Comments

I’d just like to say a big thankyou and jzk to all the sisters who have left comments. For those of you who haven’t read the comments left after my posts ‘Iqra books’ and ‘Stress’, I would recommend reading them. They really do re-motivate you to home educate and there are some diamond comments that I needed to read.

Stress

Today started off as a nice day masha’Allah. We went to our local masjid as it was my turn to give a talk. The sisters were lovely and I met up with a sister I hadn’t seen in 2 years. The sun was shining and we returned home. The afternoon took a turn though and it was an afternoon and evening of pure and utter STRESS.

You know when you have one of those days where the baby doesn’t stop crying, there is loads to do, things haven’t gone to ‘plan’, your head is banging – ready to explode, and your children seem to be stuck to you with permanent super glue. Well, I had one of those days.

During all of this, I was having an online conversation with a sister in South Africa about an article I need to write for SISTERS Magazine. This sister is also homeschooling and I asked her: “Tell me why I’m homeschooling again, when I could send my kids to school and spend the day reading Qu’ran etc.” She sent me a beautiful reply back which I copied in order to paste here, but my computer restarted itself and I lost it. But basically she said: “Because we love our children so much and want to see the wonderful look in their eyes when they discover and learn something new.” She also added, “And also because we probably wouldn’t spend our time reading Qu’ran etc if our kids were in school, just like those mums whose kids are in school don’t!”

Well, that put me in my place and made me smile through all the madness of my screaming baby and dd who was irritating her baby brother. Am I heading towards a burnout? I don’t know. But what I do know is this…tomorrow I am insha’Allah going out to Streatham Common to allow for my heart to see some greenery and for my lungs to breathe in some less polluted air, for R to run free and to just take a ‘break’.

You know, my thoughts also led to something else today. What would it be like if I couldn’t homeschool. If my husband died and I couldn’t manage with it all. Subhana’Allah, it really made me feel grateful that I have a husband who masha’Allah works to support his family, thus enabling me to educate my children. Alhamdulillah.

Iqra Books

Firstly, for ease of reference, I have added a new ‘page’ to the blog called ‘OUR TIMETABLE’. You can find it next to the Welcome and To subscribe pages.

Last week (I can’t remember which day!), I set out to complete a lot of work with R. I remember it was raining and so I thought lets get a lot done. We started off in the usual way with Qu’ran and Islamic Studies and then I gave her a few worksheets to complete, with the hope of moving on to a ’super fun’ activity I had prepared. After three sheets, she wanted to do more. Three more sheets later, she wanted to carry on. I wanted to tell her to stop so that we could start with my activity. But, I bit my tongue and allowed her to carry on with what SHE was enjoying. So, since last week, R has completely finished off 3 workbooks from cover to cover! She has never done this before and I was quite surprised. But I let her do it. So, no activities but one happy little girl who was very proud to put her completed workbooks into her yearbook! (See my post ‘3 weeks without internet).  I am learning that we really do need to follow their flow sometimes. On that line, one night last week, I was putting R to bed and she was hidden underneath the duvet and was giggling. I asked her what she was doing and she exclaimed, “Ummi! I’m a caterpillar in its cocoon and when I wake up I’m going to turn into a butterfly!” So, what did I do the following morning? Switched on the computer, located a unit and lapbook on butterflys, ditched the timetable for a few days and started work on her interest in butterflies. We must follow our children’s interests!

Today, we started off with the dua for getting dressed – alhamdulillah she has memorised it and is using it everytime she dresses.

We reviewed Allah’s names from Ar-Rahman to Al-Qudoos and discussed their meanings and then went on to talk about Allah’s name As-Salaam.

We read the book: ‘Goodnight Storied from the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)’ which I highly recommend. I paused a lot during this story to test her understanding and memorisation of the Prophet’s (saw) seerah.

We then spent quite a lot of time carrying on with our ADAM (AS) UNIT. This time, I used this book:

Iqra do a full Islamic Curriculum per grade level and separate the curriculum into four categories. History, Fiqh and Ibadah, Qu’ranic Studies and Seerah. I would really recommend these books and you don’t have to order them from the US. There is a distributor in Birmingham.

