Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
History: American Colonies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 16, 2015 · Last modified January 4, 2020
There are lots of wonderful books and movies for kids about the American Revolution. In this post, I’m going to highlight some of the resources we used during our American Revolution Unit. Our kids are currently elementary and middle school age: 7, (almost) 10 and 12. You might be interested in our packet, American Revolution Unit. Click here for more details: Books and Resources we used for this unit study:...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2015
To become an expert, I’ve heard it takes 10,000 hours of hard work and practice. But, it also takes a special teacher, coach or mentor to get to that elite level. Just as top Olympic coaches help motivate and train their athletes by keeping track of every work out and by designing plans and drills that work, we homeschoolers/educators keep track of our kids’ learning, observe their strengths and weaknesses...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 14, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2015
This past week, we talked quite a bit about different music symbols such as treble clef, base clef, natural sign, flat and sharp symbols, crescendo, quarter notes, half notes, etc. etc. (We also went over various notes as we’ve done previous weeks, though I won’t talk about those activities this week.) We played Music Bingo (the easy version). For the link to this and other free music activities, see our...
Homeschool Den / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 13, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2015
Today I have a freebie for you. My kids still love playing Minecraft… and ED likes the Minecraft themed math worksheet characters I made. So, here’s yet another set of Minecraft math worksheets! I made these for practicing multiplication by 7s (for beginners). ED knows the “song” for skip-counting by 7s. We sing the 7s to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat: 7, 14 21 28, 35 42...
Homeschool Den / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 7, 2015 · Last modified February 13, 2017
The past week or so, ED has been playing some online multiplication games to work on her math facts. I wanted to highlight some of the ones she has been having fun with. My girls’ favorite from multiplication.com is called Fairy Fun. The picture adds more and more detail as you answer the problems correctly. You can highlight more than one set of multiplication facts (you could select 2s, 3s and...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2015 · Last modified September 29, 2015
Last week we tried a new recipe for lunch. The kids absolutely loved this. Not only did we have it for lunch twice last week, but we got more cilantro and made another batch for dinner because the kids wanted Dad to try it out as well!! I call that a winner!! What I also loved is that it takes under 10 minutes to prepare from start to finish! Ingredients:...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2015 · Last modified January 4, 2020
American Revolution Unit: Worksheets, Review Cards, Lapbook Page, Books, Resources, and More! Our most recent history unit was on the causes and events leading up to the American Revolution. We went into quite a bit of depth on the French and Indian War and how the colonies then became the focus of England’s attention in the post-(French and Indian)-War period as Parliament struggled to cover their expenses and tackle their...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 30, 2015 · Last modified September 29, 2015
We’ve still been moving slowly, but steadily through our music curriculum. My older two are definitely understand all the material we’ve gone over, but it definitely takes ED longer to remember all the notes… which is why all the games we’ve been playing have been so wonderful! She needs a lot of repetition and it is not yet translating to what she does on the piano (she just memorizes what...
Have you read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (affiliate link)? It’s a book we read aloud a couple of years ago (and we highly recommend it!!). It is the touching story of a field mouse who lives in a farmer’s vegetable garden. She needs help moving her young mouse family because her baby, Timothy, is very sickly. Her home is warm and cozy, but is in danger both...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 25, 2015 · Last modified July 31, 2020
Today I’m going to share our German worksheets about the weather and seasons, winter words and sickness/illness. These and a dozen other pdfs are icluded in German BUNDLE 1. I have found it difficult to find good German materials and curriculum for kids. Early on we used a lot of free German worksheets and materials, but then at a certain point the kids were ready for more. Last spring I...
I’ve been toying with trying something a bit different and I would love to hear your opinions. I’ve been thinking of either putting together a few podcast episodes or video episodes highlighting different hands-on activities and/or thoughts about homeschooling. I happen to listen to a TON of podcasts, but then video seems better to be able to incorporate visuals. Anyway, I’m just bouncing this around in my head and am...
Today, the Pope is making his first visit to the United States. The kids and I watched his arrival on TV just a little while ago. We aren’t Catholic, but the kids’ Grandma is. (My Mom died about 15 years ago and my Dad remarried just before LD was born.). Anyway, we took the opportunity today to talk about a bit about Catholicism today and about why the Pope is...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2015 · Last modified September 25, 2016
Are you looking for free fall printables for PreK-K? Here’s a huge list of fabulous FREE fall-themed packets that have been shared by generous parents and teachers. Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some of these fall-themed activities and printables. You will find everything from puzzles, counting and letter recognition activities to writing, do-a-dot pages, dot-to-dots and more! Fall Pack from 3 Dinosaurs: Leaves Unit by...
Active Math Games / Homeschool Den / Math--Division / Math--Multiplication / Math: Pre-Algebra
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 21, 2015
The weather is gorgeous, so once again it was time to take advantage of the lovely temperatures, get active, and practice some math! For this game we drew a giant circle out of chalk and put numbers into each space all around the circle. Which numbers? We wrote down the numbers as we skip counted by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s. (2 thru 20, 3 thru 30, 4 thru 40 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.
