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 for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Montessori (general info) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2011 · Last modified February 20, 2016
ED’s Monday Routine: The idea of planning all this is so that I can change up ED’s activities, keep them fresh, interesting with the minimum of thought on my part. I expect to skip days, but then I’ll just pick up on the appropriate day and continue on. The routine is (hopefully) to make it easier on me to keep things engaging for ED. Mailbox Letters and Scavenger Hunt Montessori...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 9, 2011 · Last modified March 14, 2019
I often enjoy having a glimpse at other people’s homeschool setups. We had quite a small house over in Australia, but we are now blessed with this amazingly large, airy homeschool room. We have bright colorful workboxes. Each kid has their own row, but I do not fill them every day with new things. Instead their basic subjects get stored here (including the manipulatives, new games, activities and printouts). It...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 8, 2011 · Last modified March 8, 2017
Last week I set up the first few activities for ED. I’ve been working to get the homeschool room setup to make it easier and more routine for me to setup each day/week for ED’s preschool.We’re easing into school — so none of these pictures will be too much of a surprise, but one thing I did last week was to re-introduce and reinforce the routine of putting out a...
The kids’ cousins went to camp this year and taught DD and LD how to make these pony-bead snakes and lizards. I thought they were so cute I thought I would share the general procedure here. You need thin ribbon and pony beads. First take very thin ribbon and cut a strip about two feet long. Place a knot in the middle of the ribbon and slide a bead onto...
We’re still not doing any formal work.. though believe me our days are full. Sometime I’ll get around to posting new pictures! Meanwhile, I continue to read and get inspired for the coming semester. Someone mentioned that they had used this chemistry curriculum: http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/and that they were very impressed with it. Since my kids love science I had to check it out. It seems wonderful and I suspect we will...
Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 3, 2011
I’ve had some good luck getting my curriculum used this year from http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com. I bought three books from homeschool classified and got prompt replies from the sellers. The books arrived quickly in the mail. The prices made me excited as I saved quite a bit buying them second-hand. Just wanted to mention that venue if anyone else was looking around for curriculum for this fall.
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Montessori (general info) / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 2, 2011
Over the past few years, we have done a lot of Montessori science work. This year I compiled a review notebook and will let DD and LD work on this as they are interested (ED will be introduced to these for the first time this year). Mostly I expect the older ones to cut out pictures from magazines and write on these sheets (pages 5 and beyond in the pack). ...
Freebies / Montessori (general info) / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 1, 2011
This year I hope to introduce my older kids to researching things on their own. We’ll be going over a lot of the Montessori zoology curriculum again, so I thought I’d create a page to help guide them. For what it’s worth, I’ll share that with you all too.Animal Notebook Page (for the kids to do research on their own about animals they are interested in). Animal Discovery Notebook page...
I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been seriously reassessing how our homeschool runs. I’m pretty excited about some of the changes I’d like to make– creating more structure yet giving them more independence, or another way of putting that… creating academic work time yet giving them freedom within that, working with them on goal-setting, creating the environment that gives them that autonomy.I read the book The Montessori Controversy...
I love these pictures of other people’s learning spaces. I learned about pinterest from Laura (of My Montessori Journey) who now homeschools her two boys over at Walnut Hill Homeschool.
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 29, 2011
Another reason to by thankful this month… About a week before we went down to visit my sister and her family, my niece found a stray kitten. They took her to the vet, gave her shots and generally looked after her. Although they just bought a farm, they couldn’t really keep the kitty. They asked if we’d like her. So on the return trip home we stopped in to pick...
I was chatting with a friend of mine whose daughter is in ED’s gymnastics class. She mentioned that her Mom was down-sizing and getting rid of lots of stuff. At one point they homeschooled and had some “kits and stuff” they wanted to get rid of. Since LD is so into science I went to have a look. I don’t know if you can tell, but this is PERFECT for...
History: Geologic Timeline (Montessori) / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 27, 2011
I’ve been doing some reading and re-reading of Montessori philosophy this summer. I thought I’d share my thoughts about how our studies — specifically our USA unit study — fits in with my interpretations of Montessori teaching in the early elementary grades. As I have three kids spanning the two age groupings (both 3-6 and 6-9), I use elements from both. **We will be starting the year by creating paper...
Freebies / History: American Colonies / History: Geography Activities / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 26, 2011 · Last modified March 14, 2019
I made some Montessori 3-part cards for the kids for our study of some of the well-known landmarks and symbols of the United States. These cards include landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the White House, Mount Rushmore and more. You can download the US Landmarks and Symbols Cards at this link. We used these cards by talking about where they were located and placing them on our giant...
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.
