Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Active Math Games / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 14, 2010
We try to play lots of games — and this one is worth a mention because it involves addition, subtraction and simple multiplication. It’s called Mmm Brains — so it also had great appeal to LD in particular! There’s a large selection of brains. Red brains are each 5 points. White brains are 1 point. There are 5 dice — with the numbers 1 through 5 in different colors (yellow,...
Since we had our first frost last week, I guess it’s okay to bring in some snowflake-themed math, right? Actually, I just stopped by a hobby store and saw the pretty snowflake ornaments. Since ED is STILL doing the spider counting, I thought it was about time to change it up for her as she ALWAYS comes running when I tell DD or LD that it’s math time. ED is...
Arts and Crafts / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 12, 2010
Quite a number of years ago, I taught history at a Quaker boarding school. At the beginning and end of the day, the students and staff gathered together for collection–10 minutes of silence together. At the end of that time, students or staff could share something with the community — music, a poem, etc. Now as you can imagine, 10 minutes of silence wouldn’t really hold for the kids, but...
I was looking for the alphabet and number cards with certain themes — fall leaves, snowflakes, and penguins. I stumbled across this terrific website that has all kinds of beautiful free printables: Communication 4 All.co.uk. Some of the early learning themes include space, pirates, minibeasts, animals, dinosaurs, under the sea, castles, India, months and seasons, the water cycle, and other themes. Just thought I’d share my discovery in case someone...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 11, 2010
Some time back, I shared our Indian corn activity. It’s now growing quite tall in big pots at the end of our dining room table! So here’s the corn after about 1 week of being watered. After a while we decided to plant the corn in some empty flower pots. The corn grew steadily. And now it’s about 12-15 inches high! Unfortunately, the corn cob attracted lots of fruit flies. ...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Math General Posts / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 9, 2010
This post is a long time in coming; it’s taken forever to get this posted! I wanted to share some of the curriculum choices that are working well for our 7 year old this semester. MATH: These past five months or so, we have been using a math workbook for much of LD’s math practice. Only recently have started back on our beloved Right Start Math curriculum. It was written...
A few weeks ago, LD pulled out a project he started back in Australia — a lapbook on carnivorous plants (free from http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/carnivorousplants.htm) He enjoyed reading up on these plants again and put it all together.
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Mom Stories
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 6, 2010
This blog is so often about the kids, but I was thinking today (last Sunday) about writing a blog entry about my life–as separate to the kids. Sometimes I feel quite discouraged. The house gets away from me, manipulatives wind up everywhere, but I know I do work hard… So kind of more to be affirming to me (Go Me!) — I wanted to jot down the things I’ve done...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Lapbooks / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 6, 2010 · Last modified December 9, 2019
A few weeks ago, I asked DD what she wanted to learn about. She chose to study butterflies and insects. We used two lapbooks. One is no longer available. The other one was a free lapbook on butterflies from Yee Shall Know. (Website no longer available.) (If you’ve never seen any of her lapbooks, I highly recommend her free lapbooks. (Website no longer available.) They are based on the Magic...
Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 5, 2010 · Last modified February 20, 2016
I’ve had a hard time getting to the computer this week (more about that in another posting). I have about four posts I’ve been working on–Snippets of DD’s week–age 5, LD’s week – age 7 and my week, not to mention posting pictures of DD’s completed butterfly lapbook. But now these are rather looonnnggg because it’s taken so long to get these posted. So, in reality these are snippets of the...
I turn to my sister when I need to share news–the good and the bad, the gross (right Sis?!!) and the funny. I turn to my sister when I need to complain. I turn to my sister when I’m overwhelmed (like the many many phone calls at 2 or 3am from Australia when things were overwhelming on our move… luckily for her it was mid-day then!). She’s the one ultimately...
Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 30, 2010 · Last modified January 8, 2018
Someone shared this link to some handouts from a Montessori conference (American Montessori Society). I have really enjoyed the one related to brain development. I *really* enjoyed the book Magic Trees of the Mind, which talks about the development of the brain and how various connections (dendrites) are formed and then “pruned” as a child ages. The handouts I was reading reinforced some of the things I had learned in...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Music / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 28, 2010 · Last modified July 27, 2018
I’ve been meaning to put up a post about what we generally work on from day to day. But, with blogger not working for a while, I have a plethora of photos to share. So, here’s a glimpse of what DD (just turned 5) has been working on these past couple of weeks. Her “basics” include math, reading, handwriting, music/glockenspiel, arts&crafts; and another unit-study (a lapbook in this case, but...
Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 26, 2010
I had some wonderful news from The Montessori Printshop over the weekend. I won a $30 voucher for their products. I’ve been scouring their website trying to narrow down the selection since they have so many beautiful 3-part cards. Thank you Montessori Printshop! I’m having trouble with blogger ever since they did their “updates” on their image loader. Anyone else having those issues or figured out how to resolve it?...
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.
