Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
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 March 4, 2019 · Last modified August 21, 2022
Learning about the major Human Body Systems Each year, usually in the spring semester, our family has learned about one of the major Human Body Systems. We started studying the human body when the kids were in elementary. We’ve circled back around to study these units again and I’ve added updates to each of these packets as my kids have gotten older (so as with many of our packets, these...
20th Century History / Homeschool Den / World War I
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 29, 2019 · Last modified September 21, 2023
100+ Page World War I Packet We have just finished our huge study of World War I and I am finally ready to share this 100+page WWI unit with you! Our World War I Unit starts with a study of imperialism and nationalism, dives into the causes of World War I with a close look at militarism, territorial disputes, and the complicated secret alliances of this period. We talked about...
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...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 30, 2018 · Last modified January 19, 2022
This post has a wide range of different hands-on activity ideas and teaching strategies that might inspire you in your homeschooling! This time of year, our homeschooling can start to feel a bit stale. That’s when we have to shake things up and try approaching things from a different angle. We all have homeschool teaching strategies that we rely on, but it’s really great to change those up from time...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 7, 2018
If you were in my living room right now… I would offer you a cup of coffee (partly because I’m tired from driving ED early in the mornings to her soccer games this weekend) and I’d have some cookies baking in the oven. That sounds overly domestic of me, but the truth is we had signed up to bring cookies yesterday and I ran out of time to bake the...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 3, 2018
I wanted to highlight some of the free grammar and writing worksheets and printables we have tucked away on the website. It has been a while since I have talked about these and we have dozens of free resources!! I’m going to start with a few of the free writing resources we have and then I’ll give you links to our free grammar worksheets on the major comma rules, apostrophes,...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 8, 2018 · Last modified September 7, 2018
Life in Our Homeschool This was our first week back and it didn’t go quite as planned (though, when does homeschooling ever go exactly as we think it will?!) At the end of last week and into the weekend, I was quite sick. My older two were away for the holiday weekend with some friends. When Monday rolled around, ED was excited to start back. We jumped back into homeschooling...
Homeschool Den / Trips We've Taken
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 7, 2018 · Last modified September 9, 2018
This summer we took across Canada and visited a number of amazing places — Niagara Falls, Banff National Park, Glacier National Park, Theodore Roosevelt Park and the National Buffalo Museum. This post shares some of the picture and also one harrowing afternoon’s adventure as a car accident unfolded in front of us. Some of the best experiences were the hiking trips we too in these beautiful national parks! Before too...
History: Rensaissance and Reformation / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 26, 2018 · Last modified August 24, 2020
Renaissance, Reformation, Absolutism, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment This 90+ page European History Packet contains materials covering the period from roughly 1500-1750. It covers the Renaissance & Reformation and goes into detail about the political rulers of this time. It also traces some of the major intellectual changes that are going on during this period. This packet touches on all these topics – the Renaissance, Reformation, Age of Absolutism, Scientific Revolution...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 30, 2018 · Last modified May 31, 2018
For us, the 2017-2018 school year has basically come to an end. The concerts are over, testing is done, paperwork has been sent in (to fulfill the requirements of our state) and sports (tryouts, end-of-season parties) have wrapped up. Plus, the spring planting season is done! This post is going to chit-chat about how our semester wrapped up (everything from gardening to history, science) and our summer homeschool plans… Before...
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...
One of the things we added into our homeschool schedule this year was Spanish for the girls. I shared the funny story of how I got to know Sra. Morato in this post a couple of months ago. The girls are continuing to do really well in their Elementary Spanish class. (I don’t speak Spanish, so this is pretty neat!) Today I just thought I would share a some of...
Games for Thinking and Learning / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 11, 2018
With birthdays coming up, I am often on the look-out for educational activities that might be appealing to my kids. I also grab things from time-to-time that will add some sparkle to our units. This post has a number of educational things I’ve added to our homeschool collection… puzzles, games, geography activities, science tools and more! 🙂 Critical Thinking Challenge! My kids really love this activity called Kanoodle (affiliate link)...
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.
