Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
This past week, we did something really ausgezeichnet/fantastic!! We got in the car… and we drove and drove and drove… From the east coast…. …to Minnesota! We headed to the small city of Bemidji, visited Paul Bunyan and his Big Blue Ox… … before entering Waldsee (the German language section of Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota). There we spent an entire week immersed in the German language, culture, and food. Of course,...
History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 17, 2015 · Last modified September 11, 2019
What are the top 20 World Landmarks? I’ve selected a number of famous buildings from around the world and created a set of Montessori 3-Part Cards. When we start back to school, we will be jump back in with some important geography facts… the largest countries, the countries with the largest population, the world’s largest cities… and more. We’ll also go over some of the impressive buildings of the world....
History: Ancient Greece Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 12, 2015 · Last modified September 5, 2022
Ancient Greece Unit Many homeschoolers start off with a unit on the Ancient world. Our family was no different! 🙂 When LD was 6 (and the girls were 4 and 2), we started with units on Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. I thought I would share some of the activities and books we used for our Ancient Greece Unit. You’ll see that the way we pull units together hasn’t changed...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2015 · Last modified July 11, 2020
Today I’m going to share some free printable world maps and other images (like the world at night, etc.). These are pages that we’ll be using when we start back up with school again. The beautiful images are from NASA. I especially like the images of Earth and the USA at night. Hope someone finds this useful! ~Liesl Free Printable World Map, Outline Maps You can use the images in the printable...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2015 · Last modified September 7, 2015
It’s that time of year again! Back to school sales are on and it’s a great time of year to stock up on homeschool supplies. This year, I have added to our original Back to (Home)school Shopping List to include some homeschool science supplies we have used (and are on our shopping list for this year). More about that below! Even though I’m sharing these very long lists now, I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 29, 2015 · Last modified July 30, 2015
We’re definitely still in summer mode here… with swimming, camps, play dates, gardening… and an upcoming language immersion camp, but that doesn’t mean that homeschooling isn’t on my mind!! So here are the 10 steps we take to get ready for homeschooling: 1) Send in the official paperwork — the Notice of Intent to Homeschool (if your state require this). Half of my friends have sent theirs in… the other...
History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Geography Activities / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 27, 2015 · Last modified September 14, 2021
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 most people? (China, India, the U.S.A.) What are the world’s largest cities? (Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul) Which countries have the longest life expectancy? (Monaco, Macau, Japan) What are the major religions? The packet...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info) / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Garden Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 20, 2015 · Last modified May 13, 2021
This is definitely the perfect time of year to study frogs, toads, and salamanders! I made some Montessori 3-Part Cards with some of the common amphibians of the northeast. This would be a perfect addition to the free Frog Lapbook over at Homeschool Share! You can download these Montessori 3-part cards by clicking on the link below. These are currently free to download! I would love it if you could help...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2015 · Last modified September 5, 2018
We are all pretty excited about the fly-by of Pluto. We get pretty excited about space and science over here and I thought I’d share a few of the really cool things we’ve learned. On Tuesday (July 14), the US spacecraft, New Horizons, will fly by Pluto. It will come closest on Tuesday morning — at 7:49 a.m. EDT. The fly-by will last for just 8 to 10 hours. It will...
To all of my American readers, I hope you have a really wonderful and safe holiday! We’ll definitely be going out to watch the fireworks tonight. Will you? Why is it we celebrate this day? In June and July 1776, a committee worked on a document that all the thirteen colonies could agree upon that formally told Great Britain that they would govern themselves. That document was the Declaration of...
Highlighting Past Posts / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 1, 2015 · Last modified June 25, 2015
So, I wanted a bit of alliteration to make a catchy title… and actually had to look up the definition of passel to be sure I was using it correctly. Sure enough, it means “a group or lot of indeterminate number.” Perfect! This post has a collection of posts from the past… and I’m not quite sure how many I’ll wind up highlighting. But why talk about posts from the past?...
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...
Years ago, we became members of the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op (a place where homeschoolers can make group purchases on various curriculum). They have an amazing offer this summer for Discovery Education Streaming Plus: homeschoolers can now enjoy a subscription to this award-winning resource for their entire family ABSOLUTELY FREE for the summer (until August 31) — exclusively through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op! They do not require you to enter your credit card...
Homeschool Den / Math: Pre-Algebra
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 9, 2015 · Last modified March 18, 2019
If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you know that we use a lot of different curriculums. Math is no exception! This year LD used five different math curriculums… two that polished up some 6th grade math (arithmetic) skills (such as percents/decimals/fractions) and three PreAlgebra texts. They all covered different skills. The main spine for PreAlgebra was the Art of Problem Solving–Prealgebra. (affliliate link) [See the update about this resource below!]...
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.
