Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 31, 2011
I’ve been itching to do a posting about our general homeschool schedule/day. What things we cover aside from the units I so often post about. Reading: Both DD and LD are good readers now. DD is reading easier chapter books while LD is on longer chapter books now. They both get up in the morning and read while eating breakfast. I always sprinkle our dining room room table with books...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 12, 2011
Our mornings have been really lovely this semester. I tried to change things up a bit and I’m really enjoying the flow of the day. Usually ED and I are the first ones up. Since the weather has cooled down and we still haven’t turned on the furnace, I have been lighting a fire in our wood stove in the homeschool room. ED and I snuggle up and read while...
Freebies / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2011 · Last modified November 19, 2020
Sorry about the endless postings about our ocean unit… just a couple more and that’s that! Blogs are funny because they sure don’t show the whole picture. From looking at our blog our days are consumed by oceans!! Heh heh! Well, that’s not at all accurate. I read and read, planned and planned and finally the older kids started back to school last week. As you’ve seen, ED has been...
Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 12, 2011 · Last modified December 31, 2015
Goodness, we have been so busy here there’s hardly been any time to write. It’s the end of the semester and many of the kids’ (and my) activities are coming to a close. There have been extra practices and parties and we’re still doing our slow but steady homeschool stuff. Lots of books and lots of games this time of year! Plus we’re finishing up some old (unfinished) lapbook projects...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 19, 2011 · Last modified March 3, 2015
I’ve been having a thoughtful discussion with a blogging friend of mine. We’ve been talking about the reality of homeschooling… how it really works with a three year old in tow, what curriculum we use and things like that. I would love, love, love to hear your comments about how your day goes — and how you arrive at your homeschool curriculum decisions!Here’s part of my email letter to my...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 12, 2011
Homeschool Blogs I Enjoy In no particular order: The Forest Room Our Worldwide Classroom We Don’t Need No Education The Adventures of Bear Confessions of a Homeschooler Walking by the Way Our Country Road Satori Smiles Almost Unschoolers The Arrowood Zoo Educating April Joyful Learner Owlet Homeschool Escapade Little Blossoms Enchanted Homeschooling Mom Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood Musings of Me Eclectic Homeschooling Wildflowers and Marbles 2pequenostraviesos–2 Little Rascals Counting Coconuts Eclectic...
I got this cute word sort mat from Finally in First. Thank you, Jenn! There are other cards that address this ou/ow spelling/pronunciation pattern here and here. Worksheets (like fill in the blank, etc.) that use the oi/ow diphthongs — here. Online spelling game with ou/ow.
These are the two fairy tale collections we’ve been reading from. I highly recommend the one on the left, Treasury of Classic Children’s Stories. (affiliate link) (Update in 2015: All three of my kids loved, loved, loved the fairy tales in Classic Children’s Stories. At first I read them aloud, later they read them to themselves. In fact, ED now reads the stories to herself and the book is on our kitchen...
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...
Another quick update: R had surgery (one of many, many he’s had in the past week) a couple days ago to attach the muscle to the bone. Apparently it was very painful. That coupled with the fact that they found a blood clot in his lung, R is having a tough time. My prayers, love and hugs to R.————- I wrote a short post about my cousin’s son who was...
Goodness, I’ve been completely stumped on a title for this posting. Maybe I should have just left the title blank because that doesn’t seem quite right. I have always been extremely close to my cousin. We’re three weeks apart in age and that made us have a very special bond/connection growing up and on into adulthood. She had her kids at a young age and I had the privilege of...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 5, 2010
**I love comments!! Please drop me a line if you’ve found anything useful. 🙂 Cheers, Liesl Contents Below: Language Math History/Geography Science Pin Maps Other German Language and Spelling Practice Worksheets I’ve Made for the Kids: All About Spelling Lessons 16-24 Review Fill in the c, k, ck, ss,ff,ll, ng, nk and plurals — s, es Oops — and I see you also have to write the word “plow” and...
We had our little music session as usual this week. The rhythm sticks below are just wood dowels that I cut down and sanded on the ends. We explored different ways of tapping them together (high, low, on the ground, on our head, end-to-end, etc.) Then we played our rhythm sticks to a fast-tempoed song. The kids all really like the knee-bouncing songs. This week we said the nursery rhyme...
The workbox yahoo group I participate in had a great discussion last week about “fun” boxes. I wrote my own comments and thought I’d share them here too: I’m a little late adding to the discussion, but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and thoughts about fun boxes. I always enjoy hearing how things are working for others. I think I’m different from many in that my kids do their...
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.
