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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 and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2014 · Last modified October 26, 2018
Today I have some free Montessori-style Living and Non-Living Sort Cards for you! 🙂 Use these cards to sort into living and non-living groups. Behind the scenes I’ve been getting things ready for our upcoming science units. ED will be doing a bit of animal classification review and I made some new cards for her. I realized, though, that if any of my readers have younger kids in the 2-4...
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 / Science / Science: Simple Machines Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 21, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2019
The last day of our Simple Machines unit was probably our favorite. We spent hours and hours making and toying with different ways of making pulleys and wheel-n-axles! We started (as always) by reading a couple of books. We did an activity to show investigate which way of looping the rope made it easier/harder to pull the broom-handles together: The kids really enjoyed Pull, Lift, and Lower: A Book About...
Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Science / Science: Simple Machines Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 15, 2013 · Last modified August 3, 2018
We started with… a plain old screw!! The kids spent time trying to screw it into an old board: We have been reading the book, Archimedes and the Door of Science along with this unit. What a terrific book and what a remarkable man Archimedes was! The book talks about the Archimedes screw as well as lots of other topics — astronomy, math, geometry and more. We loved the...
Kindergarten / Science / Science: Simple Machines Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 12, 2013 · Last modified April 6, 2019
The wedge is a pretty easy concept to remember, but we still took the opportunity to have some fun with wedges! We spent some time outside at the wood pile using real wedges to split wood (plus, we got some wood ready for the woodstove!!) This is a tool call a “Smart Splitter.” Even the kids can split wood with it. They simply lifted the weight and dropped it down...
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...
Science / Science Experiments / Science: Simple Machines Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 6, 2013 · Last modified August 12, 2021
We started a unit on Simple Machines several weeks ago. I thought I’d share the first set of hands on activities we did on levers and the three classes of levers. We started our unit going over the six types of simple machines. Since I have kids of varying levels I made several sheets (matching, tracing and fill in the blanks). In the end, this turned out to be useful...
Holiday: Halloween / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 2, 2013
If you are wondering what to do with all that Halloween candy, you can always do some science! This is an experiment I did with my kids a while back with Skittles in water. I think the results are fascinating: Do you want to do other fun experiments with candy? Be sure to visit this great website, Candy Experiments written by Loralee, a mom of three. She recently wrote a post Candy Experiment Cards...
Science / Science: Digestive System / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 23, 2013 · Last modified August 21, 2022
We had an amazing time studying the Digestive System. We did a whole range of hands-on activities from making our own epiglottis to seeing how the digestive tract works (how nutrients pass through). We made “fake”vomit, measured out the length of the digestive system and more! I also made notebook for the kids as we went through this unit. Our Digestive System Packet is now 150+ pages. Our Digestive System...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Kindergarten / Montessori (general info) / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2013 · Last modified December 23, 2016
This post includes links to some of the Montessori 3-part cards I’ve made over the years. Most of them are free! Montessori Sorting Activity: Living Nonliving Cards Montessori-Style Animal Cards: Sorting Vertebrates-Invertebrates and Animals of the 5 Kingdoms U.S. Landmarks and Symbols – 3 part cards FREE — We placed these cards on a huge US map we have as we learned where these famous landmarks are locate. Montessori 3-Part...
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,...
Science / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2013 · Last modified July 19, 2018
Are you looking for hands-on Earth Science activities? This is a collection of some our favorite activities from our unit. Layers of the Earth Activities: I first saw this activity last year at The Learning Ark. It fit in perfectly with our Earth Science unit. There is also a similar activity using a hard-boiled egg in the book we are using for this unit, How the Earth Works by Michelle O’Brien-Palmer. One 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.
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.
