Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
I ran and finished a half-marathon this morning. It was a trail run with intense hills, but I did it and finished strong. Hooray! It’s been nearly 10 years since I ran my last race, so I feel pretty proud of myself this afternoon (if not a bit tired and sore!).
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 9, 2011
One of the Montessori materials we do not have is a sandpaper globe or a globe that shows just the 7 continents in their “proper” Montessori colors. That’s partly because we have a cute globe already (one that lights up and has various world animals on it). But for some reason we got a hankering to make our own globes. What better way to learn where the oceans are located...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 7, 2011
We still start out our week with a scavenger hunt. This is a HUGE hit with all three of the kids. This week it had to be down in the basement since it was raining outside. As you can see, each child has his/her own set of cards to hunt down (letters for ED, addition for DD and multiplication for LD). As they find each card I have them run...
Freebies / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 6, 2011
I made this simple math game for DD. This goes along with some of the math skills she’s learning with her new math curriculum. It’s a game of practicing doubling the numbers 4 through 9 (4+4, 5+5, etc.). Each player takes a turn rolling the die. He/She doubles the number on the die and then places a token or marker on that number on the gameboard. If another player has...
I just found out that one of my dearest friends, Debbie, died. My heart is so sad, I’m having a tough time quelling the tears. Debbie was one of the most beautiful people you’d ever meet — someone who was an inspiration in the way she lived her life. She had a deep faith that kept her going through the loss of her husband and raising her three young children...
We still love going hiking along the trail that heads off into the woods behind our house.
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 1, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
We made the starfish, sand dollars, crabs and coral out of cornstarch clay. 1 cup cornstarch 1 cup baking soda 1/2 tablespoon salt 1 cup water Mix and cook on low to medium in a pot until it congeals together. We had fun putting this project together. I’ll share the various steps below: We spent one day painting our boxes. The girls then added glue and sand along the bottom....
Freebies / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2011 · Last modified November 19, 2020
Sorry about the endless postings about our ocean unit… just a couple more and that’s that! Blogs are funny because they sure don’t show the whole picture. From looking at our blog our days are consumed by oceans!! Heh heh! Well, that’s not at all accurate. I read and read, planned and planned and finally the older kids started back to school last week. As you’ve seen, ED has been...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 29, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
Even though it was quite a drive for us, I decided a trip to the aquarium was in order with all our studies of ocean animals. We went last week. We sure had a terrific day! We all LOVED the jellyfish displays! We were so lucky to see the octopus moving all around! Everyone loved the sharks and we were lucky to see the sharks, sting...
LD turned 8 almost two weeks ago.We had a family celebration on his big day since my brother-in-law and nephew were here on LD’s birthday. Then we had a small party for friends last weekend. He likes Harry Potter and is reading through those books — thus the Hogwart’s Castle cake (or my attempt!!)
Freebies / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 25, 2011 · Last modified April 2, 2021
I made this activity for my older kids (5 and 8). You can download and print these sheets here: Ocean Animals and Their Groups You can download and print these sheets here. There are two pages. You might want to make a colored circle on the back of each of the three related cards. Use a different color for each animal. That way, the kids can check their own work as needed. ...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
We haven’t done that much sewing here at the Homeschool Den, so when I saw these cute projects over at future girl‘s blog I thought they’d be perfect. The kids each chose their own project. I thought they turned out pretty cute! DD made the octopus. LD made the jellyfish. ED made the fish. DD and LD did the sewing completely on their own, although I threaded the embroidery thread...
The east coast just had an earthquake. The news says it was 5.8 on the richtor scale — and what that meant for us was lots and lots of shaking and rattling. A few things fell of our shelves in the pantry, but we don’t see any other damage at this point. We read that the Capitol, Pentagon and White House are being evacuated. It sure scared us!
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 23, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
Why do fish swim in schools? We cut up little pieces of tin foil and paper to be our fish. First we dropped in one. It was easy to spot. Then we dropped in a whole lot of fish and tried to follow just one with our eyes. It was much harder to follow one in the midst of many others. We talked about how there was safety in numbers....
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.
