Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Freebies / Montessori (general info) / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 1, 2011
This year I hope to introduce my older kids to researching things on their own. We’ll be going over a lot of the Montessori zoology curriculum again, so I thought I’d create a page to help guide them. For what it’s worth, I’ll share that with you all too.Animal Notebook Page (for the kids to do research on their own about animals they are interested in). Animal Discovery Notebook page...
I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been seriously reassessing how our homeschool runs. I’m pretty excited about some of the changes I’d like to make– creating more structure yet giving them more independence, or another way of putting that… creating academic work time yet giving them freedom within that, working with them on goal-setting, creating the environment that gives them that autonomy.I read the book The Montessori Controversy...
Freebies / History: American Colonies / History: Geography Activities / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 26, 2011 · Last modified March 14, 2019
I made some Montessori 3-part cards for the kids for our study of some of the well-known landmarks and symbols of the United States. These cards include landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the White House, Mount Rushmore and more. You can download the US Landmarks and Symbols Cards at this link. We used these cards by talking about where they were located and placing them on our giant...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 15, 2011 · Last modified March 16, 2016
DD took a domino and created an addition problem writing it on her recording sheet. We used the domino recording sheet from Mathwire. You can find more domino math ideas on the investigating dominoes page and on this Mathwire page.There’s a cute activity also for addition called the domino parking lot with use with regular sized dominoes. ED simply counted the dots and put her wooden numbers on top of...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 14, 2011 · Last modified July 17, 2020
I made this a while ago, but never got around to introducing it to ED. It was a big hit the yesterday. Then DD came over and wanted to play. I had a number of extra eggs and ham without a letter on the reverse side, so they took turns trying to find the letter for their plate. If they got a blank egg or ham it was the other...
Here are a few things in ED’s workboxes as we get back into the swing of things. Using tweezers to sort colored pom-poms (I have a sticker with the appropriate color for each section.) Placing erasers on the end of a pencil. Since ED is past dropping things through a hole, this is a good skill for her — both lining up the hole in the eraser and having to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 27, 2011 · Last modified November 25, 2016
ED has been doing a new unit on the human body. I’m using Everybody Has a Body: Science from Head to Toe (affiliate link). It has such a wonderful array of hands-on activities for preschoolers. DD has been enjoying them as well. ED has been putting this skeleton puzzle together for several days now. This puzzle was called Look Into Your Body All About You From the Inside Out with Floor Puzzle...
Today we used wool to make fairies. We were going to use a fairy kit, but somehow wound up with skeins of fairy wool instead, so we had to make due with a bead and some ingenuity! But the girls love the end product and that’s all that matters. Here we tied the arms in a knot. We also tied a bit of wool around the end of the arms...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 23, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Emperor’s New Clothes Craft: Shopping for the Emperor’s New Clothes This activity was a big hit! I cut out a felt emperor, shirts, pants, shoes, a robe, and a crown. Each had a set price (see the sheet below). Then I gave the kids $5.00 or $8.00 to go shopping for the emperor. A great review of money and DD in particular has learned a lot and done this activity...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Our first fairy tale today was Jack and the Beanstalk. I set up this felt board the night before and had some coloring pages for ED since she’s usually the first one up and she’s always ready to dive into the day! She was more interested in helping me bake…and sample… and mix… and sample! We made graham crackers and cut them into castle and cottage parts that I hoped...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
The kids haven’t seen the homeschool room yet and I’m looking forward to surprising them with something a bit out of the ordinary in the morning! I know teachers transform their classrooms a lot and figured it was about time to try something like that for myself. I’m pleased with how it turned out! 🙂 We made the mushrooms last year out of paper mache (the doors have since been...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2011 · Last modified January 27, 2016
There are such wonderful resources out there for those of you planning to do some St. Patrick’s Day activities with your kids. Here are some of the free St. Patrick’s Day units and printables I’ve come across this past week: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards; Powerpoint Explanation about St. Patrick and how he brought Christianity to Ireland Musings of Me — St. Patrick’s Day Teacher’s...
Ages 2-6: Penguin Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 30, 2011
DD enjoyed this penguin computer game. The object was to move your penguin around to keep the egg warm by avoiding the other penguins and obstacles or predators that might get in your way. Here’s the link:http://www.nationalgeographic.com/marchofthepenguins/game/ Also at the national geographic website was a crittercam game. She had to spot the various animals of Antarctica — the Emperor Penguin, krill, skua and other things. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/03/crittercam/antarctica/ Finally, she played a...
Ages 2-6: Penguin Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 30, 2011
If you are working on Arctic Animals, this first grade teacher made a very cute science journal which incorporates polar bears, penguins, walruses, the arctic fox and snowy owl: Oceans of First Grade Fun.She also has a set of penguin “What Comes Between” math cards. The child has to place the number that comes in between 31 __ 33 or 36 __ 38. What’s nice for us is that they...
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.
