Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2018
How do you help kids improve their essay writing skills? For many years, I worked on essay writing with students (I taught high school & college history) and now as a homeschooler, I’m working on essay writing skills with my own kids. I thought I would share some of writing strategies that I am using with my kids as they learn to write in this genre. A few days ago,...
Homeschool Den / Science: Digestive System
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 5, 2018 · Last modified August 21, 2022
The past few weeks, we have been studying the digestive system. We had studied the digestive system a number of years ago, but now that the kids are older (4th, 7th, 9th), I wanted to go into more depth — especially about the small intestine, liver, gall bladder, pancreas and large intestine. We talked about how different parts of the digestive tract functions and the role bile and pancreatic juice...
Energy Pyrmaid / Food Webs / Homeschool Den / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Food Chains
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 17, 2018 · Last modified February 22, 2022
We have a Biology Packet that covers the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings (ie. ecology!). I have added several new activities to this packet. These include interactive notebook pages on the food chain, food web and the energy pyramid. Also, I created a new Biology Bundle of 5! Details about that are below. First, let me explain what new activities were added. In addition...
Games for Thinking and Learning / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 11, 2018
With birthdays coming up, I am often on the look-out for educational activities that might be appealing to my kids. I also grab things from time-to-time that will add some sparkle to our units. This post has a number of educational things I’ve added to our homeschool collection… puzzles, games, geography activities, science tools and more! 🙂 Critical Thinking Challenge! My kids really love this activity called Kanoodle (affiliate link)...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 7, 2018 · Last modified March 1, 2024
This is just a quick note to let you all know that I added in a few more pages to the World Facts Packet. This packet is now well over 125 pages! When we start off the new school year, I want the kids to go over some basic world facts again. Do they remember… What are the four largest countries? (Russia, Canada, the U.S.A., China) What countries have the...
History: China Unit / Homeschool Den / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2018 · Last modified September 5, 2022
Last week, I shared a little bit about what we’ve been doing in our homeschool, but I also mentioned that we have been on the go a lot. Pretty much right after that post went live, we headed out of town again! I wanted to share a few pictures from the amazing exhibit we went to see: Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China. It was wonderful! The Terracotta...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Month in Review / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / How to Start Homeschooling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 30, 2018
This semester has been off to a topsy-turvy start. The homeschooling part is going well… when we’re homeschooling that is! Don’t you feel like that some days?!! I thought I would write a post about some of the things we’ve been doing lately. (At the very bottom of this post, I’ll link to other posts that give snippets of our day (or week)… all the way back to when the...
All About Homeschooling! / Homeschool Den / Homeschool High School / Preparing for College
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 19, 2018 · Last modified January 17, 2018
I’ve been having long conversations with my Sis about high school (homeschool) transcripts and the college application process. Her family (like ours) has also homeschooled right from the start, but my nieces and nephew are a bit older than my kids. My niece is now a junior in college and over the weekend, my Sis and my nephew were polishing up his college applications to get them submitted. I asked...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math-Roman Numerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2018
Do you know this date, MCCXV? What about MCMLXIII? I wanted my kids to be able to figure out tricky dates like those, so I made this Roman Numeral Packet over the break. The first few pages introduce the Roman numerals and helped my youngest daughter understand how they were built. There is a table that the kids filled in with I=1, V=5, X=10, L=50, C=100, D=500, M=1000. My older...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 15, 2018 · Last modified January 8, 2018
Today, I have some free creative writing paper for you. This set includes various mythological creatures: dragon, centaur, dwarf, gargoyle, goblin, dryad, and so forth. My girls thought these were neat and I have printed out these pages to store in our Writing Workshop area for when they are in the mood! Down below, I’ll include some of the links to why we started using a Writing Workshop in our...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 8, 2018 · Last modified March 1, 2024
We do a lot of history units and basic geography in our homeschool, but I also want to cover some other social studies topics. Once every year or so, we add in this World Facts Unit. We go over some basic world facts, as well as geographic terms, landforms, the deserts of the world, some famous world landmarks, topographic maps, and more. We cover… What are the four largest countries? (Russia,...
Homeschool Den / Science: Animal Characteristics / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Taxonomy Scientific Classification / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 31, 2017 · Last modified February 23, 2024
As many of you know, we have a 100+ page animal packet that is about the different types of animals (vertebrates, invertebrates), animal characteristics, insects vs. spiders, domesticated vs. wild animals, animal tracks and much more! I wanted to let you all know that I have added in about a dozen new pages including these activities about Feather Fur or Scales. I added in new notebook pages and sorting cards...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 26, 2017 · Last modified December 24, 2017
I wanted to take a few minutes to link to a couple of posts you might enjoy while you are resting and relaxing this holiday break. I love our breaks! I really, really need time to re-group and get refreshed for another semester. This is probably as important a part of our homeschooling life as when we are going full-tilt with reading, writing, arithmetic, science experiments, history projects, and more!...
Our family wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season! We hope your holiday season is filled with love and joy! With love from all of us at the Homeschool Den — Liesl, Tony and the Kids P.S. DD and I took a special Mom-Daughter trip to NYC a few weeks ago. The picture above was taken in Macy’s in New York City. I hope you...
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.