From the above book, we read the story of Adam (AS) again and I asked her questions. We then completed these sheets:

In the first picture, she drew things that Allah (Swt) created. In the second, she was asked to colour in the things that Allah (Swt) created. At the bottom of the page, it then asks the child to colour in the rest of the pictures, but she wouldn’t colour in the robots because ‘Allah didn’t create them’ (said in a very firm voice). In the third picture, it was a comprehension, writing and reading lesson all rolled into one!

Today, she also had a pottery class and got to use the wheel!

Now, I am a bit unsure about something. I have an interview on Wednesday for a new madrassa that is beginning in a local Islamic school. It is for 2 hours every evening Mon to Fri. They will teach dua, islamic studies, Qu’ranic meaning, hifdh, Qu’ran reading etc. But I am unsure whether I should put R in. I am really worried about other children from ‘State’ schools who might influence her in a bad way. But I thought it might be good for socialisation and reviewing what she already knows in her Islamic Studies, as I am assuming they will be covering some of what she has already learnt. What do you think? Please comment…

Today…

R completed one of her literacy workbooks and was quite happy when she arrived at the end to find a certificate stating that she knew all of her letters and sounds!

We then carried on with our work about Adam (AS) and discussed the creation of Allah (Swt) and watched this powerpoint.

R then worked on her hifdh and finished memorising Surah Duha. She then carried on learning how to read Qu’ran.

The sun was shining, so I decided to reward her for her completion of surah Duha and took her to the park. The sun clearly deceived me as it was FREEZING!

When we returned, we finished off with some education city. I really recommend this. We have been using it for the past couple of years and R really seems to learn and benefit from it a lot. It starts off from Nursery and goes all the way to Year 6 (I think). There is a free trial available to each family. I really would recommend trying it out. Do take a look if you can. She worked on her phonics and was very very happy with herself when the stars for each activity changed to a gold colour due to her 100% mark.

I’d like to apologise for the size of the pictures in my last post as pointed out by a few sisters. Previously, wordpress allowed readers to zoom in to the pictures, but it seems as though there are problems with that. So will be uploading larger sized photos insha’Allah.

Now, I don’t talk much about baby Z, it’s normally all about R. But baby Z is 10 months old now and says mama, baba and yaya (for his sister’s name!?!) Today, I made a particular sound and he looked at me and repeated the same sound. I did it again and he did it again and he kept repeating the sounds I was making. LOL. Mmm…maybe I need to start thinking about his own home ed timetable…just kidding. LOL Although his own home ed does cross my mind sometimes!

No internet for 3 weeks – what have we been up to?

We moved to Streatham on 26th December 2008 and alhamdulillah Allah (Swt) has been ever merciful to us in bringing us here. There is so much happening and my life has become very busy again with homeschooling and dawah.

As I haven’t had the internet for three weeks, I have so much to say in this post and so many pictures to show you that I don’t know where to start. Mmm…

Okay, probably with what is happening in Gaza and how that has had an effect on our home ed. As we don’t have a TV and didn’t have the internet, we were not seeing the images that most muslims around the world were seeing. We were hearing reports and saw pictures in newspapers but didn’t really know the real devastation that was taking place until the internet was restored. When it was, we were on Al Jazeera every day. Although I do not understand Arabic, the pictures were enough and R watched the news with her father. Perhaps, some of you will say that she is too young to see all of this, but we felt that it was appropriate to show her what was going on. It led to us buying a map from Lidl. If any of you have a Lidl near you, they might have some left. It is a huge map of the world and is a wipe off one. We showed her that Palestine used to be the whole entire country and how much the Jews have taken their land. She really feels for the Palestinians and along with her sleep supplications, she makes dua for Gaza every night. Masha’Allah.

