Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
LD has been gone most afternoons so the girls and I have been doing various crafts and activities together. Yesterday we pulled out the Model Magic. It’s just such a great material to work with, I thought it was worth another mention. It is soft and pliable and it is easy even for my four year old to mix and blend colors. It is self-hardening and clean to work with. ...
Homeschool Den / Homeschooling in the News / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 18, 2012
In a time when public schooled kids are being monitored and tested more and more closely and state (and national) standards are being put firmly in place, I was intrigued to read an article in the Concord Monitor (July 8, 2012) entitled Educators Watch Homeschool Changes. Homeschooling parents will no longer have to share evaluations of their students with public and private schools. According to a July 8th article in the...
Family Meeting / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 17, 2012
I have a confession. We have never found a chore system that works right for our family. It’s not that the kids don’t help out, but daily checklists, wall-mounted chore sheets, even our assigned chore system didn’t work. This summer when I got together with one of my best friends, she asked what we do for chores. I had to stutter and admit to her that we didn’t have a...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2012 · Last modified August 3, 2016
One of the things I’ve been doing since returning from our trip is to continue planning for our homeschool. I came across an email from ReadingTeacher.com. [Added in 9 months Later: These are no longer available for free from ReadingTeacher. Instead I wound up visiting Dr. Mariott’s website and downloaded them from there. We wound up using all 52 of these readers with ED, my youngest. They really worked well...
History: American West Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2012
My in-laws happen to live right near Branson, Missouri. It’s quite a tourist destination… there are shows of every description… magic shows, country shows, dancing, live music, the Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Chinese Acrobats, the art of Kung Fu, blues, the Brady Bunch, a tribute to the Eagles, gospel music and on and on and on. Driving down the main thoroughfare there are fun places everywhere. It is a great...
Homeschool Den / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 11, 2012
I’ve always been an avid camper and backpacker. I’ve backpacked a number of stretches of the Appalachian Trail and backpacked for nearly a month in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Hubby and I hiked quite a bit in the Outback in central Australia, did the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair overland trek in Tasmania, Australia and even had the opportunity to hike along the Annapurna Trail in Nepal. All that’s great, but...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 10, 2012
We actually stumbled across this museum, but what a FABULOUS place to visit. Just had to shout that out, it was *that* good! From the time Arkansas became a state in 1836 to the mid 1940s cotton production was common in the Arkansas River lowlands. Men, women and children could be seen picking and stuffing cotton into long sacks in the fall. Tractors were not used for the preparation, planting,...
History: American History / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 9, 2012 · Last modified January 1, 2015
For the past two and a half weeks, I was on the road with the kids (we left hubby home working for much of the time). In yesterday’s post I talked about traveling with the kids in a general way. We did SO much on this trip! We visited 18 family members who are strewn throughout the midwest. I did some research before we left and fit in some educational side...
I went on a long road trip with the kids. It’s the first really (really!) long trip I’ve done on my own and the kids were great travelers! We did a bit of just about everything on this trip — visited family, met up with friends, visited a number of historic sites, went camping, hiking, boating and swimming! We traveled more than 2,500 miles! Since I was the lone driver, snack...
Active Math Games / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 6, 2012
Have you heard of File Folder Games? They are quick games to help build skills in math, reading, science, social studies and more. We use them lots and lots in our homeschool. Here are a couple examples that ED, my preschooler, has played recently. This File Folder Game has her practicing counting by 10s and 1s: Here are a couple other examples. One has the child fill in the missing...
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...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 4, 2012
If you’re here in the U.S., I hope you have a fun 4th of July! Fireworks have been banned in lots of places because of drought, but so far it’s still a go for us this evening! Why is it we celebrate this day? In June and July 1776, a committee worked on a document that all the thirteen colonies could agree upon that formally told Great Britain that they would...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / History: American History / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 2, 2012 · Last modified June 9, 2018
These stars are wonderful for decorating your garden for Independence Day! We took a heavy duty paper plate and cut out a star. Then you decorate the star with toothpicks. As you can see we broke the ends of lots of the toothpicks to get the lengths we wanted. After the glue dried, we painted the stars. We used spray paint (and you can tell I didn’t get the hang...
We don’t have the kids enrolled in any formal art program nor am I an artist! I have really benefited from the expertise of an art teacher named Kathy who shares the projects and lessons she does with her elementary students at Art Projects for Kids. If you are looking for some wonderful lessons to do with your kids this summer, you might want to check out Kathy’s website. You...
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.
