Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Active Math Games / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 6, 2012
Have you heard of File Folder Games? They are quick games to help build skills in math, reading, science, social studies and more. We use them lots and lots in our homeschool. Here are a couple examples that ED, my preschooler, has played recently. This File Folder Game has her practicing counting by 10s and 1s: Here are a couple other examples. One has the child fill in the missing...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2012 · Last modified April 2, 2021
Since I talked so much about the ocean yesterday, I thought I would share some of the ocean related freebies I made for our ocean unit last fall. I hope someone finds these helpful. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean). This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 11, 2012
20 Things to Keep Yourself, Your Household, and Your Homeschool Fresh and Inspired We are a homeschooling family, so the kids are always with me. Always. I find I need to remember to take care of myself in this equation. With Mother’s Day just a couple days away this seemed like the perfect time to think about how we Moms can celebrate and take care of ourselves. This is a...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 7, 2012 · Last modified February 21, 2022
I thought ED and DD (4 and6) would really enjoy doing some activities related to the human body again. As it turned out DD was quite sick so ED and I worked on this ourselves. LD came in only at the end when we looked at the Bio Digital Human online. First I outlined her body. Then she built her skeletal system. We love the book, Look Into Your Body: All About...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing / Math General Posts / Music / Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 20, 2012
I think we all worry a lot about what our kids need to know right now. What skills should they have? Can they do what they’re supposed to in fill-in-the-blank subject? We’re currently working on lots of stuff — math, spelling, physics, critical thinking, writing skills, music, but ultimately what is important that they remember and know from *this* day or *this* week? What do I want my kids to learn?...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 2, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Whales are able to survive in the frigid waters of the Arctic. In this series of activities the kids and I explored how that is possible. First, not directly related to the whales themselves, we talked about icebergs. We took giant cottage cheese cartons and froze big blocks of ice. One of those blocks had our wooly mammoth plastic creature. I had the kids guess how much of the ice...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Math: Preschool Math / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 31, 2012 · Last modified March 16, 2019
‘Bead’ Rabbits and Skip Counting by 10 Montessori math has kids working a lot with beads. But for this work, I made some Easter-themed manipulatives for ED to work with. I made a set of Easter eggs for skip-counting by 10s. She also used some 100-square rabbits. I printed out a number of copies and cut them into strips of 10 and into single bunnies as well. It’s just...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
One of the days we read books, I stopped frequently to explain things and do activities with the kids. Whale Migration: For example, we talked in quite some depth about whale migration from the Arctic down the west coast of North America and back again. I pulled out an Arctic Pin map I made and the kids placed the various countries that make up the Arctic region. You can download...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Arts and Crafts / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats / Science: Ocean Unit / Science: Whale Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 26, 2012 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Have you ever started a unit and then something else unfolds? Well this is a unit I started to put together on the Arctic. You might even recall that we covered Antarctica for a couple of days to lead up to this unit. The more we got into it, the more this turned into a full blown study of whales! We spent more than a week reading, doing experiments and...
Nature / Outdoor Fun / Science / Science: Garden Science / Science: Plant Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2012 · Last modified March 22, 2016
It’s that time of year again! Our dining room table and a second table are covered with dirt planters! Last week the kids and I planted some seeds together. The kids are always excited to watch the seedlings start to grow. You can tell the kids helped since there are so many seedlings in that one pot to the right!! We also weeded and worked on one...
Ages 2-6: Fire Safety / Health / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Human Body Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 8, 2012 · Last modified March 4, 2016
A couple of weeks ago I saw some cute preschool activities about dental health at 2 Teaching Mommies, I was inspired! We didn’t get to Amber’s ideas, but we did fit in the science activities from 1st grade with Miss Snowden. After talking about the germs in our house (see this post), it seemed fitting to talk about the germs in our mouths. I hard-boiled six white eggs and we...
I can’t say we did an entire unit on Antarctica, but we revisited it briefly this past week and a half as we read Mr. Popper’s Penguins aloud together. The kids really loved the book and it was a relatively quick read (about 4 or 5 days for us). I wanted to touch on Antarctica again partly for ED since we’ve been going over the seven continents for her and partly because...
I really try to make sure the kids spend time outdoors. We don’t have a playground, but they manage to find things to entertain themselves. It’s been a funny winter here with lots of mild days and only a bit of snow now and then. A couple days ago the kids decided they wanted to do some “hard work.” (I kind of wonder if that is because of all the...
History: American History / History: American West Unit / History: Geography Activities / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 10, 2012
Our next topic was the Louisiana Purchase. Prior to 1803, the United States territory went only as far as the Mississippi River. Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, needed money for his wars in Europe and sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for $15 million (3 cents an acre!). This nearly doubled the size of the United States. We’ve been using a map that shows the Louisiana Purchase and...
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.
