Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
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?...
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...
History: American History / History: Slavery and the Civil War
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 18, 2019 · Last modified January 5, 2020
For the past couple of weeks, we have been doing an American History unit on Territorial Expansion. Below you’ll some of the new Territorial Expansion/Manifest Destiny worksheets and notebook pages I created recently. This material is included in our 100-page Slavery & the Civil War Packet. This packet has three sections Slavery (pages 4-37) Territorial Growth (pages 38-67) Civil War – (pages 68-103) including information on popular sovereignty, slave vs....
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 6, 2019 · Last modified July 7, 2020
I thought it would be helpful to show you just how we make and use Pin Maps in our homeschool. I did a Facebook Live and took you through the process of making your own. This post will help you find some of the resources I mentioned in the video. I wanted to share some of the resources I talked about in that video including the U.S. States and Capitals...
History: American Colonies / History: American History / History: Geography Activities / History: This is the United States-Unit Study (grade 1) / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2019 · Last modified September 19, 2023
This new 100+ page packet will help your student/s learn the U.S. states and capitals. We are doing American History this year and I wanted to be sure the kids had a good foundation in U.S. geography. U.S. regions worksheets: The 50+ pages of geography worksheets are organized by regions: Northeast Southeast Midwest Northwest (plus Alaska and Hawaii) Southwest We’ll go over the state’s location and the capitals of the...
Homeschool Den / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2019 · Last modified June 26, 2019
We have gotten to see (and do!) a wide variety of things this month!! I want to share a couple of amazing places to visit if you have studied World War I or the Russian Revolution. Plus, I wanted to share some pictures of some other places we have visited like the Flight 93 Memorial in PA, the Palace of Gold in West Virginia, and the Institute of Art in...
Free Curriculum Resource Guides / Free Homeschool Planner / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 9, 2019 · Last modified November 2, 2022
Free Homeschool Planner! (Newly Updated!) I have updated our (free) yearly homeschool planner to include a step-by-step guide on the homeschool planning process. This 50+ page packet is not as much a traditional Homeschool Planner as a tool for planning out the coming year. It includes some of the questions to ask yourself (and your kids!) as you start planning out the coming year. It has you consider how the school...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 15, 2018 · Last modified August 25, 2019
Why Hands-On Homeschooling is Amazing! Your Ultimate Hands-On Homeschooling Guide Make Learning Exciting, Engaging and Memorable! We have always been a fan of hands-on, engaging activities! Homeschooling gives us an excuse to dive deep, have fun, and to make learning meaningful and memorable! Here are six good reasons to add hands-on activities into your homeschool week: The kids get excited and are truly engaged. They ask a lot of good...
Free Homeschool Planner / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 14, 2018 · Last modified July 28, 2022
This is a checklist of things you can do now, to get ready for the new school year! Is part of your end-of-summer vision to feel prepared for back-to-school? This checklist will help you slowly and steadily get ready for the new school year! It is mid-summer, but lingering in the back of our minds is that school will be here before we know it. We want to take advantage...
I have a new free printable to share with you today – summer reading bookmarks. ♥ These are perfect for your kids as they work through their summer reading lists! Just click on the link below to download this free printable: Free Summer Reading Bookmarks Don’t forget we also have these free “I love reading” bookmarks as well. Visit this post to download them: I Love Reading Bookmarks And since we’re...
Free Curriculum Resource Guides / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 29, 2018 · Last modified March 8, 2024
How do I get started homeschooling my middle schooler? How do I know what to teach my 6th, 7th or 8th grader? This free 30+ page Homeschool Curriculum Resource Guide provides some insight into how our family is navigating the middle school years. There are some basic checklists in each of the subjects from language arts and math to science, history and foreign languages. This guide includes some of the...
History: American West Unit / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 19, 2017 · Last modified September 19, 2023
Oregon Trail Packet 20+ pages! For the past few weeks, the girls have been doing a unit on the Oregon Trail. They’ve learned why people moved West, when and where pioneers started, how long the journey West took, what was needed to travel along the Oregon Trail, dangers the pioneers encountered and other basic information about traveling on the Oregon Trail. They spent about 10 days learning about the Donner...
Today I want to share a free summer Astronomy Packet with you. This one highlights the amazing events coming in August 2017… the complete Solar Eclipse that will occur across a huge portion of the United States later this summer as well as other more common summer astronomy activities such as watching the Perseid Meteor Showers, looking for constellations, observing the phases of the moon and more! It highlights well...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 26, 2017 · Last modified June 15, 2017
Someone in a group I’m in mentioned the Excellence in Reading Program run by Mensa for Kids. You don’t have to be a member of Mensa to participate. 🙂 I really love their free printable reading lists (for K-3, 4-6, 7-8 and 9-12). There is a wonderful collection of books there. I’ll link to those below. Here is what the Excellence in Reading Program is about (from their website): To...
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.
