom designed a cotton ball-play dough helmet: I took the photo before covering it...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 19, 2011 · Last modified December 31, 2014
We have been studying the brain in fits and spurts the last couple of weeks. For some reason, we’re only getting to it about twice a week. But here’s what we’ve done. We talked quite a bit about the functions of the brain (not the senses as we’ll do this later), but things like memory, thinking, sleep and thing like that. MEMORY: First we talked about the difference between long...
Sometimes DD and I just play games and don’t work in her textbooks. I thought I’d share what she’s doing for the next few days or so for addition. She’s working on sums of 11 and 12. I printed out gameboards and partner worksheets from The School Bell, Kathy Gursky’s website. Before we started playing the game, though we went over the T-bar sums (0+11, 1+10, 2+9, etc.) We used...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2011
This past weekend was DD’s birthday party. DD did the majority of the decorating herself! I thought she did a great job on these froggie cupcakes.
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2011 · Last modified March 17, 2016
The other day ED wanted to sit down and do another sewing craft. Here’s the little jack-o-lantern she made. She did much of it on her own this time.
We love these muffins so much that by the time I got around to taking a picture, there were only two muffins left! These are pretty easy to make and my kids love them. It’s the season for pumpkins, so it’s the perfect time to share this recipe. You need a very, very large mixing bowl. This recipe makes 24-30 muffins. 4 eggs 3 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 12, 2011
Our mornings have been really lovely this semester. I tried to change things up a bit and I’m really enjoying the flow of the day. Usually ED and I are the first ones up. Since the weather has cooled down and we still haven’t turned on the furnace, I have been lighting a fire in our wood stove in the homeschool room. ED and I snuggle up and read while...
Family Meeting / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 10, 2011
We started something new in our family this year. We decided the kids were old enough for a monthly family meeting. Here are some of the things we do in our family meeting: We gathered and went around the circle and said one nice thing about somebody else at the table. We brainstormed on something fun to do together as a family after the family meeting. We wrote down our...
These are wonderful! We make these at Christmas and Easter, but I made them a couple weekends ago after running my first half-marathon in many years. (I kept forgetting to post this, it’s been in my drafts for ages.) Ingredients: 1/4 cup water1/4 cup melted butter1/2 package instant vanilla pudding mix (1/4 cup)1 cup warm milk1 egg, room temperature1 tablespoon white sugar1/2 tsp salt4 cups flour (I used 3 cups...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 7, 2011
Life’s been rolling along, but it’s been hard to find time to post. Partly because odd jobs have taken up my spare time — painting a hallway, cutting wood for the wood stove in our homeschool room, creating a new garden for some more blueberry plants, mountains of laundry and trying to clean and catch up with the house. It’s left little time for the computer. One thing I haven’t...
Long a Words — Spelling Practice SentencesWe have gone over the long a words such as a (able, acorn) ai (sail, maid) a–e (cake, mate) ay (day) eigh (weigh, neighbor)ea (steak, break) ey (they) aigh (straight). This sheet uses these long a words in a sentence. They should be able to figure out the word by context, but if not you can tell them the word to write. Click herefor...
History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 3, 2011
Adjacent to the landing where we caught the ferry to Liberty Island we came upon the Empty Skies Memorial. This was beautiful site and an emotional place to visit. We walked silently down the corridor with the kids. When we came to the end I explained to DD why there were so many names on the walls we had just walked through. She reached out and buried her head...
History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 1, 2011 · Last modified January 11, 2015
Last weekend we took an extended trip to see some famous sites to go along with our studies of US symbols and landmarks. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in New Jersey and used them as a base to go into Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and to travel up to New York to take the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. And,...
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.
