Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Montessori (general info)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published February 3, 2012
While the other kids are working on their things, ED has lots of preschool activities in her workboxes. Here are a few things she’s done this past week or so: We played memory using -at words. We are going through “My -at book.” ED says the initial sound and then I help her smash the sounds together. This is definitely an activity we do together as she is not reading...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Freebies / Montessori (general info) / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2012
ED is ready to tackle the teen numbers. She often skips some of the numbers after 13. I am using a homemade version of the Montessori seguin board (download the packet I made here). It’s a board with lots of 10s in a row. The child then places a digit over the zero to make 11, 12, 13, etc. 1) First ED counted the number of animals. 2) Then she...
Recipes / Science / Science: Astronomy Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 4, 2012 · Last modified December 24, 2015
We had a lot of fun with this part of our astronomy unit.We talked about the phases of the moon. We started off with a lamp and held an egg in our hand. Then we moved the egg slowly around, watching how the shadow on the egg changed as the egg moved relative to the earth/our eyes. We all took turns slowly watching the shadows on the egg change (photo...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 16, 2011
I feel like I haven’t written a long post about ED’s preschool work in forever. That’s because she’s been such an integral part of all our latest activities. She did all the owl crafts in our forest unit, did the dissection of the owl pellet. She takes notes and writes out her letters when the kids are taking notes on their science activities. She gets her own lapbook pages and...
Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 31, 2011
I’ve been itching to do a posting about our general homeschool schedule/day. What things we cover aside from the units I so often post about. Reading: Both DD and LD are good readers now. DD is reading easier chapter books while LD is on longer chapter books now. They both get up in the morning and read while eating breakfast. I always sprinkle our dining room room table with books...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Freebies / Science / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 22, 2011 · Last modified February 18, 2016
I made a preschool math game for ED. ED worked hard to cut out all the pictures. In the picture to the left, she rolled a 10 and I rolled a 1. We each chose that many ocean animals to put on our gameboard. Then ED spun the spinner and it came out “even.” I showed her how to make partners and that she had all partners, so she had...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Arts and Crafts / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 12, 2011 · Last modified February 3, 2016
ED’s Tuesday Routine: So you heard yesterday that I’m planning to use biome/habitat themes with ED this fall. This is what I have planned in a general way for Tuesdays: Arts and Crafts (based on the theme) Montessori Math Beads; Math Activities Science Sorts (Long post and link to my 30-pages of notes, etc.!) Arts and Crafts The girls painted boxes to make a diorama. Now all this needs is...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Montessori (general info) / Science: Ocean Unit
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 10, 2011 · Last modified February 20, 2016
ED’s Monday Routine: The idea of planning all this is so that I can change up ED’s activities, keep them fresh, interesting with the minimum of thought on my part. I expect to skip days, but then I’ll just pick up on the appropriate day and continue on. The routine is (hopefully) to make it easier on me to keep things engaging for ED. Mailbox Letters and Scavenger Hunt Montessori...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Workboxes
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 9, 2011 · Last modified March 14, 2019
I often enjoy having a glimpse at other people’s homeschool setups. We had quite a small house over in Australia, but we are now blessed with this amazingly large, airy homeschool room. We have bright colorful workboxes. Each kid has their own row, but I do not fill them every day with new things. Instead their basic subjects get stored here (including the manipulatives, new games, activities and printouts). It...
Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2)
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 8, 2011 · Last modified March 8, 2017
Last week I set up the first few activities for ED. I’ve been working to get the homeschool room setup to make it easier and more routine for me to setup each day/week for ED’s preschool.We’re easing into school — so none of these pictures will be too much of a surprise, but one thing I did last week was to re-introduce and reinforce the routine of putting out a...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Language Arts: Reading
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 14, 2011 · Last modified July 17, 2020
I made this a while ago, but never got around to introducing it to ED. It was a big hit the yesterday. Then DD came over and wanted to play. I had a number of extra eggs and ham without a letter on the reverse side, so they took turns trying to find the letter for their plate. If they got a blank egg or ham it was the other...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 19, 2011 · Last modified March 3, 2015
I’ve been having a thoughtful discussion with a blogging friend of mine. We’ve been talking about the reality of homeschooling… how it really works with a three year old in tow, what curriculum we use and things like that. I would love, love, love to hear your comments about how your day goes — and how you arrive at your homeschool curriculum decisions!Here’s part of my email letter to my...
Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 27, 2011 · Last modified November 25, 2016
ED has been doing a new unit on the human body. I’m using Everybody Has a Body: Science from Head to Toe (affiliate link). It has such a wonderful array of hands-on activities for preschoolers. DD has been enjoying them as well. ED has been putting this skeleton puzzle together for several days now. This puzzle was called Look Into Your Body All About You From the Inside Out with Floor Puzzle...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 9, 2010 · Last modified November 25, 2016
We’ve been doing lots of holiday-related activities. Today we brought out our hammers and cans (filled with ice) to make lanterns. LD especially like this, though I was impressed with how long ED worked at it as well! Once the ice melted, we were ready to light them with small tea candles inside and set them along the driveway to welcome Daddy home! You might be interested in some of...
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.
