Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Reading / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 15, 2015 · Last modified March 6, 2023
Are your kids studying words that have the Long I sound? They might enjoy the activities in this packet. It contains a word sort, board game and bingo cards for reviewing the long /i/ spelling patterns: ie, y, i-e, igh, ind and i. I made this long /i/ word sort file folder game for ED. She went over many of these words (and rules) last year, but she will definitely...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 14, 2015 · Last modified September 13, 2015
Have your kids read the Plot Chicken? We started our Writing Workshop off with this book. What a great buk, buk!! In fact, I liked it so much that I created a chicken writing rules printable to go along with the book (free to download down below)!!! So, in this post I want to share some of our Writing Workshop Mini-Lessons about the Story Writing Process & Story Structure. The...
Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / Homeschooling in the News / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 12, 2015 · Last modified September 11, 2015
Fall is an amazing time to take homeschool field trips. The weather is gorgeous and there are often special programs and discounts for homeschoolers! I’ve highlighted some Homeschool Days from along the east coast: Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, New York… even the Kennedy Space Center has a special Homeschool Day event! I noticed that this next week in particular has a huge number of Homeschool Days. (If you...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 10, 2015 · Last modified September 9, 2015
I really want to do a series called “Thoughts on Teaching.” Why? Well, I’ve been reading a lot lately and have been excited about some of the ideas I’ve come across. As I process all that, I always want to write about it. May as well bounce my ideas with my online reader friends, right?!! Do you ever need a private cheerleader… someone to pat you on the back and...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 9, 2015 · Last modified September 6, 2023
A week or so ago, I shared my general plans for music this semester, but I thought I’d try to share what actually happens from week to week with pictures. Remember, you’ll find more information about the games and activities in the PDF at this post: Free Beginner’s Music Curriculum: Learning Notes, Rhythm, Music Notation and More! Last week was our first official week of school, so we only spent...
Homeschool Den / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 7, 2015
Today I’m going to share this Minecraft themed addition and subtraction packet that I made for my daughter. It’s free to download! It’s the beginning of the year, so ED definitely needs some review of some of the basic addition and subtraction facts. Combine math facts with her beloved Minecraft characters and she’ll beg to “play” more!! Although they are not presented in this order in the packet, we first...
It’s Labor Day and there are so many reasons to be thankful that our family lives here in this country and at this time! This is a post I wrote a couple of years ago and I thought it was worth sharing again. After the Civil War, the availability of natural resources, new inventions, and a receptive market combined to fuel an industrial boom. The demand for labor grew, and...
Before I dive too much into our school posts, I wanted to share pictures from our last week of summer vacation. Back in the spring, we made camping reservations at the Blackwood Campground in Acadia National Park. We drove up to Maine and spent a week enjoying the beauty of that area! We did a lot of hiking! And the kids and Hubby even braved the cold ocean waters! We...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 2, 2015 · Last modified September 7, 2015
Yesterday was our very first day school. We had such an amazing summer (and more about that in another day or so), but it is also great to be back in the groove again! I started the day with my new morning routine (I’ll talk about that more in another post too!), but it left me organized, energized, and ready to go with the kids! ED, of course, was the...
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) / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Language Arts: Reading / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 31, 2015 · Last modified January 22, 2019
Are you looking for a phonics program to help your kids learn to read? I’ve put together some of the phonics readers that we used with my three kids. As you’ll see, all three of my kids had different preferences! I know I have a lot of new readers, and several people reached out to me recently who have preschoolers and are just starting out on this homeschool journey. I...
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: Toddler/Preschool Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 26, 2015 · Last modified August 23, 2015
When my kids were first learning to read, we used to play a LOT of games. I had a number of file folder games ready to rotate into their work boxes. I made this two-letter file folder game a while back, but hadn’t gotten around to post it. Better late than never, right?!! So, I hope those of you with young ones on the brink of reading find this useful! ...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2015 · Last modified November 1, 2023
I had a realization recently. While the kids can play pieces on the piano, they cannot read music! So, the plan is to slowly but surely make sure they learn and build on those skills. I hope they learn at least two octaves of notes and their corresponding location on the piano/keyboard. I also want them to learn some of the basic music symbols and music notation. I gathered a...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 21, 2015 · Last modified September 24, 2015
For German this year, we are going to use a number of resources. If you have followed our blog for a while, you know that we used a lot of free resources to build up their basic skills… numbers, colors, animals, basic greetings, etc. You’ll find links to those at the bottom of this post. This year, we will be buckling down a bit more. Just so you know, I...
This past week, we did something really ausgezeichnet/fantastic!! We got in the car… and we drove and drove and drove… From the east coast…. …to Minnesota! We headed to the small city of Bemidji, visited Paul Bunyan and his Big Blue Ox… … before entering Waldsee (the German language section of Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota). There we spent an entire week immersed in the German language, culture, and food. Of course,...
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.
