Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
I was telling my friend today how much LD loves this series of books. We first got a couple of these in a lot/group of science books that we got off of ebay. But LD loved them so much that I wound up getting them all. There’s not a week that goes by that LD doesn’t pick up one or two of these to read through. They tend to reside...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 23, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Emperor’s New Clothes Craft: Shopping for the Emperor’s New Clothes This activity was a big hit! I cut out a felt emperor, shirts, pants, shoes, a robe, and a crown. Each had a set price (see the sheet below). Then I gave the kids $5.00 or $8.00 to go shopping for the emperor. A great review of money and DD in particular has learned a lot and done this activity...
History: Middle Ages / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science: Garden Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 22, 2011
The other evening I came home during a thunderstorm. The toads were covering the road leading to our house. Not one or two, but so many that I couldn’t drive the car around them. I went back a little later and there weren’t nearly as many, but still saw at least 50 toads! And saw that even though I was driving about 5mph and swerving wildly from side to side,...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
Our first fairy tale today was Jack and the Beanstalk. I set up this felt board the night before and had some coloring pages for ED since she’s usually the first one up and she’s always ready to dive into the day! She was more interested in helping me bake…and sample… and mix… and sample! We made graham crackers and cut them into castle and cottage parts that I hoped...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 20, 2011 · Last modified May 14, 2015
The kids haven’t seen the homeschool room yet and I’m looking forward to surprising them with something a bit out of the ordinary in the morning! I know teachers transform their classrooms a lot and figured it was about time to try something like that for myself. I’m pleased with how it turned out! 🙂 We made the mushrooms last year out of paper mache (the doors have since been...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 18, 2011 · Last modified March 22, 2016
As I’ve mentioned before our house is nestled down in the woods. The former owners cut up logs and threw them into a huge pile which is now happily decomposing. We’ve used some of this mulch in our garden areas (well away from the house). Here’s some of what we’ve observed from this decomposing pile! We found lots of these large beetles in our mulch pile. My best guess is...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2011 · Last modified January 1, 2015
DD is feeling a little bit better and wanted to do a leprechaun craft too. She wanted to do something different than the other kids. Last evening someone shared a new art website that had lots of elementary art lessons. I took a quick look and the bottle dolls caught my attention. When DD asked to do a craft she agreed that the bottle doll might be fun. She and...
Lapbooks / Science / Science: Garden Science / Science: Plant Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 16, 2011 · Last modified March 22, 2016
DD made a sunflower lapbook. I finally have a few minutes to share her work here. She colored the front page and decided she didn’t want a title on the front cover so I added it into the photo digitally. I purchased this Sunflower Unit Study/Lapbook on currclick. It was $1.00 (USdol) — and was totally worth it since both DD and I learned a lot of new information. You...
Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2011 · Last modified March 1, 2016
Confession Time: One thing that I have not done well these past couple of years is to include activities that show word family patterns. Both LD and DD learned to read easily and early. Once they were off and reading, I guess I never saw much “point” in going over these kinds of things. But then… then I saw LD struggle as a writer. He has worked hard on the...
Today we did some shamrock fishing. I made three different activities to be age appropriate for my 7, 5 and 3 year olds. LD is working on his multiplication tables from 2s through 6s. His shamrocks had various problems whose answers fell between 20 and 29 (such as 4×5, 5×5 and 3×7) and other problems whose answers fell between 30 and 39 (3×11, 6×6, etc.) DD’s shamrock fishing was addition-related....
Today we made this leprechaun craft. For the hat, I had some round rubber gripping pads from the dollar store and cut them into a hat shape. The kids then used a large embroidery needle and yarn to make the buckle shape in the hat. This is ED’s finished leprechaun to the left. LD had me on the floor laughing with his crazy leprechaun hat!!! Kids come up with some...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2011 · Last modified January 27, 2016
There are such wonderful resources out there for those of you planning to do some St. Patrick’s Day activities with your kids. Here are some of the free St. Patrick’s Day units and printables I’ve come across this past week: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards; Powerpoint Explanation about St. Patrick and how he brought Christianity to Ireland Musings of Me — St. Patrick’s Day Teacher’s...
We have been having so much fun lately that I haven’t felt like blogging. The kids have thrown themselves head-first into a gardening/plant/sunflower unit. We’ve been working on our outdoor garden, planting seeds (indoors), lapbooking, reading lots of books about plants and gardens… and so much of this is directed by the kids that I’m just along for the ride! Anyway, all is well here — just busy (in a...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / History: Geography Activities / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 2, 2011 · Last modified April 1, 2016
For the first time in months, we had our music classes. We took a long break because of the holidays, sickness and house problems. It was so wonderful to catch up with our friends again. We are continuing on with our studies of Europe and the music of Europe. First, we reviewed the seven continents (to the tune of Frere Jacques). Europe, Asia, A-fri-caa, North America South America Then there...
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.
