Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool / Videos
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 29, 2016 · Last modified April 18, 2019
How do I start teaching science to my kids? This is a very different answer if your kids are K-2 than if they are a bit older. Here are some of the science topics you might want to consider if your kids are in early elementary. I put together a video of some of the activities we did when the kids were in early elementary. Some of these activities my...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 23, 2016 · Last modified October 1, 2017
This is a huge, long list of more than 100 different activities that you can do with your 2-5 year olds. I originally compiled this list when ED was three or so. I compiled this list when I was struggling to balance the needs of my preschooler with my older two school-age kids. Here’s what I wrote when I first made this list: I am a list person! I love...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 21, 2016
When my kids were little, I made a felt board that we used almost daily for years! The kids used it for creative play. Free play (shapes) We used it for literacy props to tell and have the kids retell stories (I remember we did Billy Goats Gruff and Little Red Riding Hood). Here’s a post where we did The Emperor’s New Clothes. I set out various math activities. We...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Freebies / Holiday: Thanksgiving / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 16, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2022
This packet has various Thanksgiving printables for preschoolers including clothes pin letter matching and counting cards. It also has a 2-letter word file folder game for kids who are a little older. For the counting cards and upper and lower case letter matching, be sure to print the pages out on card stock. Have your child place a clothes pin on the correct answer. (This is also really good for...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 3, 2015 · Last modified May 6, 2017
So, what does our family do for our homeschool language arts curriculum? I’ll share what we’ve been using for 1st through 6th grades. Over the past week, I’ve gotten three separate emails and FB messages asking about what we use for language arts — spelling, grammar and literature. It must be that time of year again when we start thinking about our plans for next year. 😉 I’ll start with...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 23, 2015
Homeschool Resources: Today I have several great resources for you. The first is a new page of some of the books we use in our homeschool. You’ll see that new button in the left side bar. I hope to keep a fairly current list of recommended books from different subject areas (history, science, language arts, math & critical thinking, art). How to Find Homeschool Curriculum: Since the list above is mostly just...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2015 · Last modified July 6, 2020
If you’re looking for the answers to your homeschool questions, the new tab at the top of the page, “Starting to Homeschool” is the place to start!! It has links to dozens and dozens of posts: How to find a homeschool curriculum? What about socialization? How do I know what to teach the kids? What does a homeschool day look like? How do I start homeschooling my preschooler? How many...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2015 · Last modified December 27, 2018
Welcome! If you are on this page, then you are considering homeschooling as an option for your child/children or have already started! I’m so excited for you! Our family has been homeschooling basically from the start. We found that homeschooling works extremely well for our family. We love all the hands-on projects we can do and I love how I can tailor each of the kids’ education to exactly what they...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 1, 2015 · Last modified December 29, 2018
The holidays are almost over… Two or three (or more!) weeks have gone by since you last “cracked the books”… The “normal” homeschool routine is a thing of the past… Are you feeling ready to start back into homeschooling? Here are some of the things I try to do before we jump back into our homeschool routine. 1) Make Sure You’ve Really Had a Break! If you have spent the...
How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2014 · Last modified July 11, 2020
Please click through to this post (which has working links to the topics mentioned below): How to Start Homeschooling and visit this newer post as well: How Do I Start to Homeschool?! Help! These posts all exist, but we’ve moved from Parents.com (we were under the Parents umbrella for 3 years)… and I don’t have the links up and running! 🙂 Hope to get them together sometime soon! You can...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2014 · Last modified January 1, 2015
A week or so ago, a reader asked me if I had any other tips about homeschool planning. She had read the posts I had put together on short term and long term goals and planning, but wondered if I had any other thoughts. She wondered how I make sure we keep tabs on the resources and books and planning things out in general. I spent a lot of the...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 27, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
In ED’s preschool science we are still talking about plants and animals. On this day we talked about animals and plant parts that live above or below the ground. We talked about how some animals like the grub or the cicada live part of their life under the ground, then live another stage above the ground. Some animals shelter under the ground when it is cold (like frogs and turtles)....
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Must Read / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 5, 2014 · Last modified March 17, 2016
I’ve been asked fairly regularly, “How do you know what to teach the kids?” That is definitely a daunting task, especially if you are pulling your child out of public/private school mid-year. Homeschool does not have to look like traditional school and there’s no rule saying that learning has to come from books or a certain set of books. There are a lot of homeschool curriculum options out there… and...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 4, 2014 · Last modified March 18, 2016
When parents are thinking about homeschooling, they want to know exactly “how to start.” That’s such a huge question I’ve actually written a book… or rather, most of a book. It’s about 200 pages and I’m still not quite done! But I still want to write a shorter blog post to help those parents wondering what to do to get started homeschooling. First things first, make sure you find out...
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.
