Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 5, 2014 · Last modified September 17, 2018
While we were studying the Yuan Dynasty, we spent quite a bit of time learning about Marco Polo, his travels and his experience in Kublai Khan’s court. To wrap up the unit, the kids tilled out these notebook pages to add to their history notebook. The kids really enjoyed learning about Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and the adventures of Marco Polo. We didn’t do any projects with this unit, but...
Ages 2-6: Fairy Tale Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 4, 2014 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Last week, I wrote a post about all the books that DD (age 8) has been reading lately. You may have noticed that she really enjoys fairy tales. She has read a number of Gail Carson Levine’s books including Ella Enchanted and Fairest (affiliate links). She also LOVES Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin and Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk. (affiliate links) That got me to thinking about the Fairy Tale...
While we have had a really wonderful few weeks homeschooling, the past several weeks have been extremely challenging for me in other ways. I never imagined all the medical difficulties I would face. Tomorrow morning (today as you read this), I am going in for my 5th ear surgery since October. Along with other things, I seem to have semi-circular canal dehiscence in the horizontal canal. My last surgery in...
Freebies / History: China Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 2, 2014 · Last modified February 20, 2017
Most every kid has heard of Genghis Khan, right? Boy, do we have some good books and videos for you! Plus you can download our free notebook pages about Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan! If you are looking for an engaging unit to do with your kids this summer — this could be it! My kids LOVED this portion of our China unit. We skipped forward almost 1,000 years (from 200AD...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
As I mentioned yesterday, we started a new unit on water (jumping off onto a new tangent for our weather unit). I made a couple of pages for the kids’ science notebooks. They go along with some of the resources I shared yesterday. I had the kids try to brainstorm as many uses for water as they could and then had them study a printout of the USGA water use poster...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 29, 2014 · Last modified March 21, 2015
My daughter reads all the time. She will grab anything that’s out and about… from the easy readers that ED brings home from the libraries to books that LD recommends. I thought I’d share some of the series that she’s flown through this semester. Dog Diaries: She’s read them all… Ginger, Buddy, Barry, Togo, Dash. She said they were wonderful. I notice there is also a series called Horse Diaries...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 28, 2014 · Last modified February 6, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, we started on a new unit. One that focuses on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you...
Active Math Games / Kindergarten Math / Math - Percents Fractions and Decimals / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 27, 2014 · Last modified March 13, 2020
With the weather so beautiful, we’ve taken math outside. Don’t you love when the kids BEG and BEG for more math practice?!! So here are some of the games we’ve been playing outside… Math Sponge Toss: If it’s getting warm where you live, the kids might enjoy this activity. We hung math problems up on the garage door with painters tape. The kids took turns trying to SPLAT their card. If...
History: American History / Holiday: Memorial Day
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 26, 2014
Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and started after the Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union Soldiers. By the 20th century Memorial Day was extended to honor all Americans who have died in wars. A couple of years ago, I had a long conversation with my Dad and extended family about the members of our family who have served in the U.S. military. As I asked for...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 25, 2014 · Last modified March 26, 2016
We love this homemade Nutrigrain Bar recipe! I hadn’t made them for a couple of months and while the kids were out playing I made a batch. Yum! I didn’t have any almond extract on hand so just used 1 tsp of vanilla instead. No matter how I make them, they’re gone pretty quickly! I thought I’d share that recipe again today. So here you go: A few years ago,...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2014 · Last modified January 1, 2015
On our way back from the Outer Banks, we decided we would spend a day at Jamestown. This is a reconstruction of the first permanent settlement by the British in the New World. We first saw the film and toured the museum — which was just fabulous! The kids spent a lot more time reading and browsing through the museum than I thought they would (I guess they’re growing up!!)....
Our family loves star gazing and I always try to find out when the next meteor showers pass by. Tonight there is a brand new meteor shower that may light up the night sky. They are called the Camelopardalids. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how many shooting stars we’ll see, but they could shower down at a rate of 1-per minute. If the showers happen they should be visible in...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2014 · Last modified January 24, 2019
In this post I’d like to share a dozen activities that we did with the kids to help foster early reading skills. These are activities we did with CVC words and basic sight words to make the learning process fun and engaging!! 🙂 The first step in learning to read is to make sure your child knows their letter sounds. We shared lots of ideas about that in our Preschool...
One afternoon last week, we decided to do a couple of tours. First, we stopped off at the Currituck Beach Light Station. It is 162 feet and has 220 steps. Construction on it began in 1873 and it was first illuminated in 1875. It still serves as an aid to naviagation, lighting up every 3 seconds and off for 17 seconds throughout the night. The exterior of this lighthouse was...
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.
