My aim through this blog is to always try to keep it realistic. There are some blogs out there who make home ed life seem almost perfect with perfectly behaved children and perfectly followed schedules! Home Ed life is certainly NOT like that.

I have really good days where I feel we had really good productive home ed days and at the end of other days I just feel like crying out of exhaustion and frustration. I find that everytime I’m expecting, I kind of go through weeks on and off of feeling like I’m the worst home edder ever. In fact these last few days, I haven’t felt like a very good Mum.

I’ve been struggling with the sickness with some days of ease alhamdulillah. I feel tired CONSTANTLY and find myself crashing out literally on the sofa at least 3x day. I feel very guilty that I’m not giving my children what they need and deserve and seriously ‘SCHOOL’ has been a serious option recently. I’m tired.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful – astaghfiruAllah. I thank Allah for this new pregnancy and I pray He blesses me with a healthy child. I’m just feeling it – I’m very very very tired. I feel as though there’s so much to do and yet no energy to accomplish half the tasks.

My house is an absolute tip. My poor husband is having to help out when I do crash and I just don’t feel I’m doing very well. R is only doing workbooks at the moment – how boring! She plays a lot, reads and has her outdoor activities but at home I feel home ed has become just workbook based. The boys are constantly crying, screaming and wanting what the other wants. *sigh*

R would be in year 2 right now if she were in school – I do wonder if I’ve failed her in her education. Z would be starting Reception this September and Y is only 2 and a few months. I want the best for my children and wonder with the expanding family if I am doing them justice.

I was discussing home ed and big families with a couple of home edders. A few of them said that its easy to home ed one child, or even 2 or 3 but as one sister said, ‘When you hit 4, that’s when you’ve entered the ‘big family’ stage and its very testing.’ Her comment was an honest one but it made me wonder if I can actually carry on home edding my children.

Tired. Confused. But alhamdulillah for my deen as there is no comfort except in the remembrance of Allah.

This review is soooo long overdue subhanaAllah. Jzk to all those sisters I mentioned it to briefly and who patiently waited for me to post this post.

Those of you who have been reading the blog will know that a huge part of R’s formal studying is Arabic. Alhamdulillah, by Allah’s grace she is fluent in spoken Arabic mashaAllah. She speaks Derja (Algerian dialect – with typical Algerian body language an’ all lol) and fusha Arabic. She can read and understand and also writes.

She does Arabic with her father twice a week and is currently working through the Madinah Arabic books – currently working through the second book. In these lessons with her father, she does A LOT of writing, grammar, spelling, and dictation. After he’s gone through a grammar lesson with her, he sets her a lot of work and sometimes it takes up pretty much the whole day not to R’s liking but she has to do it! This is something that I feel is compulsory for her and no unschooling element to it allowed!

In addition to this, we started her on the Studio Arabiya trial a few months ago. It was a 2 week trial but I felt that it was so good that I decided to pay the monthly fee.

Her teacher is in Egypt and they do their lessons via Skype using some other software where R can view the book they are going through. For me, the main reasons why I like Studio Arabiya are:

1. R loves her teacher, Sister Reem, who I feel is just great mashaAllah. I hope Studio Arabiya give her a rise in her pay as she really is fantastic mashaAllah.

2. The entire lesson is in Arabic with no English at all (I assume they have different options for those who are just starting out with the Arabic language).

3. For me, the ABSOLUTE plus side is that for 30 mins 5 days a week, R gets to practice speaking. Her written and reading skills she can practice in her lessons with her father. She does speak to her father in Arabic as he has forbidden her to speak to him in English but I wanted her to speak as much as possible with others. In these lessons, she hears and speaks Arabic with her teacher whilst learning reading skills, grammar and vocabulary for 30 mins each day.

I asked one of the Directors about the fees and free trial for others and this is what she said:

Our basic price is $79 per month for the standard, which includes 10 hours of one-on-one time with the teacher.  If a student wants the intensive (20 hours per month) or to take both Arabic and Qur’an, the monthly tuition is $139.  We offer a family discount of 10% off for families of 2 or more students.  Everyone that signs up automatically gets the first week free.  This way they can try out the classes risk-free to see how it works.

(DO NOTE THAT THE ABOVE ARE IN DOLLARS – WHEN YOU CONVERT THE CURRENCY – ITS NOT BAD IN MY OPINION)

We did try the Quran tuition at Studio Arabiya but R didn’t like it and I didn’t think it was worth it as her father is a Quran teacher. But for those that are looking for that, then they provide that option too. Although, my husband says that Quran needs to be taught in the more traditional way with a teacher face to face. Each to their own opinion I guess.

