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 / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2012
Curiosity is scheduled to arrive on Mars late Sunday night (10:31 PST, Aug 5) or early Monday (1:31am EST, Aug. 6) depending on where you live. View it live at NASA TV. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover took nearly 36 weeks (254 days) to travel from Earth to Mars. Its mission is to continue the robotic exploration of Mars assessing whether Mars ever had an environment that could support life...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: The 5 Senses
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 3, 2012 · Last modified March 7, 2016
ED is doing a brief unit on the 5 senses. I’ll talk a little more about our general activities below, but first I wanted to share this wonderful sound game we played! One of the activities we did together this week was called Sound Bingo. I downloaded the sound files such as a baby, guitar, monkey, fireworks, scissors (41 sounds in all) onto my laptop and printed out bingo cards...
Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Geometry / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 2, 2012
This week we’ve started easing back into school. We’re not doing all subjects as we still have lots of other things going on (play dates, doctor’s appointments for their wellness checkups, trips with friends, activities, etc.), but we did start up with math and reading. In math we’re starting the year with a unit on geometry. Geometry Mindmap: I read a book this summer that really recommends using mind maps...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Language Arts: Writing / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 1, 2012
If your child needs to review some grammar rules, here are a few online games he/she can play: Magical Capitals: Help the fairy find all the words that should be capitalized. Comma Chameleon: Help the chameleon punctuate sentences. Blown Away: Determine which letter in the sentence should be capitalized. Beat the Clock: Apostrophe practice. Rewrite the sentence by adding an apostrophe and/or s. Play your Caps Right: Find the words...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Outdoor: Fossils
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 30, 2012 · Last modified December 15, 2018
I’ve been bursting at the seams to write this post, but wanted to wait til I had more information before sharing our excitement! Can you believe, we found an arrowhead on our property?! Okay, so technically it’s not an arrowhead, more about that in a second. The first thing we did was start googling to find out more information. I really didn’t know too much about arrowheads. I was...
Can you believe the Olympics are here?!!! The opening ceremonies are tonight! You might be interested in capitalizing on the excitement and spirit of the games with your young kids with this free Summer Olympics Pack created by Cassie over at 3Dinosaurs. There are three parts you can download, plus a toddler pack! This pack includes activities such as find the difference; tracing, 3-part cards; number puzzles; counting practice; initial letter;...
Over the weekend we had a barbecue for friends. One family is vegan and I tried a new recipe that I thought they could eat. It was so simple to make and delicious that I thought I’d share it here. Why not, right?! Homeschoolers eat too! Since I was making other Mexican dishes I used half a can each of black beans and kidney beans. The original recipe called for one full...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 24, 2012 · Last modified April 13, 2016
This is a game I’ve played with all of my kids as they’ve started working on double-digit number recognition. *Make your own dice (5 total) with the numbers 1-5 and a sunny side. You can use wooden cubes (available at a craft store such as Michaels). *Each player gets their own 3×3 square card (available here). *Roll all 5 dice and make as many number combinations as possible. *The sunny...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 23, 2012
We have started getting excited about the Mars Space Laboratory, Curiosity which has been enroute to Mars for about eight months now. We started doing some activities to learn about Mars. I wanted to post this early enough that you could get your child excited about the upcoming landing too. It’s a little less than two weeks away! The new Mars Rover, a space laboratory called Curiosity is set to...
LD has been gone most afternoons so the girls and I have been doing various crafts and activities together. Yesterday we pulled out the Model Magic. It’s just such a great material to work with, I thought it was worth another mention. It is soft and pliable and it is easy even for my four year old to mix and blend colors. It is self-hardening and clean to work with. ...
Homeschool Den / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 18, 2012
In a time when public schooled kids are being monitored and tested more and more closely and state (and national) standards are being put firmly in place, I was intrigued to read an article in the Concord Monitor (July 8, 2012) entitled Educators Watch Homeschool Changes. Homeschooling parents will no longer have to share evaluations of their students with public and private schools. According to a July 8th article in the...
Family Meeting / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 17, 2012
I have a confession. We have never found a chore system that works right for our family. It’s not that the kids don’t help out, but daily checklists, wall-mounted chore sheets, even our assigned chore system didn’t work. This summer when I got together with one of my best friends, she asked what we do for chores. I had to stutter and admit to her that we didn’t have a...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2012 · Last modified August 3, 2016
One of the things I’ve been doing since returning from our trip is to continue planning for our homeschool. I came across an email from ReadingTeacher.com. [Added in 9 months Later: These are no longer available for free from ReadingTeacher. Instead I wound up visiting Dr. Mariott’s website and downloaded them from there. We wound up using all 52 of these readers with ED, my youngest. They really worked well...
History: American West Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2012
My in-laws happen to live right near Branson, Missouri. It’s quite a tourist destination… there are shows of every description… magic shows, country shows, dancing, live music, the Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Chinese Acrobats, the art of Kung Fu, blues, the Brady Bunch, a tribute to the Eagles, gospel music and on and on and on. Driving down the main thoroughfare there are fun places everywhere. It is a great...
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.
