Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
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 / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 7, 2018 · Last modified August 6, 2018
Hey everyone!! Just warning you right up front, this post has become part confessional, part apology, part explanation of our website!! I have been humbled by how many new readers we have these days. For just one Mom sharing the work she’s making for her kids and the hands-on activities we’ve done along the way, it’s really been an inspiring journey. I just love what I do… and have been...
Free Homeschool Planner / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 14, 2018 · Last modified July 28, 2022
This is a checklist of things you can do now, to get ready for the new school year! Is part of your end-of-summer vision to feel prepared for back-to-school? This checklist will help you slowly and steadily get ready for the new school year! It is mid-summer, but lingering in the back of our minds is that school will be here before we know it. We want to take advantage...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 10, 2018 · Last modified June 29, 2018
Summer is the perfect time to do some astronomy with the kids, right?! This summer, Mars will become brighter and brighter in the predawn sky. In late July 2018, around the time Earth sweeps between Mars and the sun, Mars will outshine Jupiter by some 1.8 times. Mars will appear brightest from July 27 to July 30. It will appear 1/3 of the way up from the horizon to straight...
Free Curriculum Resource Guides / Homeschool Den / Science Units
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 21, 2018 · Last modified August 4, 2018
Homeschool Den Science Curriculum Units The Science Resource Page has been Updated! Plus, below you’ll find a new (free) Printable Science Resource List that includes a current list of our science curriculum packets and a list of the free science resources we have on the blog. Because our website is a blog, everything is shared as they happen chronologically. So, finding the activities and units we’ve done can be a...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 10, 2018 · Last modified July 25, 2021
This is always one of my favorite posts to write. It’s my chance to reflect back on the year and all the things we managed to accomplish! Sometimes in the short-run it can feel like we’re not getting much homeschooling done. You know how our homeschooling can go… we’re interrupted for activities, illness, errands, appointments, or the occasional blahs. But then when we step back to look at the bigger...
Summer Planning Printables! In this post you’ll find several useful (and free!) Summer-Time Packets and Printables: Free Summer Planning Packet (including a Packing List for Travels, Summer Scheduling Pages, and more) 350+ Summer Activity Ideas (Free Printable) Free Preschool Activity Ideas Printable Free “Design and Draw” Packet And our End of Year Homeschool Questionnaire (one for students and one for parents). My kids are at the age that they are...
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...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 21, 2018 · Last modified March 23, 2019
Homeschool Conference 2019 Thanks so much for stopping by to see me at the Homeschool Conference! And welcome, if you happened upon this page! I’m Liesl; you can read more about our family and how we got started on this homeschool adventure on our About Page and if you’re new to our blog be sure to start with this New to Our Blog? Start Here Page. Today, I’m sharing the...
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)...
Homeschool Den / Science / Science: Earth Science Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 18, 2017
This was our fourth week of science club. Time’s flying by! As we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids filled in the tectonic plate map. We talked about the experiment we had done a couple weeks earlier that helped explain how the tectonic plates can move. This week, we were going to do a couple more activities to show how heat/cooling can create currents and movement. (These pages have...
Engineering Challenges / Homeschool Den / Science / Science Experiments
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 13, 2017
In the third week of our science club, we spent quite a bit of time talking about Taxonomy and Scientific Classification. We had touched on it the previous week, but this time we went into much more detail. We had already talked about Linnaeus and his role in developing the classification system. We also talked about how much it has changed – especially in just the last 15 or 20...
This week we are starting back into homeschooling. We’ll be starting slowly with a number of projects and activiteis. I thought I’d share some of things our family is starting out with. 🙂 My kids have loved the math puzzles and challenges. Our favorite book has been Mathematical Circle Diaries, Year 1: Complete Curriculum for Grades 5 to 7 (affiliate link). These were a bit hard for my youngest daughter...
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.
