Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 11, 2014 · Last modified March 7, 2016
This year Mother’s Day is officially one hundred years old in the U.S. On May 8, 1914 Congress passed a law to officially celebrate Mother’s day on the second Sunday in May. Facts About Moms (in the U.S.) There are more than 85 million mothers of all ages in the United States. According to the Pew Research Institute, fewer Moms are married than fifty years ago Of all women age...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 9, 2014 · Last modified May 18, 2015
The past couple of weeks have flown by. I wanted to write up a quick post to mention some of the things that are going well for us at the moment. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be wrapping up another school year in four or five weeks! Here’s what we’ve been up to the past few weeks: Language Arts: In order to fulfill the requirements of our state, the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 5, 2014 · Last modified July 4, 2021
Actually, there is no such thing as homeschool furniture or purchases since everybody’s home is unique and everyone has their own style! But that being said, there are a few purchases I’ve made in the past six months that I really love and I wanted to share. Book Display Shelves: We have all kinds of book displays, but I wanted one that looked “nice” and would display the writing books...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 28, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2016
Plato: Knowledge that is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. One of the things my kids love about homeschooling is that they can spend long, leisurely amounts of time reading. The first thing they do in the morning is pick up a book and start reading while eating breakfast. My goal has always been for reading to be something that you do for pleasure, not for reward. One...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2014 · Last modified March 21, 2015
There was a really interesting article over at Edutopia last month about the worry some educators have about how technology and testing are affecting the amount of reading kids are doing. Educators have noticed that some kids are struggling to read deeply and comprehend longer texts. Are kids reading books deeply and for pleasure? Since the invention of the printing press, there has been a plethora of reading materials available. Granted, not...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2014 · Last modified April 16, 2015
My friend’s daughter wrote a blog post about homeschooling and they generously offered to let me post it here. I loved her piece and I hope you do too! My mom thought it would be helpful for me to give my perspective on homeschooling. Being an eleven-year-old homeschool student has some good things and some bad things. Good things: -I can sleep until nine every day! No getting up early...
Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 25, 2014
I’m pretty sure you know exactly what I’m talking about, right? Not only are there a mountain of dishes to be put away, but there are dishes in the sink filled with cold nasty water with floating bits of who-knows-what. (Grrr.. why didn’t we just do them last night?) There’s laundry still in the dryer, waiting to be hauled out and folded. LD lost his math book. We spend 15...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 20, 2014 · Last modified January 28, 2018
One thing about homeschoolers is that each family has its own style. Some people have quite a structure/routine to their homeschool; some people unschool and support and follow the passions and interests of their kids. Our days are fairly loose, but we follow fairly traditional subjects. Homeschoolers often fall into different categories… Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Classical, or use online-curriculums. I would say we are eclectic, hands-on homeschoolers — meaning we...
I know several people who balance working outside the home with homeschooling. For each of them it requires a lot of juggling, some outside help, flexibility on when the “academics” happen, but ultimately is working well for their families. Each one of them (two friends and my sister) enjoys being a professional and also values being able to create a challenging learning environment for her kids. Their kids are involved...
Someone in one of my yahoo groups said that there was a 10cent sale on one of the publishers I have used a lot in the past, Homeschool Bits. She makes and sells lapbooks, unit studies, time lines and more. Her work is reasonably priced (most lapbooks are $1.00), but for the next day her work is on sale for 10 cents. Wow! I think the sale ends on Saturday...
Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 14, 2014 · Last modified January 29, 2017
To Homeschool We Need… 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...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 6, 2014
When I opened the propane bill yesterday, my jaw nearly hit the floor. Our propane bill had more than doubled from this time last year! Augh! One reason for that is of course that it was much warmer last January than this. But also, the price of propane has gone up drastically. Last year (2013) in February propane was $2.40 a gallon. This year? It was $4.70. So having consumed...
Holiday: Valentine's Day / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 1, 2014 · Last modified April 13, 2016
It’s always time to fill the house with love, right? With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s timely to think about what this means. Sometimes love isn’t just the feelings you have, it’s the actions you take. I wrote this post last year as I struggled with major (ear) problems that led to 6 ear surgeries in 8 months… You can read more at this post, I’m going deaf today. (I am...
Ear Surgery / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Mom Stories
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 20, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
The past three months have been very difficult. If you’re a regular reader, you know I had ear surgery in October. I have more complications than I can count on one hand. Healing was very slow and a couple of weeks after the surgery I came down with something called BPPV in two semi-circular canals (in my ear) which causes vertigo, the entire world to spin, balance issues and incredible...
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.
