Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 28, 2014 · Last modified November 2, 2018
This Spaghetti Yarn Art is a cute, quick craft you can do with your 2-5 year old. This was a really good project even for ED, who was age 2 at the time. She could pretty much do it on her own as long as I reminded her of the steps along the way. For this activity we needed cooked spaghetti (we used fettuccine), bits of yarn or string, and glue. We had one bowl of...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2014 · Last modified January 18, 2015
When I was at camp years ago, we made sun prints using photo paper and photography chemicals. I remember being thrilled to work in the darkroom. This isn’t quite as exotic, but it is a quick and easy version of that with sun sensitive paper… no chemicals needed! We got our paper at Oriental Trading. It was $6.25 per dozen sheets. (Nature Print Sun-Sensitive Paper). I sent the kids outside...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2014 · Last modified June 24, 2015
When I was at camp years ago, we made sun prints using photo paper and photography chemicals. I remember being thrilled to work in the darkroom. This isn’t quite as exotic, but it is a quick and easy version of that with sun sensitive paper… no chemicals needed! We got our paper at Oriental Trading. It was $6.25 per dozen sheets. (Nature Print Sun-Sensitive Paper). I sent the kids...
I’ve been thinking and planning out the next six weeks of our homeschool… We have some things that we really need to address like spelling and grammar. Since the kids ADORE math circle time (see this post here) (which is basically critical thinking and math riddles) we have to add that back in as well. But the big fat blank — the ugly square looking me (and you!) square in the...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 28, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
I can’t say enough about Kathy over at Art Projects for Kids and the amazing lessons she shares on her blog. We have been benefiting from her free lessons for years! With everything else that has been going on for me the last few months, it’s been wonderful to have this resource helping to inspire my kids. We have an ever-growing notebook of lessons that the kids flip through and...
only to find out that making a dog bed is on your agenda!! ED decided she really, really had to have a dog bed for her pet puppy, Cookie. She and I put our heads together this morning, got out the fabric scraps, sewing machine and set to work! Now there’s a sense of accomplishment for 9am on a Sunday! It turned out pretty cute! It’s fun to be a...
Arts and Crafts / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 7, 2013
Every year there are a few Christmas decorations that I absolutely LOVE bringing out! I wanted to share a few of our family favorites! My personal favorites are the ones that include pictures of the kids. One year when the kids were not-quite-2, 4 and 6, I made a holiday picture banner. I took pictures of the kids holding all the letters in Merry Christmas. Then I laminated them and...
Last year DD and LD did art class once a week at an art studio. We decided we really needed to cut that out for now (because of the cost — although the teacher is absolutely brilliant and wonderful with the kids!). This year we’ve got art scheduled in once a week (so that we actually carve out time for it). We had our first art time yesterday (Thursday) —...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 30, 2013 · Last modified April 12, 2015
A wonderful way to recycle, inspire and create is to save your clean trash. Set that out along with feathers, googly eyes, glue, pipe cleaners and other assorted things to see what you child can come up with. Egg cartons were a huge hit with the girls last week. While I decorated a tissue box… the girls set to work on their own cute puppets (no input from me)! Our...
Arts and Crafts / Holiday: Father's Day / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 1, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
One year for Father’s Day, I sat the kids down, shined a bright light at them and made silhouette cameos of them for Hubby. He loved them and the kids were proud of them (even if I did most of the work). Getting ED to sit still for that (she was 19 months at the time) was a HUGE challenge, but it’s sure nice having a memento like that! Tomorrow I’ll share another...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2013 · Last modified March 1, 2016
…just the cute ones win out! Do you do little crafts with your kids? I’m just as guilty as the next blogger in only sharing the cute-craft successes. This post was originally just a shout out to ED’s little lion project. Cute stuff, but really that doesn’t demonstrate the creativity and imagination of the poor, “ugly” crafts that get made at the Homeschool Den. Most of those don’t even get...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
…just the cute ones win out! Do you do little crafts with your kids? I’m just as guilty as the next blogger in only sharing the cute-craft successes. This post was originally just a shout out to ED’s little lion project. Cute stuff, but really that doesn’t demonstrate the creativity and imagination of the poor, “ugly” crafts that get made at the Homeschool Den. Most of those don’t even get...
Ages 2-6: Flower Unit / Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 19, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
Did you know this week, May 2-8, 2016 is National Wildflower Week? You might want to visit the U.S. Forest Service Website: Celebrating Wildflowers and their Special Features Page. They have beautiful posters and resources available (free). Okay, so only some of these flowers below are actually wildflowers. It’s not a great idea to pick wildflowers if you don’t know the regulations of your region, but we found some gorgeous...
One day, DD announced, “I want to learn to weave.” I realized that I was a terrible mother… my kids have never even learned the basics of paper weaving! It was time to bring out the construction paper and teach that all-important skill… repeating the over-under-over-under pattern! Then I used hard pieces of cardboard and made simple little yarn looms for them. Even my youngest quickly got the hang of...
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.
