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) / Arts and Crafts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 19, 2010
I saw this art project at Deep Space Sparkle. The kidswere enthusiastic to give it a go. She explains it betterthan I do, but essentially they drew the monster withoil pastels and then used water colors over top. I was amazed at how little guidance they neededonce I explained the steps. Even DD needed very,very little help. It is interesting that since doing this art project, DD’sdrawings of people now...
LD’s friend learned how to do this in school;he called it a “tom boy.” I remember doingthis as a girl. To get it started you put a slip knot aroundthe outside of the popsicle of the firststick, above the slip knot. Pull the bottompiece of yarn over the top piece of yarn andslip it off the end. For the first row only,you place the yarn behind the second Popsiclestick. On...
Hopefully this helps you see more clearly how you laythe yarn above the other one. Then you grab the lowerpiece of yarn and pull it out, up and over the end of thestick.
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2010
We studied the Milky Way Galaxy and planets a bit lastyear, but since this was covered in the Montessori “FirstGreat Lesson” that we presented (in our own version)over the weekend, I thought the kids might enjoy doing acouple pictures related to what we talked about. Links about the Montessori Great Lessons (geared forearly elementary aged kids): http://www.moteaco.com/albums.htmlhttp://missbarbara.net/greatlessons.htmlhttp://www.montessoricentre.com/GL/The%20Great%20Lesson%201%20-%20secular%20version.htm
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2010
We did two art projects to show the spiral shaped, MilkyWay Galaxy. One was simply sparkles and shiny starspasted onto black paper. For the white pictures, the kids drew the Milky WayGalaxy with a white oil pastel. Then they painted overtheir drawing with black paint. We found that white oilpastels worked MUCH better for the kids than regularcrayola crayons.
Today we looked a bit more closely at Picasso’s “Still Life.”We did our versions of a still life (complete with lots of‘eyes’). I had the kids draw one continuous line that crossedover itself. Then they filled in the figures using oil pastels. The kids really like the vibrant colors of the oil pastels. You are looking at DD’s picture (and the small print Imade of Picasso’s painting).
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 31, 2009
The new artist we put up in the calendar this week wasPablo Picasso. I remembered a wonderful Picasso artlesson at Art Projects for Kids that was aimed at firstgraders. There’s a similar lesson at Deep Space Sparkle.LD did well with it; he said it was hard, but he wasproud of his picture when he was done. DD colored inone that I outlined and did an impressive job too. Most weeks...
LD has always loved jets (his grandpa was a propulsionengineer and worked on the development of the JointStrike Fighter). He and I worked on this paper plane,a model of the Nighthawk.
Arts and Crafts / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2009
I had lots of crafts ready for the kids to do in the car. Thepom pom was a huge hit. This isn’t the way I grew upmaking them, so I thought I’d post a few pictures in caseothers of you hadn’t seen this method. It was greatbecause even ED, now 22 months, was able to wrapthe yarn around. Be sure to cut out two circle shapes to make it easier...
Arts and Crafts / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2009
The kids also really enjoyed decorating Chinese food take-away boxes (that I got in the local dollar store). I gavethem Christmas stickers and all three kids spent a lotof time carefully covering their boxes. Later in the tripI gave them markers to decorate the box. They also enjoyedcoloring in wooden Christmas ornaments. DD really enjoyed the felt board materials (I added asnowman, Christmas tree and ‘ornaments’, and things likethat. I...
LD and DD were especially intrigued by the dream catcher.They decided they wanted to make one of their own. Theyeach wrapped yarn around a clothes hanger wire that Ihad shaped into a circle. LD worked very hard (and lateinto the night I might add!) and did his without any parentalhelp. He was very proud of his work. He also tied all theknots on the spider’s web (we haven’t worked much...
This week our reading related to Thanksgiving (manyof my read alouds were Thanksgiving books) and LDread a number of Thanksgiving stories and readers. We’ve been busy with all the kids’ outside activities: Kindergym, Tues mornings — mostly for ED but LD’sfriend stays home from school, so he gets to hang outwith his friend all morning. We go early because I helpset up each week, hauling all the mats and equipmentout...
LD has decided he loves the last piece inhis piano book. He’s been working very hard tolearn it — it’s amazing what self-motivationdoes. He’s really improving a lot sincehe first started a couple months ago. Today we did crayon melts. The kids werevery excited both in shaving the crayons in thesharpeners (the one on the box worked well,but LD used a hand pencil sharpener he had).They just loved the results.
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.
