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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 11, 2012
20 Things to Keep Yourself, Your Household, and Your Homeschool Fresh and Inspired We are a homeschooling family, so the kids are always with me. Always. I find I need to remember to take care of myself in this equation. With Mother’s Day just a couple days away this seemed like the perfect time to think about how we Moms can celebrate and take care of ourselves. This is a...
Family Meeting / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 4, 2012 · Last modified April 10, 2016
This year we started holding family meetings. It has been a real positive experience for our family. We use this as an opportunity to share good feelings, to talk about what’s going well in our family, to brainstorm ideas that might make our family work better as a team, to talk about things we’d like to be going better and probably most importantly of all, to have fun together. We...
Earlier today on my Facebook page I wrote about the kinds of teaching moments that really need to happen here at the Homeschool Den! Sigh… I bet there’s someone out there that can relate! 🙂
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 14, 2012 · Last modified February 9, 2017
I’ve been posting a lot lately. Now it’s time to step back and remind you that this is definitely only a glimpse of what we do or what life is really like for us. You are seeing only a five to fifteen minute snippet of our day or perhaps you’re seeing snippets of several days all organized nicely into one post. And while I love, love coming up and planning ...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Nature
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 4, 2011 · Last modified April 16, 2015
Now to my family for a moment. Sometimes it’s good to know the ending and outcome of sad events.If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that my sister/bro-in-law and their family were victims of the May 2010 flooding in Nashville. My brother-in-law had just returned from a 9 month deployment to Iraq when the flood hit. They spent 12 hours moving as much as they...
I just found out that one of my dearest friends, Debbie, died. My heart is so sad, I’m having a tough time quelling the tears. Debbie was one of the most beautiful people you’d ever meet — someone who was an inspiration in the way she lived her life. She had a deep faith that kept her going through the loss of her husband and raising her three young children...
LD turned 8 almost two weeks ago.We had a family celebration on his big day since my brother-in-law and nephew were here on LD’s birthday. Then we had a small party for friends last weekend. He likes Harry Potter and is reading through those books — thus the Hogwart’s Castle cake (or my attempt!!)
The east coast just had an earthquake. The news says it was 5.8 on the richtor scale — and what that meant for us was lots and lots of shaking and rattling. A few things fell of our shelves in the pantry, but we don’t see any other damage at this point. We read that the Capitol, Pentagon and White House are being evacuated. It sure scared us!
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2011
Today’s my birthday, so this post is about… well me! I am so happy! Not that I wasn’t happy in Australia, but I was ready for a change and boy is life wonderful here! I’ve managed to find a musical outlet here (I played the oboe in a wind ensemble for 10 years in Australia). Here I’m singing in my church choir and have had the opportunity to play the...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 19, 2011 · Last modified March 3, 2015
I’ve been having a thoughtful discussion with a blogging friend of mine. We’ve been talking about the reality of homeschooling… how it really works with a three year old in tow, what curriculum we use and things like that. I would love, love, love to hear your comments about how your day goes — and how you arrive at your homeschool curriculum decisions!Here’s part of my email letter to my...
I was treated like a star on Mother’s Day. The kids brought me breakfast in bed complete with homemade cards and crafts. I looked like a queen with the bright yellow crown DD made for me! Later in the day, hubby rounded up all the nuts, bolts and parts and put together my favorite swing — a Mother’s Day Gift three years ago! (We disassembled it to bring it back...
Lots and lots and lots of rides… including “It’s a Small World” (left) Checking out the alligators. A bit of mini golf. A wonderful children’s science museum type place called Wonder Works. The kids LOVED the ropes course at Wonder Works. Kennedy Space Center — we were SO sad not to see the launch (which was postponed to four days after our visit instead of while we were in...
DD checks out the gardens… but sadly it’s not ours. Any guesses as to where we are? Here are a couple of other hints. Yes, the past 10 days or so we’ve been down in Florida with Grams and Gramps. (Posts were set to go off automatically during that time.) We had such a wonderful time! We were all healthy and enjoyed getting away. Best of all I feel...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Recipes / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 22, 2011
There is so much to consider about buying salmon. I sure didn’t realize any of this so thought I’d share. 1) Salmon are carnivores. In the wild they start eating microscopic plants and animals. As they get bigger they eat tiny crustaceans (krill) which gives them their pink color and then larger fish. 2) Farmed salmon is a nice gray color. Hmmm… but salmon farmers resort to cosmetics to change...
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.
