Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Freebies / Holiday: Halloween / Homeschool Den / Math--Division / Math--Fractions / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 28, 2014 · Last modified November 2, 2022
Fun Halloween Freebies (with links to free Halloween printables for younger kids too)! I have made the kids lots and lots of fun math worksheets over the years! Below you’ll find free Halloween PDFs for multiplication and division and for fraction practice. They are free to download if you can use them. Plus, I’ve added in a dozen other Halloween and Fall Freebies you might find helpful… from addition and...
Freebies / Holiday: Halloween / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 26, 2014 · Last modified October 15, 2022
I have made tons of fun math worksheets for the kids over the years. Below you’ll find some free Halloween math practice pages for Addition and Subtraction Practice and for Skip Counting and Coin Counting. The first couple of pages are Halloween-themed addition and subtraction worksheets: Free Halloween Addition-Subtraction Practice Worksheets The other pages are on Halloween-themed skip counting and coins. (They are in a separate PDF.) Halloween Skip counting...
History: Geologic Timeline (Montessori) / Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 21, 2014 · Last modified July 19, 2018
We spent about a week learning about Earth’s four eons and most recent eras. Today I wanted to share several of the activities we did to go along with this part of our unit. As you may recall, we reviewed the planets in the Solar System, talked about the age of the Earth (4.6 Billion years) and did an impressionistic activity to show how short human history actually is compared to...
Each week, I’ve been trying to share some of the packets I’ve made for the kids in the past couple of years. Here are some pages I made for our Rocks and Minerals Unit that you might find of use. Rocks and Minerals Post: We wrapped our chemistry unit and spent a few weeks on vertebrates and invertebrates. It was time to tackle a new unit on rocks and minerals. I’m using a...
History: Geography Activities / Homeschool Den / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 13, 2014 · Last modified July 19, 2018
A few days ago, I shared the hands-on activity we did to learn about the layers of the Earth. We’ve also been learning about how we show and locate the exact positions of the land and water. I explained that most maps and globes are marked with lines that help us pinpoint an exact location on the Earth. These lines form an imaginary grid. The equator is just one of...
Holiday: Earth Day / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 7, 2014 · Last modified July 21, 2018
Last week, I mentioned that we learned a bit about the Solar System in general. This week we’ve been looking more closely at Earth’s long history. We’ve been going over the four major eons and looking more closely at what happened in each (Hadean Eon, Archean Eon, Proterozoic Eon, Phanerozoic Eon). At first 4.6-4 billion years ago, the Earth would have been molten. Then as the Earth cooled it went from liquid...
Homeschool Den / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 2, 2014 · Last modified July 19, 2018
For those of you who know much about Montessori, you’ll recognize “The Black Strip.” This is an impressionistic activity that is meant to impress kids with the enormity of time on Earth. Our version was the purple ribbon strip — and it is only 21 feet (as my ribbon ream was 7 yards!). But it still shows how very little time we humans have been on Earth relatively speaking. I’m...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 1, 2014 · Last modified October 1, 2021
I have been really looking forward to our Earth Science unit this fall. It has taken a while to start in on all our activities, but now that we’ve started we are learning TONS and having lots of fun! To start of the unit, I felt like we really need to cover some basics about the Solar System again. We got a hands-on kit called the 4M Solar System Planetarium (affiliate link)...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 28, 2014 · Last modified June 8, 2015
Over the next few days, I’m going to focus on our math activities. I thought that before I share what my older kids are doing these days, I’d share some of the activities they did when they were younger. This post highlights a few things I did with my kids for math in the 2 1/2-3 1/2 age range. Here are some activities I did with ED when she was 2...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2014 · Last modified May 31, 2019
How did we teach handwriting in our homeschool? This is what we were using when ED had just turned 5. ED really enjoys writing… Here’s a picture of ED writing in her journal from last January (age 4). The kids and I made a special trip to Staples for them to pick out their own journals. I offered to write whatever they wanted for them, so they could record things...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 22, 2014 · Last modified December 29, 2018
After spending time talking about all the homeschool curriculum choices, I really wanted to talk about what excites me most about teaching and homeschooling… the possibilities!! It really doesn’t matter what curriculum you use… anything can be used as your spine… but (for me) education is going beyond the books. It’s all about the passion, the excitement, the hard work and intensity that comes with learning. When you have those...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 15, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
In writing my series for new homeschoolers about choosing a science curriculum, I came upon this post from last year. Since many people are planning or just starting the new year, I thought it was the perfect time to share this again. We have always done a lot of hands-on science. In the early years, I just want the kids to think science is cool!! We’ve done a lot of science...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 11, 2014 · Last modified February 22, 2015
When we first started homeschooling, I read The Well Trained Mind. The thought of covering history in four year cycles sounded like a wonderful way to approach history. After all, the kids would build on their former knowledge… learning about the ancient world several times, but going into more depth each time round. History was broken into these four year cycles: Ancients Middle Ages and Early Renaissance Late Renaissance/Early Modern...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 6, 2014 · Last modified March 10, 2016
In this series, I thought I’d try to offer new homeschoolers a starting point for finding homeschool curriculums that works for your family. Today I’ll be talking about math. It’s sometimes tricky to find the curriculum that works well for you and your kids. It’s helpful to ask around (online and in your community) to see what will work for your child. If you can go to a homeschool curriculum...
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.
