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Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 28, 2012 · Last modified March 14, 2019
Yesterday I laid out some of the plans we have for this year. For those who are new to my blog I thought you might be interested in looking at some of the plans I had for last year (Fall 2011). Our focus in geography/history last year was on the USA and (some) American history. There was a lot of material that we covered that weren’t in my initial plans/post...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 27, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2019
Lots of people have shared their school plans for this next year in the not-back-to-school blog hop: curriculum week. In fact, I shared our preschool curriculum plans several weeks ago. Now finally, here are our basic plans for DD and LD this next year. While they work on their own levels for math and language arts, we do most of our other units together. As you’ll see, much of our day...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2012 · Last modified March 14, 2019
I’ve spent a lot of time reorganizing our homeschool room this year. I know lots of other homeschoolers are sharing pictures of their learning spaces in the not-back-to-school blog hop. I thought I’d share some photos of our homeschool room as well. In the picture below you see our 3-ring notebooks, the craft table, LD’s writing desk, a bookshelf and DD’s desk (back by the window). A lot of our...
History: Geologic Timeline (Montessori) / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Outdoor: Fossils / Science / Science: Dinosaurs Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 11, 2012
This might be of interest to the dinosaur-loving tots (and parents!) out there. This news from last month passed me by until a couple of days ago. Did you hear that a new species of feathered dinosaur was discovered in Bavaria, in Southern Germany? The fossil of a Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic period shows the first evidence of feathered theropod dinosaurs that are...
A couple of years ago we bought a geography board game called 10 Days in Europe that has been a wonderful addition to our homeschool. It is so much fun, I really recommend it for anyone looking for a new game to add to your collection. I play this game with my 6 and 8 year olds, though I would say it’s more suited to the 8+ crowd (wonderful even...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 20, 2012 · Last modified April 16, 2015
In this series, I have had the privilege of interviewing other homeschoolers from across the country. For today’s interview I’m turning to my sister, Cynthia, and brother-in-law, Tom who homeschool their three children. Cynthia works full time at a university as a professor and associate provost and is a prolific writer; Tom is in the National Guard. They have weathered some pretty trying periods in their homeschooling life and I...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 5, 2012 · Last modified December 13, 2016
I started a series of posts to help explain how we plan for the next year. In yesterday’s post, I listed out the questions I ask myself as I plunge into the planning process. The next few posts I’ll tell you my answers to these questions. I’ll also tell you some of the books, websites and other resources I use in the planning process. Today, I’m going to look over...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read / Technology
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 16, 2012
Technology in Education and in your Homeschool (Part 2) Last week I talked about how you can incorporate video, audio and educational apps into your homeschool. This week’s post talks about how your child/student can use tools to create their own projects that use photos, diagrams, audio, visual components including interactive animations, 3D animations and/or video content. Your child can use a wide range of tools to create stunning videos,...
History: Ancient Greece Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Technology
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 2, 2012
Technology can be integrated into the educational setting (your classroom, your homeschool) as seamlessly and easily as it has made its way into your daily life. Your computer, tablet, reader, iPhone, video machine and CD player all can supplement your teaching with the right tools. Many kids already play educational games at home or on the go. Streaming video brings science and history to life. Slip in a CD of...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing / Math General Posts / Music / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 20, 2012
I think we all worry a lot about what our kids need to know right now. What skills should they have? Can they do what they’re supposed to in fill-in-the-blank subject? We’re currently working on lots of stuff — math, spelling, physics, critical thinking, writing skills, music, but ultimately what is important that they remember and know from *this* day or *this* week? What do I want my kids to learn?...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Nature / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 6, 2012 · Last modified February 9, 2017
This week was a bit out of the ordinary. We did a skeleton version of school each day. The kids did Math Spelling (we use All About Spelling) Grammar (see yesterday’s post) Independent reading (for about an hour each day) I read a chapter each day from our book on Sir Isaac Newton We worked on our Fifty States song. We’ve been working on that slowly, slowly this entire year....
Health / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 2, 2012 · Last modified April 14, 2015
Our germ unit took about a week to complete in part because of the amazing germ-experiment we did (more about that next week… the experiment was awesome!). We talked about the major types of germs: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. While fungi can produce athlete’s foot and protozoa can cause giardia and malaria, we didn’t go into much detail about those. Some sources also consider helminths (worms) a germ as...
Not out of the house, we’re here to stay for a while yet… but the Homeschool Den blog will be moving. A couple of months ago one of the editors of Parents contacted me and asked if I would like to come under the Parents umbrella as one of their bloggers. I was honored and thrilled to join such a great team of people. So in just a couple of...
I finished replacing most of the links I lost and have my page up and running again with the Blogs I Enjoy and Visit, Resources I Find Helpful. If you’re interested you can now visit that page again. I color coded it as follows: Homeschool Blogs I Enjoy is the first section in pink. Next is Useful Homeschool Resources in light blue with the following subsections: Great resources and printables...
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.
