Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 19, 2015 · Last modified November 17, 2015
This week I’m changing our “Thoughts on Teaching” series up a bit to write about how our homeschool days flow in general. Each day is pretty different from the one before and is usually a result of what we didn’t get to (or got to only minimally) the day before. But I keep a general running tab (mentally if not by checklist!) of what we’re doing in each subject. So...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 17, 2015 · Last modified September 21, 2015
So in my last post, I talked about how I really wanted to start off my mornings strong. I realized I needed a Power Morning Routine to make sure that *I* was energized, refreshed, focused, and prepared. You can read more about all that in this post: Thoughts on Teaching: Creating a Power Morning. But, along with that I really needed to make sure I was completely organized. I think...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Reading / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 31, 2015 · Last modified January 22, 2019
Are you looking for a phonics program to help your kids learn to read? I’ve put together some of the phonics readers that we used with my three kids. As you’ll see, all three of my kids had different preferences! I know I have a lot of new readers, and several people reached out to me recently who have preschoolers and are just starting out on this homeschool journey. I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2015 · Last modified September 7, 2015
It’s that time of year again! Back to school sales are on and it’s a great time of year to stock up on homeschool supplies. This year, I have added to our original Back to (Home)school Shopping List to include some homeschool science supplies we have used (and are on our shopping list for this year). More about that below! Even though I’m sharing these very long lists now, I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 29, 2015 · Last modified July 30, 2015
We’re definitely still in summer mode here… with swimming, camps, play dates, gardening… and an upcoming language immersion camp, but that doesn’t mean that homeschooling isn’t on my mind!! So here are the 10 steps we take to get ready for homeschooling: 1) Send in the official paperwork — the Notice of Intent to Homeschool (if your state require this). Half of my friends have sent theirs in… the other...
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 4, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2023
Today I’m sharing the history checklist, not only of some of the basic units I hope we cover K-8, but also of some of the historical skills I want the kids to start to master and some of the activities that can make history really come alive for them. In the early years, it’s easy to make history fun with hands-on projects… We have grown the Nile River Valley and made...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Science Units / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 2, 2015 · Last modified March 15, 2024
Science in the Elementary and Middle School Years – Free Homeschool Checklist – K to 8 When I’m planning our units for the upcoming year, I think a lot about the science topics should we cover in our homeschool by the time they finish 8th grade. I have a general checklist of topics that I go consider… and try to fill in the gaps as we go (and as the kids’ interests...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2015 · Last modified March 17, 2016
I got an email from someone a few days ago from someone who said they were in “full blown school panic.” She is considering homeschooling next year and is wondering how to start planning. And not only that, she wondered, “How do you even know what to teach?” I thought it was about time to write about planning again… especially as I start looking ahead to next year. How do you decide what...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 23, 2015
Homeschool Resources: Today I have several great resources for you. The first is a new page of some of the books we use in our homeschool. You’ll see that new button in the left side bar. I hope to keep a fairly current list of recommended books from different subject areas (history, science, language arts, math & critical thinking, art). How to Find Homeschool Curriculum: Since the list above is mostly just...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2015 · Last modified July 6, 2020
If you’re looking for the answers to your homeschool questions, the new tab at the top of the page, “Starting to Homeschool” is the place to start!! It has links to dozens and dozens of posts: How to find a homeschool curriculum? What about socialization? How do I know what to teach the kids? What does a homeschool day look like? How do I start homeschooling my preschooler? How many...
How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2014 · Last modified July 11, 2020
Please click through to this post (which has working links to the topics mentioned below): How to Start Homeschooling and visit this newer post as well: How Do I Start to Homeschool?! Help! These posts all exist, but we’ve moved from Parents.com (we were under the Parents umbrella for 3 years)… and I don’t have the links up and running! 🙂 Hope to get them together sometime soon! You can...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 23, 2014 · Last modified July 26, 2015
Goodness, that sounds so formal, doesn’t it? Let me say right off the bat that our homeschool is much (much, much) more flexible than a formal public school. In so many ways, our homeschool doesn’t resemble public school much at all… We have just 3 kids; we don’t always start school at the same time or with the same subject; we have the flexibility to dive into one particular subject...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2014 · Last modified January 1, 2015
A week or so ago, a reader asked me if I had any other tips about homeschool planning. She had read the posts I had put together on short term and long term goals and planning, but wondered if I had any other thoughts. She wondered how I make sure we keep tabs on the resources and books and planning things out in general. I spent a lot of the...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2014 · Last modified April 10, 2015
For so many of us who grew up attending public schools and being educated among same-age peers, there are real questions about the socialization of homeschooled kids. We remember sitting in classrooms packed with other children and truly wonder how homeschoolers will fill in that “void” of being with other children so many hours of the day. As a homeschooling family, though, I was quick to realize that socialization is...
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.
