Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
History: Age of Exploration / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 26, 2022 · Last modified September 19, 2023
Age of Exploration Packet Update! We are just finishing our unit on the Age of Exploration and I wanted to let you know that I have added a lot of new materials to this packet including new notebook pages, map worksheets and a new lapbook/interactive notebook activity! This time as we started the Age of Exploration Unit, we went over some background about world trade at the time. We talked...
Australia - Geography and Animals / History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2022 · Last modified October 16, 2022
New! 75-page Australia Unit Do your kids know the states and territories of Australia? Perhaps your kids can identify a kangaroo or koala, but can they identify a numbat, bandicoot or quokka? Do they know that some mammals lay eggs? Do they know the terms marsupial or monotreme? This new Australia Unit will help kids become familiar about some basics about Australia. This 75-page Australia Packet includes worksheets, notebook pages...
Free Calendar Planning Pages / Freebies
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 30, 2022 · Last modified December 11, 2022
FREE Printable Homeschool Planner! Today I have shared a new printable Homeschool Planner for the fall semester 2022. This planner is free to download! As many of you know, I have been creating my own planner for years. Sometimes I have used full-sized pages, sometimes I prefer a smaller booklet-style (1/2 page planner). Last year, I started using a planner with full-size pages once again. This particular version has calendar...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 27, 2022 · Last modified June 30, 2022
Welcome! I’m Liesl, the homeschool Mom of three wonderful kids. We have homeschooled right from the start and we decided to homeschool all the way through high school. This was a discussion we had regularly along the way; at times the kids considered going to public schools but the benefits (for our family) seemed to outweigh the public school option (especially with the Pandemic and so forth). A little side...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 6, 2020 · Last modified September 5, 2022
Frequently Asked Questions About Me: I’m Liesl and I have been an educator my entire career. Before I had kids, I taught high school (history and German) and college history. Since having kids, I started making and sharing curriculum packets. I love trying to make units engaging and hands on, yet in depth! It’s my passion! We have homeschooled right from the start. You can read more about our homeschool...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2020 · Last modified February 10, 2021
Earlier this week, I had a wonderful back-and-forth email conversation with a reader about literature and language arts in our homeschool. She had questions about the literature book/s we were using when my kids were in grades 2, 5 and 7. I thought I would share a lot of that conversation with you today. It highlights some of the language arts books/texts/resources we have used over the years. Plus, I’ve...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 6, 2020 · Last modified September 5, 2022
This is a chatty post about what we are doing for ancient history. Below, I’ll share some of the resources we are using and some activities we’ve done so far. We’ve only been in school for a few weeks now, but it already feels like we’ve got a good routine down and have covered quite a bit! History Spine: I have a lot of history textbooks that I have used...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2020 · Last modified September 14, 2021
Hands-On Geography Activities appeal to all ages from tots to teens!! We often start off with geography activities, whether that’s at the beginning of the year or when we are starting new history units. Geography activities can be fun & hands-on and provide the framework for understanding history. I thought I would share age-by-age what kinds of geography activities we have done along the way. Way back when my kids...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2020 · Last modified August 10, 2023
Tips for How to Start Homeschooling! I field a LOT of email from readers looking for advice on how to start homeschooling. I wanted to give some tips and pointers from someone who has been homeschooling for a very long time! 🙂 We have been homeschooling right from the start and my kids decided to continue homeschooling right through high school! Are you starting to homeschool or need fresh inspiration?...
All About Homeschooling! / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 11, 2020 · Last modified August 10, 2023
Finding materials on the Homeschool Den! I wrote this post to help you find some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you. Over the years, I have made homeschool packets on everything from history and science to spelling, math, spelling and foreign languages (German & Spanish). And, many of those are free! We have materials from preschool through high...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 17, 2020 · Last modified May 6, 2023
Are you homeschooling Kindergarten or Grade 1 for the first time or looking for some fresh new ideas? It’s hard to know where to start, right?! There are lots of possibilities and picking a starting point can be overwhelming! I hope this post will give you some ideas and inspiration for a wonderful homeschool year ahead! FREE Curriculum Resource Guide for Kindergarten-Grade 1 I was often asked what we did...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 16, 2020 · Last modified May 13, 2020
This page is just a record of information that I want to keep for my family and my kids. I’m not an expert by any means, so if you happen upon this page, please be aware that this is just a “diary” page for our family. I started writing this on Saturday, March 14 just a day after VA’s governor declared a state of emergency & our local schools were...
Free Homeschool Planner / Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 13, 2020 · Last modified September 23, 2022
Tips and Strategies for Doing School at Home Around the country and around the world, there are widespread school closures because of the coronavirus. Students and parents are facing a huge transition from a daily school routine to life at home. How can you help your students transition and even thrive given this huge change? Assuming (and that’s a big assumption here!) that you are able to take time off...
Is it time to spice up your homeschool with something a bit different? Engineering Challenges have always added some excitement to our homeschooling. In general, they don’t take much time, but they sure are fun & call for some creativity. My daughter said she wanted to add some engineering challenges into our homeschool day again. I’ve been trying to come up with some new challenges to add into our homeschool...
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.
