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Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 2, 2015 · Last modified October 1, 2015
This post is completely different post than the one I intended to write this week. Why? Because life happens! I don’t have the time to dive into that topic in the way that I want. I was going to write a post on fostering creativity and being engaging as a teacher/homeschooler… How ironic because today was the antithesis of that! In fact, we had to settle for a bare-minimum type...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 30, 2015 · Last modified September 29, 2015
We’ve still been moving slowly, but steadily through our music curriculum. My older two are definitely understand all the material we’ve gone over, but it definitely takes ED longer to remember all the notes… which is why all the games we’ve been playing have been so wonderful! She needs a lot of repetition and it is not yet translating to what she does on the piano (she just memorizes what...
Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 29, 2015 · Last modified February 13, 2017
This is just a quick post about our language arts so far this fall. The first few weeks of school were off to a good start! 🙂 Our writing workshop is going well, and the kids really like the literature books we’ve add in (for the first part of writing workshop). The kids are really happy with these books. We set the timer for 20 minutes, but usually they take...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Freebies / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 28, 2015 · Last modified November 15, 2016
ED is working on her multiplication facts this year. She has been skip counting by 6s for the past year in large part because of the hand-clapping game I made up for the girls last year. I’ll post that video in below. This year she’s moving on to learning the multiplication facts. She is doing really well with the 3s now… and while most people would go on to the...
Have you read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (affiliate link)? It’s a book we read aloud a couple of years ago (and we highly recommend it!!). It is the touching story of a field mouse who lives in a farmer’s vegetable garden. She needs help moving her young mouse family because her baby, Timothy, is very sickly. Her home is warm and cozy, but is in danger both...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 25, 2015 · Last modified July 31, 2020
Today I’m going to share our German worksheets about the weather and seasons, winter words and sickness/illness. These and a dozen other pdfs are icluded in German BUNDLE 1. I have found it difficult to find good German materials and curriculum for kids. Early on we used a lot of free German worksheets and materials, but then at a certain point the kids were ready for more. Last spring I...
Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 24, 2015 · Last modified September 22, 2015
Not long ago, I heard a story that has really been bouncing around in my head. It left me thinking a lot about my role as a homeschooling Mom/teacher… and about my kids’ roles as students. I am going to do my very best to re-tell that story in this post today. I’m not sure of its origin. In my version of this story, the wise teacher is a female,...
I’ve been toying with trying something a bit different and I would love to hear your opinions. I’ve been thinking of either putting together a few podcast episodes or video episodes highlighting different hands-on activities and/or thoughts about homeschooling. I happen to listen to a TON of podcasts, but then video seems better to be able to incorporate visuals. Anyway, I’m just bouncing this around in my head and am...
Today, the Pope is making his first visit to the United States. The kids and I watched his arrival on TV just a little while ago. We aren’t Catholic, but the kids’ Grandma is. (My Mom died about 15 years ago and my Dad remarried just before LD was born.). Anyway, we took the opportunity today to talk about a bit about Catholicism today and about why the Pope is...
Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Freebies / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 22, 2015 · Last modified September 25, 2016
Are you looking for free fall printables for PreK-K? Here’s a huge list of fabulous FREE fall-themed packets that have been shared by generous parents and teachers. Get your 3-6 year old into the fall spirit with some of these fall-themed activities and printables. You will find everything from puzzles, counting and letter recognition activities to writing, do-a-dot pages, dot-to-dots and more! Fall Pack from 3 Dinosaurs: Leaves Unit by...
Active Math Games / Homeschool Den / Math--Division / Math--Multiplication / Math: Pre-Algebra
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 21, 2015
The weather is gorgeous, so once again it was time to take advantage of the lovely temperatures, get active, and practice some math! For this game we drew a giant circle out of chalk and put numbers into each space all around the circle. Which numbers? We wrote down the numbers as we skip counted by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s. (2 thru 20, 3 thru 30, 4 thru 40 and...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 21, 2015 · Last modified March 1, 2016
Later today, I will be sharing an active, outdoor math game that the kids played last week. I needed a set of Pre-Algebra type problems that had certain answers so that LD could play an active math fact game with the girls. More about the game in a few hours (and I’ll link to it), but in this particular post I wanted to share the Order of Operations cards printable. ...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 17, 2015 · Last modified September 21, 2015
So in my last post, I talked about how I really wanted to start off my mornings strong. I realized I needed a Power Morning Routine to make sure that *I* was energized, refreshed, focused, and prepared. You can read more about all that in this post: Thoughts on Teaching: Creating a Power Morning. But, along with that I really needed to make sure I was completely organized. I think...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 16, 2015 · Last modified September 15, 2015
Music continues to go really well for us. I’m glad I’ve got the general plan and all the printables organized and ready to go at a moment’s notice. It means that music really is getting done about 3 days a week. Hooray! So this is Week Two following the rough Beginners Music Curriculum that I put together this summer. My write-up here really is geared more for my youngest (ED...
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.
