Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 29, 2012
Like almost everyone on the East coast, we are getting ready for Sandy. My folks who live in central New Jersey got a call from their township that said, “be prepared to live without electricity for two weeks…” The center of the storm looks like it will pass right over their house! We live nestled down in the woods so the most minor storm almost always causes our power to...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Math General Posts / Math: Preschool Math / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 25, 2012 · Last modified January 1, 2015
I thought it was about time to write a post about how my preschooler spends her day. Free, Unstructured Play First of all, she spends a lot of time playing both indoors and out. Play helps kids learn to control their emotions and behavior. Play allows kids to be creative. It helps them learn discipline, resist impulses and develop resiliency. During make-believe play children engage in ‘private speech.’ They talk to...
Freebies / History: Africa Unit / Homeschool Den / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 7, 2012 · Last modified February 17, 2016
As I’ve mentioned before, we are studying World Cultures this year and are starting with Africa. Last week we started with some basic facts and the geography of Africa. We’re using a really terrific basic textbook on Africa that has lots of pictures and is wonderful for the ages of my kids. The first few days we worked through this Africa Learning Packet I created that was loosely related to the...
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...
History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 15, 2012 · Last modified February 17, 2016
Did you know that more than $90 billion a year is spent on chocolate around the world? On Valentine’s American spend around $700 million on chocolate! These numbers are expected to grow as the population increases and the number of people in the developing world who can afford chocolate increases. Part of our study of the Mayans and Aztecs was to learn a bit more about the history of chocolate. ...
Freebies / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 12, 2012 · Last modified February 16, 2016
Are you asking yourself, “What in the world is a biomes pin map?” It’s a map that shows where the rain forests, deserts, grasslands, forest and tundra regions are located. A pin map is when you stick straight pins into the labels so kids can pinpoint where things are located. There you go, sounds fancy, but really it’s not! 🙂 Before we really delved into our study of rain...
History: American History / History: Ancient Aztecs, Incas and Mayans / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 11, 2012 · Last modified February 17, 2016
Last week we started a unit about the Aztec and Incas. This is a unit I’ve had ready for more than a year (books gathered, maps and sheets printed and ready for use). LD and DD insisted we dive in (in part because they knew we’d study the history of chocolate along with it!). We started out with a look at the Aztecs. We read this lovely story about the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 8, 2012
This is the fifth post in a series about planning for the new school year. Here are the previous posts in this series: Here are the questions I consider. This post looks a back at our school year. I talk about what went well and what could use some improvement. I talked about how I assess our homeschooling philosophy: Am I happy with *how* we are homeschooling? I talked a lot about...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 7, 2012 · Last modified May 3, 2016
This is the fourth post helping describe how I go about planning for the new school year. Here are the previous posts in this series: Here are the questions I consider. This post looks a back at our school year. I talk about what went well and what could use some improvement. Yesterday’s post talked about how I assess our homeschooling philosophy: Am I happy with *how* we are homeschooling? I...
History: American History / Homeschool Den / Outdoor Fun / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 31, 2012
Have you heard of the Lost Colony? It’s a mystery that has lasted more than 400 years. We delved a bit into that mystery last week! Roanoke Island Festival Park was an amazing interactive history site. The kids and I spent over six hours learning about the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. Back in 1587 a second attempt was made by Sir Walter Raleigh to create a lasting settlement in...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 15, 2012 · Last modified March 14, 2019
Sometimes it’s a bit hard to describe how homeschooling works. Lots of things happen simultaneously and our read aloud time is the best example of this. This semester our read aloud time has been mostly centered around American history (though we also read a book about Isaac Newton). We were studying the American West and so we read the Sign of the Beaver, Little House in the Big Woods, and The...
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 / Must Read / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Outdoor: Fossils / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 8, 2012 · Last modified April 1, 2016
We love fossils! I guess the fire was first lit in Australia. My scientist friend told us about a creek south of Alice Springs where people have found lots of fossils. (See original post here: Fossils in Australia and the photos below.) We took the kids and made some great finds. Even my friend, Peter, was impressed! LD was hooked on fossils! Not too long after that we...
History: American History / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 2, 2011 · Last modified April 12, 2015
Last week I took the kids on a trip down to Nashville to spend time with my sister, brother-in-law and their three kids. They are homeschoolers as well. They are in 5th, 7th and 10th grades. A little bit more about them in my next post. We had a fantastic time with the family and also did a number of terrific outings. Here are a few things we did: Microbe...
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.
