Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Free Calendar Planning Pages / Free Homeschool Planner / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 1, 2022 · Last modified August 10, 2023
Are you looking for a free printable 2022-2023 Calendar that includes holidays, seasons, day light savings, etc.? Be sure to grab our free printable 2022-2023 calendar! Today I wanted to share our (latest) free calendar printable for the 2022-2023 school year. This free calendar printable covers 20 months (January 2022 through August 2023). I like having a calendar that includes the holidays, the change in seasons, and things like day...
Homeschooling Grade 8 and High School We are into our second, third (fourth! I can’t seem to get this post finished!) official week of homeschooling for the new academic year. My youngest daughter is in 8th grade and my two older are in high school. Most every year, I write about our current plans and I’m going to share some of the topics, units and resources we are using this...
I wanted to let you know that I have updated our booklet-style Homeschool Planner. It is FREE to download and print out. I added in new calendar pages as well as some daily schedule templates. The kids and I have been talking quite a bit about our homeschool schedule. Both of my girls want to be FIRST to do math (to get it out of the way!). They have been...
175+ Page Biology Packet on Ecology Ecosystems and Biomes Feeding Relationships Food Chains & Food Pyramids Trophic Levels & the Energy Pyramid How different species interact (relationships between living organisms and their physical environment) Population and Population Growth Our Biology Packet dives deep into the study of ecology. This packet looks at organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystems, and biosphere level. Students will also learn about the relationships between...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Spelling / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 5, 2020 · Last modified February 10, 2021
Earlier this week, I had a wonderful back-and-forth email conversation with a reader about literature and language arts in our homeschool. She had questions about the literature book/s we were using when my kids were in grades 2, 5 and 7. I thought I would share a lot of that conversation with you today. It highlights some of the language arts books/texts/resources we have used over the years. Plus, I’ve...
Ages 2-6: Clocks - Telling Time / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 25, 2020 · Last modified April 23, 2021
When my kids were younger, we used a clock matching activity regularly to make sure the kids got the hang of being able to read an analog clock. Today I have shared a new printable with you! Clocks – Telling Time Activities This is included in our K-2 Math BUNDLE: It is one of the best Bundles we have available… with more than 20 PDFs at just $5.50. 🙂 I’ve...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 6, 2020 · Last modified September 5, 2022
This is a chatty post about what we are doing for ancient history. Below, I’ll share some of the resources we are using and some activities we’ve done so far. We’ve only been in school for a few weeks now, but it already feels like we’ve got a good routine down and have covered quite a bit! History Spine: I have a lot of history textbooks that I have used...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 28, 2020 · Last modified September 29, 2023
I often like to start out the year by providing some regular freebies for my readers. My hope is to share some freebies with you regularly on Fridays. Today I have a new math freebie for you. Plus, I have also included links to a half a dozen other freebies down below! These mixed math practice pages include some basic clock/time practice, reviewing the days of the week, months of...
The Cicada Packet has been updated in 2024! Cicadas are such a wonderful part of summer! In fact, the woods behind our house is filled with their calls right now! I thought I would put together some cicada worksheets, notebook pages and a lapbook so kids can learn more about this fascinating insect! Some facts about cicadas: Did you know that there are over 3,000 types of cicadas? While most...
Freebies / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 16, 2020 · Last modified August 10, 2023
Tips for How to Start Homeschooling! I field a LOT of email from readers looking for advice on how to start homeschooling. I wanted to give some tips and pointers from someone who has been homeschooling for a very long time! 🙂 We have been homeschooling right from the start and my kids decided to continue homeschooling right through high school! Are you starting to homeschool or need fresh inspiration?...
All About Homeschooling! / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / 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 July 11, 2020 · Last modified January 1, 2024
Finding materials on the Homeschool Den! I wrote this post to help you find some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you. Over the years, I have made homeschool packets on everything from history and science to spelling, math, spelling and foreign languages (German & Spanish). And, many of those are free! We have materials from preschool through high...
Science: Animal Characteristics / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 3, 2020 · Last modified September 25, 2023
I wanted to let you know that I have just made some new Montessori vertebrate-invertebrate sorting cards and added them to the 100+ page Animal Unit. The Animal Unit covers animal classification, animal characteristics, spiders vs. insects, nocturnal vs diurnal animals, animal tracks, herbivores-carnivores-omnivores, and more! I included a sorting mat, as well as labels for the Montessori 3-part vertebrate-invertebrate cards. If you laminate the cards, you kids can use...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 16, 2020 · Last modified May 13, 2020
This page is just a record of information that I want to keep for my family and my kids. I’m not an expert by any means, so if you happen upon this page, please be aware that this is just a “diary” page for our family. I started writing this on Saturday, March 14 just a day after VA’s governor declared a state of emergency & our local schools were...
Is it time to spice up your homeschool with something a bit different? Engineering Challenges have always added some excitement to our homeschooling. In general, they don’t take much time, but they sure are fun & call for some creativity. My daughter said she wanted to add some engineering challenges into our homeschool day again. I’ve been trying to come up with some new challenges to add into our homeschool...
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.
