Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
It has been a while since I talked about DD’s reading (she’s 5). We are still working our way through EPS Primary Phonics Storybooks. I can’t recommend this set of readers highly enough! I have found them absolutely perfect after the Bob Books. Each book (like the purple one at the left and the one straight below it) is 16 pages long and the story is reasonably good. DD reads...
LD is slowly on the mend. He had his first bite to eat in more than two days a bit ago. Meanwhile, here are a few things ED did with me this morning. I pulled out a few of the letters from a large letter floor mat, introduced them to her one at a time and called out a letter for her to jump to. She and DD enjoyed this...
LD is quite sick–hasn’t eaten for two days, is lethargic, feverish and sleeps most of the day/night. Will update soon. Poor guy.
Here’s the scene: Our furnace has been on the fritz! This morning it was a chilly 59F/15C degrees in the living room area and even colder in our bedroom! (Nowhere near as cold as it is outside, though.) Everything is draped in ice. It’s actually quite beautiful. Except that EVERYTHING is covered in ice. Imagine backing out of our garage… and driving up THIS driveway! It took nearly an hour...
Here are the cards and game boards I made for LD. I cut them out and mounted them on a file folder so you can’t see through the back! The red cards are the 4s times tables plus two enemy tie fighters. The game board has five slots. To play the game all the red cards are turned upside down. Each player takes a turn choosing a card and solving...
This is a bit hard to see, but we made these skip counting rolled papers. As you unfurl the paper it reveals the answer to 4×1, 4×2, etc. LD took a lot of time drawing different styles of star fighters in each rectangle! Then we worked together to fill out the other chart skip counting up through 40. We used these sheets as a reference for the next skip counting...
Hi! It’s great to be back online after a very full holiday season. We’re now back into the swing of things and I’d like to share some new activities the kids and I have started into. I’ll start first with my 5 year old’s math activities the past couple of days: DD is learning basic addition. This week we’re working on the 5s. I gave her the colored construction paper...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 26, 2010
I usually take opportunity over our December break to begin planning for the next semester. This last semester we learned a lot during our studies of Ancient Rome. We enjoyed watching bits of Spartacus and Ben Hur. LD and DD were entranced by the boat battles and amazing chariot race of Ben Hur! Now, as you obviously can tell by the clip art I’m planning for our next unit on...
LD sledding down our driveway the day after the snowfall. Not only did the UPS truck get stuck up at the top of the driveway (because the hill continues on up even past the crest of our driveway), but the next evening hubby had to help the Fed Ex man get out as well!
The kids were all born in Australia and there was no snow in the Outback. Today was their very first snow experience! What fun! We got about three inches; it snowed all day and we were in and out of the house until late this evening. ED loved licking the snow while LD scared me with his daring dashes down our steep driveway on the sled! The woods sure look...
We have been enjoying holiday-themed art this past week–Christmas trees, nutcrackers, gingerbread men and more! W I went over to check out Art Projects for Kids and saw this very cute nutcracker art project. LD and DD were keen to give it a try. DD was very excited because she is dancing in the Nutcracker. She has done at least a half-dozen nutcracker drawings plus the drawing/painting she did last...
This time of year is particularly busy. DD has extra dance rehearsals for her Nutcracker performance. We have little holiday parties that we’ve attended and more coming up. Friends and family are coming to visit; even close friends from the Outback are coming to visit in a few days! Then to top it off, LD’s gymnastics coach has asked if he wants to move up to the next level. He’ll...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 9, 2010 · Last modified November 25, 2016
We’ve been doing lots of holiday-related activities. Today we brought out our hammers and cans (filled with ice) to make lanterns. LD especially like this, though I was impressed with how long ED worked at it as well! Once the ice melted, we were ready to light them with small tea candles inside and set them along the driveway to welcome Daddy home! You might be interested in some of...
We learned about the eight planets in our Solar System. While the kids painted with watercolors, I sang this song from the Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum Website. It’s called “Family of the Sun” and has one verse describing each of the eight planets (plus Pluto, the dwarf planet). It’s sung to the Farmer in the Dell: Here’s the first two verses and the chorus:1)Mercury is hotand Mercury 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.
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.
