Author: Liesl - Homeschool Den

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Learning About West Africa – Children’s Games and more

It has been quite a while since I talked about our African Unit. I think the last time I wrote, I shared the history pages I made about the Ghana and Mali Empires. We had also learned about some famous Africans such as Sundiata and Mansa Musa. The past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning more about contemporary Africa.  We’ve been doing a lot of reading from Journey into Africa:...

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14 Things You Didn’t Know About Me…

Let’s face it, my life, especially when you look at the blog, revolves around the kids and homeschooling. I spend a lot of time preparing for homeschooling; the kids and I spend time working on their schoolwork, projects and activities; I blog about homeschooling; and I’m even (gulp) trying to write a book — not about zombies (though I did meet a woman at LD’s Parkour (sport’s) class who writes...

Boston Marathon Tragedy, So Shocking 4

Boston Marathon Tragedy, So Shocking

It made me cry to hear that one of the victims was 8 years old.  As a Mom and a runner, I’m heartbroken for the family and for all the victims today. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a runner. I ran the Boston Marathon twice, plus a number of other races that attract large numbers of participants and spectators.  The Boston Marathon...

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ED’s PreK Math Practice

It’s been a while since I talked about ED’s preschool math work. Here are some of the things we’ve been working on together during her math time. We’ve been starting by blasting off to space… 10, 9, 8, 7… or counting down from 20.  (Yes, ED is in her pjs!) She’s practiced using tally sticks to lay out (or identify) numbers up to twenty. I’ve also been having her identify...

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Preschool at Home: Learning Letters

I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…)  and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on.  So, just keep in mind that...

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Preschool at Home: Learning Letters

I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…)  and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on.  So, just keep in mind that...

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Washington D.C. in the Spring: Cherry Blossoms at Their Peak

We’ve been traveling quite a bit. We met up with my sister in Washington D.C. who flew in from Nashville for a couple of days.  Our family took the opportunity to see some sites while my sister was working. We had to check out the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin: On our walks we saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial (from afar, the kids didn’t have the energy to...

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Choking! An Important Lesson for the Kids…

No, no one choked at our house recently, but we did go into a lot of detail about swallowing and choking a few days ago. I wanted to find a way for the kids to really understand how choking happens — and then to know what to do about it.  Now, don’t take this as expert advice… if you really want to know details about doing abdominal thrusts (Heimlich Maneuver)...

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Digestive System — It All Starts in the Mouth!

To start off our unit on the digestive system, I had the kids look at a diagram and write down all the parts of the digestive system. That was the first section of the pack I made (more about that below). Then we took a closer look at the mouth. We did these activities over the course of several days: I asked the kids what the mouth’s role is in...

We Got a New Kitty! 0

We Got a New Kitty!

About a month ago on the way to LD’s allergy shots, the kids and I saw something really sad. Just a few moments before we drove through an intersection, a cat was struck by a car. As we drove by, we could see that the cat was still alive. It’s head was up and it was looking all around. It was a busy intersection and cars were racing by it on both...

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Brownies from Scratch Are SO Simple to Make!

My sister has never, ever bought a box-mix of brownies. Can you believe it?  With this recipe, you can see why!  The kids are able to make this on their own now without any help from me… Now I’ll pass it along to you if you like baking with your kids! The only unusual ingredient that you might not have on hand is baker’s chocolate — in powder form (pictured...

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Preschool at Home: Activities You Can Do with Your 2-4 Year Olds (Fine Motor Skills)

I frequently get questions from parents who wonder just what to do and where to start with their preschoolers.  I thought I would spend a few posts sharing some of the things I’ve done with my kids along the way. Many of the things we did are things most parents do naturally in their home: free play with toys, time exploring and playing outside, dancing to music, reading books aloud...

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Human Body: Skeletal System

After we did an overview of all of the different body systems, we spent a couple of days reviewing the skeletal system.  The skeleton provides support, structure and protection for the body and its organs… and because it had been nearly a year since we went over the names of the bones it was time for a review. The kids put together our skeleton puzzle and then identified all the...

Body Systems Worksheet 29

Human Body Systems — Worksheets

Today I’m sharing our Human Body Systems Worksheets with you.  This set provides an overview of the Body’s major systems. It also talks about human cells, tissues and organs. Once a year, we usually learn about one of the human body systems.  One year, we went into great detail one year about the Skeletal System. Another year,  we studied the digestive system.  And recently, we learned about the circulatory system. We...