Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
History: Civil Rights Movement / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
This is a packet on the main events of the Civil Rights period that I made for the kids to add to their history notebook. I wanted them to have a visual way to remember many of the events we’ve read and studied about over the last four or five weeks. We sat together and went over the key events as we read many of the books in this unit....
Ages 2-6: Clocks - Telling Time / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 30, 2014 · Last modified December 19, 2016
When I shared the free skip-counting pages a little while back, I mentioned that ED has been working a lot on clocks. I thought I’d share some of the clock-type activities we use in our homeschool. I made ED a packet of time sheets from the Teacher’s Corner: Time Worksheet Generator. You can create worksheets that suit your child’s needs. You can create worksheets to the hour, half-hour, quarter hour,...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 27, 2014 · Last modified January 30, 2024
Last semester, the kids worked on their first mini-research paper. They hadn’t done a project like this before, so I took them step-by-step through the process of finding books and Internet resources, creating a bibliography, taking notes and writing a paper. They had a “due date” and I graded their paper and gave them feedback on what they could do better next time. I wanted them to have the experience...
Freebies / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 23, 2014 · Last modified January 5, 2020
I made another set of skip counting pages for my daughter. She’s working a lot with the 5s (because she is also working on telling time by 5 minute intervals) so there are a couple of extra pages of those. The packet is 9 pages total. These are free to download if your child (or student) can use them! Just please link back to this page if you want to...
Freebies / History: Civil Rights Movement / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 13, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
The kids and I spent quite a bit of time on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We read a number of books together and also watched two movies that helped bring these events alive. I made a few notebook pages for their history notebooks that you are welcome to download if you find them useful. They are free.: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Free Worksheets BOOKS:...
Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Weather Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 7, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Today many of the public schools are closed because of the incredible cold front that has come sweeping through. I thought I should share some science experiments we did that might really get kids intrigued about the cold weather! Icebergs: Freeze water in a cottage cheese or large yogurt container. In one of the cartons you can place a wooly mammoth plastic creature if you have one! Have the kids...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 6, 2014 · Last modified February 23, 2016
This post is now located here: Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 3, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Five or six weeks ago, someone asked me how I go about setting up our science units. I wanted to spend some time really laying out that process. Since we have homeschooled from the start, I thought it would make the most sense to talk about the preschool years first. (Click here to see the second post in the series: Science in the Elementary Years. Science in the preschool 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 January 2, 2014
Over the holidays I spent a lot of time away from the computer (blogging, that is), but I did pull together plans for the new semester. Here’s what’s on the agenda: Science: We’ll be starting an earth science unit on weather, wind and water. We’ll be starting with an overview of the Earth’s 4 systems and then will learn about the atmosphere before continuing on to wind, weather, etc. daily...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 31, 2013 · Last modified July 10, 2016
You know a book is really great when you can’t read it without paper and pencil in hand to jot down all those flashes of inspiration! This break I’ve read several books for teachers that have really resonated with me. For those of you still on break, I thought I would mention them. Even if you’re not on break, they are inspiring and well worth squeezing in time to read...
History: India Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 20, 2013 · Last modified March 12, 2016
This week we finished up our studies of India with a close look at Gandhi, his life and contributions. We read a number of children’s books and biographies and watched highlights from the well-known movie, Gandhi. There are a few parts of the movie that (in my opinion) are too rough for younger kids, but some of the scenes (the Indian country-side, the marches) were amazing! The movie is SO...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 16, 2013 · Last modified December 5, 2021
I made some Christmas skip counting mazes for my daughter and printed them out for her math notebook. At the moment she is only work on the 2s, 3s and 5s, but I made other mazes as well since your kids might be ready for more advanced math. Free Holiday Skip Counting Practice 2s thru 7s Click here to save these on Pinterest! If you find them useful, I’d love...
History: India Unit / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Math General Posts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 12, 2013 · Last modified March 12, 2016
Tis the season to be flexible! Some days we get quite a bit done, other days… not so much. I try to keep myself calm about that. Yesterday, for example, all our friends had a snow day. Often time we do school anyway, but the appeal of sledding and playing outside with friends won over! Today, we were back to the normal homeschool schedule. Here are some of the things...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 9, 2013 · Last modified December 8, 2018
There are lots and lots of different cards games you can play during math time. I made a set of six little cards (0-15) for my daughters this December. They look like this: Ages 2-4: If you have a toddler or preschooler you can print out two sets of numbers, cut out one set and have your kids match the numbers on the other (uncut) sheet. You can also use...
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.
