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 / Freebies
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2018 · Last modified January 1, 2019
Today I wanted to share our (latest) free calendar printable. This free calendar printable covers 18 months (March 2018 through August 2019). It includes the spring and summer months (2018) and then includes the 2018-2019 school year through August of 2019. I like having a calendar that includes the holidays and things like Day Light Saving which is why I’ve been making my own printable and update it from time-to-time!!...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Random Thoughts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 10, 2017
Does your homeschool change a lot from day to day, week to week? It’s been a busy semester and the flow of our homeschool has changed quite a bit. That’s not really surprising, though is it? We’re always adapting and changing things up in our homeschools. One of the joys and benefits of homeschooling is flexibility. We have the ability to go on tangents, dive deep, reschedule things, go faster...
Hi Everyone, Today I want to share the floor with Sra. Morato. Her online classes include elementary Spanish (for Kindergarten through Grade 6), Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 (36-week classes). This past year I have gotten to know her well and she is actually now teaching my girls Spanish (via video lessons and face-to-face meetings)! Let me share the story of how that happened!! It’s a funny story, one day while...
Freebies / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published November 4, 2017
Back in the summer, I shared a large 100-page homeschool planner & discovery journal which is free to download. My daughter really likes having a checklist to work from and this weekend I added a holiday background to those pages. She’s excited about them. Just thought I would share them here for you as well. I also added in the calendar pages for the next 4 months (because I print...
Free Calendar Planning Pages / Freebies / Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 18, 2017 · Last modified August 19, 2017
Hi everyone! As the school year begins again for many of us, we’re all trying to keep ourselves organized. I use google (online) calendar for many of our activities, but I still keep a traditional paper calendar as well in my homeschool planner. I wanted to share the updated printable calendar with you all. This is FREE to download and print out, just click to link or picture below! This...
Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 7, 2017 · Last modified August 4, 2018
The Back to Homeschool Challenge: Daily missions to make sure we’re on track for an awesome year! Can you believe that the summer is winding down?! I hope you’ve had a restful, adventurous summer (for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!). Are you getting ready for the new Homeschool Year? The Back to Homeschool Challenge gives us 10 days of small daily tasks to make sure we’re ready for...
Homeschool: Organizing and Cleaning / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 3, 2017 · Last modified May 6, 2023
I am excited to share our new Homeschool Planner and Discovery Journal! This unique homeschool planning packet is currently FREE to download! It is nearly 100 pages! Not only does this packet include daily and weekly planning pages, checklists and record keeping pages, but it also includes various homeschool journaling pages… think gratitude journal meets homeschool goal setting! What is unique about this planner? We all want to be the...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published May 29, 2017 · Last modified May 4, 2023
German Store My kids started learning German (as their foreign language) in elementary school. We worked a lot on building their vocabulary and increasing their conversational skills as well as working on their reading comprehension, listening skills, and grammar. I couldn’t find worksheets that worked well for them so began making our own. Even now (my kids are currently in middle and high school), we still do a lot...
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...
Science Experiments / Science: Chemistry Unit / Science: Rocks and Minerals
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published January 23, 2017 · Last modified October 13, 2017
The past few weeks, my youngest has been doing a unit on “Winter.” Today, I want to share one of the fun, hands-on projects she did – Growing Sugar Crystals (ie. rock candy!!). I’ve seen this mentioned before, but this was the first time we actually did it! This is a project that can be done with things you have around the house. That’s always a plus, right?!! 🙂 What...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 16, 2016 · Last modified December 24, 2017
Congratulations! After a busy semester, we are all ready for a well-deserved break! The kids are excited for the holidays and we educators need time to regroup, relax and re-energize too! Here are some tips for getting the most from your holiday break! 1. If you have time before the holidays are upon us, try to wrap up your schooling completely. Even if you are in the middle of a...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool: Our Homeschool (what our day is like, curriculum choices, etc.) / Homeschool: Planning and Preparation / Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc) / How to Start Homeschooling / Science / Science Experiments / Science Units / Starting to Homeschool
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 13, 2016 · Last modified January 8, 2017
When I think about all we’ve done this past year in 2016 in science, I’m really pretty amazed! It’s been a fun, full year! This post has links to dozens of our science experiments, science worksheets and printables, and hands-on activities. You’ll find direct links to the posts in the table below. Last year as we moved into the new year (in January to May 2016), we were focused on...
The last project in our electricity and circuits unit was making an Art Bot. Today, I wanted to explain how we made this cute motorized guy. It’s a fun STEM project even if you are not doing a larger unit about electricity and circuits! Prior to doing this activity, we had learned about series and parallel circuits and learned some of the basic electrical symbols. We practiced how to draw...
Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 2, 2016 · Last modified December 3, 2016
Sometimes it can be hard to think of fun, engaging gifts for your kids (and for all those “extra” gifts you have to buy for friends and family). I thought I would highlight some of the games, crafts, and books that my kids have been enjoying lately! First on the list has to be Escape! My kids LOVE this fast-paced, exciting board and dice game!! My three kids (ages 8,...
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.
