Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 22, 2020 · Last modified April 23, 2021
No doubt, this is a really unusual time. Most of the activities our family has relied on to add variety & spice to our homeschool life have ended for the year. And, it looks like summer camps & things like that won’t be an option either. We still have our homeschool routine, but I though my girls might enjoy it if we added in some different, fun activities. I came...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 6, 2019 · Last modified June 5, 2019
Are you getting ready for summer?! Check out this free Summer Planning Packet — including more than 350 activity ideas, summer planning pages, pet sitter instruction page, trip planning pages, a packing list, a summer goals sheet, and a Summer Camp at Home planner. Hopefully, this FREE packet will help you get ready for some serious summertime fun! 🙂 Free Summer Planning Packet Click on the link or the picture...
If you are doing a road trip this summer, you’ll want to grab this FREE 40+ page Road Trip Packet for Kids! We will be doing a 3,500 mile road trip this summer. That’s a LONG time to be in the car, right?! I asked the kids if they wanted a Summer Road Trip Packet and they said, “Definitely! Yes!” You can grab this FREE printable with the link below!!...
Summer Planning Printables! In this post you’ll find several useful (and free!) Summer-Time Packets and Printables: Free Summer Planning Packet (including a Packing List for Travels, Summer Scheduling Pages, and more) 350+ Summer Activity Ideas (Free Printable) Free Preschool Activity Ideas Printable Free “Design and Draw” Packet And our End of Year Homeschool Questionnaire (one for students and one for parents). My kids are at the age that they are...
This post has tons of fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! It includes everything from summer camp songs to sing with the kids to crafts, creative math fun to a huge design and draw challenge, a free summer travels packet to fun science experiment ideas!! Hope you find something your kids will enjoy!! ~Liesl Summer is often the time to do some activities that...
Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 13, 2016 · Last modified May 16, 2016
Here are some fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! A Huge List of Summer Activity Ideas! Nature Scavenger Hunt: Send your kids outside to complete this scavenger hunt! This printable is free! 🙂We also have a photo hunt: Have them take photos of the things on the list:Set up an Outdoor Treasure Hunt with QR Codes! Kids use the QR code reader to find...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 8, 2016 · Last modified November 13, 2016
Today I’m going to share a list of chapter books for older kids. This is a great selection of books. We’ve now read every book on this list (and then some!!). Many of them we read aloud together. I loved Hatchet so much that I read this aloud with LD and then read it again to DD just this year. Sometimes its fun to share the excitement together. Our family...
Engineering - STEM Activities / Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 6, 2016 · Last modified May 6, 2016
Here are some fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! Today’s post highlights some fun engineering, science and math activities you can do this summer! Summer Fun: Science, Engineering, and Math Ideas Egg Drop Challenge: Give the kids various supplies (cups, paper bags, yarn, scissors, hole punch, tape, and some coins). Have them design a parachute that will safely let an egg drop to the...
There are so many amazing activities that kids can do that don’t involve electronics. This is a HUGE list of fun activities that will get your kids ENGAGED! Here are some examples: Cabin Camping, Camp Fire Songs, Candle Making, Candy Making, Candy Tour, Canning, Car Wash, Card Games, Card Making, Cardboard Boat Race, Carnival, Caroling, Cave Tour, Cemetery Walk, Ceramics Mug Pottery Wheel, Challenge Course, Chemistry Day, Chess, China, Chili...
Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 25, 2016 · Last modified June 27, 2016
Today I have a free USA Road Trip Travel Log for you!! Hopefully, this will help you keep your kids entertained if you plan to travel a lot this summer. Plus, I’ll share some of the travel activities to make the car trip more fun!! So first, about the printables: I made this Travel Book for the kids for our huge trip out West this summer. It’s about 40 pages,...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 29, 2015 · Last modified April 10, 2016
This game is great for keeping the kids active inside when it’s very hot outside!! When I was a kid, I remember playing skip ball a lot. We were shopping at Target about a month ago and did a total impulse buy!! I’m so glad we did. We’ve all been using it daily since … meaning… it’s always lying in the middle of the living room. 🙂 But our family...
This summer I won’t be posting quite as often, but I will try to post most Mondays (at a minimum)… and will keep FB going once or twice a day with some of our older posts. In the meantime, I’ll be working on other projects to get ready for the fall. I’m working on a couple of cute math packets (addition/subtraction and multiplication), a packet on mammals, an ocean unit...
Yesterday was the first official day of summer! I hope your summer is going well so far!! One of the first things we did when we moved here close to five years ago was to plant a blueberry garden. We chose a very steep (difficult to mow) hill, took out all of the grass, and created two tiers. I remember ED (age 2 at the time) coming out to “help”...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 1, 2015 · Last modified April 23, 2021
I typed up a list of more than 350 activities, projects, trip ideas, and patches the kids can work on this summer. When I handed these pages to the kids you should have seen them pour through the list! Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads, they were so excited! Each of the items on this list have patches that scouts (and others!) can earn. But let’s face it, it’s just...
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.
