Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
When I was looking around at the School Bell a couple ofdays ago, I noticed her Gameboards. What a great game! Using a deck of cards from 0 to 10 (for the 10s family or0 to 7 with the 7s family, etc. ), the player turns overa card (2) then moves his/her piece to the number thatmakes 10. So, LD in the game above is moving his pieceto the next...
Arts and Crafts / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 9, 2010 · Last modified December 5, 2021
Today in our study of the forest animal habitat we read The Mitten. (affiliate link) We read Jan Brett’s book first. Using the beautiful mitten masks by Jan Brett the kids reenacted the story by putting the animal into the mitten (the kids are holding up the masks in the picture above). The mitten is just a file folder, drawn in the shape of a mitten. Jan Brett’s printables for...
ED and DD just loved this craft!! LD enjoyed it too,but the girls begged to do more because as DD said,“the gems are SOoooo BEAUuuuuutiful!” We made some cornstarch clay with red food dye 1 cup cornstarch1 cup baking soda1/2 cup table salt1 cup water Cook in a sauce pan til it forms a lump (no morethan a few minutes). Roll the dough out, make heart (and other shapes!). Then...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 9, 2010 · Last modified December 23, 2016
I made this bear lapbook with/for DD a while back. Since we’re talking about forest animals, it was time to bring it out in the workboxes again. The girls have both had fun with it (even LD has had a couple of goes). It contains a number of different little activities. As you can see from the lapbook cover, DD made her own little pom-pom bear. Then we used the...
LD has been asking (gasp!) to do these math worksheets (number families up to 18; so for the 10 family you’d have 0+10, 1+9, 2+8, etc.): http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/math/number_families/main/worksheets.html Here’s another similar kind of worksheet she calls “tile cards” http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/math/number_families/main/tile_cards.html (these also cover the number families up to 18).
DD’s workbox had this really great matching activity. Ithink it’s from the Teacher Book Bag. DD had to matchthe ingredient to it’s source (butter-cow; flour – wheat). It’s similar to the Where Things Come From activity thatyou can download free at Montessori for Everyone, butthis particular activity has all the basic cookie ingredients(including baking soda, salt, etc.) Since we bake a lot hereat our house, it is a great activity...
It’s been in the back of my mind for ages, but we finallymade butter today. DD poured cream into a plasticcontainer. We added (clean) marbles. It took a lot ofshaking, but it turned out well. Yum! Also part of DD’s workbox was a cute game called“Cooking Cookies” where you have to turn over all theingredients for your cookie, just make sure you don’tget a rotten egg or you have to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Arts and Crafts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 6, 2010
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve brought out the felt board.ED and DD have enjoyed playing with the hearts I madefor them. The flowers and butterflies are just patches that Ihappened to have around in my sewing stuff. We made our own felt board out of two painting canvases;it folds in half for storage and is about 2 feet square.You can check out how I made it here and...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2010
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2010
We continued working on the little crafts for our forestdioramas last week. We learned a bit about owls andmade this little craft (using Styrofoam, felt and fabricpaint).
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2010
We also learned about foxes this week. Our fox was primarily a sewing craft. We used feltand did a few stitches to form a nose. Then theysewed the head onto the body with a few stitches. They pulled knotted embroidery thread throughto make whiskers. The tail was also sewed on, but we wound up justgluing the legs on (there was only so much sewingDD wanted to do!) The ears and...
History: Ancient Greece Unit / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2010 · Last modified February 10, 2021
This project idea was adapted from Ancient Greece!: 40 Hands-On Activities to Experience This Wondrous Age (Kaleidoscope Kids Books). (affiliate link) We bought some self-hardening clay and looked at various maps to make a map of Greece with its many islands. Obviously Mom had a hand in forming the mainland areas of Greece and Asia Minor (now Turkey). The kids did all of the islands. We’ve been reading Mary Pope...
History: Ancient Greece Unit / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2010 · Last modified July 14, 2015
We added labels to our map of ancient Greece. Then we took turns adding deep blue water and making the Aegean Sea! It was a good lesson on much more than just the geography of ancient Greece. Some of the islands were covered by the water. We talked about the fact that there are mountains under the oceans. We also talked about the fact that when the levels of the...
History: Ancient Greece Unit / History: Geography Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 4, 2010 · Last modified January 10, 2015
Last year we did a unit on Ancient Egypt. We really got a lot out of that geography project as well and I thought I’d share it (since we started this blog after that). We shoveled sand into the container, then laid down a aluminium foil river bed (so the water didn’t all wash away). Then we placed fertile soil on the aluminium foil and “flooded it” and watched the...
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.
