Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Writing / Science / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 17, 2013 · Last modified September 5, 2017
Over the summer, I stumbled across the Center for Disease Control’s Science Ambassador Program. What a great find! It has a series of lessons (maybe mini-unit would be a better term for them) on all kinds of various topics with challenging activities for students to learn about. Topics include — autism, birth defect, Hantavirus, HIV/Aids… and many more. What I like about their lessons is that they require the students...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 16, 2013 · Last modified March 17, 2016
Last Thursday I talked about using the Montessori landmark cards, but I didn’t think to talk about ED’s other geography activities. After reading through Me on the Map (which is just perfect for the 4-6 year old crowd), I had ED do an activity we had done a year and a half ago or so. You have the kids color in and paste their location, pinpointing their location by going...
Lots of schools and other places are requiring nut-free snacks. LD’s gym suggested this website as a helpful place to find snacks that are free of nuts, tree nuts and eggs: snacksafely.com. It’s a list of the purchased types snacks. I personally wish the list had started out (in big bold letters) things like sliced apples, baby carrots, snap peas — you know the fresh fruits and veggies that should be...
Last year DD and LD did art class once a week at an art studio. We decided we really needed to cut that out for now (because of the cost — although the teacher is absolutely brilliant and wonderful with the kids!). This year we’ve got art scheduled in once a week (so that we actually carve out time for it). We had our first art time yesterday (Thursday) —...
History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2013 · Last modified February 12, 2016
We are planning to focus on World Cultures (India and China) this year, but we haven’t started in on that yet. Instead, we resumed the year with some of the U.S. geography and history activities we were working on last May/June. Since we traveled quite a bit this summer I wanted to reinforce some of that geography. We talked about our trips and the states we visited. We pulled out the...
Active Math Games / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 11, 2013 · Last modified February 22, 2016
Active Addition Games: Last week, we rolled back the rug and taped down some addition facts ED is working on (the doubles 1+1 through 9+9). ED loved that we made this an all-body experience! First, she went through each problem, shouted out the answer and hopped to the next one… Next, I set out all the answers at the end. She had to run, find the answer and place...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 10, 2013
A report was released in last month which focused in large part on parent and family involvement in the students’ education during the 2011-2012 school year. This was based on data reported by the students’ parents. It included questions relating to homework, parental involvement in the school, school-initiated communication, and participation in other educational activities. Here are some interesting highlights from that report: Homework: According to their parents, 96% of...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 9, 2013
In August 2013, a new study was released showing a continued increase in the number and percentage of students who are homeschooled in America. The last time the U.S. government released data about the number of homeschooled students was back in 2007. How many homeschoolers are there? In 2007, 2.9% of students were homeschooled. In 2011-2012, 3.4% of students were homeschooled. In 2007, the number of homeschooled students was about 1.5...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 6, 2013 · Last modified July 27, 2021
Someone asked me what ED is doing for science this year. (She’s in Kindergarten.) I’ve touched on some of this, but thought I’d lay it all out in one post and also share what she did this past week. We have always done a lot of hands-on science. In the early years, I just want the kids to think science is cool!! We’ve done a lot of science experiments and...
Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 5, 2013
Yesterday, I mentioned that my friend and I had some really lengthy conversations about homeschooling. We both really want to change up our writing time. I’ve been spending months and months reading books about writing and feel like I have some really wonderful ideas and direction for this part of our homeschool. When I got back, I decided I really wanted a spot where I could feature some of the...
We had two weeks of school and then almost immediately put things on hold to go to a timeshare (thank you, Grams!!!!) with our homeschool friends. We do lots with this wonderful, inspiring family. The kids all had fun together and I can’t tell you how amazing it is to spend countless hours talking about homeschooling, good books, our past, the news… and just about anything that comes to mind!...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 3, 2013 · Last modified April 13, 2016
This week, ED is going to work on place value. She still needs work on her double digits (not reversing fourteen as 41 and so forth).There’s a game we haven’t played in ages called Sunny Side Up that is just perfect for reviewing those double digit numbers. I made some new game sheets for her and will share it for anyone else who might be interested. First, here’s how to...
It’s Labor Day and there are so many reasons to be thankful that our family lives here in this country and at this time! This is a post I wrote last year and I thought it was worth sharing again. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics this is how American adults spend their time: And according to the statistics, most American high school students spend very little time working (in employment):...
Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 29, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
As I mentioned earlier this week, ED is working on the concept of odds-evens and is practicing skip counting by 2s. I printed out some mazes for her to practice counting from 2 to 200. There is a huge selection of mazes over at Print Activities with different themes (such as baseball, pirates, Thanksgiving, etc. etc.). Skip Counting by 2s Mazes You can also find mazes to practice Counting By...
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.
