Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
History: Middle Ages / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 25, 2016 · Last modified March 23, 2022
We spent a couple of weeks studying the events of the 1300s. Today I’m going to share the worksheets I made for the kids about the Crusades, Hundred Year’s War, and the Black Plague. I’ll also share the simulation: Will you survive the Black Plague?!! To start, we covered the history of the Crusades, Hundred Year’s War and the Black Plague. We read the chapters in our history book. We...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 21, 2016 · Last modified January 20, 2016
It has been a while since I just wrote about one of our days. I thought I would write up a quick post about the flow of our day. In our homeschool, no day is exactly like another. 🙂 Today I had to drag myself out of bed. I was up until nearly 3am last night working on the computer (on some school stuff for the kids and some behind...
Engineering - STEM Activities / Engineering Challenges / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 15, 2016 · Last modified January 14, 2016
You know how we often like to start back into homeschooling with some engaging, out-of-the-box activities? Sometimes we’ve done engineering challenges, other times we’ve done some fun critical thinking activities. Last week, I challenged the kids to make their own marble maze. They each took a big piece of cardboard, sticks (or whatever) and a glue-gun and went to work! They had fun trying to complete each other’s maze courses! ...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 13, 2016 · Last modified September 5, 2017
We are studying biology right now. Last week, the kids had to choose one of the biomes, do research about it, and prepare a 3 to 5 minute speech. They did a great job! This week, they are going to do another short research project. This time, I thought I would have the kids do another of the CDC units. Previously (a couple of years ago) they did projects on...
History: Middle Ages / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 11, 2016 · Last modified September 19, 2023
The kids learned so much from our hands-on activities about feudalism. We did a simulation of feudalism that helped the kids understand the roles and responsibilities of the various members of society. And we also studied of some well-known medieval paintings from that period. So first, a bit about our feudalism worksheets. For this unit, we are using Early Times: The Story of the Middle Ages, (affiliate link) by Suzanne...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 1, 2016 · Last modified September 13, 2016
Language arts is a subject that is always in progress, so it doesn’t make quite as snazzy of a year in review wrap-up, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to share some of our free grammar resources again in a nice, organized table form since those still are so popular. The chart also includes links to our popular Homeschool Writing Workshop series. I’ve also included links to...
History and World Cultures Units / History: American Colonies / History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Middle Ages / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 30, 2015
What a successful year! As the year draws to a close, I love taking a look at what we’ve accomplished not only in school, but in life in general. I’m not one to make “resolutions” per se, but I do enjoy thinking about what’s to come and seeing just how to make that happen! This year was a *huge* one for my blog. January 5, 2015 was my last official...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Nature / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 21, 2015 · Last modified February 23, 2024
Animal Unit We have a 100+ page packet all about animals! The Animal Unit covers various topics such as body coverings (feathers, fur, scales, skin), the different types of animals (vertebrates, invertebrates), animal characteristics, insects vs. spiders, domesticated vs. wild animals, animal tracks, animal homes and shelters, herbivores, carnivores & omnivores, and much more! In our animal unit, we spent quite a bit of time on animal classification. First, we...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Math--Division / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 18, 2015 · Last modified December 8, 2018
Here are a few math review sheets I put into ED’s math workbox this week. (I almost forgot to share it!) So better late than never, right?!! These pages have a little bit of everything–addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. She has just started on double-digit multiplication, but she likes having “fun” math sheets too. Hope someone else can use these! 🙂 ~Liesl Christmas Math Worksheets You might be interested...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 17, 2015 · Last modified January 5, 2020
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about books here in our homeschool. I thought I would spend some time highlighting the books my 7-year old has read and loved this fall. This past summer I bought a huge selection of chapter books that were reasonably short (roughly 100 pages or less). Last year she read through 35 of the Magic Tree House books. (affiliate link). Just like my son, she...
Homeschool Den / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 8, 2015 · Last modified September 3, 2020
As we start off our new science units, I wanted to be sure the kids remembered Earth’s 4 major systems (or ecospheres): atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere. We spent several days just reviewing these four Earth Systems in a general way. You know me, I also made the kids some notebook pages and review cards to go along with our discussion! I thought it might be helpful for some of you...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 7, 2015 · Last modified February 24, 2017
I have a ton of math activities and free resources to share with you in this post! We started working on Place Value when my kids were about 4. We came across some free Montessori materials and used them for years and years. I thought I would spend a little time highlighting these activities again because I know they’ve gotten a lot of hits through the years. These activities are...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 4, 2015 · Last modified June 26, 2020
Just as we were finishing up our Chemistry Unit on the periodic table, the team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute got in touch with me to see if I would be interested in reviewing and/or hosting a giveaway of their Giant Screen animated film, Molecules to the MAX! This film has just been released on DVD and Blu-Ray. I talked with the kids (and we watched the trailer www.moleculestothemax.com) and decided...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 3, 2015 · Last modified December 2, 2015
We all want those things in our homeschool or classroom, right?! In this series, Thoughts on Teaching, I’ve been diving into some of the deeper issues we have as educators. How do we create an environment that helps students blossom and reach their full potential? Today I’m going to talk about the fear of failure and the struggle that can create for some students. In some ways, I notice that...
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.
