Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Mom Stories / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 3, 2013
Honestly, I will start posting about our homeschooling stuff again. In fact, I have all kinds of materials I’ve made for the kids and have a heap of new things to share with you all, but since I was on the topic of health and well-being (with yesterday’s post about LD’s horrible allergies) I thought I’d share with you some of the struggles I’ve personally had the past eight to ten...
Asthma and Allergies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 2, 2013
I’ve been alluding to our health issues here at the Homeschool Den. There’s nothing too terribly major thankfully, but LD has had illness-induced asthma since he was little. Since we moved back to the USA he’s been steadily having more and more asthma attacks. Some land him in the hospital and some have been controlled at the doctor’s office. Our pediatrician suggested that we look into some underlying triggers, so...
Holiday: New Years / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 31, 2012 · Last modified July 19, 2018
Do you ever find yourself saying to yourself (or to others for that matter) “there’s not enough time in my day.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot and how my attitudes about time affect the relationships I have with my loved ones. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” –Brian Tracy One of my New Years...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 30, 2012
Wow, it’s the end of 2012… a great time to reflect on the year we’ve had. Here are some of the highlights from this year: our favorite homeschool activities: It’s hard to choose just two, but I guess these are the ones that really stand out for me at the moment… the Black Plague simulation we did. None of us ever made it to our destination!! The kids really loved...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 28, 2012 · Last modified December 14, 2016
Are you into making New Year’s Resolutions? I find the process of self-reflection quite helpful when it comes to our family life and homeschooling. I tend to do this twice a year — at the end of each semester in December and again in June. Last June my self-reflection had a lot to do with our short term and long term homeschooling goals. This season I seem to be pondering...
Death and Dying / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 27, 2012
I wasn’t sure just quite when to share this material with the holidays and all, but I thought it was definitely worth spreading the word about these useful materials. The U.S. Department of Education has put out a number of publications in the past few years on the topics of safety, crime and violence. Personally, I didn’t want to tell the kids about the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut… but...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 25, 2012
Of all the gifts, my favorite was the one made from the heart… my own doll! It’s made of a milk-jug, tin foil, felt and lots and lots of tape!! Isn’t it precious?! I love that the kids are finally of the age that they can keep secrets from me until Christmas! A close runner up was the homemade picture frame LD made for me, complete with a picture (courtesy...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 24, 2012
Happy Holidays! There are estimates that nearly 93.3 million people will travel this holiday season, with nearly 84.4 million people traveling more than 50 miles. I think my friend, M, and her two kids might get the prize for the longest travel plans — 10,000+ miles from the east coast, USA here over to Victoria, Australia. We, on the other hand, did a short 4 hour trip to see Grandma...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Recipes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 22, 2012
Do you have any special sweets you make this time of year? Our family has some old traditions and some new. I’d like to share two of the easiest cookies we make this time of year: One of our new additions is from Aunt M… we love this recipe and it is so easy! We’ve altered her original recipe slightly: 1 cup butter 2 cups flour (I actually use 1/2...
When news of the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary first broke last Friday, I was horrified. While on the one hand, I wanted to know what was going on, what happened, and why, on the other hand I wanted to shield my own children from this terrible news. Quite frankly, I didn’t want them to know. I didn’t listen to the news in front of them. We kept the...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 19, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2016
We are officially on school break! What fun! I can say that we all needed the break because it has been so busy these past few weeks. And while we had some fun projects we were finishing up, I can definitely say that I was beginning to feel flat and stale. Time to step back shake things up and re-energize a bit. While my in-laws were here for a few...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 18, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2016
I introduced irregular verbs and nouns to the kids last week, but it was clear they could use a bit more practice. Here’s another sheet I made for them. We actually did these last week, but with all the Christmas math posts I never got a chance to share these. More Irregular Verb Practice and Plural Noun Worksheets Here is the link to the previous worksheets I made on irregular verbs...
Freebies / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Division / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 16, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2016
I shared DD’s multiplication pages a couple days ago. Now here are the division pages I made for LD. He isn’t as inspired by the cute pages, but I still made a few pages for him. You can download the Christmas-themed-division here. I made the illustrations myself. There also some addition (with Pete the Cat) and multiplication (with Pete the Cat) pages in this same style. See you again soon...
Ages 2-6: Pete the Cat Unit / Freebies / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 15, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2016
ED is not really ready for complicated addition problems. She’ll just use the first of the six pages in this packet. I’ll have her roll the die and fill in the blanks—and I’ll also use some dominoes and have her fill in the numbers. If you don’t have actual dominoes, you can print the domino set from Mathwire. They even have a add-on set for up to double-nines. Click here to download Christmas...
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.
