Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Arts and Crafts / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Native American Indians Unit / History: World Religions
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 15, 2011 · Last modified January 1, 2015
The Huichol Indians of Mexico and Aymara Indians of Bolivia make “eye of God” yarn crafts. Originally they were placed on alters, but now they are often sold in markets. I thought this was a perfect craft for the kids to go along with our talks about the ancient Mayan Indians. I used to make these in Girl Scouts, but came across this website which has details on how to...
History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Native American Indians Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 14, 2011 · Last modified April 3, 2015
In our slow, but steady move through history we have talked about nomads, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient Greece and Rome and then up into the Middle Ages. From here we’re going to turn to the Americas. Our next history unit study will be on Native Americans. I hope to incorporate some good literature books into our studies over the next few months (let me know if you have good...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2011
I developed this blog in large part for me. It helps me keep a record of what we’ve done and it also helps me stay organized and keep track of websites where I’ve gotten activity ideas and printables. You should see my drafts!! Whenever I’m cruising around trying to find information and activities for new units I create a “draft” and link lots of the websites I come across. I...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2011 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Here are the other two experiments LD and the girls did. It sure was nice just stepping back to watch the kids do this themselves this time round. Color Changing Milk 1) Pour milk onto a plate 2) Add three drops of food coloring (red, blue, yellow) 3) Place a Q-tip in dishsoap. Then carefully place the Q-tip in the center of the plate without moving it around. The colors...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 11, 2011 · Last modified October 22, 2015
LD was itching to do some of his old science experiments this morning. We had all of the directions collected on a 3X5 ring (from when we did them a year+ ago). LD leafed through and chose several experiments. Here is the first one he and the girls did. It’s been over a year since we last did this experiment, but it still had a real “wow” factor for all...
LD actually told me, “Mom, I like reading more than TV!” In the past few weeks he has zoomed through a fantasy series called Beast Quest and he would read one and often two books a day! The series is about a young boy who goes on a quest to release various beasts from a spell that was placed on them (the beasts protect their kingdom). I’ve always loved sci...
ED (age 3) needs more work identifying her numbers 4-9 and counting consistently with one-to-one correspondence. This is an action game I put together for her to work on some of her preschool skills. There are two dice:1) with the numbers 4 through 92) with the shapes — star, square,oval, rectangle, circle and triangle There’s a game board with 24 spaces and these symbols on them. There are wooden numbers...
Today we used wool to make fairies. We were going to use a fairy kit, but somehow wound up with skeins of fairy wool instead, so we had to make due with a bead and some ingenuity! But the girls love the end product and that’s all that matters. Here we tied the arms in a knot. We also tied a bit of wool around the end of the arms...
I heard an interview on NPR this past week about a live camera feed in Iowa on an eagle’s nest. As the gentleman was speaking he panned in and out on the eaglets. As of few days ago two of the eggs had hatched (one April 2nd and one April 3rd) and one more had yet to hatch: http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles **Update — the third egg hatched last night. You can see...
This has been a very hard year for us. We’ve been here in the house just 8 months and we’ve had upper-respiratory infections, the flu, pneumonia, strep — twice, ear infections, weird rashes (all of this hitting most everyone in the family)… and this past week we’ve had gastro (my guess is rota-virus). It started with ED early last week. Then we went out of town to visit Grandma and...
We’ve done a lot with geography of Europe this semester. That’s in part because three of our unit studies have focused on Europe — our world music class, the Middle Ages unit and our fairy tale unit. I ordered this game back in February, but with the flu and pneumonia descending upon us we never got to it. We’ve had a blast with it the past week or so. Here’s...
I got this cute word sort mat from Finally in First. Thank you, Jenn! There are other cards that address this ou/ow spelling/pronunciation pattern here and here. Worksheets (like fill in the blank, etc.) that use the oi/ow diphthongs — here. Online spelling game with ou/ow.
These are the two fairy tale collections we’ve been reading from. I highly recommend the one on the left, Treasury of Classic Children’s Stories. (affiliate link) (Update in 2015: All three of my kids loved, loved, loved the fairy tales in Classic Children’s Stories. At first I read them aloud, later they read them to themselves. In fact, ED now reads the stories to herself and the book is on our kitchen...
Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 26, 2011 · Last modified March 22, 2016
We have been outside working in the gardens almost every afternoon (for 2-3 hours). This is such a huge part of our life right now, I just had to write a bit about that again. I thought the girls looked particularly cute yesterday. Yes, I let my girls garden in velvet dresses!! They are looking intently for grubs because I mentioned that that they aren’t good for the garden. When...
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.
