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History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 28, 2014
With the 4th of July right around the corner, I thought I would highlight some books you and your kids can read that celebrate America. I’ve selected books about the American Revolution and Constitution, but also wanted to point out some books about our beautiful country. If I were to recommend just one book, it might have to be They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell. It is the...
History: American History / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 21, 2014 · Last modified November 14, 2017
I was looking for Native American children’s books written by and about Native Americans. I found Debbie Reese’s website, American Indians in Children’s Literature. What a great resource! Today I’d like to share some of the books we read together this past week. I went with the books that were available at our library and that were appealing to the kids. 1) Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story (affiliate link) This is a...
History: American History / Holiday: Memorial Day
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 26, 2014
Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and started after the Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union Soldiers. By the 20th century Memorial Day was extended to honor all Americans who have died in wars. A couple of years ago, I had a long conversation with my Dad and extended family about the members of our family who have served in the U.S. military. As I asked for...
History: American History / Language Arts: Writing / WWII
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2014 · Last modified February 2, 2021
I received several emails and a message from people interested in the WWII Portfolio Project I made for LD. So, here it is! My son is doing some research work on WWII. Except for reading some novels last year (like Number the Stars), we have not covered this topic at all… He has been doing quite a bit of reading and has watched a video before jumping into the project ideas...
History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2013 · Last modified February 12, 2016
We are planning to focus on World Cultures (India and China) this year, but we haven’t started in on that yet. Instead, we resumed the year with some of the U.S. geography and history activities we were working on last May/June. Since we traveled quite a bit this summer I wanted to reinforce some of that geography. We talked about our trips and the states we visited. We pulled out the...
Freebies / History: American History / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 27, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Earlier this week, I shared the 10-page packet of summer camp songs I’ve been singing with the kids. With the 4th of July right around the corner, I also put together a set of patriotic songs to sing with them. If you are interested, here are some of the songs we’ve been singing (and learning): American Patriotic Song Packet Related Posts: You might also be interested in our free...
History: Africa Unit / History: American History / History: Slavery and the Civil War / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 30, 2013 · Last modified January 31, 2019
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in America As many of you know, we have been studying Africa this year in our homeschool. As we finished up our studies of West Africa, we spent about a week learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and about slavery in general. My kids had not yet studied this in history. We read a number of books… most of them had an incredible impact on...
History: American History / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 28, 2012 · Last modified August 18, 2016
Over the course of the week we met families from Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio and New York who had come Colonial Williamsburg for the homeschool experience. During homeschool week they had lots (and lots) of children’s activities. Every activity we went to was absolutely terrific and educational. Here are some of the things we attended during the week: We did both the normal orientation walk as well...
History: American History / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 27, 2012 · Last modified August 18, 2016
We’ve heard wonderful things about the homeschool programs in Colonial Williamsburg in some of the yahoo groups. For two weeks in September, there are programs especially for homeschoolers. They offered discount tickets for homeschoolers and their families and have lots of programs and experiences geared specifically for kids. This year we decided to go with some close friends of ours to check things out. You can spend lots...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Outdoor: Fossils
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 30, 2012 · Last modified December 15, 2018
I’ve been bursting at the seams to write this post, but wanted to wait til I had more information before sharing our excitement! Can you believe, we found an arrowhead on our property?! Okay, so technically it’s not an arrowhead, more about that in a second. The first thing we did was start googling to find out more information. I really didn’t know too much about arrowheads. I was...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 10, 2012
We actually stumbled across this museum, but what a FABULOUS place to visit. Just had to shout that out, it was *that* good! From the time Arkansas became a state in 1836 to the mid 1940s cotton production was common in the Arkansas River lowlands. Men, women and children could be seen picking and stuffing cotton into long sacks in the fall. Tractors were not used for the preparation, planting,...
History: American History / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 9, 2012 · Last modified January 1, 2015
For the past two and a half weeks, I was on the road with the kids (we left hubby home working for much of the time). In yesterday’s post I talked about traveling with the kids in a general way. We did SO much on this trip! We visited 18 family members who are strewn throughout the midwest. I did some research before we left and fit in some educational side...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 4, 2012
If you’re here in the U.S., I hope you have a fun 4th of July! Fireworks have been banned in lots of places because of drought, but so far it’s still a go for us this evening! Why is it we celebrate this day? In June and July 1776, a committee worked on a document that all the thirteen colonies could agree upon that formally told Great Britain that they would...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 2, 2012 · Last modified June 9, 2018
These stars are wonderful for decorating your garden for Independence Day! We took a heavy duty paper plate and cut out a star. Then you decorate the star with toothpicks. As you can see we broke the ends of lots of the toothpicks to get the lengths we wanted. After the glue dried, we painted the stars. We used spray paint (and you can tell I didn’t get the hang...
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.
