Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Each week, I’ve been trying to share some of the packets I’ve made for the kids in the past couple of years. Here are some pages I made for our Rocks and Minerals Unit that you might find of use. Rocks and Minerals Post: We wrapped our chemistry unit and spent a few weeks on vertebrates and invertebrates. It was time to tackle a new unit on rocks and minerals. I’m using a...
Freebies / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 24, 2014 · Last modified July 20, 2018
Last year we did a unit on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you today. Our main activity for this portion of...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 8, 2014 · Last modified September 9, 2023
Last week ED I printed out the daily calendar page I made for her last fall. She filled one out each morning as she needs some review on some of the spellings on the days of the week and we needed to review how to read a thermometer. I printed it out on the back of her daily checklist (You can grab our free homeschool planner with these daily checklists...
Freebies / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 3, 2014
One thing I love about homeschooling is that we have the ability to be totally spontaneous! Our family started our new homeschool year a couple of weeks ago, but then Hubby and I decided at the last minute to take a family vacation. So, we simply stacked the (academic) books, packed the car and set out for a week of camping — plus a whole slew of education and just...
Active Math Games / Freebies / Homeschool Den / How to Start Homeschooling / Math General Posts / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 7, 2014 · Last modified March 23, 2017
This is the second part in my talk about math curriculums. In the previous post, not only did I list some of the better known homeschool math curriculums, but I shared 15+ ideas for making math engaging and fun! (Math Curriculums and Active Engaging Math Activities) Today I wanted to share some of the materials I’ve made for the kids. I’ve found that the kids really enjoy when I make...
Freebies / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 28, 2014
Behind the scenes, I have been starting to plan out our fall semester. One thing I wanted right away was a calendar packet. I made one last spring and found it really useful. I printed out two copies. One is for our school schedule. I will pencil in our units and trips to see what the semester will look like. The calendar includes various holidays since we’ll be reviewing some...
A number of years ago, we had a subscription to Discovery Education Streaming Plus. We loved it. Not only does it include videos and video clips on practically any science or history topic you can imagine, it also offers shows such as The Magic School Bus Animated Hero Classics Liberty’s Kids Tutenstein Grossology Horrible Histories Time Warp Trio Reading Rainbow Greatest Discoveries with Bill Nye Journals through Histories Myth Busters...
Freebies / History: China Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 2, 2014 · Last modified February 20, 2017
Most every kid has heard of Genghis Khan, right? Boy, do we have some good books and videos for you! Plus you can download our free notebook pages about Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan! If you are looking for an engaging unit to do with your kids this summer — this could be it! My kids LOVED this portion of our China unit. We skipped forward almost 1,000 years (from 200AD...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
As I mentioned yesterday, we started a new unit on water (jumping off onto a new tangent for our weather unit). I made a couple of pages for the kids’ science notebooks. They go along with some of the resources I shared yesterday. I had the kids try to brainstorm as many uses for water as they could and then had them study a printout of the USGA water use poster...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Water Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 28, 2014 · Last modified February 6, 2017
A couple of weeks ago, we started on a new unit. One that focuses on water, the water cycle, and water pollution. A lot of the time I make our own science notebook pages, but there were so many wonderful resources already available, we used what we found online instead for this portion of our Weather and Water unit. I thought I would share some of these resources with you...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2014 · Last modified October 16, 2022
A couple of months ago, I did an animal unit with my youngest. We went over the characteristics of living and non-living things. Then we talked about vertebrates and invertebrates and finally we went over the five vertebrate groups in quite some detail. I shared the free Montessori cards I made for that part of our unit: the Montessori Vertebrate-Invertebrate cards and the sheets I made on Animals and their Characteristics....
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2014 · Last modified October 5, 2017
Today I’m going to share some free weather worksheets I made for the kids. This is for our study of the weather: the uneven heating of the Earth and how that affects our weather, fronts, and more! Yesterday, I shared some of the science experiments we did about air. We learned that air has weight, hot air rises and more. We are using a science textbook as the spine of...
Freebies / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 12, 2014 · Last modified September 3, 2020
Last week we had a lot of fun with our Weather Unit. The kids always love when we do science experiments and this part of our unit had a ton of demonstrations. Air has weight: This first activity is pretty self explanatory. We made sure that two balloons balanced. Then we blew up one balloon. It was clear immediately that the blown-up balloon was heavier. Clear or Cloudy Day: The...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 7, 2014 · Last modified February 24, 2016
The kids are going over some tricky homophones. These are some of the sheets I made for them. If you can use them, they are free to download. Grammar Sheets — Lay-Lie Peace-Piece Accept-Except and other homophones Other free grammar worksheets you can download: Their, They’re, There – Its, It’s Free Practice Sheets Comma Rules and Practice Worksheets Comma Rules and Practice Worksheets (Fall Theme) Grammar Practice: Possessive Nouns...
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.
