Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 28, 2014 · Last modified December 30, 2014
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I have a fun activity for your with your Indian corn. We did this ‘science’ activity with Indian corn a couple of years ago. Soak your Indian corn cobs in a bit of water to see what will happen. We had a large tray with a paper towel and about 1/4 inch of water. We also pour water over the cob every 2 or 3...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Sign Language
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 17, 2014 · Last modified February 19, 2017
Signing with Your Baby and Toddlers Baby Signing — Our family decided to sign with each of our babies/tots. Our children all had normal hearing, but I learned that kids could control their hands and fingers and could therefore communicate by sign much earlier than with speech. It seemed like a good idea and most of my friends were doing simple signs with their babies/tots too. We were SO glad...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 6, 2014 · Last modified October 29, 2020
This post has links to more than 15 free Fall Activity Packs! Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some fall-themed activities from fall leaves and apples to scarecrows and pumpkins! There’s a huge selection of free packets to choose from… First here are some of our free Fall-Themed Packets: Free Preschool Printable – Words That Start with F Thanksgiving Preschool Printables (free) FREE CVC Words -at...
Ages 2-6: Apple Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 27, 2014 · Last modified September 19, 2015
It’s apple season! The perfect time to do apple-themed activities with the kids. When my kids were little, we played Math Grid Games all the time. I made an Apple-Themed Grid Board to share with you today. Here’s a picture of the game board: How to Use Math Grids with your Preschooler: Print 2 Grid Boards per player Gather two different sets of tokens and one die. For Younger Kids: Take...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 8, 2014 · Last modified September 9, 2023
Last week ED I printed out the daily calendar page I made for her last fall. She filled one out each morning as she needs some review on some of the spellings on the days of the week and we needed to review how to read a thermometer. I printed it out on the back of her daily checklist (You can grab our free homeschool planner with these daily checklists...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 2, 2014 · Last modified June 25, 2015
Just what is a lapbook? Here’s a picture of the Pirate Lapbook my son made when he was a preschooler. As you can see, it is a file folder that is refolded so that the edges meet in the middle. Then, you tape other pages to the bottom or into the middle to add in more material. It is a cute way to display small folded mini-books, flaps, pop-up...
Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 29, 2014 · Last modified February 21, 2016
I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…) and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on. So, just keep in mind that...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 28, 2014 · Last modified February 21, 2016
I frequently get questions from parents who wonder just what to do and where to start with their preschoolers. Many of the things we did are things most parents do naturally in their home: free play with toys, time exploring and playing outside, dancing to music, reading books aloud to the kids. But as a Mom who stayed at home, I was always looking for different activities and approaches to...
We are the typical modern family. We have a computer and laptop, cell phones, tablet readers, an X-box… So many ways to keep in touch with family, friends and the wider world! That’s a wonderful thing, a privilege, a joy… but it also takes over at times. Phone rings? Gotta go get it… and talk with friends or family. Have an idle moment? Ahh… well, let’s just check email (or...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Arts and Crafts / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 28, 2014 · Last modified November 2, 2018
This Spaghetti Yarn Art is a cute, quick craft you can do with your 2-5 year old. This was a really good project even for ED, who was age 2 at the time. She could pretty much do it on her own as long as I reminded her of the steps along the way. For this activity we needed cooked spaghetti (we used fettuccine), bits of yarn or string, and glue. We had one bowl of...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2014 · Last modified January 24, 2019
In this post I’d like to share a dozen activities that we did with the kids to help foster early reading skills. These are activities we did with CVC words and basic sight words to make the learning process fun and engaging!! 🙂 The first step in learning to read is to make sure your child knows their letter sounds. We shared lots of ideas about that in our Preschool...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 10, 2014 · Last modified December 30, 2014
When my kids were little I bought a set of Pattern Blocks. It’s been one of the most enduring resources we have. We still bring them out occasionally and also use them for math now and then. The kids have used templates like these: And they’ve also used the pattern blocks for free play: There are lots of places where you can find free pattern block templates: One of the...
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...
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.
