Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 23, 2017 · Last modified February 21, 2017
The past couple of days, the kids have been writing their own Haikus during our writing workshop time. Your family might have fun with this too! What is a haiku? It is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. These seem simple as they are only three lines, but the kids found it to be tricky! A haiku has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 10, 2017 · Last modified July 25, 2021
Our Homeschool Week It has been quite a while since I wrote about the flow of our homeschool day. I really like writing these posts because it gives a glimpse of our messy, busy, wonderful homeschool life! Plus, I love looking back and seeing how things have changed. I’ll link to some of our previous posts from other years down below at the bottom of the post. (I still feel...
Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2017 · Last modified July 1, 2020
This is a list of some of the well-known children’s novels we’ve been working through the past few years. Many of these books are award winning (Newbery Award) novels. I always enjoy pouring through other people’s reading lists and thought I would share some of the classics we have on our reading list. We’ve read many of the books on the list (but remember I have three kids!). Just pick...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Books: Children's Literature / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 5, 2017 · Last modified July 1, 2020
Today I thought I would share some of the literature that is on our reading list for grades 7 to 9. These are well-known classics. We’re pretty flexible in that I won’t make them finish a book they “hate.” Life’s too short and their are too many amazing books! Let me add that our list changes as the kids’ interest change and as we cover different things in our homeschool....
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 21, 2016
In the blogging world, many of us write about a typical or ideal homeschool day. Those are the days that are filled with accomplishments and a schedule of subjects with the kids skipping merrily (or not so merrily) through the day. Sometimes we write about the struggle of it all (but leaving the impression that we get through all the subjects “on the schedule.”). But we are not as apt...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 3, 2016
Over the weekend I wrote a post about what I might do if I were starting all over again with toddlers and preschoolers in-tow (Homeschooling Multiple Ages). In today’s post, I wanted to share what our routine looks like these days. I have two kids in middle school (ie. grades 6 and 8) and one in grade 3. Our homeschool is considerably more structured than it used to be. When...
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...
Happy Labor Day! This is a post you definitely don’t want to miss. It has links to dozens of freebies in science, history, language arts, math, PreK, German and Spanish!! Today is a holiday that honors the hard work of men and women across America. This blog has been my labor of love for more than seven years! It started as a way for me to document our homeschool journey...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 30, 2016
Today was our first official day of school. After all the planning I did this summer, it was fabulous to finally just jump in and start off the year!! This year we’ve set up a more structured schedule for ourselves… at least to start with. Other years, we covered all of our subjects, but each day was different. This year we’ve decided (together, this wasn’t just my idea) to have...
Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 18, 2016 · Last modified July 10, 2017
Back to Homeschool Challenge: Day 9 Family Homeschool Meeting There are so many positive things about holding a family meeting. They give everyone – including the kids- a sense of belonging and ownership of the rules. We want the kids to know that they have a real and important voice in the family. Family meetings give everyone a platform for making your family a better team. And one reason to...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 9, 2016 · Last modified January 22, 2019
We all hear a lot about getting organized and keeping the clutter down. But today I want to talk about becoming organized in a strategic way… a way that helps our homeschool day run smoothly. It’s not really about making the pencils and markers look pretty and organized, though that definitely has its appeal. It’s about making sure our days flow smoothly. That the kids have some sense of what...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets / Language Arts: Spelling / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 18, 2016 · Last modified March 5, 2023
Today I’m sharing some free comma rules grammar worksheets. The first page has the 11 common comma rules we’ve covered. There are various practice sentences on the next two pages. The kids have to place the missing commas in each sentence and must write down the rule that goes along with it. Some sentences have more than one missing comma (and so might have more than one comma rule that...
Language Arts - Grammar Spelling Reading Writing Categories / Language Arts: Spelling
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2016 · Last modified September 22, 2023
DD is a natural speller but both LD and ED have really benefited by the logical layout of the All About Spelling lessons. (affiliate link). I do my very best to stay consistent working through those lessons. It helps if we can work on spelling at least three times a week. During the spring semester, we also spend more time/attention on grammar, but we try to keep going with spelling...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Outdoor Fun
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 19, 2016 · Last modified February 18, 2016
A lot of the time I write posts focused just on one topic… like the Renaissance sheets I just shared on Wednesday or the comma worksheet I’m going to share next week. But other times, I just want to chit-chat about what’s going on… and that’s what this post is going to be! Homeschooling has been going pretty well lately. We are trying to keep going at a steady pace...
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.
