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Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 27, 2013 · Last modified July 7, 2020
Yesterday, I mentioned that we’ve added a new portion to our math day. For much of the fall, the kids were simply doing math problems from their math book and they were complaining that math was B*O*R*I*N*G. What? Oh NO!! It was true, though, with everything else going on they were doing straight-forward stuff; you know fraction problems like this… or long division… or a good meaty problem like 5789...
Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Must Read / Science / Science: Simple Machines Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 11, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2019
I have kids of different ages (5, 8 and 10). We all did this simple machines unit together. It was perfect for my younger two — quite easy for my oldest, but from here we’re going to go on to more complicated topics… inventions and electricity (see our STEM Electricity and Circuits Packet here) which are more suited to my older two. It works best for our family to do...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 28, 2013 · Last modified May 15, 2016
For the past six months, I’ve been alluding to the fact that we have really changed the way we approach writing. Part of me has been wanting to write a post for ages, but I just wasn’t quite sure where to start. Time to jump in! First, a little background. LD has always been a reluctant writer. When he was K-1, we worked a lot on handwriting and copywork. We...
Must Read / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2013 · Last modified February 21, 2022
I created a hands-on activity for the kids for learning about the circulatory system and the exchange of oxygen. Below you’ll find out more about our circulatory system activities: Our study of the heart and circulatory system started with a listen to our own heartbeats. We measured our heart rates when resting and after walking, running and skipping. Then using a graph put out by Texas heart institute (4th grade curriculum,...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 27, 2013 · Last modified January 1, 2015
Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some fall-themed activities. There’s a huge selection of free packets to choose from… I’ll highlight a number of free packs I’ve come across: Fall Pack from 3 Dinosaurs: Leaves Unit by 2 Teaching Mommies Fall and Thanksgiving Dot-to-Dots — Resources I mentioned last year about this time Fall Worksheet Pack from Mama’s Learning Corner (ages 4-6): Fall Fun Printables by Homeschool...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 31, 2013 · Last modified January 28, 2018
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked by people “What about socialization?” or something to that effect. Depending on the tone of the person asking I’ve responded in different ways. My answer has also changed as the kids have gotten older. These days in answering that question I often start with my own thoughts about socialization… “well, I want the kids to be good listeners, polite, well-rounded,...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 29, 2013 · Last modified January 28, 2018
People are often curious why homeschoolers have chosen this route. After all, the vast majority of people choose to send their children to public school. On the other hand, there are now more children being home-schooled than are enrolled in charter and voucher schools combined. I read recently that there are now over 2 million homeschooled children. In 1999, three reasons for homeschooling were the most frequently cited: 49 percent...
There have been quite a number of homeschool-related articles in the past couple of weeks: A German homeschooling family that has been living in Tennessee for several years has been seeking asylum in the U.S. because homeschooling is not allowed in their native country of Germany. They withdrew their children from German schools because the school teachings on sex, violence and other issues conflicted with their Christian faith. They face...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 18, 2013
We’re in the home stretch of summer vacation. It’s very hot (very, very hot!) so we’re spending a lot of time indoors. At times the kids play like angels. Their creativity is inspiring. Their music and shows are lovely. Other times? They argue and are at each other’s throats. Nasty words come out. Tears run like Niagara Falls. What do we do to help alleviate that sibling bickering? I notice...
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...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 12, 2013
I’ve been working on gathering our music resources for this next fall. I want to introduce the kids to a bit of classical music. I’d like them to have a little more familiarity with some of the famous composers. I found this CD, The Idiots Guide to Classical Music, used at our local used bookstore for 99cents. It has small snippets from many, many famous pieces. It has 99 tracks!...
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...
This post has some free German worksheets that you can use with beginners. These are some of the printable materials I used with my kids when they were first learning German. In this post, I’ve shared some of the resources we used as we reviewed basic words in German: numbers, colors, words around the house, words in a school room, animals, etc. Be sure to scroll all the way to...
My older two kids went to parkour camp. It was a day camp — and they absolutely LOVED it! We heard about parkour because their cousin out in California has been doing it for some time. My son described it this morning as “doing amazing things without dying.” Imagine climbing and jumping over obstacles, climbing up metal bars, running up the wall and doing flips, swinging from ring to ring,...
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.
