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Since we are taking a couple of weeks off, I have some posts scheduled to post automatically. I’ll be sharing more pictures of our astronomy unit on Wednesday and then over the course of the next week or so. Today, though I wanted to come on and wish you all Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year. Each evening at dinner, our family takes a few moments in silence...
This is by far my favorite craft we did this year! You glue toothpicks onto a star (cut out from cardboard or poster board). Then you spray paint it with gold paint and glue a toilet-paper roll on the back. Easy and quite beautiful! DD loved the cardinal art lesson from Art Projects for Kids. Below the kids made a few ornaments for the tree this year: little reindeers, a...
Lapbooks / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 20, 2011 · Last modified December 24, 2015
We seem to talk about the planets about once a year, don’t we? This time we did a little activity that showed the four inner, rocky planets, the asteroid belt and the four outer planets, the gas giants. In this picture you can see that the asteroid belt has two layers as well! We did the inner and out planets speedy lapbook by homeschool bits (25cents) — and even ED...
Science / Science Experiments / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 19, 2011 · Last modified December 24, 2015
The kids have been begging for some hands-on science experiments. I have a bigger unit planned, but since December and January will be a bit broken up as far as our schooling goes, I decided to delve into a short unit with lots of experiments based on one of Janice VanCleave’s books (202 Oozing, Bubbling, Dripping, Bouncing, Experiments) and lots of notebook/lapbook pages from Homeschool Bits. Here’s some of what...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 16, 2011
I feel like I haven’t written a long post about ED’s preschool work in forever. That’s because she’s been such an integral part of all our latest activities. She did all the owl crafts in our forest unit, did the dissection of the owl pellet. She takes notes and writes out her letters when the kids are taking notes on their science activities. She gets her own lapbook pages and...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Lapbooks / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 14, 2011 · Last modified November 26, 2015
Often while I’m reading aloud (in this case we’re still reading Little House in the Big Woods) I have the kids working on other things. A few days ago I had them cut out the pieces of a quick owl lapbook (All Owls, a 50cent lapbook by homeschool bits). It had great tidbits of information, reinforcing all we had read last week. They put it together and were so excited...
Freebies / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2011
Find the missing addend activity: Do you ever get attitude when you do certain subjects with your kids?? For some reason, LD has been reluctant to do math from one of his books. Playing games has turned that attitude around (for the time being) and he’s really done some great math work in the past couple of weeks. (We start with games like our beloved Speed! Multiplication Game, the division...
I run two little music classes (for free) for our friends. We try to meet once a week (though illness, holidays, and travels sometimes gets in the way of that!!) For our music class last Friday we played a cute game that was a huge hit. Two parents made a bridge with their hands. The kids stood in a line and went under the bridge, circling back and going under...
Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 9, 2011
DD just finished up a lesson on plurals in her spelling program (we use All About Spelling which we love, love, love!). I saw this game over at First Grade and Fabulous which has the kids decide whether to add an -s or an -es. We played over and over. It was absolutely perfect timing for us, plus it’s really cute! Thank you so much, Deanne!
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 8, 2011 · Last modified January 4, 2016
As I mentioned yesterday, we did a lot of reading about owls to lead into the awesome science study on owls! We talked about the forest food chain (who eats whom) and then I asked them what owls ate. Owls eat mice, voles, snakes and other small animals. They swallow their prey whole and about eight hours later spit out the parts they can’t digest in a pellet of fur...
Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Montessori (general info) / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 7, 2011 · Last modified October 11, 2018
We have had so much fun with this forest unit so far. We’ve done a ton of crafts and coloring. The kids colored in these cute owl pages (which are no longer available – http://katibura.xyz/printable/printable-coloring-pages-for-adults-owls). The kids did a simple fall craft we got at oriental trading: All the kids have been doing the forest animal sorts and we talked once again about vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The kids sorted...
Since LD and I have been playing his division games daily, DD wanted her own board as well. I made one up for her last night so she can work on her sums to 16, 17, 18 and 19. (ie. 8+8, 9+10 and so forth). If you are interested the addition games and cards are found here.
Freebies / Math General Posts / Math--Division
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 5, 2011
LD was asking for more math games, so I whipped up two quick division games. The first game is the same Bump game I’ve mentioned before, this time using division problems. You can print out your own Bump Division Game here. *Each player takes a turn taking a division card and solving the answer. *The player places a token on the correct number on the gameboard. *We use pennies and...
Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Nature
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 4, 2011 · Last modified April 16, 2015
Now to my family for a moment. Sometimes it’s good to know the ending and outcome of sad events.If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that my sister/bro-in-law and their family were victims of the May 2010 flooding in Nashville. My brother-in-law had just returned from a 9 month deployment to Iraq when the flood hit. They spent 12 hours moving as much as they...
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.
