Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 7, 2015 · Last modified November 5, 2015
We had our first day back on Monday and it really went well. The engineering activities I mentioned in the post on Monday morning were a HUGE hit and those activities will definitely be fun to share with you, but for right now I really wanted to write about our Writing Workshop. What I love and adore about our WW is that it virtually runs itself now. You would expect some...
Homeschool Den / Must Read / Science / Science Experiments / Science: Earth Science Unit / Science: Natural Disasters Unit and Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 18, 2014 · Last modified March 21, 2021
We just love hands-on activities! We’ve been studying Earth Science this fall. This post shares some pictures of some of the Earth Science activities we added into our unit. Back several weeks ago, we explained how we started this unit… with an overview of our solar system, then a closer look at Earth’s geologic timeline talking about the age of the Earth (4.6 billion years) and the appearance of various...
History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 7, 2014 · Last modified May 16, 2016
I got a little behind posting because it took so long to share our experiences visiting with Pocahontas’s Great-Great-Great (12th Great) Granddaughter. In the meantime, we’ve done another entire portion of our Native American unit. We learned about the Seminole Indians, their culture and removal (for many of them) from Florida. And, we also learned about the culture and tragic history of the Cherokee people. We started the unit with a...
History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 15, 2014 · Last modified September 13, 2018
This fall we are doing a huge unit on Native Americans. We started with a study of the Native Americans of the Northeast. We learned about the two major language groups, the Algonquian (see this post for our activities) and Iroquois. Each of these groups consisted/s of a number of different tribes. Last week I shared some of our activities relating to the Powhatan Indians, a confederacy that lived in...
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...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 12, 2014 · Last modified September 6, 2018
Layers of the Atmosphere (Now Updated!) Worksheets, Notebook Pages and Hands-On Activities! Our Layers of the Atmosphere Packet introduced the kids to some of the basics about Earth’s atmosphere. We started with a review of Earth’s systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere and then spent quite a bit of time talking about the different layers of the atmosphere (the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere). Our Layers of the...
History: Native American Indians Unit / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 9, 2014 · Last modified May 16, 2016
This fall we are learning about different Native American groups. The past few weeks we learned about the two language groups of the Northeast — the Algonquian Indians and the Iroquois and some of the tribes that make up these groups. A few weeks ago, we went to Williamsburg, VA for homeschool week. That was truly wonderful and is the topic of another post! We went with some friends who...
Homeschool Den / Science: Chemistry Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2014 · Last modified March 19, 2023
Are you working on chemistry this year? I thought I’d share some of the activities we did when we learned about the States of Matter. I also link to a number of other posts from our chemistry unit. We’ve been having a blast with chemistry — well not literally, but sure have been learning a lot! Today we did most of the hands on activities suggested by the wonderful, wonderful...
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)...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 2, 2014 · Last modified June 25, 2015
Just what is a lapbook? Here’s a picture of the Pirate Lapbook my son made when he was a preschooler. As you can see, it is a file folder that is refolded so that the edges meet in the middle. Then, you tape other pages to the bottom or into the middle to add in more material. It is a cute way to display small folded mini-books, flaps, pop-up...
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 / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschooling in the News
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 19, 2014 · Last modified April 13, 2017
Last August, a new study was released showing a continued increase in the number and percentage of students who are homeschooled in America. The last time the U.S. government released data about the number of homeschooled students was back in 2007. Since I am doing a series about homeschooling in general (How to Start Homeschooling, Choosing homeschool curriculums, etc.), I thought this was the perfect opportunity to share some of the...
Homeschool Den / How to Start Homeschooling / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 18, 2014 · Last modified June 24, 2015
Welcome back to the our series on how to start homeschooling. During the past week, I have provided information about some of the homeschool curriculums available out there in the different subject areas. Today I wanted to share some of the writing and grammar programs available to homeschoolers. This is not an exhaustive list. You may want to order the (free) Rainbow Resource Catalog, which is packed with homeschool reviews. But these...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 13, 2014 · Last modified December 12, 2016
We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start. Real Science 4 Kids NOEO Science R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum Elementary...
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.