I would thoroughly recommend the Arabic program at Studio Arabiya. I’ve seen a huge difference in R’s confidence in speaking to someone else other than relatives in Arabic and the staff really take the parent’s opinons and choice into consideration. Ie. some of the work was too easy for R so I asked them to push her which is just what the teacher did mashaAllah. Very professional mashaAllah and definitely a thumbs up from me.

Check it out: http://www.studioarabiya.com/

A few sisters have emailed me privately about R and what she reads, where to get books from etc. So, thought I would blog about it.

Just to clarify R is currently 7.5 years old mashaAllah, Z – 4, and Y 2.

Books are a huge part of our life. In fact, they were a huge part of my life as a child. My Mother would take us religiously to the library each week and I devoured books as a child and teenager. It was always a dream that my children would have a love of books.

I think my love of books comes from the fact that I was surrounded by books as a child and saw my parents always reading. I think R loves books for similar reasons – we have books at home, go to the library A LOT and she sees me read. I can’t see a child having a great love of reading if they don’t see their parents read.

As for books that she reads, she reads non-fictions, novels, chapter books, magazines – all sorts. I tend to buy books based on her interests so yes, we have quite a few chapter story books/novels on HORSES! I get these very cheap on thebookpeople.co.uk which is great otherwise I couldn’t afford it. We also go to charity shops and a lot of her horse books I’ve bought from there. In fact I bought about 10 of Tilly’s Pony tails from a charity shop in Luton on a trip we went to. Great bargain!

I haven’t found many quality Islamic chapter books out there and this is a disappointment. I have put a few R’s way but I guess the lack of quality made her bored and she didn’t continue reading them.

As for books with magic etc. I think because we spent a lot of time when she was younger talking about why we don’t believe in Magic, what Christmas is, importance of tawhid, not worshipping anything other than Allah etc etc – when she comes across shirk in books she doesn’t feel comfortable and says she doesn’t want to continue anymore as there’s something ‘haram’.

I do not blot out books with concepts that go against Islam though as I feel that she will come across these things and I would prefer to discuss them with her – show her how it doesnt fit in with our beliefs/practises etc. I don’t believe in placing her in a cotton ball and scrutinizing every single book. I trust her and I feel that she is old enough to know blatant shirk and kufr from belief. Naturally, there are some books that are a no no such as romance etc.

So, when we go to the library – she has free reign as to what she picks – I take a quick look and give her the choice/make a suggestion. Eg, recently she took out a historical horror book. I told her what it might be about and she wanted to read it. She began and then 3 chapters in she stopped because it was too scary. I guess she’s very innocent in that she likes books about animals so I don’t have too much to worry about right now.

Even when she’s older, I believe it is important to give her the freedom to choose but to always keep the communication avenues open to discuss anything she may come across in her books as one day she will come across EVERYTHING – so in a way it is preparation. A time and age for everything insha’Allah..

They arrived on Sunday 22nd in the afternoon and there were hugs galore in the airport with lots of kisses from R and Z for Y. It was amazing to see how much they missed their little brother. I was very happy to see them all and they were full of smiles and lots of energy mashaAllah.

When I saw Z, I noticed some swelling on his head but didn’t think anything of it as he was full of insect bites (normal when arriving from a mountainous region). We drove home and they told me about their adventures and the car was just full of noise. I forgot how loud 3 children can be. Unfortunately, within a few hours I had to take Z to the hospital as his swelling had increased so much on one side of his face that he looked like he had two heads with the swelling feeling very hot. The hospital had no idea what it was and were going to send me home until I told them what a sister doctor who was mashaAllah in the area at the time told me – perhaps an allergic reaction. So they were quick to suddenly diagnose him and gave me piriton. The following day it was worse and in and out until I decided to just wait it out. He slept a lot and then was fully himself with the swelling finally reduced to normal late last week.Allah knows best what it was but alhamdulillah. Unfortunately, shortly after that – more sickness – with Y catching hand, foot n mouth disease (similar to chicken pox but only on hands, feet and in the mouth). Z then got it and got it very bad in his mouth miskeen. But alhamdulillah healing now.

The kids have been showing me pictures – R decided to keep a video diary of her adventures. There were videos of their trekking up the mountains with Z looking absolutely shattered! Along each trek, they searched for different species and found frogs, different insects – some poisonous (hubby knows which ones not to touch), owls, birds of prey,they heard wolves howling at night and as the area where my in laws live on the mountains has no street lights – the sky at night is an amazing array of stars and shooting stars. An abandoned sea was full of crab, hedgehogs of the sea, octopus, sea snails. They were on the hunt for scorpions and it was Z who found one with hubby literally just stopping him in time before he picked it up (phew!). R’s many hours of reading her encyclopedia helped as she narrated on the video that it was sleeping as it stops its own heartbeat due to the cold. They were spoilt by family and loved being with uncles and aunties and lots of cousins – a luxury they don’t have in the UK which sometimes makes me feel sad.

