Homeschool Den

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

Category: Must Read

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Must Read

Homeschooling Through Spousal Deployments, a Destructive Flood and More

In this series, I have had the privilege of interviewing other homeschoolers from across the country.  For today’s interview I’m turning to my sister, Cynthia, and brother-in-law, Tom who homeschool their three children.  Cynthia works full time at a university as a professor and associate provost and is a prolific writer; Tom is in the National Guard. They have weathered some pretty trying periods in their homeschooling life and I...

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Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read

Beginning Reader Worksheet Pack to Accompany the Bob Books

We are using the Bob Books to help ED learn to read. She is just learning to sound out CVC words. While my other two kids learned to read early (age 3) using the Bob Book series (and others), my third child has her own pace and style of learning.  She is excited about writing words, loves to color, and has amazing pencil skills.  I made these worksheets for her. These would never (never,...

Rain Forest Plant Cards - Free Montessori 3-part Cards 5

Freebies / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Rain Forests

Rain Forest Plants (Free Montessori 3-Part Cards)

On Tuesday I shared the biomes pin map that the kids and I used. We looked not only at where the desert, tundra and grassland regions were, but took note of the rain forest regions of the world.  Next I brought out the rain forest plant cards I had made several years ago.  Although our main goal was to look at a history of chocolate to go along with our...

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Must Read

An Interview with a Radical Unschooling Family

 Today I have the privilege of introducing Dayna Martin. She is a well-known leader in the unschooling community. She has been interviewed in dozens of television and radio pieces about radical unschooling. She speaks nationally and internationally at unschooling conferences. Dayna is a pioneer who has been at the forefront of the conscious parenting and unschooling movement for the past decade. Author of Radical Unschooling: A Revolution Has Begun, and...

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Freebies / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Earth Science Unit

World Biomes Pin Map

Are you asking yourself, “What in the world is a biomes pin map?”  It’s a map that shows where the rain forests, deserts, grasslands, forest and tundra regions are located. A pin map is when you stick straight pins into the labels so kids can pinpoint where things are located. There you go, sounds fancy, but really it’s not! 🙂   Before we really delved into our study of rain...

Girl Scouts Rock the Mall in Washington D.C. with a Quarter Million People! 4

Homeschool Den / Must Read / Outdoor Fun

Girl Scouts Rock the Mall in Washington D.C. with a Quarter Million People!

Today there was a huge event down at the mall in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. DD was a Daisy Scout this past year and we went to the huge celebration with my niece (who is a Junior Girl Scout).  Wow! What an event! They announced that there were an estimated quarter of a million people there!  There were girls of all ages from...

Short-Term Goals and Planning: Our Upcoming Homeschool Units 6

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

Short-Term Goals and Planning: Our Upcoming Homeschool Units

This is the fifth post in a series about planning for the new school year. Here are the previous posts in this series: Here are the questions I consider. This post looks a back at our school year. I talk about what went well and what could use some improvement. I talked about how I  assess our homeschooling philosophy: Am I happy with *how* we are homeschooling? I talked a lot about...

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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read

Long Term Homeschooling Goals

This is the fourth post helping describe how I go about planning for the new school year. Here are the previous posts in this series: Here are the questions I consider. This post looks a back at our school year. I talk about what went well and what could use some improvement. Yesterday’s post talked about how I  assess our homeschooling philosophy: Am I happy with *how* we are homeschooling? I...

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Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit

Ocean Unit Freebies

Since I talked so much about the ocean yesterday, I thought I would share some of the ocean related freebies I made for our ocean unit last fall.  I hope someone finds these helpful. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean).  This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last...

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Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit / Trips We've Taken

Seashore Life

Last week we joined my folks, sister and brother-in-law and my two nieces and nephew on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Because they are homeschoolers as well, we took advantage of the pre-season prices and lack of crowds to enjoy time off together at the shore. We had such a great time — splashing in the waves, building sand castles, being buried in the sand, riding in the waves...

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station 0

Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Astronomy Unit

First Commercial Spacecraft Docks at the Space Station

We got really interested in the future of space exploration when the space shuttle Discovery flew by our house back in April. I dedicated a couple of blog posts to it because the kids and I were so excited.  It was the end of an era for the Space Shuttle Program.   A new chapter in space exploration has been in the works for a number of years now.  Yesterday the first commercial spacecraft...

Things to do with the Kids This Summer 4

Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun

Things to do with the Kids This Summer

Can you believe it? Summer time is almost here. My friend’s kids get out of school this week!  Our family is busy working out our summer plans.  We plan to do several road trips and are trying to find fun (and educational) things to do with the kids this summer.  We’ll be heading to Arkansas and Missouri, for example, and plan to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Mammoth...

A Fun Fitness Board Game for Kids: Flip2BFit 0

Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Fitness / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read / Outdoor Fun / Running

A Fun Fitness Board Game for Kids: Flip2BFit

I have had the privilege of reviewing a new board game called Flip2BFit.  This is so much more than a board game — it’s a full fitness workout!  The kids and I had so much fun with this game. On the first day we tried it out, they liked it so much that they made Dad play it when he got home from work. The kids really enjoyed all the...

Digital Tools Your Child Can Master 0

Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read / Technology

Digital Tools Your Child Can Master

Technology in Education and in your Homeschool (Part 2) Last week I talked about how you can incorporate video, audio and educational apps into your homeschool. This week’s post talks about how your child/student can use tools to create their own projects that use photos, diagrams, audio, visual components including interactive animations,  3D animations and/or video content.  Your child can use a wide range of tools to create stunning videos,...