Homeschool Den

Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!

Category: Homeschool Den

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Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Sign Language

Signing with Babies and Toddlers (Baby Sign Language)

Signing with Your Baby and Toddlers Baby Signing — Our family decided to sign with each of our babies/tots. Our children all had normal hearing, but I learned that kids could control their hands and fingers and could therefore communicate by sign much earlier than with speech. It seemed like a good idea and most of my friends were doing simple signs with their babies/tots too.  We were SO glad...

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History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den

Native Americans of the Northeast Unit (Part II, Iroquois Indians)

This fall we are doing a huge unit on Native Americans.  We started with a study of the Native Americans of the Northeast.  We learned about the two major language groups, the Algonquian (see this post for our activities) and Iroquois. Each of these groups consisted/s of a number of different tribes. Last week I shared some of our activities relating to the Powhatan Indians, a confederacy that lived in...

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History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Science: Earth Science Unit

Learning Latitude, Longitude and Using a Compass

A few days ago, I shared the hands-on activity we did to learn about the layers of the Earth.  We’ve also been learning about how we show and locate the exact positions of the land and water. I explained that most maps and globes are marked with lines that help us pinpoint an exact location on the Earth. These lines form an imaginary grid. The equator is just one of...

Lunar Eclipse Tests Parent’s Patience 0

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Science: Astronomy Unit

Lunar Eclipse Tests Parent’s Patience

Did you wake your kids up to see the total lunar eclipse the other day? Hubby (my hero!) drove the kids to an open area to see the eclipse. (We live down in the woods and are completely surrounded by trees).  The kids were absolutely amazed! They thought it was spectacular! On the other hand, doing something amazing like well before 5am wasn’t without its consequences…  tired kids… And then...

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Holiday: Earth Day / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit

Earth Science: Layers of the Earth Hands-On Activity

Last week, I mentioned that we learned a bit about the Solar System in general.  This week we’ve been looking more closely at Earth’s long history.  We’ve been going over the four major eons and looking more closely at what happened in each (Hadean Eon, Archean Eon, Proterozoic Eon, Phanerozoic Eon). At first 4.6-4 billion years ago, the Earth would have been molten. Then as the Earth cooled it went from liquid...

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Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Homeschool Den

Free Fall Themed Activity Packs for 3-6 Year Olds

This post has links to more than 15 free Fall Activity Packs!  Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some fall-themed activities from fall leaves and apples to scarecrows and pumpkins!  There’s a huge selection of free packets to choose from… First here are some of our free Fall-Themed Packets: Free Preschool Printable – Words That Start with F Thanksgiving Preschool Printables (free) FREE  CVC Words -at...

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Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit

States of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas — Learning Activities

Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...

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Homeschool Den / Science: Earth Science Unit

Earth Science: Timeline of Earth Activity

For those of you who know much about Montessori, you’ll recognize “The Black Strip.” This is an impressionistic activity that is meant to impress kids with the enormity of time on Earth.  Our version was the purple ribbon strip — and it is only 21 feet (as my ribbon ream was 7 yards!).  But it still shows how very little time we humans have been on Earth relatively speaking.  I’m...

Solar System Kit 4

Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit / Science: Earth Science Unit

Learning about the Solar System (Hands-On Kit the Kids Loved)

I have been really looking forward to our Earth Science unit this fall. It has taken a while to start in on all our activities, but now that we’ve started we are learning TONS and having lots of fun! To start of the unit, I felt like we really need to cover some basics about the Solar System again.  We got a hands-on kit called the 4M Solar System Planetarium (affiliate link)...

Pre Algebra Resources We’re Using 2

Homeschool Den / Math General Posts

Pre Algebra Resources We’re Using

This is just a quick post to update you on LD’s Pre Algebra work.  We are really very happy with the Art of Problem Solving: Pre Algebra. We set the timer for twenty minutes each day and LD and I read/go over the book together. I am really impressed with how clearly it explains (and proves) why various math properties work.  I suspect it will take us two years to...

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Homeschool Den / Math--Fractions

Free Equivalent Fractions Packet

DD is just starting a new unit on fractions.  I used this packet with LD a couple of years ago and brought it back out to go over with DD. It’s 12 pages and you might only find a couple of pages relevant or useful, but I still thought I’d share them here. The picture collage below gives you an idea of what’s in the packet. You can download the Equivalent...

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Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math

Fun Math Activities for Ages 2 1/2 to 3 1/2

Over the next few days, I’m going to focus on our math activities. I thought that before I share what my older kids are doing these days, I’d share some of the activities they did when they were younger.  This post highlights a few things I did with my kids for math in the 2 1/2-3 1/2 age range. Here are some activities I did with ED when she was 2...

How The Other Half Lives 0

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts

Colorado Students Protest Sanitizing History and Removing Political Dissent

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. –Mark Twain History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. –Winston Churchill By now you’ve probably heard about the Colorado protests and walk outs by school students and their teachers this week. (See this Denver Post Article or this New York Times article). I’ve been quite caught up with the debates and protests out in...

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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

Creating Daily Homeschool Procedures and Routines

Goodness, that sounds so formal, doesn’t it? Let me say right off the bat that our homeschool is much (much, much) more flexible than a formal public school. In so many ways, our homeschool doesn’t resemble public school much at all… We have just 3 kids; we don’t always start school at the same time or with the same subject; we have the flexibility to dive into one particular subject...