Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 11, 2014 · Last modified March 7, 2016
This year Mother’s Day is officially one hundred years old in the U.S. On May 8, 1914 Congress passed a law to officially celebrate Mother’s day on the second Sunday in May. Facts About Moms (in the U.S.) There are more than 85 million mothers of all ages in the United States. According to the Pew Research Institute, fewer Moms are married than fifty years ago Of all women age...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2014 · Last modified December 30, 2014
When my kids were little I bought a set of Pattern Blocks. It’s been one of the most enduring resources we have. We still bring them out occasionally and also use them for math now and then. The kids have used templates like these: And they’ve also used the pattern blocks for free play: There are lots of places where you can find free pattern block templates: One of the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 9, 2014 · Last modified May 18, 2015
The past couple of weeks have flown by. I wanted to write up a quick post to mention some of the things that are going well for us at the moment. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be wrapping up another school year in four or five weeks! Here’s what we’ve been up to the past few weeks: Language Arts: In order to fulfill the requirements of our state, the...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 7, 2014 · Last modified February 24, 2016
The kids are going over some tricky homophones. These are some of the sheets I made for them. If you can use them, they are free to download. Grammar Sheets — Lay-Lie Peace-Piece Accept-Except and other homophones Other free grammar worksheets you can download: Their, They’re, There – Its, It’s Free Practice Sheets Comma Rules and Practice Worksheets Comma Rules and Practice Worksheets (Fall Theme) Grammar Practice: Possessive Nouns...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 6, 2014 · Last modified October 4, 2017
Earlier this year, ED decided she wanted a math workbook just like DD and LD’s books. We had been playing a lot of games, but according to her, that wasn’t “real math” anymore! I bought a Spectrum math workbook for her (grade 2). She worked her way through the basic addition problems. Before she goes on to tackle double digit addition and subtraction in that book, though, I wanted her...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 5, 2014 · Last modified July 4, 2021
Actually, there is no such thing as homeschool furniture or purchases since everybody’s home is unique and everyone has their own style! But that being said, there are a few purchases I’ve made in the past six months that I really love and I wanted to share. Book Display Shelves: We have all kinds of book displays, but I wanted one that looked “nice” and would display the writing books...
Greg Hewlett has a new children’s CD out that he is giving away completely free over at his blog. His album, Heirloom, is solo piano accompanied by nature. It features quiet lullabies and two original songs written by Greg. Heirloomis for children, though adults will enjoy this beautiful music too. Nature sounds are included on all tracks (though you can choose a version without nature as well). You can listen to...
Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 2, 2014 · Last modified February 19, 2017
Like much of the east coast, we had a huge amount of rain on Wednesday. We had just finished our writing workshop, when ED looked out the window and saw that our tiny creek was teeming with water. The kids rushed to get their swim suits on, I got on my big rubber boots and we went down to check things out. The little trickle of our creek was impressive!...
History: China Unit / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 1, 2014 · Last modified February 17, 2016
Have you heard of these sayings? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. Respect yourself and others will respect you. Judge others by what you know of yourself. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. It does not matter how slowly you go...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 30, 2014 · Last modified February 24, 2016
I made a couple of sheets so my older kids can review how to add endings (such as -ed, -ly, -s, -es and so forth). We reviewed when to double the final consonant and some of the irregular verbs. I also included the answers (but they are not shown in the picture below). There’s nothing fancy about these sheets, but they’re free to download if your kids need some review:...
History: China Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 29, 2014 · Last modified December 29, 2014
Today was the type of day when everything pulled together beautifully! I set up paper and paints on the kitchen table and had all our books assembled to talk about Chinese brush painting, read from our novel and read from our Chinese history book. The kids ate it all up! We started with a lovely picture book called Brush of the Gods.It was a legend from about 762AD about a...
Freebies / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 28, 2014 · Last modified July 27, 2021
I thought you might be interested in some of my most popular science posts… The links will take you right to that post. We did a lot of hands-on science activities with these units. Those posts will link to some of our science activities. We will be moving to homeschoolden.com and all our printables will be moving there. Number 5 The Three Types of Rocks– Our Activities and a Free...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 25, 2014 · Last modified December 2, 2020
Are you looking for free Nature Scavenger Hunt printables? We have several fun options! Every spring, as the weather gets nicer and nicer we spend more and more time outdoors. We’ve been doing this scavenger hunt for years. I know we’re not alone because this printable has gotten well over 50,000 downloads since I first made it years ago!! We found a lot of cool critters that very first year we did...
History: China Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 23, 2014 · Last modified September 5, 2022
We have been studying Ancient China this semester. We are using The Story of Ancient China (affiliate link) (see more about that below) as our spine, but also have read selections from the Story of the World (affiliate link) and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. This is the packet that I made to go along with some of our readings. These are now included in our 100+ page Ancient China Unit. Recently,...
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.
