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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2014 · Last modified March 21, 2015
There was a really interesting article over at Edutopia last month about the worry some educators have about how technology and testing are affecting the amount of reading kids are doing. Educators have noticed that some kids are struggling to read deeply and comprehend longer texts. Are kids reading books deeply and for pleasure? Since the invention of the printing press, there has been a plethora of reading materials available. Granted, not...
ED has finished her phonics programs and is now moving into independent reading. I was chatting with my friend and she had a wonderful idea to encourage this new-found independence. She suggested creating a reading garden. ED decided she wanted flowers, puppies and kittens in her garden. I chose some coloring pages, reduced them to the size I wanted, and printed them out. Whenever ED finishes reading a book on...
Ages 2-6: Fire Safety / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2013
Here are two books that have made the kids laugh a lot, while covering some important safety tips… Things like… Don’t take rides from strangers. Never stand on a swivel chair. In case of fire — Get outside as fast as possible and don’t stop to take along your favorite things. We borrowed a book from the library that was so funny! It’s called Dinosaurs Beware! A Safety Guide by...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2013 · Last modified March 7, 2016
Earlier this summer ED switched back to the Bob Book series for a little while and I made some worksheets to go along with them. She really liked working on these. I hope someone else finds them useful. As always, they are free to download. If you’d like to share or pin, go ahead just link back to my original post. Thanks! If you use them I’d love to hear...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 10, 2013 · Last modified June 23, 2015
I am trying to do some general organizing this summer for the next school year. I’ve been trying to figure out what science units we’ll do this next year and also wanted to be sure that I’m covering some fun/basic information with the kids. My oldest loved science from very early on and we added lots and lots of books to read aloud when he was in preschool-kindergarten. At the...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 4, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
We love books! When we lived overseas, the local library was quite lacking and we wound up with quite a collection of board books by the time all three kids were born! ED still looks at these books pretty regularly and we’ll keep them around as she becomes a more confident reader (she’s still just reading simple 3 and 4 letter words). We actually have gotten rid of lots...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2016
I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…) and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on. So, just keep in mind that...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…) and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on. So, just keep in mind that...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 9, 2013 · Last modified February 17, 2016
This activity was a huge hit with ED this past week. I chose some words from ED’s phonics readers and wrote them out on some shamrocks and taped them on popcycle sticks. I covered an empty cereal box with construction paper and wrote the words out on the box as well and used a knife to create a slit for the Popsicle sticks. I sat with ED each time she...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading / Science: Dinosaurs Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 25, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
A couple of week or so ago I highlighted 14 picture books my girls have been enjoying lately. Today I thought I’d share a few of the chapter books we are enjoying. Each day during lunch I read a chapter from Chronicle of Narnia. Last week we finally finished The Horse and His Boy (affiliate link) and loved every minute of it! It seems that everyone knows and talks about The...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 19, 2013 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We read a lot of books here at the Homeschool Den. I thought I would highlight some of our current favorites. The girls have actually been reading a lot of the same books. I’ve been reading to the girls together at night and more often than not, DD climbs into my lap in front of the wood stove in the mornings when I’m reading to ED! The girls are 4...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Math General Posts / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 25, 2012 · Last modified January 1, 2015
I thought it was about time to write a post about how my preschooler spends her day. Free, Unstructured Play First of all, she spends a lot of time playing both indoors and out. Play helps kids learn to control their emotions and behavior. Play allows kids to be creative. It helps them learn discipline, resist impulses and develop resiliency. During make-believe play children engage in ‘private speech.’ They talk to...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2012
Plato: Knowledge that is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. This past summer we chose not to participate in our library’s reading program. At one point, we were chatting with a librarian and she asked if the kids were doing the library’s summer reading program. She was shocked when I told her we weren’t participating this year. “May I ask why?” she wanted to know. I had a...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 1, 2012 · Last modified January 16, 2019
Sometimes homeschooling is wonderful packed with endless projects and terrific successes. I like blogging about all that. But sometimes life just isn’t like that. This past week was really challenging. We were just coming back from a trip. Who doesn’t struggle to get caught up with life after being on the road? Plus more or less as soon as we got back, Hubby left for a business trip. So while...
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.
