Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 19, 2015 · Last modified November 17, 2015
This week I’m changing our “Thoughts on Teaching” series up a bit to write about how our homeschool days flow in general. Each day is pretty different from the one before and is usually a result of what we didn’t get to (or got to only minimally) the day before. But I keep a general running tab (mentally if not by checklist!) of what we’re doing in each subject. So...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 17, 2015 · Last modified March 18, 2023
This semester we did a new unit on chemistry and focused on the Periodic Table. We typically use secular resources, but I previewed Chemistry 101: An Overview of God’s Chemical World over the summer on the recommendation of a close friend. It is a wonderful resource. I found the video to be really well done (the kids really enjoyed it) and while there were a few references religion (especially in...
I have a couple of freebies for those of you studying German with your kids: German verbs and verb endings and one on objects in an office or schoolroom. We spent several days looking more closely at the endings on German verbs and practicing some of these new words: fragen – to ask gehen – to go gewinnen – to win glauben – to think, to believe, heissen – to...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 21, 2015 · Last modified February 9, 2020
Are you practicing clothing, shopping and colors in German with your kids? These are the worksheets and cards we used for this unit. As many of you know, we are studying German as our foreign language. (Why German? I studied German in high school and college, so it’s the language I’m most comfortable helping the kids learn.) This semester, we have daily conversation practice built into our day. I made...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 14, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2015
This past week, we talked quite a bit about different music symbols such as treble clef, base clef, natural sign, flat and sharp symbols, crescendo, quarter notes, half notes, etc. etc. (We also went over various notes as we’ve done previous weeks, though I won’t talk about those activities this week.) We played Music Bingo (the easy version). For the link to this and other free music activities, see our...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 25, 2015 · Last modified July 31, 2020
Today I’m going to share our German worksheets about the weather and seasons, winter words and sickness/illness. These and a dozen other pdfs are icluded in German BUNDLE 1. I have found it difficult to find good German materials and curriculum for kids. Early on we used a lot of free German worksheets and materials, but then at a certain point the kids were ready for more. Last spring I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 2, 2015 · Last modified September 7, 2015
Yesterday was our very first day school. We had such an amazing summer (and more about that in another day or so), but it is also great to be back in the groove again! I started the day with my new morning routine (I’ll talk about that more in another post too!), but it left me organized, energized, and ready to go with the kids! ED, of course, was the...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2015 · Last modified November 1, 2023
I had a realization recently. While the kids can play pieces on the piano, they cannot read music! So, the plan is to slowly but surely make sure they learn and build on those skills. I hope they learn at least two octaves of notes and their corresponding location on the piano/keyboard. I also want them to learn some of the basic music symbols and music notation. I gathered a...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 21, 2015 · Last modified September 24, 2015
For German this year, we are going to use a number of resources. If you have followed our blog for a while, you know that we used a lot of free resources to build up their basic skills… numbers, colors, animals, basic greetings, etc. You’ll find links to those at the bottom of this post. This year, we will be buckling down a bit more. Just so you know, I...
Welcome to the 4th post in this summer series. I am highlighting a “passel” of posts in this series. This is just a random assortment of activities, printables and posts that you may have missed in the six years I’ve been writing this blog!! Hope you find something useful today. Vertebrate – Invertebrate Cards – These sorting cards are free!! They are useful as kids start learning about classifying animals...
So by now you’ve got the drill! This is the third in this series highlighting a random number of our previous posts. Assortment is probably the key word here because this list is in no particular order. I hope you find a gem or two that you can use in your homeschool or classroom! ~Liesl And now… on to the meat of this post! Rocks, Rocks, Rocks! We did a...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2015 · Last modified September 5, 2018
We are all pretty excited about the fly-by of Pluto. We get pretty excited about space and science over here and I thought I’d share a few of the really cool things we’ve learned. On Tuesday (July 14), the US spacecraft, New Horizons, will fly by Pluto. It will come closest on Tuesday morning — at 7:49 a.m. EDT. The fly-by will last for just 8 to 10 hours. It will...
Our family has had an amazing summer so far. As many of you know, we caught up with my family (my sister, her family and my folks) back in May at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We just got back from a trip with Hubby’s family — his two sisters, nephews, niece, parents, etc. etc. Hubby’s Mom set up time shares for us in Florida. The palm trees make it...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 8, 2015 · Last modified June 25, 2015
Passel means “a group or lot of indeterminate number…” so here you’ll find a random number of links to posts we’ve written over the years! 🙂 Since we keep getting new readers, I thought I would highlight some of the projects, activities and printables we’ve shared over the years. I hope you find a few “new” ideas in this series! 🙂 As ever, if you have any questions or comments feel free to...
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.
