Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Recipes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 6, 2013 · Last modified April 10, 2016
My sister has never, ever bought a box-mix of brownies. Can you believe it? With this recipe, you can see why! The kids are able to make this on their own now without any help from me… Now I’ll pass it along to you if you like baking with your kids! The only unusual ingredient that you might not have on hand is baker’s chocolate — in powder form (pictured...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 4, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2022
After we did an overview of all of the different body systems, we spent a couple of days reviewing the skeletal system. The skeleton provides support, structure and protection for the body and its organs… and because it had been nearly a year since we went over the names of the bones it was time for a review. The kids put together our skeleton puzzle and then identified all the...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Digestive System / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2022
Today I’m sharing our Human Body Systems Worksheets with you. This set provides an overview of the Body’s major systems. It also talks about human cells, tissues and organs. Once a year, we usually learn about one of the human body systems. One year, we went into great detail one year about the Skeletal System. Another year, we studied the digestive system. And recently, we learned about the circulatory system. We...
Somehow Easter arrived faster than it should have for us. The kids and I really didn’t do any crafts or special Easter-themed school activities, though you can see my Easter and Spring Units post from last year that will take you to some free materials. Meanwhile, this morning (Saturday) Hubby and I stuffed over a hundred Easter eggs for a community egg hunt we’re helping to organize/run later today. I...
Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2013 · Last modified March 17, 2016
What a wild week weather-wise, wasn’t it? (And how’s that for some alliteration!) The kids go out to play pretty much every day… and the weather this past week went from this… to this… critter hunting just a few days later! We spent a long time looking at the creatures the kids found. The small critter in the middle had all these hairs sticking out of its side that...
History: Africa Unit / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 27, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
Once again, we brought out our pin maps as we learned about the countries of West Africa. We used the flags of Africa from Montessori Materials to create country pins for our pin map (African Flags-page 1; African Flags-page 2). You can download and print out the map from the African Learning Pack I made back in September. I used a plain cork board underneath the map. As we were talking about the trade between...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 25, 2013 · Last modified July 19, 2018
We read the second chapter in the geology book we have from Real Science 4 Kids. It talked about the different tools that geologists use — including topographic maps. I wasn’t sure the kids thoroughly understood how the maps worked and looked around for some resources to help them understand. I found a couple of wonderful activities! We actually started with this topographic map page from the USGS: I thought...
Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 24, 2013 · Last modified March 10, 2016
Last week we spent the week doing a brief unit on measurement — the imperial units. We didn’t touch on the metric system at all. I wanted the kids to come away knowing the basic facts like 16 tablespoons in a cup and 4 quarts in a gallon. Day 1: I brought out a number of different bottles, cups and measuring spoons and the kids and I went over what...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
A couple of days ago I went over possessive nouns and pronouns with the kids. This is a practice sheet I made for them. The second page has a couple of interesting tidbits about Australian wildlife that I thought the kids wouldn’t remember (the kids were all born in Australia). I shared a little bit about termite mounds, the cane toad and quolls… all critters you don’t hear that much...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Running
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
While last weekend was terrific because of all the things I accomplished inside the house, this weekend was wonderful because I reached a big personal goal… I ran a half-marathon down in Washington D.C. It was SO fun! Plus, the family did some fun (educational) sight-seeing. I ran the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon. It was jam packed with people and music and had bands and cheering people all along the course...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 16, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
This past week we’ve done a heap of fun activities, but I’ve been spending most of my spare time — not blogging — but doing some spring cleaning and organizing. I was in the mood to put some music on and clean… but to be honest, I get overwhelmed by those long, long, looonnnnngg spring cleaning lists. To make sure I’m feeling good about the process I make sure I...
Freebies / History: World Religions / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 13, 2013 · Last modified March 3, 2016
I felt it was important to talk to the kids a bit about the newly elected pope, Pope Francis. We’ve been listening to the news and talking about it a bit, but I wanted to go into a little more detail tomorrow morning and made some pages for them to add to their history notebook. We are not Catholic, but Grandma is. My Mom died a couple of years before LD...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2016
It has been ages and ages since I’ve written about ED’s math activities. A lot of ED’s math happens naturally over the course of the day — counting objects in a picture book, counting by 2s, 5s and 10s when we brush teeth and do dental floss, counting money together, looking at numbers at the store, in books, etc. Numbers are a part of daily life and we take advantage...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 8, 2013 · Last modified February 7, 2021
Another day we read about sedimentary rocks in our books and filled in a bit of information in the boxes on the sedimentary rock page, Three Types of Rocks Packet. I brought out our rock collection. We had several different types of sedimentary rocks and the kids had to determine whether they were sandstone, limestone or shale by feeling the rock and grains. We also filled in the next parts of...
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.
