Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Must Read / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2022
I created a hands-on activity for the kids for learning about the circulatory system and the exchange of oxygen. Below you’ll find out more about our circulatory system activities: Our study of the heart and circulatory system started with a listen to our own heartbeats. We measured our heart rates when resting and after walking, running and skipping. Then using a graph put out by Texas heart institute (4th grade curriculum,...
Science / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2013 · Last modified July 19, 2018
Are you looking for hands-on Earth Science activities? This is a collection of some our favorite activities from our unit. Layers of the Earth Activities: I first saw this activity last year at The Learning Ark. It fit in perfectly with our Earth Science unit. There is also a similar activity using a hard-boiled egg in the book we are using for this unit, How the Earth Works by Michelle O’Brien-Palmer. One of...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 14, 2013 · Last modified May 12, 2016
This post has a collection of free grammar worksheets I’ve made for the kids over the past couple of years. You’ll find practice sheets on the major comma rules, apostrophes, underlining and more: This first set, covers the basic comma rules. We read over the rules together, then my son had to figure out which rule applied to each sentence and had to add in the appropriate comma/s. By the...
Science / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 13, 2013 · Last modified April 23, 2021
Are you studying Rocks and Minerals?! Be sure to check out this post again which covers how rocks have been used, famous rock landmarks, how we use minerals in our environment, mining, recycling and the months and birthstones. Be sure to check out the links to our hands-on activities about the three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic which you’ll find below. This week, I’m out of commission. I’m...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 11, 2013
I love homeschooling — and I love writing about what we’re doing, but life is taking over for a little while. We have family coming from all over the US (and from Brazil) for my husband’s great uncle’s birthday party. He’s turning 90 and we are hosting several families (they started arriving earlier this week). Then tomorrow we will have 50 or 60 people over to our house. It’s been...
Active Math Games / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 8, 2013 · Last modified April 2, 2017
DD has learned most of her multiplication facts, but she still needs lots of extra practice because it takes her a while to come up with the answer sometimes. I’m trying to find some fun ways to keep her practicing them and making sure she has them memorized and can recite the answer quickly. So here’s a post covering some of the fun ways we’re reviewing those facts… everything from...
Freebies / History: India Unit / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 7, 2013 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Last week I shared the Free India Learning Packet. We’ve covered some basic facts and geography about India from that set and read about Ancient India in several of the books we’re using (Story of the World, Kingfisher Encyclopedia, etc.). Now that we covered some of the background about the ancient Indus Valley region, it was time to delve into some background about Hinduism. For the next couple of weeks,...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2013 · Last modified February 25, 2020
I learned a new word with this unit: A zoonosis is any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. Zoonoses would be the plural! We had such a good experience with the CDC Science Ambassador unit on the West Nile Virus that we decided to try one more unit: Healthy Pets, Healthy People (Note: Look on the second set of tabs for “Zoonotic Disease”). Besides...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2013 · Last modified March 17, 2016
I took this photo last year–the trees don’t quite look like this yet! I love this time of year! Last Friday I shared some of the free fall-themed packets and indoor activities you can do with your 3-6 year old, but there are so many other great fall activities you can do with your child as well. Here are some of our favorites: just go outside and enjoy the weather...
Kindergarten / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 4, 2013 · Last modified July 27, 2021
Last week, ED spent some time learning about the different animal groups — mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. We talked about some of the different characteristics of each group and she spent time separating them into the different categories. We have a number of different activities and she spent several days going through our various activities: One was from a book called Take It to Your Seat Science Centers and...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 3, 2013
Sometimes we need an infusion of sunshine and happiness into our homeschool. There are times when the kids nitpick at each other, poke, needle and whine… we all (including me!) need to step back and ask ourselves if we are being as kind, thoughtful and caring as we can be! One day for our writing workshop, we read the book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily...
We’re learning German in our homeschool. Why? Well, because that’s what I learned and studied growing up. Plus, when I was in the Peace Corps in Hungary I listened to German TV stations because I understood that better than Hungarian. Anyway, that’s the language that’s easiest for me to teach the kids. Not long ago, we started using using Bobo Siebenschlafer in our homeschool. It’s a book that has a number...
Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 1, 2013 · Last modified February 22, 2016
ED loves kittens and I made this game for her to practice her doubling. It’s a pretty straight-forward game. Just roll the die, double the number and move the token up one space. This doesn’t have to be a competitive game… the players just guess which kitty is going to win the game. (I drew all these kitties — not professional by any means but ED likes them and the fact...
Freebies / History: Geography Activities / History: India Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 30, 2013 · Last modified April 5, 2016
This year we are again studying world cultures in our homeschool. We are focusing on Asia and just started our unit on India. I made a packet for the kids to add to their history notebooks which covers the geography of India, some basic facts (population, capital, etc.) and things like that. It’s 20 pages long and includes answers to the various sheets that the kids and I will be...
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.
