Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2022 · Last modified June 30, 2022
My middle school daughter has just finished a new chemistry unit on ions and isotopes. It is more than 125 pages. I’m excited to share this new unit with you! What are ions and isotopes? An atom has three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Each element on the periodic table has a unique number of protons. The number of protons for an element is always the same. It can...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2021 · Last modified September 23, 2022
New Update to the Chemistry Packet! What’s in this unit? This 150+ page Chemistry Unit helps middle school students understand the periodic table, valence electrons, periods, groups and basic vocabulary such as ions and isotopes. Students are introduced to the structure of the periodic table, Bohr Diagrams, Lewis Diagrams and electron configuration in a fun, hands-on way! What ages is it for? My kids covered this material several different times...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 1, 2020 · Last modified March 1, 2021
I have just updated the Properties of Matter Chemistry Packet to include a new interactive notebook activity and chemistry review worksheet on pages 92 to 102 of the packet. The Properties of Matter packet covers topics such as elements and compounds, mixtures, physical and chemical properties, molecular vs. structural formulas and includes hands-on activities on some of these properties (viscosity, cohesion, capillary action, and density). We are going spend a...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 28, 2019 · Last modified September 3, 2019
Learn about the elements of the Periodic Table with these new chemistry booklets! This is just a quick post to let you know that I have just added two new chemistry activities to the Chemistry Unit Packet. I made two new booklets – one on The First 20 Elements and the other on Elements with Unusual Symbols. It has been a year and a-half or so since we first talked...
Homeschool Den / Science Experiments / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 25, 2019 · Last modified August 23, 2019
This week we started back to school. We love hands-on activities and jumped in with some fun, hands-on activities to bring our new units on chemistry alive! These are experiments you may have done with the kids in preschool, but are as important for understanding chemistry concepts in middle school and beyond! 🙂 For ED, we spent some time reviewing the changing states of matter. It had been several years...
Hey there! This is a question for the parents of high school students: Are you working with your high school student on high school chemistry this year? Are you interested in our chemistry notebook pages? Drop me an email if you are interested. I’m just trying to see if there’s interest/need (because it can be time consuming and time is limited… you know b/c we’re a busy homeschooling family!!). More...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 16, 2019 · Last modified March 1, 2021
We are starting off the year with this middle school chemistry unit on the physical and chemical properties of matter. I have done an extensive update to the original Properties of Matter Packet, adding in dozens of pages of materials! This packet is well over 50 pages and includes various hands-on activities and all the teacher-notes/answer pages (bringing it closer to 100 pages in all!) Note: If you ordered the...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2018 · Last modified May 9, 2022
150+ Page Chemistry Packet! I am excited to share our new chemistry unit with you! As you know, we love hands-on activities and I want to show you some of the fun ways we explored the periodic table and touched on topics like valence electrons, Bohr Diagrams, Lewis Diagrams (electron dot diagrams), ions, isotopes, and more! Some of the topics we explored included: Building the Periodic Table Bohr Diagrams &...
Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 13, 2018 · Last modified March 18, 2019
In this post, I wanted to highlight some of the amazing science experiments that we did when my kids were younger and share several free resources we have here on the blog. These are some of the activities that really impressed my kids when they were younger!! I usually tried to weave the science experiments into topics we were learning… in this case some basics about chemistry. When the kids...
Science Experiments / Science: Chemistry Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 23, 2017 · Last modified October 13, 2017
The past few weeks, my youngest has been doing a unit on “Winter.” Today, I want to share one of the fun, hands-on projects she did – Growing Sugar Crystals (ie. rock candy!!). I’ve seen this mentioned before, but this was the first time we actually did it! This is a project that can be done with things you have around the house. That’s always a plus, right?!! 🙂 What...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2016 · Last modified March 1, 2021
This past week, we finished our second chemistry unit on the Properties of Matter. We explored physical properties (which do not change what the object is) and chemical properties. We did a lot of hands-on activities exploring density and determining the density of various materials. At the beginning of the year, we spent time first exploring the different states of matter. Then, in this unit we dove into more detail...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit / Science: States of Matter Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 27, 2016 · Last modified November 29, 2021
We have a bran-new 50+ page packet on the three states of matter – solids, liquids, gases and changing states of matter. We talked quite a bit about the characteristics of solids, liquids and gases. We also went into a lot of detail on the changing states of matter covering those six changes (melting, freezing, evaporation, condensation, sublimation, deposition). In this packet there are various notebook pages, worksheets, lapbook (interactive...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 26, 2016 · Last modified January 11, 2020
Sublimation and Deposition Activities – Making Chemistry Fun! This fall we’ve been studying the states of matter and changes of matter. Today I’m going to share some of our activities as we talked about the changes in states of matter from solid to gas–sublimation and from gas to solid–deposition. It was a day of Dry Ice FUN!! 🙂 While most kids know freezing, melting and evaporation sublimation and deposition are...
Homeschool Den / Science Experiments / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2016 · Last modified January 11, 2020
In this part of our States of Matter unit we talked about some of the properties of liquids. A few days ago, I shared some of activities as we discussed gases. You’ll find that here: States of Matter-Hands-On Activities about Gases. We continued to talk about the structure of matter. Liquids have a definite volume, but no definite shape. Not only did we talk about some of the characteristics of...
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.
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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.
