Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Yesterday we ordered the standardized tests we’ll take to fulfill the homeschool requirements of our state. We used Brewer Testing Service because of the ease of ordering. Their customer service has been excellent. (I’ll tell you more about that below.) This year, all three of my kids will be testing. They will be taking different tests: First Grade: I am having ED take the Terra Nova Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills....
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 27, 2015 · Last modified September 22, 2023
Here are some fun activities to work on the long A sound. I made these sorting cards activities, game board, and bingo cards to help ED with words spelled in these combinations: a, ai, ay a_e, ei, eigh and ey. She has had a lot of fun with this packet and begs me to play “just one more time”! That’s a win for me! She hasn’t yet worked on all...
History: Middle Ages / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 24, 2015 · Last modified March 23, 2022
Middle Ages Projects and Books for Kids! As with a lot of our homeschool curriculum, we’re patching together our Middle Ages Unit. I thought I’d share some of the books, projects, and resources we’ve been using recently as we continue through our studies of the Middle Ages. Yesterday, we got to such an exciting part of our current Middle Ages novel, that we couldn’t stop! We read aloud for nearly...
This Wednesday is Earth Day. I made the kids some math game boards to practice their math facts. I have made a number of different game boards options including basic addition and doubling as well as multiplication boards. They are all in the same file. Just print out the game board that works best for your child. 🙂 Normally I include a picture of the kids playing the game, but I made...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 17, 2015 · Last modified April 16, 2015
When I posted about the unschooling summit yesterday, I started thinking about how much I enjoy talking with other homeschoolers and learning how homeschooling works in their families. I thought back to the series of interviews I did with other homeschoolers and guest posts I’ve featured on the blog the past few years. I thought I would put those links together for you. I know there are quite a number...
We’ve been slowly trying to see many of the famous historical parks here in the U.S. This by no means a comprehensive list, but since not everyone is from the east coast, I thought I’d put together a list of some other well-known historic places we’ve visited and blogged about. These are mostly located in the mid-Atlantic states-NC, VA, PA, NY. We’ve been meaning to get up to New England...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 10, 2015 · Last modified April 9, 2015
We’ve had such a great week! In early March, the kids were often really testy with one another but ever since our lovely spring break (when my in-laws were here), things have been moving along well! This post actually has nothing to do with the featured image of Starbuck, though she does rule over our homeschool room. She spends a lot of time under the homeschool room couch, but once...
Last week, I talked a lot about our civics and government unit. Today, I thought I would briefly mention the American History books the kids have been reading this year. As many of you know, we started off the year with a unit on Native Americans (We shared a number of notebook pages that are free to download for that unit): Native Americans of the Northeast (Part I: Algonquins) Native...
Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 8, 2015
Every spring for years now, I’ve sent the kids out to do a Nature Scavenger Hunt. This year I thought we’d add in something new… an Outdoor Treasure Hunt with the QR Code reader. We’ve been having a lot of fun with these QR Codes and this is a way to get the kids outside and enjoying nature at the same time. How does it work? Well, someone needs to...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2017
So, what does our family do for our homeschool language arts curriculum? I’ll share what we’ve been using for 1st through 6th grades. Over the past week, I’ve gotten three separate emails and FB messages asking about what we use for language arts — spelling, grammar and literature. It must be that time of year again when we start thinking about our plans for next year. 😉 I’ll start with...
Active Math Games / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 2, 2015 · Last modified May 15, 2016
Over the past couple of weeks, ED and I have been having a lot of fun with her math and she’s made some really good progress with her subtraction facts and with her skip counting. I thought I would share some of the activities she’s been up to. It had been a while since we pulled out our Fast Track math board game. That definitely infused a lot of energy and enthusiasm...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 30, 2015 · Last modified February 22, 2021
This Civics and Government Unit covers the 3 Branches of Government The Constitution & Bill of Rights The Presidential Cabinet Positions How a Bill becomes Law Civics Review (symbols, landmarks) Federal vs. State Governments and more! We are doing a Civics and Government Unit. I made this packet for the kids because I couldn’t find a homeschool unit that covered everything I wanted to include. Not only are we covering the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 24, 2015 · Last modified March 22, 2015
Sometimes homeschooling is a delicate balance of Mom’s energy, the kids’ energy, and all the other things we have going on. It’s not unusual for us to take an abrupt, unscheduled detour along this educational journey of ours! As many of you know, we are studying the Middle Ages this semester. But, with everything else we had going on we stepped away from history for a couple of weeks. (We had...
A lot of the time I share our latest homeschool activities, but sometimes I like to share a bit about what’s going on for us. 🙂 Despite the high traffic on the blog now, it’s still the place I tend to chronicle our family’s adventures! March is usually a very busy one for our family. A couple of weeks ago, DD had her aerials showcase. Aerials is a neat sport because it...
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.
