Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Each week, I’ve been trying to share some of the packets I’ve made for the kids in the past couple of years. Here are some pages I made for our Rocks and Minerals Unit that you might find of use. Rocks and Minerals Post: We wrapped our chemistry unit and spent a few weeks on vertebrates and invertebrates. It was time to tackle a new unit on rocks and minerals. I’m using a...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2014 · Last modified March 19, 2023
Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 9, 2014 · Last modified April 16, 2015
Would you believe there is a 10,000 acre safari in Ohio? We took the kids there on our vacation and they were absolutely THRILLED!! We went on the open-air safari, not the private one you see in the picture below, but we still got up close and personal with a number of animals! The Wilds is located about an hour west of Columbus and is an affiliate of the Columbus...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 13, 2014 · Last modified December 12, 2016
We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start. Real Science 4 Kids NOEO Science R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum Elementary...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2014 · Last modified March 17, 2016
I’ve been asked fairly regularly, “How do you know what to teach the kids?” That is definitely a daunting task, especially if you are pulling your child out of public/private school mid-year. Homeschool does not have to look like traditional school and there’s no rule saying that learning has to come from books or a certain set of books. There are a lot of homeschool curriculum options out there… and...
Family Meeting / Games for Thinking and Learning / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 8, 2014 · Last modified April 10, 2016
In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony. — Eva Burrows Does your family hold a regular family meeting? We started holding one a couple of years ago and started some traditions that are still family favorites… “candle night,” the “smiley under the plate” and getting downright silly with the kids in “knock your socks off.”...
My friend and I were having a long conversation about the options open to our kids once they reach high school and beyond. Her son and daughter, ages 9 and 11, just finished a year of chemistry using a college textbook. My friend is beginning to look into the options open to her kids as they continue moving forward academically. She said she felt hopeful and inspired after hearing about...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Holiday: Easter / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 14, 2014 · Last modified December 5, 2018
This activity helps kids understand how very important it is to brush your teeth every day! For this activity we chose coke, grape soda (we didn’t have any grape juice) and coffee. You can use any beverage that you think will stain your teeth. The kids each selected two drinks and we let the eggs soak for several hours. As the kids “brushed” their eggs, they were amazed at...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Holiday: Easter / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 13, 2014 · Last modified January 26, 2017
EggSperiment #4 Will an egg float or sink in water? What happens when we add salt to the water? We added a lot of salt to one cup and had plain water in the other cup. The egg in salty water floated, while the other egg sunk. We talked about why that was the case and how salt molecules changed the density of the water. Egg Activity #5 Do eggs...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Holiday: Easter / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2014 · Last modified January 26, 2017
EggSperiment 1: Why do eggs move the way they do? Have the kids roll an egg around on a table. Talk about why they are shaped the way they are. Because eggs are a funny and oblong shape, they roll and wobble around in a certain way. Eggs wobble when they roll so they won’t go far from a mother hen and they will stay inside of a nest. If eggs...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool Den / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2014 · Last modified January 26, 2017
EggSpect the UnEggSpected with this series of fun Science EggSperiments! In this series you’ll find a dozen terrific egg activities to do with you kids. So… for the first EggSperiment… Because Easter is coming up, we devoted the past week to some fun science EggSperiments. This experiments requires you to soak a raw egg for two days in vinegar, so I’ll share this experiment first so you have time to...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 22, 2014 · Last modified February 22, 2015
This is a list of some of the most useful homeschool and teaching resources from around the web. I have added in some free resources I found that integrate computer science concepts into science units, plus Engineering units for kids, and units from the CDC (Center for Disease Control). If you have any great resources and websites I should add to this list, leave a comment or leave me a note...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Kindergarten / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 21, 2014 · Last modified March 20, 2018
The kids participated in a science fair event a couple of weeks ago… where kids and adults could share their favorite science-related collections, photos, experiments, and knowledge. Some adults set up a slide show of their astronomy photos, sharing bone collections, a cartographer shared some of her materials, kids brought in their rock collection and more… My kids set up a science activity station with the Color Explosion in Milk....
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:...
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.
