Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
This post has tons of fun summer activities you might enjoy doing with your kids this summer! It includes everything from summer camp songs to sing with the kids to crafts, creative math fun to a huge design and draw challenge, a free summer travels packet to fun science experiment ideas!! Hope you find something your kids will enjoy!! ~Liesl Summer is often the time to do some activities that...
History and World Cultures Units / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 11, 2017
Last week, I managed to get our Science Year in Review post done. I had hoped to get the history post done too, but life got away from me! It’s ready for my this week, though! So, here’s our HISTORY year in review! There are quite a number of freebies in addition to the more in-depth packets I made this year. 🙂 This year my kids were in Grades 8,...
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,...
History: American History / History: Slavery and the Civil War / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 27, 2016 · Last modified September 22, 2023
This fall we did a major unit on slavery and the Civil War. Our 100+ page packet includes notebook pages, maps, charts, review cards and some of the resources we used for this unit. It includes extensive teacher notes. Our unit actually consisted of three parts: Slavery, Territorial Growth, and the Civil War. This is the first time we’ve covered these topics in depth (up until now, I dragged my...
History: Africa Unit / History: Slavery and the Civil War / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 10, 2016 · Last modified January 5, 2020
This semester we are doing a unit on Slavery and the Civil War for history. Today I wanted to share some of the books and DVDs we used for this part of our unit. We first talked about the kingdoms of Africa. We began watching the first disc of the documentary, African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (affiliate link), which we borrowed from the library. (We stopped there because we hadn’t...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 13, 2016 · Last modified March 21, 2018
We have so many writing and language arts resources on the blog, I thought it was time to create a tab so our resources are a bit easier to find. Almost all of our grammar pages are currently free!! We have posts in these language arts categories: Writing Workshop – How and Why we started using a homeschool writing workshop. Mini-Lessons about Writing Comma Rules and Practice Pages Other Free...
When we were planning our trip out West, I purchased a book of some of America’s best geological sites. I read about the Crater of Diamonds state park and the kids were beside themselves at the thought of being able to search for *real* diamonds!! This state park is the world’s eighth largest diamond-bearing volcanic crater. We camped in the state park and tried our hand at diamond mining! Many...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 8, 2016 · Last modified November 13, 2016
Today I’m going to share a list of chapter books for older kids. This is a great selection of books. We’ve now read every book on this list (and then some!!). Many of them we read aloud together. I loved Hatchet so much that I read this aloud with LD and then read it again to DD just this year. Sometimes its fun to share the excitement together. Our family...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 1, 2016 · Last modified May 9, 2016
We absolutely love reading. This is a book I compiled one summer of the books our family loves! Just click on the picture or link below to print out the list. Books–25 Beloved Books Free Printable Lists 25 Beloved Books for 4-8 Year Olds (In no particular order) These are affiliate links. Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág Miss Nelson Is Missing!by Harry Allard Strega Nona: Book & CD by...
Homeschool Den / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 25, 2016 · Last modified June 27, 2016
Today I have a free USA Road Trip Travel Log for you!! Hopefully, this will help you keep your kids entertained if you plan to travel a lot this summer. Plus, I’ll share some of the travel activities to make the car trip more fun!! So first, about the printables: I made this Travel Book for the kids for our huge trip out West this summer. It’s about 40 pages,...
Freebies / History and World Cultures Units
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 23, 2016 · Last modified May 15, 2016
In today’s post, I thought I would re-cap our school year. Looking back, it’s been a really great year! The chart below shares links to some of the history units we covered in our homeschool. As you’ll see below, I made notebook pages and packets to go along with most of the units we covered. 🙂 This year the kids were in Grades 2, 5 and 7. We do our...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 1, 2016 · Last modified September 13, 2016
Language arts is a subject that is always in progress, so it doesn’t make quite as snazzy of a year in review wrap-up, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to share some of our free grammar resources again in a nice, organized table form since those still are so popular. The chart also includes links to our popular Homeschool Writing Workshop series. I’ve also included links to...
History and World Cultures Units / History: American Colonies / History: American History / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Middle Ages / History: Native American Indians Unit / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 30, 2015
What a successful year! As the year draws to a close, I love taking a look at what we’ve accomplished not only in school, but in life in general. I’m not one to make “resolutions” per se, but I do enjoy thinking about what’s to come and seeing just how to make that happen! This year was a *huge* one for my blog. January 5, 2015 was my last official...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 13, 2015 · Last modified September 5, 2018
We are all pretty excited about the fly-by of Pluto. We get pretty excited about space and science over here and I thought I’d share a few of the really cool things we’ve learned. On Tuesday (July 14), the US spacecraft, New Horizons, will fly by Pluto. It will come closest on Tuesday morning — at 7:49 a.m. EDT. The fly-by will last for just 8 to 10 hours. It will...
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.
