Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
The kids have really enjoyed this game this week. I gotthe turkey print outs from mathwire.com . I used somecraft cubes and wrote numbers on the dice 0-5 on twoand 6-11 on the others. It was good practice countingfor my preschooler. I made the spinner using a templateonline which I printed on cardstock and glued on cardboard.I put a brad through (it’s sticking up a bit) and used one ofthe...
The other game we played this week was an odd-evengame called Dino Math Blast also from mathwire.com.The dice were craft cubes. I used blue, green and yellowcubes and wrote the numbers 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17. Thefirst player rolled the die of the color space they werecurrently on. If the number was odd the odd dinosaurmoved ahead one space, if the number was even theeven dinosaur moved ahead. Then it was...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Holiday: Thanksgiving
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 15, 2009
This is a little Thanksgiving pattern activity that DD worked on last week. It’s from mathwire.com.
I put a recipe for DD in her workbox thisweek. It was an easy recipe to make “acorncookies.” DD had other ideas, though, andwanted to make gingerbread men. We didthat instead (though I have no picture ofthe actual gingerbread men because theywere the first to get eaten!). Then I had alate night call from my sister and made theacorn cookies myself. It was lovely kickingback and having a tea and...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 26, 2009 · Last modified October 16, 2016
We all LOVED making and eating candy corn today. It is not sold here where we live. We visited http://www.homemade-dessert-recipes.com/candy-corn-recipe.html for instructions. It was easy, the kids enjoyed helping me and LD was impressed. “Wow Mom! YOU knew how to make real candy!!!” We halved the recipe which made more than plenty. As you can see, I added baking chocolate to make brown candy corn. Also, I made pumpkin balls...
This morning LD and I decorated skulls. I got this ideafrom artprojectsforkids.org. First, he traced the outlineof a skull from a skeleton puzzle we have. Then he drewthe eyes, nose and mouth. We decorated it symmetricallyand cut it out. Then we put it up on our front door. Ourback-drop paintings are from the paint popping activity we dida few weeks ago.
Another project from artprojectsforkids.org wasthe pasta skeleton . All the kids really enjoyed thisincluding ED who carefully used all of her pastaand beans!
We have little jack-o-lanterns and some Halloween-themedbeads that we’ve used for math in various ways. Today, DDhad to choose four cards, count out that number of beadsand put them into the jack-o-lantern. It helps with one-to-one correspondence. For LD I’ve used these same items for addition and skipcounting practice (basic mulitiplication groupings). ED just likes to put the beads into the jack-o-lantern whichI let her do if I can sit...
This afternoon DD and I sat down together to put togethera new felt board scene. This is based on Five Little Pumpkins .DD and ED had fun making and remaking the jack-o-lanterns’faces. I read the story several times while DD acted itout on the felt board. I took the picture in the book display area I was mentioningin the post I wrote yesterday about reading (scroll down below). By the...
Arts and Crafts / Holiday: Halloween / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2009
A while back I read about a family who put paint inziploc bags and had the kids jump on them. Nowthat the weather is warming up, we decided to giveit a try. Some of the bags we filled with paint andair; some of them we had paint, vinegar and bakingsoda (to expand the bag). LD was able to pop allthe bags (and the ones without vinegar/bs “lookednicer”), but DD and...
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.
