Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Today we used wool to make fairies. We were going to use a fairy kit, but somehow wound up with skeins of fairy wool instead, so we had to make due with a bead and some ingenuity! But the girls love the end product and that’s all that matters. Here we tied the arms in a knot. We also tied a bit of wool around the end of the arms...
I heard an interview on NPR this past week about a live camera feed in Iowa on an eagle’s nest. As the gentleman was speaking he panned in and out on the eaglets. As of few days ago two of the eggs had hatched (one April 2nd and one April 3rd) and one more had yet to hatch: http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles **Update — the third egg hatched last night. You can see...
This has been a very hard year for us. We’ve been here in the house just 8 months and we’ve had upper-respiratory infections, the flu, pneumonia, strep — twice, ear infections, weird rashes (all of this hitting most everyone in the family)… and this past week we’ve had gastro (my guess is rota-virus). It started with ED early last week. Then we went out of town to visit Grandma and...
We’ve done a lot with geography of Europe this semester. That’s in part because three of our unit studies have focused on Europe — our world music class, the Middle Ages unit and our fairy tale unit. I ordered this game back in February, but with the flu and pneumonia descending upon us we never got to it. We’ve had a blast with it the past week or so. Here’s...
I got this cute word sort mat from Finally in First. Thank you, Jenn! There are other cards that address this ou/ow spelling/pronunciation pattern here and here. Worksheets (like fill in the blank, etc.) that use the oi/ow diphthongs — here. Online spelling game with ou/ow.
These are the two fairy tale collections we’ve been reading from. I highly recommend the one on the left, Treasury of Classic Children’s Stories. (affiliate link) (Update in 2015: All three of my kids loved, loved, loved the fairy tales in Classic Children’s Stories. At first I read them aloud, later they read them to themselves. In fact, ED now reads the stories to herself and the book is on our kitchen...
Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 26, 2011 · Last modified March 22, 2016
We have been outside working in the gardens almost every afternoon (for 2-3 hours). This is such a huge part of our life right now, I just had to write a bit about that again. I thought the girls looked particularly cute yesterday. Yes, I let my girls garden in velvet dresses!! They are looking intently for grubs because I mentioned that that they aren’t good for the garden. When...
I was telling my friend today how much LD loves this series of books. We first got a couple of these in a lot/group of science books that we got off of ebay. But LD loved them so much that I wound up getting them all. There’s not a week that goes by that LD doesn’t pick up one or two of these to read through. They tend to reside...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 23, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Emperor’s New Clothes Craft: Shopping for the Emperor’s New Clothes This activity was a big hit! I cut out a felt emperor, shirts, pants, shoes, a robe, and a crown. Each had a set price (see the sheet below). Then I gave the kids $5.00 or $8.00 to go shopping for the emperor. A great review of money and DD in particular has learned a lot and done this activity...
History: Middle Ages / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 22, 2011
The other evening I came home during a thunderstorm. The toads were covering the road leading to our house. Not one or two, but so many that I couldn’t drive the car around them. I went back a little later and there weren’t nearly as many, but still saw at least 50 toads! And saw that even though I was driving about 5mph and swerving wildly from side to side,...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Our first fairy tale today was Jack and the Beanstalk. I set up this felt board the night before and had some coloring pages for ED since she’s usually the first one up and she’s always ready to dive into the day! She was more interested in helping me bake…and sample… and mix… and sample! We made graham crackers and cut them into castle and cottage parts that I hoped...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
The kids haven’t seen the homeschool room yet and I’m looking forward to surprising them with something a bit out of the ordinary in the morning! I know teachers transform their classrooms a lot and figured it was about time to try something like that for myself. I’m pleased with how it turned out! 🙂 We made the mushrooms last year out of paper mache (the doors have since been...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 18, 2011 · Last modified March 22, 2016
As I’ve mentioned before our house is nestled down in the woods. The former owners cut up logs and threw them into a huge pile which is now happily decomposing. We’ve used some of this mulch in our garden areas (well away from the house). Here’s some of what we’ve observed from this decomposing pile! We found lots of these large beetles in our mulch pile. My best guess is...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2011 · Last modified January 1, 2015
DD is feeling a little bit better and wanted to do a leprechaun craft too. She wanted to do something different than the other kids. Last evening someone shared a new art website that had lots of elementary art lessons. I took a quick look and the bottle dolls caught my attention. When DD asked to do a craft she agreed that the bottle doll might be fun. She 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.
