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Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 9, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
Hubby was in Perth, Western Australia for about five days. Over the weekend, I thought the kids would enjoy feeding the wallabies again since it had been a while. They come down from the hillside at dusk and you can hand-feed them (special pellets).
In this experiment you need:2 tablespoons water1 teaspoon sugar1 package of yeast Pour it into a small bottle and place a balloonover the top. Wait, watch and observe!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2010
My, I feel like a broken record this week, but the themetime table has worked so well! I saw so much spontaneous use of our materials. I use workboxes, but again for ED and DD havingthings out really draws the girls in. So, this set up was all about numbers. I pulledout some math manipulatives for them to playwith. I pulled out all kinds of number relatedbooks. I also pulled...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2010
There’s not too much to say about this themetime except, goodness, we sure have things tucked awayeverywhere! We have wonderful friends whohave passed us lots of games, puzzles and books. Ido find myself playing more games this way than whenI had the games in workboxes. I wish I had somelovely shelves set up like some of you, but this little crafttable seems to be working wonderfully for the 2 and...
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 6, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
The Redback spider is fairly common where we live. We used to have them quite badly at the flat that hubby and I lived in for the first eight years here; they haven’t been so bad here at this house. LD and I saw this spider today. We talked about them a bit and I warned them not ever to go near them or touch them. I took a lot...
Outdoor Fun / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 6, 2010 · Last modified May 18, 2015
Since I’m talking about bugs and such, I’ll post this picture I took of stink beetles. They are sometimes called the green carab beetle (though to be honest I’ve never heard anyone refer to them as such). According to an article put out in the local paper, one of their adaption strategies is ‘explosive breeding.’ Sometimes during the summer they swarm really badly around the sports field lights. If they...
Ages 2-6: Fire Safety / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2010
Today our theme time table included all thingsfire related: little fire trucks, a fire hat, fire typebooks and a non-working telephone. At lunch I ready a couple of books (The Fire Catand The Polka Dot Puppy about a cat/dog who getsadopted by a fire station). After lunch we allgathered together and had a serious talk aboutfire safety. It’s been quite a long time (gulp!) sincewe talked about this, but LD...
Ages 2-6: Fire Safety / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2010
Before starting, we tested our smoke alarms.Be sure you do this soon too! Now on to the activity!! I set up a few obstacles and the kids had togo through the blinding smoke safely andquickly. I talked to them about how confusingand scary it might be if they couldn’t see. Andhow they should cover their mouth with acloth and try to stay as low to the ground aspossible (things like...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2010 · Last modified February 21, 2016
The theme time table is working really well and only takes 10-15 minutes to cleanup and change over. It’s been great to bring in such a variety of books into our day again. And as I said in an earlier post, having things out on display work really well to ‘lure’ the girls (ages 2 and 4) in when they are interested. Obviously the theme of this table is ocean...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Montessori (general info) / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2010
After talking about the various layers of the rainforest and why animals would live in particular levels of the forest, the kids sorted the animal cards into the various layers. You can find lots of information online about the layers of the rainforest; I made my own cards and explanations. It’s available over in right sidebar downloads area if anyone’s interested.
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Montessori (general info) / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2010
I don’t think I ever talked about the kids’ sorting of the rainforest animals. We have two packs of 3-part cards — the Amazon and the African rainforest animals. Both sets of cards are from the Montessori Print Shop for less than $2US each. As always, we started with our continent song and the general pin map of the 7 continents (not shown in the photos here). Then we looked...
We did a country box exchange with a family who livesin Singapore. The kids were SO excited by all of thegoodies. We rushed to the map to locate Singapore,then tried playing the kids games, looked through thebrochures and postcards. We’ve done this with several families, but wewere “burned” by a family in Ireland who exchangedaddresses, but never sent anyone in our exchangegroup a reciprical package. Seems a shame and youwonder...
This week, we didn’t do a science experiment. Instead weread all about germs, what kind of germs there are(bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa), what is good and badabout germs, where they live and so forth. Then we all createdour own books (with lots of silly germ pictures!):LD, top leftme, top right (I enjoyed it as much as the kids!)ED bottom leftDD bottom right
LD was REALLY into this activity. He worked on it frombefore 10am til after 2pm and only stopped for lunch whenit was plopped in front of him. You can see he came up withsome great ideas. And the best thing? He actually said,“I like writing.” His book was 17 pages long. (Lots of pagesare included here for Grandma and Grandpa, Grams andGramps to admire!!)
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.
