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I’m adding this to the top of the post a day or so later. If you are interested in seeing the images being sent back from Mars, you can go to the NASA image gallery. Look for the small caption that says “slideshow” and you’ll be able to see the enlarged images such as this one which shows Curiosity’s main target, Mt. Sharp. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2012
Curiosity is scheduled to arrive on Mars late Sunday night (10:31 PST, Aug 5) or early Monday (1:31am EST, Aug. 6) depending on where you live. View it live at NASA TV. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover took nearly 36 weeks (254 days) to travel from Earth to Mars. Its mission is to continue the robotic exploration of Mars assessing whether Mars ever had an environment that could support life...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: The 5 Senses
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 3, 2012 · Last modified March 7, 2016
ED is doing a brief unit on the 5 senses. I’ll talk a little more about our general activities below, but first I wanted to share this wonderful sound game we played! One of the activities we did together this week was called Sound Bingo. I downloaded the sound files such as a baby, guitar, monkey, fireworks, scissors (41 sounds in all) onto my laptop and printed out bingo cards...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 23, 2012
We have started getting excited about the Mars Space Laboratory, Curiosity which has been enroute to Mars for about eight months now. We started doing some activities to learn about Mars. I wanted to post this early enough that you could get your child excited about the upcoming landing too. It’s a little less than two weeks away! The new Mars Rover, a space laboratory called Curiosity is set to...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 5, 2012 · Last modified May 18, 2015
I meant to talk about this a couple of days ago right after the lemon soda post, but life’s been full and fun and I didn’t get around to it. This is another great activity to do with ingredients I’m sure you have in your kitchen. We did this a while ago, but if the weather’s hot, your kids might enjoy being spies for the afternoon! We used two different...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 28, 2012 · Last modified March 22, 2016
Who knew that our garden flowers could be so fascinating?! We have hydrangeas and only just now learned why they have different colors. They are affected by the pH of the soil and by the amount of sunlight they receive. A blue hydrangea means that there is aluminum in the soil. The flowers turn blue in highly acidic soil. A pink hydrangea means that the pH of the soil is...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2012
If you’re trying to find a way to keep the kids occupied this summer, why not turn to science?!! There are so many experiments you can do together with your kids. Or if you’re like me, you can hand them a book and they can do it on their own! LD (age 8) flipped through a science experiment book and was excited to make his own Lemon Soda! What to...
Freebies / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Rain Forests
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 14, 2012 · Last modified November 15, 2015
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...
Freebies / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 12, 2012 · Last modified February 16, 2016
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...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2012 · Last modified April 2, 2021
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...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 29, 2012 · Last modified March 26, 2016
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...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 26, 2012
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...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 14, 2012 · Last modified March 4, 2016
Last week we spent quite a bit of time outside enjoying the wildlife in our yard. We are really lucky in that we see a wide variety of critters every day. We spotted a little Northern Brown Snake, a small mouse that was in the strawberry garden (corralled briefly in an empty pot and then released) and a toad. We also came across a large millipede (probably four inches or...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 7, 2012 · Last modified February 21, 2022
I thought ED and DD (4 and6) would really enjoy doing some activities related to the human body again. As it turned out DD was quite sick so ED and I worked on this ourselves. LD came in only at the end when we looked at the Bio Digital Human online. First I outlined her body. Then she built her skeletal system. We love the book, Look Into Your Body: All About...
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.
