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Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 19, 2010
Last week LD was very excited about birds (wewere going over the vertebrate groups and talkedfirst for a week or so about reptiles, then for anotherfew days about birds.) He made a bird feeder and we bought bird seed tohang on our front fence. It took a while, but today wefinally had visits from the Port Lincoln (or Ringneck) Parrot.
LD and I hammered together this veryprimitive looking bird feeder. We wanted toattract the Honeyeaters (birds). He filled thecontainers with water, water and sugar, waterand honey, and water and squeezed orangejuice to see which one the birds were attractedto.
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 19, 2010 · Last modified July 17, 2020
Today the theme time table was on bears. At breakfast we read Blueberries for Sal and Bearobics. Blueberries for Sal is such a sweet story. It’s a Caldecott Winner from 1948. I grew up canning blueberry jam (we had lots of blueberry bushes) so I always have a good talk about that with the kids when we read that book. I also really like Bearobics. It’s a rap, counting book,...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 19, 2010 · Last modified July 17, 2020
ED played with the little panda bears all day! She even took them in the car on errands. We followed up the re-enactment of Goldilocks (post above) later in the day with a cute book called Beware of the Bears, which picks up when the bear family comes home. They follow Goldilocks to her house and wreak havoc there. DD cut out the parts (above) and made a moveable polar...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 18, 2010
Just in the last couple of weeks, DD has decidedshe wants to read her books. She is really takenwith Animal Antics (She’s not as interested inBob Books at the moment). These books are goodbecause they build, word by word.. I’m making this up, but it builds like this: The ratThe rat satThe rat sat on the matThe rat sat on the flat mat … you get the idea. The pictures...
I bought foam remninants and made lots of foamcushions of all different sizes years ago from thesmall ones above to the long, 5 foot ones below. My kids have such a great time playing with these! They are constantly building cubby houses.Yesterday, they put on a long “show” for me. LDwas under the cubby (see the hand in the middlepicture) when suddenly an earthquake struck AND… eventually it turned into...
MATH TAIL TAG: Today after Kindergym I told the kids we weregoing to the park to play math games. Theywere pretty excited. Our first game was Math Tail Tag. The kids all had astrip of construction paper with a number on it tuckedinto our shorts. We ran around trying to protect our tailfrom being swiped and tried to swipe someone else’stail. When we got a tail, we looked at the...
Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 16, 2010
We’ve seen lots of snakes skins at the ReptileCentre, but hadn’t ever seen a lizard skin. Ourreadings about reptiles talked about how lizardsshed their skins whole. Today we were excitedto find a nearly complete lizard skin (about 6inches/15cm long) floating in the water. It’s so great when nature reinforces our homelearning!! Yes, LD wanted to take it home and yes(of course) I let him. Sometimes I’m more excitedthan the kids!...
Active Math Games / Math General Posts / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2010
This week I’m moving away from the theme time tableand am focussing on some active math games instead (Ionly have so much energy to get things organized and setto go!). The kids were beside themselves to get outside to seewhat I was up to with the chalk last night! This is a mathsnail. LD is doing the addition problems. DD is practicing either saying the number (in light pink,it’s very...
Active Math Games / Math General Posts / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2010
This is good for coordination and for practicingthe concept of left and right. The kids have tocross one foot across the other.
Active Math Games / Math General Posts / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2010
I drew circles and placed numbers up on theoutside wall. The kids had to dip a sponge inwater and splat a number. LD worked on the 13 number family. If hegot a 7 for example, he had to figure out whichnumber makes 13 (answer=6). This is thefirst time he’s done the 13 family, so there’sa sheet for him to look at for help. Once again DD worked on “comes after.”...
This week our living room carpet has been dectoratedwith math problems (we don’t have a separate homeschoolroom or area). LD’s doing the space themed additionproblems. DD is doing “what number comes next.”And ED can’t ever be left out, so she get to jump on “1,2,3!” I did this earlier in the year (with different problems) and itreally helped cement in some of LD’s addition facts. It waseasy to say “go...
Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 15, 2010
Here are the bird cards I made (link to download is on the sidebar). There are smaller photos as well, but I wound up not using them (oh well), but they do tell you where these birds are located. Anyway, I chose these particular birds because I selected some short (3 to 8 minute long) videos from you-tube that I chose to show the kids. Today after sorting the five...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 14, 2010 · Last modified January 28, 2018
Time for a bit of fun this week. Just copy the 10 questions below and enter your answers after each one of them for this week’s blog hop. I can’t wait to see all of your answers. 1. What time is it right now? 5:20pm, I’m making dinner 2. What are you wearing? my soccer uniform 3. What is your mood? great, I have an evening out (soccer followed by...
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.
