Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Freebies / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Civil Rights Movement / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 10, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Yesterday I shared the Civil Rights books we’ll be using in our Civil Rights Movement unit. Before we go into a lot of depth about the events of the 1950s and 1960s, I wanted to make sure the kids really understood some of the history leading up to this period. I created a photo timeline of events to help my kids review (and/or understand) the events leading to the Civil...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 8, 2014 · Last modified October 6, 2020
I didn’t talk very much about what we were up to with German this last semester. With all my health issues it took a bit of a back burner for a while. I mainly had the kids listen to German stories on CD. We are using a German children’s book this year called Bobo Siebenschlafer (affiliate link). I bought both the book and the audio CD. It has been just...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 6, 2014 · Last modified February 23, 2016
This post is now located here: Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 5, 2013 · Last modified May 16, 2023
Last week I mentioned that we’ve been doing some grammar review again. We went over 11 comma rules. Then each day they’ve been doing five or six sentences — adding in the comma where needed and identifying the comma rule that applies. My kids love science, so the comma worksheet has a lot to do with science this time. (There are sentences about the plague, polio, the Venus fly trap,...
Freebies / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 2, 2013 · Last modified March 18, 2016
A couple of weeks ago, I started writing a series about how and why we started our own Homeschool Writing Workshop. This is the fourth post in the series. Since it’s been a while, let me link to the first few posts in the series Creating a Homeschool Writing Workshop — Post #1: How and Why We Got Started with a Workshop Model. Creating a Homeschool Writing Workshop – Post...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 27, 2013 · Last modified July 7, 2020
Yesterday, I mentioned that we’ve added a new portion to our math day. For much of the fall, the kids were simply doing math problems from their math book and they were complaining that math was B*O*R*I*N*G. What? Oh NO!! It was true, though, with everything else going on they were doing straight-forward stuff; you know fraction problems like this… or long division… or a good meaty problem like 5789...
Freebies / Holiday: Thanksgiving / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 20, 2013 · Last modified November 15, 2018
Last week my daughter did several skip counting mazes and she asked for more. I whipped a few new sheets together for her… the turkey has to find his lost hat (and not wind up as dinner!). You can move in any direction including diagonally. If you are interested you can download them and use them with your kids as well! Enjoy! Thanksgiving Skip Counting Practice 2s 3s 5s If...
Freebies / History: India Unit / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 18, 2013 · Last modified February 17, 2016
This semester we are studying India. Back in September I shared the huge India Unit packet I made. We’ve gone through most of that packet and have done a lot of the readings I mentioned in that post. Then while I was recovering from my surgery the kids and my mother-in-law read lots and lots of children’s books about the various Hindu gods and goddesses (books are listed in this...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Freebies / Holiday: Thanksgiving / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Fractions / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 16, 2013 · Last modified March 10, 2016
I’m always SO grateful for the educators who share their materials for free! I was looking for some Thanksgiving themed math materials for my kids and came across a number of free games and printables (most are from TeachersPayTeachers which you need to register (free) to be able to download). We have taken a number of pages for ED’s kindergarten math from Royal Baloo’s Thanksgiving Math Pack Use a hole...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Division
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 7, 2013 · Last modified April 10, 2016
DD is just now moving into long division–by that I mean we’ve done about a half-dozen problems together. She really didn’t get it at all… so I wanted a more hands on way of showing her what was happening. Last week I made ED some kitty place value cards (haven’t gotten that post done!) for her to work on building numbers into the thousands, but it occurred to me that...
Freebies / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 25, 2013 · Last modified March 29, 2016
Before my surgery I had made some dragon themed math pages for the kids to work on while I was out last week. I drew the red and blue dragons myself. For some reason the kids are VERY into dragons and hippogriffs at the moment! My drawings turned out reasonably cute (I’ll paste them in below to show you), but for some reason when I printed them, the pictures look...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info) / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2013 · Last modified December 23, 2016
This post includes links to some of the Montessori 3-part cards I’ve made over the years. Most of them are free! Montessori Sorting Activity: Living Nonliving Cards Montessori-Style Animal Cards: Sorting Vertebrates-Invertebrates and Animals of the 5 Kingdoms U.S. Landmarks and Symbols – 3 part cards FREE — We placed these cards on a huge US map we have as we learned where these famous landmarks are locate. Montessori 3-Part...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 14, 2013 · Last modified May 12, 2016
This post has a collection of free grammar worksheets I’ve made for the kids over the past couple of years. You’ll find practice sheets on the major comma rules, apostrophes, underlining and more: This first set, covers the basic comma rules. We read over the rules together, then my son had to figure out which rule applied to each sentence and had to add in the appropriate comma/s. By the...
Active Math Games / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 8, 2013 · Last modified April 2, 2017
DD has learned most of her multiplication facts, but she still needs lots of extra practice because it takes her a while to come up with the answer sometimes. I’m trying to find some fun ways to keep her practicing them and making sure she has them memorized and can recite the answer quickly. So here’s a post covering some of the fun ways we’re reviewing those facts… everything from...
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.
