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We still love going hiking along the trail that heads off into the woods behind our house.
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We still love going hiking along the trail that heads off into the woods behind our house.
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 1, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
We made the starfish, sand dollars, crabs and coral out of cornstarch clay. 1 cup cornstarch 1 cup baking soda 1/2 tablespoon salt 1 cup water Mix and cook on low to medium in a pot until it congeals together. We had fun putting this project together. I’ll share the various steps below: We spent one day painting our boxes. The girls then added glue and sand along the bottom....
Freebies / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2011 · Last modified November 19, 2020
Sorry about the endless postings about our ocean unit… just a couple more and that’s that! Blogs are funny because they sure don’t show the whole picture. From looking at our blog our days are consumed by oceans!! Heh heh! Well, that’s not at all accurate. I read and read, planned and planned and finally the older kids started back to school last week. As you’ve seen, ED has been...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 29, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
Even though it was quite a drive for us, I decided a trip to the aquarium was in order with all our studies of ocean animals. We went last week. We sure had a terrific day! We all LOVED the jellyfish displays! We were so lucky to see the octopus moving all around! Everyone loved the sharks and we were lucky to see the sharks, sting...
LD turned 8 almost two weeks ago.We had a family celebration on his big day since my brother-in-law and nephew were here on LD’s birthday. Then we had a small party for friends last weekend. He likes Harry Potter and is reading through those books — thus the Hogwart’s Castle cake (or my attempt!!)
Freebies / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 25, 2011 · Last modified April 2, 2021
I made this activity for my older kids (5 and 8). You can download and print these sheets here: Ocean Animals and Their Groups You can download and print these sheets here. There are two pages. You might want to make a colored circle on the back of each of the three related cards. Use a different color for each animal. That way, the kids can check their own work as needed. ...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
We haven’t done that much sewing here at the Homeschool Den, so when I saw these cute projects over at future girl‘s blog I thought they’d be perfect. The kids each chose their own project. I thought they turned out pretty cute! DD made the octopus. LD made the jellyfish. ED made the fish. DD and LD did the sewing completely on their own, although I threaded the embroidery thread...
The east coast just had an earthquake. The news says it was 5.8 on the richtor scale — and what that meant for us was lots and lots of shaking and rattling. A few things fell of our shelves in the pantry, but we don’t see any other damage at this point. We read that the Capitol, Pentagon and White House are being evacuated. It sure scared us!
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 23, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
Why do fish swim in schools? We cut up little pieces of tin foil and paper to be our fish. First we dropped in one. It was easy to spot. Then we dropped in a whole lot of fish and tried to follow just one with our eyes. It was much harder to follow one in the midst of many others. We talked about how there was safety in numbers....
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Freebies / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 22, 2011 · Last modified February 18, 2016
I made a preschool math game for ED. ED worked hard to cut out all the pictures. In the picture to the left, she rolled a 10 and I rolled a 1. We each chose that many ocean animals to put on our gameboard. Then ED spun the spinner and it came out “even.” I showed her how to make partners and that she had all partners, so she had...
Freebies / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 18, 2011 · Last modified April 2, 2021
The ocean is divided into different layers. The zones differ in temperature, water pressure and available nutrients. Marine organisms live in different zones according to the amount of sunlight that reaches there. Sunlight Zone: More than 90% of marine life lives in the Sunlight Zone. Twilight Zone: Animals that live in the twilight zone must be able to survive cold temperatures, an increase in water pressure and dark waters. There are no plants in...
While ED has some basic ocean matching out, DD and LD are working on slightly more challenging work. They’re learning the parts of the fish, parts of the shark and the zones of the ocean and the animals that live there. (More about the zones tomorrow.) The kids can check their work by folding down the answer key under the picture. I got the parts of the fish page from...
Freebies / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2011
Late at night my brain often whirls with ideas. Last spring I put the skip counting patterns to familiar tunes since LD is working on his basic multiplication facts. For example, I put the 7s to the tune of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.’ LD learned that so well I went back and created another tune for the 6s and the 8s which he’ll be working on again this fall....
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Arts and Crafts / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 12, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
ED’s Tuesday Routine: So you heard yesterday that I’m planning to use biome/habitat themes with ED this fall. This is what I have planned in a general way for Tuesdays: Arts and Crafts (based on the theme) Montessori Math Beads; Math Activities Science Sorts (Long post and link to my 30-pages of notes, etc.!) Arts and Crafts The girls painted boxes to make a diorama. Now all this needs is...
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.
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!).
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.
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!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems