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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Kindergarten
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 9, 2013 · Last modified December 12, 2016
I had to submit our Notice of Intent to Homeschool and even though I don’t have to go into much detail about our curriculum, I use that as my deadline for roughly mapping out the school year. The kids are in Grades 5, 3 and Kindergarten this year. I pulled out some (but not all) of the resources we’ll be using for a quick photo: Here are some of the...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 7, 2013 · Last modified December 31, 2014
Not too long ago the categories section of my blog was disabled. I’m trying to get that up and running, but in the meantime I wanted to be sure people could cruise through the various topics we’ve done while planning for the fall. I’m sure homeschoolers all around the country are gearing up for the new school year! Update: We have just moved to homeschoolden.com… I have not yet provided the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
At some point soon I’ll be sharing some of my plans and the curriculum choices for this next fall. But before I do that, I really wanted to write a post with advice to new homeschoolers. I want to stress how different each and every homeschool family is! So without further ado, here’s some of my thoughts about homeschooling for those who are new to the adventure: *In many states,...
Love The most important ingredient of homeschooling is simply love. Homeschooling is about the relationships, not the curriculum we use. Some days will be wonderful, other days… not as noteworthy, but at the end of the day did we connect wit the kids, snuggle with the kids, help them find their own voice and strengths. I help motivate them and support them. I try to keep in mind that at...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 31, 2013 · Last modified January 28, 2018
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked by people “What about socialization?” or something to that effect. Depending on the tone of the person asking I’ve responded in different ways. My answer has also changed as the kids have gotten older. These days in answering that question I often start with my own thoughts about socialization… “well, I want the kids to be good listeners, polite, well-rounded,...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 29, 2013 · Last modified January 28, 2018
People are often curious why homeschoolers have chosen this route. After all, the vast majority of people choose to send their children to public school. On the other hand, there are now more children being home-schooled than are enrolled in charter and voucher schools combined. I read recently that there are now over 2 million homeschooled children. In 1999, three reasons for homeschooling were the most frequently cited: 49 percent...
I was born in Seattle, Washington and both sides of my family are from there. In fact, many of my mom’s relatives were among the first settlers in the region! One of Hubby’s best friends now lives in Seattle. They planned a hiking-reunion weekend and they spent several days hiking around the beautiful mountains out to the west of Seattle. The scenery was so beautiful, I definitely hope to plan...
There have been quite a number of homeschool-related articles in the past couple of weeks: A German homeschooling family that has been living in Tennessee for several years has been seeking asylum in the U.S. because homeschooling is not allowed in their native country of Germany. They withdrew their children from German schools because the school teachings on sex, violence and other issues conflicted with their Christian faith. They face...
Yesterday, I mentioned a couple of science books that I bought out to see if they’d be a good fit for our homeschool. I purchased the Physical Science Daybook first. I thumbed through the articles and read some with the kids. I was really impressed by them. They have articles on various topics that are truly interesting and engaging. Yesterday, I shared about the Frog Antifreeze — frogs who freeze...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 23, 2013
I remember reading once that you are never supposed to write about not blogging. “Boring!” someone said. I still feel the need to apologize or explain the infrequent posts, though! We’re still in summer mode and while I think I’ve more-or-less hammered out our fall semester and have been busy browsing and purchasing books, scoping out cool science experiments and activities, making some worksheets and games for our units, I’ve felt...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 18, 2013
We’re in the home stretch of summer vacation. It’s very hot (very, very hot!) so we’re spending a lot of time indoors. At times the kids play like angels. Their creativity is inspiring. Their music and shows are lovely. Other times? They argue and are at each other’s throats. Nasty words come out. Tears run like Niagara Falls. What do we do to help alleviate that sibling bickering? I notice...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2013 · Last modified March 7, 2016
Earlier this summer ED switched back to the Bob Book series for a little while and I made some worksheets to go along with them. She really liked working on these. I hope someone else finds them useful. As always, they are free to download. If you’d like to share or pin, go ahead just link back to my original post. Thanks! If you use them I’d love to hear...
Health / Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Here in the U.S. we hear about the importance of staying out of the sun during peak hours and using sun screen. Over in Australia, there was a HUGE campaign to get people to protect themselves from the sun. “Slip, Slop, Slap” was an advertisement we saw ALL the time on TV. Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat. The kids in our small town...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 12, 2013
I’ve been working on gathering our music resources for this next fall. I want to introduce the kids to a bit of classical music. I’d like them to have a little more familiarity with some of the famous composers. I found this CD, The Idiots Guide to Classical Music, used at our local used bookstore for 99cents. It has small snippets from many, many famous pieces. It has 99 tracks!...
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.
