Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Aside from the crafts and trips out and about, I wantedto share some of the things we’ve been doing these days athome. Except for ED’s activities, these activities allappeared in their workboxes this past week. I just loveworkboxes because it lets them choose things when theyhave an interest. They get very excited by some of thethings I put out for them and we’ll often get wrapped upin activities for an...
I think I mentioned that LD started a new short lapbookunit on carnivorous plants. He’s been very interestedin the venus fly trap. I found a free lapbook athttp://dynamic2moms.webs.com/carnivorousplants.htm(didn’t I mention that the other day?). And LD’s been doinglittle bit of work on it each day. We’ve been having himdo the cutting this time as there isn’t as much writinginvolved. (Often I cut things out if we’re doing a longerlapbook that...
I know I’ve mentioned a number of times that we usethe Right Start Math curriculum. I really, really like theprogram (and so do LD and DD)! We progress prettyslowly partly because (as you probably have noticed) wedo lots of other math activities/games as well. But, RightStart Math really impresses me with its use of manipulatives,games and its emphasis on truly understanding basicmath concepts. So, pictured below we’re doing a couple...
The kids have really been enjoying these math DVDscalled Mathtacular. It’s a DVD about math–addition,skip counting, place value and things like that. The kidsare really engaged by it and it covers so great mathconcepts.
This week, LD has been reading a Scooby Doo chapterbook aloud to me. I asked him to choose one picture fromthe book for me to photograph, but he couldn’t decideand insisted I include all of these photos — so here you are!
The kids play really well together — and I snapped apicture of their set up of haunted houses and transformers.It was an involved game that lasted more than an hour!I’m always impressed at how creative the kids are intheir free play and find that a valuable part ofhomeschooling. The houses, by the way, are called “Sweet Streets” andwe got them used from another family for an amazingbargain!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 26, 2009 · Last modified October 16, 2016
We all LOVED making and eating candy corn today. It is not sold here where we live. We visited http://www.homemade-dessert-recipes.com/candy-corn-recipe.html for instructions. It was easy, the kids enjoyed helping me and LD was impressed. “Wow Mom! YOU knew how to make real candy!!!” We halved the recipe which made more than plenty. As you can see, I added baking chocolate to make brown candy corn. Also, I made pumpkin balls...
This morning LD and I decorated skulls. I got this ideafrom artprojectsforkids.org. First, he traced the outlineof a skull from a skeleton puzzle we have. Then he drewthe eyes, nose and mouth. We decorated it symmetricallyand cut it out. Then we put it up on our front door. Ourback-drop paintings are from the paint popping activity we dida few weeks ago.
Another project from artprojectsforkids.org wasthe pasta skeleton . All the kids really enjoyed thisincluding ED who carefully used all of her pastaand beans!
Today we were very fortunate to have the opportunityto visit a scientist who works for our local museum. Hehas been working lately on cleaning up some fossils, thoughhe also does taxidermy as well. When we arrived, the kids showed him some of the fossilswe found a couple of months ago. (I’ll post a quick pictureof that below this.) Then Mr. I showed us around hislab. In the second picture below...
Outdoor: Fossils / Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 22, 2009
These are the fossils we took over to show the scientistthis morning. LD and DD selected their favorites andwere excited to be able to show him their finds. Theyhad a large tray of fossils just like these on one of thecounters in the science lab! I also posted a pictureof where we were when we found the fossils– againthese pictures were from June (not from today!)
Mr. I let us take a look in the “container,” a sealed roomthat was VERY VERY smelly. These are some of theanimals and critters he has preserved. Some of his specimensare on display in the museum. He and some otherscientists worked hard for 7 weeks (8am-midnight) to setup the display at our local museum (which we went to lastweek if you want to scroll down aways). He said he’d liketo...
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.
