Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 27, 2014 · Last modified January 30, 2024
Last semester, the kids worked on their first mini-research paper. They hadn’t done a project like this before, so I took them step-by-step through the process of finding books and Internet resources, creating a bibliography, taking notes and writing a paper. They had a “due date” and I graded their paper and gave them feedback on what they could do better next time. I wanted them to have the experience...
Freebies / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 25, 2014 · Last modified January 8, 2017
I made some winter-themed multiplication pages for my daughter. They are similar the addition pages I shared a few days ago. There are eight pages. The first few pages only have multiplication problems up through the 4s and 5s. The later pages have problems all the way to the 8s and 9s (8×6, 9×9). They are free to download: Free Winter Themed Multiplication Practice Worksheets We also have some free...
Freebies / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 23, 2014 · Last modified January 5, 2020
I made another set of skip counting pages for my daughter. She’s working a lot with the 5s (because she is also working on telling time by 5 minute intervals) so there are a couple of extra pages of those. The packet is 9 pages total. These are free to download if your child (or student) can use them! Just please link back to this page if you want to...
Just a quick update about my ear surgery on Monday. How’s this for a new fashion look?! The good news was that my doctor was able to remove all the bone filler (which I seemed to be having an allergic reaction to from the surgery in October). Unfortunately, the bad news was that once he got into the inner ear area it looked so bad that my doctor simply wasn’t...
Freebies / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten Math / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 21, 2014 · Last modified January 5, 2020
I made these free addition worksheets for my daughter for this next week. I thought I’d share them in case anyone else can find them of use. These pages are pretty simple addition and doubling. Free Winter-Themed Addition Pages You might also enjoy the Montessori-Style Winter Addition Pages You might want to check out our Addition and Subtraction Pet Pack which is in our K-2 Math BUNDLE (which includes 20...
Ear Surgery / Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts / Mom Stories
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 20, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
The past three months have been very difficult. If you’re a regular reader, you know I had ear surgery in October. I have more complications than I can count on one hand. Healing was very slow and a couple of weeks after the surgery I came down with something called BPPV in two semi-circular canals (in my ear) which causes vertigo, the entire world to spin, balance issues and incredible...
Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 18, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Someone recently asked me how to get started homeschooling. She was interested in creating some unit studies for her kids and wanted to know where to start. Since I tend to create our history and science units myself, I thought I’d try to share how I pull our units together. I’ve written a lot of related posts about homeschooling things like planning, preparation, assessing our long term and short term...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 17, 2014 · Last modified April 30, 2016
Yesterday I mentioned that we read the Sneetches (while talking about some of the lessons about the Civil Rights Movement: Civil Rights Movement Lessons – Prejudice Stereotypes Groups and More). We talked for a long time about how it feels to be left out. We talked about fitting in and sometimes how it’s hurtful not to wear the right thing or look the right way. I told the kids a...
History: Civil Rights Movement
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 16, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
This is a packet I made for the kids to explore some of the deep, underlying issues of the Civil Rights Movement. Here are some of the topics we are exploring: What are rights? What’s the difference between a right and a privilege? What does it mean to be treated fairly? What groups do you belong to? Have you ever judged anyone by what they look like (by their clothes?...
Freebies / Language Arts - Grammar Worksheets
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 15, 2014 · Last modified March 5, 2023
The kids need a bit more practice distinguishing between their, they’re, there and its, it’s. Here is a quick practice page I made for them. I’ll share that in case anyone else could use the review: You can find these grammar worksheets here: their there they’re – its it’s Practice Pages Other free grammar worksheets you can download: Here’s another similar post that I made for the kids more recently: they’re/their/there, it’s/its,...
Freebies / History: Civil Rights Movement / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 13, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
The kids and I spent quite a bit of time on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We read a number of books together and also watched two movies that helped bring these events alive. I made a few notebook pages for their history notebooks that you are welcome to download if you find them useful. They are free.: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Free Worksheets BOOKS:...
Freebies / History: Civics, Government and Economics / History: Civil Rights Movement / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 10, 2014 · Last modified March 3, 2016
Yesterday I shared the Civil Rights books we’ll be using in our Civil Rights Movement unit. Before we go into a lot of depth about the events of the 1950s and 1960s, I wanted to make sure the kids really understood some of the history leading up to this period. I created a photo timeline of events to help my kids review (and/or understand) the events leading to the Civil...
History: Civil Rights Movement / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 9, 2014 · Last modified September 28, 2020
This semester we are doing a unit on the Civil Rights Movement. I came up with a long list of books that we can read with this unit. Most of them I found at our local library. I thought I would share the list I compiled in case someone else might find it useful: Civil Rights Movement Books you may want to read with your students: Elementary (these are...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 8, 2014 · Last modified October 6, 2020
I didn’t talk very much about what we were up to with German this last semester. With all my health issues it took a bit of a back burner for a while. I mainly had the kids listen to German stories on CD. We are using a German children’s book this year called Bobo Siebenschlafer (affiliate link). I bought both the book and the audio CD. It has been just...
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.
