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: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 8, 2018 · Last modified September 7, 2018
Life in Our Homeschool This was our first week back and it didn’t go quite as planned (though, when does homeschooling ever go exactly as we think it will?!) At the end of last week and into the weekend, I was quite sick. My older two were away for the holiday weekend with some friends. When Monday rolled around, ED was excited to start back. We jumped back into homeschooling...
Free Homeschool Planner / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 14, 2018 · Last modified July 28, 2022
This is a checklist of things you can do now, to get ready for the new school year! Is part of your end-of-summer vision to feel prepared for back-to-school? This checklist will help you slowly and steadily get ready for the new school year! It is mid-summer, but lingering in the back of our minds is that school will be here before we know it. We want to take advantage...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 10, 2018 · Last modified July 25, 2021
This is always one of my favorite posts to write. It’s my chance to reflect back on the year and all the things we managed to accomplish! Sometimes in the short-run it can feel like we’re not getting much homeschooling done. You know how our homeschooling can go… we’re interrupted for activities, illness, errands, appointments, or the occasional blahs. But then when we step back to look at the bigger...
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 6, 2018
I really love pulling together these Year in Review posts because it is my chance to reflect on the year! Looking back, I realize just how much we managed to fit in. Let me jump right in! Here are some highlights from our school year. History in Our Homeschool (Grades 9, 7, 4) Oregon Trail When we started back to school, I worked with my oldest quite a bit on...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 25, 2018
I just spent two wonderful, full-on days at a homeschool conference in Virginia. I had such an amazing time speaking and getting to meet lots of people who visited my booth! Remember, the link to the conference page is here: homeschoolden.com/conference with tips on how to navigate all the resources on the website and links to the free homeschool planner, curriculum resource guides and various resource pages. I know there’s...
Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 26, 2017
I have a new (free!) Mid-Year Homeschool Assessment Packet to share with you today! You might be doing this kind of evaluation and planning over the winter break, but I wanted to share this packet with you sooner than later. This Thanksgiving break, I took the opportunity to really reflect on our homeschool year so far and assess how things are going. This was a natural time for me to...
Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 3, 2017 · Last modified May 6, 2023
I am excited to share our new Homeschool Planner and Discovery Journal! This unique homeschool planning packet is currently FREE to download! It is nearly 100 pages! Not only does this packet include daily and weekly planning pages, checklists and record keeping pages, but it also includes various homeschool journaling pages… think gratitude journal meets homeschool goal setting! What is unique about this planner? We all want to be the...
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 11, 2017
Last week, I managed to get our Science Year in Review post done. I had hoped to get the history post done too, but life got away from me! It’s ready for my this week, though! So, here’s our HISTORY year in review! There are quite a number of freebies in addition to the more in-depth packets I made this year. 🙂 This year my kids were in Grades 8,...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Science / Science Experiments / Science Units
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 4, 2017 · Last modified June 3, 2017
I love looking back at the year and everything we managed to accomplish! Sometimes in the short-run it can feel like we’re not getting much homeschooling done, but when I step back to look at the bigger picture, I’m amazed at what we managed to cover. This year my kids were in Grades 8, 6, and 3. We do our science activities together. Sometimes I focus a little more on...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2017 · Last modified September 23, 2022
Homeschool Vision Planner (This 50+ page pdf is FREE to download!) For many of us the school year is coming to a close and we’re thinking about next year. We’re tossing around ideas and trying to determine just what subjects and units we’ll be covering next fall. I thought I would share the process I go through… and also will share the planning pages that I’ve been using the past...
All About Homeschooling! / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Homeschooling in the News / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 13, 2017
This time of year, many people are looking into homeschooling for the first time. It can feel momentous to make the decision to homeschool. I thought I would share some stats so you know that you are not alone! This post shares some graphs and statistics about some of these topics: How many homeschoolers are there in the U.S.? How do the numbers of homeschoolers compare to the numbers of...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2017 · Last modified August 10, 2023
How to Create Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: Grade 4-5 Today I want to share this free 50+ page Resource Guide for Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum. It has been created to help answer some basic questions: What subjects should I teach my 4th or 5th grader? Where do I start? How do I know what to teach my kids? We are eclectic homeschoolers, which means that we use a wide...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Science Experiments / Science Units / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2016 · Last modified January 8, 2017
When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2016 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year! This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, science worksheets and printables, and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below. Last year as we moved into the new year (in January to May 2016), we were focused on...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 21, 2016 · Last modified August 10, 2023
How to Create Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: Gr. 2-3 One of the things I hear a lot about our blog is that there is so much to take in, it can be overwhelming. That is especially true if you are a new homeschooler, just starting out. I’ve dragged my feet about creating a resource like this is because so much of what we covered is not “grade” or “age” specific....
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.