They had an amazing time mashaAllah but are happy to now be home. Last week was tending to the kids illness whilst being ill myself. A pretty testing week but alhamdulillah. We had a full week’s break from home ed but started back yesterday with our schedule. My focus for R is Quran, English, Math and Arabic with some topic work here and then. Z – phonics, quran and number recognition (!)

As for the two new additions to our family.

1. Who remembers our pet tortoise that died a couple of years ago? We have a tiny replacement who is just soooo cute mashaAllah. They’ve named him Susu. Here he is:

He's tiny and currently only about 4cm long

2. Wasn’t going to blog about this just yet but then I thought why not. I know most women don’t say anything til they’re about 4 months pregnant incase something happens. But the way I see it, is if I miscarry then it was qadrAllah. Such is life and such is death. So, second addition is I’m expecting alhamdulillah. A slight ’worry’ everytime I’m pregnant is how many are baking in there as I have twins on both sides! I’ll be finding out soon – but I know if it is twins Allah knows I can deal with it. I’ve pretty much spent the entire time they were away being very very sick, had last 2 days of relief and just this afternoon its started up again. So, am somewhat struggling with that but alhamdulillah ala kulli haal. The family is growing mashaAllah – I just hope I’ll be able to home ed four children when they get to that stage.  Please remember me in your duas!

Maybe because of all of the planning I’ve been doing for the next 3 months, I’ve been thinking about Math. We’ve been using the MEP program for 2 years now which I can see is definitely far better than any UK program I’ve seen.

Even so, I’m wondering if we should be following a UK Math program because we are here in the UK. What I mean by that, is lets say one day I chose to put my children in school, or they had to go to school for whatever reason – would they struggle in Math because they were used to a different method?

But then I’m thinking – Math is a universal ‘language’. Am confused. Mmm… any thoughts anyone?

Only a few days to go til they’re back inshaAllah. I dreamt about them last night – missing them so much. I don’t know how I’ve got through this past 4 weeks subhanaAllah. Can’t wait to have them home. I’m sure Y is going to have a blast. He’s been so lonely without them.

No formal home ed next week for us. I’m just going to enjoy my kids for a week inshaAllah It means no formal work for 5 weeks (except Quran for R whilst she has been in DZ).

I have been planning the next 3 months of home ed though. We’ll be working solidly from beg of May to end of July and a break in August. I can’t believe another home ed year is almost over – very scary. R would be going into Year 3 in September if she were in school.

It seems like only yesterday that I was teaching her phonics!

I’ve been doing a bit of a clearout and rearranging some stuff. I am a firm believer that anything that isn’t really on display doesn’t get used. Our Arts n Crafts stuff were in two black boxes. I bought a trofast system (10 drawer one) from Ikea. So all of our paints, arts n crafts are now accessible. I would have never done this years ago due to the ‘mess’ but seriously we are home educators and need to accept that our houses are not and should not be museums. Our home is our kids learning space.

I have also created 3 empty shelves for the boys montessori trays. Am not going completely montessori – I think we lean more towards the eclectic method of home ed – a bit of this and a bit of that which changes as my children grow.

Over the next 3 months, my goal with R is to complete the juz she is on and to consolidate all the juzz she has memorised and to really perfect it ready for our change in her hifdh program from August (more on that later). I’d like her to complete MEP Year 2, do quite a bit of work in English and carry on with Arabic which is a combination of Madinah books, lots of writing and grammar,  dictation, reading, and an online program that helps with the missing ‘speaking and listening’ element. I will blog about this program next inshaAllah. If we can slot in a few topics in between that then alhamdulillah. If not, I’m not fussed as Geo, Science etc is pretty much repeated at higher levels as the child progresses through primary age.

With Z, lots of Montessori and more work on phonics and recognition of numbers and arts n crafts.

With Y, lots of Montessori and since I sorted out the puzzles box – he’s been addicted to puzzles.

That should keep me quite busy!

Last giveaway today.

Flip Up Bulleting Boards

FunandGames

25 Literacy Art Activities

For today…

surah balad book

Lets_explore_the_desert_lapbook

Grade 1 Writing Curriculum

 

3 days left of the giveaway. Hope you’re all finding them useful. x

I can see a lot of downloads taking place lol – hope you are all benefitting inshaAllah.

Right, here are the next 3:

All About Weather Unit Study

Triangle Puzzles to teach geometry

Hasad Study

 

If there’s anything you’re looking for - you never know, I might have something on it. Leave a comment before the next day’s giveaway and I’ll try to post it up.

Three goodies for Tuesday:

Periodic_Table_of_Elements_Card_Kits

Butterflies Lapbook

Candy Math

See you tomorrow inshaAllah!