Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
The weather is so lovely this time of year, we often try to take advantage and squeeze in some educational trips. On Friday, we did a special trip out to Highland, the home of James Monroe, in Charlottesville, VA. (We love having the flexibility to do amazing trips like this! Yay for homeschooling!) James Monroe was our 5th president. He would have turned 259 yesterday! (He was born April 28,...
German / Homeschool Den / Spanish
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 27, 2017 · Last modified February 9, 2020
Are you teaching your kids a foreign language in your homeschool? I put together a free checklist of topics and units you might want to cover… no matter which language your student is learning. As I was polishing up the Curriculum Resource Guide for middle school ages (Grades 6-8), I got to the section on foreign languages. I thought it might be useful if I put together a checklist of...
Homeschool Den / Math--Division / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 25, 2017 · Last modified January 19, 2019
Over the past year, I have made lots of fun math packets for my daughter to learn her multiplication and division facts. My daughter is polishing up all of her multiplication and division facts at the moment. I made this new practice packet for her to review her multiplication and division facts – 2s through 9s. Our latest multiplication/division packet has 25 pages of worksheets. I usually let my daughter...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 23, 2017 · Last modified August 24, 2020
Today, I have a few astronomy worksheets to share with you. I made these for my older two (who are in grades 6 and 8). Here are some of the astronomy topics we talked about: What is an AU (astronomical unit)? the layers of the Sun the Sun’s atmosphere solar flares, sunspots, flages planetary orbits, Kepler’s Laws asteroids, comets Last week, I shared a free packet about the planets of...
Freebies / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 20, 2017
My kids *loved* playing games to help them learn their math facts. I made a fancy version of amath fact game we used to play. It’s free to download! This game takes less than 10 minutes to play (though perhaps more if your kids are like mine and beg to play again and again!!). To play this game, you need a die or a wooden cube with the numbers 1...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 17, 2017 · Last modified February 21, 2022
Today we have a free set of worksheets you about the planets of our solar system. These will work for a wide range of ages – PreK to Grade 5 or so. Here what is included: Solar System Poster Inner – Outer Planets fill-in-the-blank page – Fun Clipart Remembering the Planets – Mnemonics Inner – Outer Planets fill-in-the-blank answer page Our Solar System – Fun Clipart – Tracing Page Solar...
Our spring break has just about come to an end… Ahh… Can’t tell you how refreshed we all feel! My folks invited us down to the beach for some R&R. We spent time at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It was fairly nice weather while we were there. While it was too cold for me and hubby, the kids still braved the waters a little bit. They must have...
All About Homeschooling! / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Homeschooling in the News / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 13, 2017
This time of year, many people are looking into homeschooling for the first time. It can feel momentous to make the decision to homeschool. I thought I would share some stats so you know that you are not alone! This post shares some graphs and statistics about some of these topics: How many homeschoolers are there in the U.S.? How do the numbers of homeschoolers compare to the numbers of...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 10, 2017 · Last modified April 9, 2017
In our culture, we seem to reward and admire those who put in long, hard hours at work. Even school districts have succumb to the notion that longer school days and less recess will improve student performance. But scientifically that doesn’t make sense. When you are truly working hard, your brain needs a break. The brain represents 2% of the body’s weight, but requires almost 25% of its oxygen. If...
History: Geography Activities / History: Rensaissance and Reformation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2017 · Last modified February 6, 2019
Today I have a new packet to share with you about the geography and famous landmarks of Britain. We have been studying the history of Britain. I wanted the kids to be familiar with some of the well-known places of London (and Britain in general). That way, when we talk about places like the Tower of London or Westminster Abbey, they would be able to envision these famous buildings. Better...
Active Math Games / Holiday: Easter / Homeschool Den / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 2, 2017
Active Easter Multiplication Games for 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s We absolutely love active math games. With the weather getting nicer, I thought I’d put together some fun games for the girls to practice their multiplication math facts. I made a set of multiplication cards for the 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s multiplication tables. The answers are on the QR code reader. Here are some of the...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 31, 2017 · Last modified August 2, 2020
German for Kids: Curriculum Units/Plans for Advanced Beginners I wanted to share a post about our German lessons now that the kids are beyond the beginning stages. I would still consider my kids advanced beginners (or pre-intermediate). The kids are learning German as their foreign language in our homeschool. I have a lot (at least a dozen!) German textbooks, but none of them have worked perfectly for us due to...
Freebies / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2017 · Last modified April 26, 2022
We have some fun spring butterfly skip counting practice sheets to share with you today! These skip counting worksheets are free to download! These colorful skip counting mazes cover the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s. Before the kids tackle the mazes, have them fill out the missing numbers in the skip counting rows. Then move on to the maze. Have your student start with the number and skip count...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2017 · Last modified February 10, 2021
Today, I have a free homophone practice worksheet to share with you. I often make new worksheets when I notice particular problems crop up in the kids’ writing. Today’s sheet highlights these homophones: to/two/too it’s/its are/our flower/flour there/they’re/their for/four It is free to download here: Free Homophone Practice Worksheet I have another set that we pulled out from a very long time ago. 🙂 If anyone has slightly younger kids,...
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.