Alhamdulillah, Allah (Swt) has placed us near Streatham Common. If you have not been to Streatham Common, you really need to come and visit. It is so beautiful. At first, you think that it is like any other park with greenery and a children’s play area. But, hidden away are three ’secret’ gardens: the rock garden with waterfalls, an English garden which has an old water well and sun dial and the white garden which comprises of white chairs and white plants and flowers. After passing through all of the gardens, you walk up a hill and enter the woodlands area. You feel as though you are in a different world. Here are some pics (by the way, we met the park warden who gave us a tour of the whole park and he gave us permission to take the first photo as it was an olive tree – so don’t worry, we were not teaching our daughter to walk all over plants!)

Can you believe this is South London! I couldn’t and can’t wait to visit it again insha’Allah.

The week before last, we also went on a trip to the Transport Museum. Our second trip. This time, we attended a workshop for key stage 1 children where they would build a bus. Here are some pics:

Although R enjoyed the day, for me the best part was walking home across london bridge, talking about the river thames and taking in the beautiful views:

 

R is improving nicely with her reading masha’Allah. And I think I am going to have to purchase box set 3 of the Bob Books quite soon. We have been working on some jolly phonics and one day, we worked on the ‘oa’ and the ‘ai’ sounds. She then copied a whole page of ‘ai’ words from the Jolly Phonics Word Book and then read each word to me. So, a writing and reading lesson rolled into one.

We also made a phonics center from  ’Take me to your seat centers’. We made it together, so cut, laminated and stuck together.

       I know I have raved about these centers before, but really they are fantastic. And they can be used again and again. Go to the shops and this would cost you maybe £7 for a game like this. But the book is £10 – has everything you need to make 14 educational games. All you need to do is cut, laminate and stick. I photocopy the worksheet that goes along with the center three times, so that when we pull out the center again, she can complete the worksheet again. This allows me to check her progress.

R started a 10 week pottery class for home educators in Clapham lsat Monday. She loved it. It  was nice to see so many homeeducated children there. You could really see that homeschooled children are so different from schooled children. I spoke to the instructor and each child should make certain items by the end of the course. Will keep you posted.

We have continued with our Adam (as) unit and read from this book (highly recommended) as it has activities related to the story. It is written as though the child goes on the journey of the actual story.

 We also completed some pages from the Islamic Education book based on the creation of Allah which ties in with the unit:

R is now learning the dua for getting dressed and has completed a few other surahs and is now memorising surah duha, masha’Allah.

We completed a lapbook on 1-100 from homeschoolshare.com. One of my goals (you can view my goals for this year in one of my posts. See the ‘Planning’ tab) was to teach R numbers 1-100. Through this lapbook, she has learnt all her numbers and since completing the lapbook, she has been taking her lapbook out on her own and counting all the numbers. Although she now knows her numbers 1-100, I am going to do maybe 2 more weeks worth of 1-100 work just to consolidate what she has learnt. Here are some pictures:

 

 What I like about this lapbook is that a lot of the pieces can be used again for learning. For example, the numbered bricks. I asked my daughter to make me 64 and 83. I also put out a number, in the above example, 31 and asked her to ‘make’ the number with the squares where a blue strip equals ten and a green one equals one and a red one equals 100 .

A few other things that have changed but which seem to be having a positive effect on our homeschooling is a slight change in my general timetable. Normally, I feed the kids, dress them, do my cleaning and then start. But I have decided to start before the cleaning and clean whilst she is busy doing some work. This has really worked for us. We get to do more during the day and as there are a few other activities either I have to do or R has to do which requires us going out. This leads me on to a problem.  Arriving here in South London has been a blessing as there are so many activities. Pottery, ice-skating for homeschoolers, a South London home ed group that meets weekly, Arabic classes etc etc. Now, I do want R to do these activities. However, travelling to the venues, planning my day etc means that we miss out on doing work at home. I don’t know what to do…can anyone advise please. The situation is such that if we do many outdoor activities, that means that we have less time to work on her goals at home.

Finally (I did say it would be a long post!) I made this:

 It is basically a way of storing all of her work. I bought a large ringbinder and made the front cover. The picture is of something that she made so as to personalise it. You can do this with multiple children. Their ringbinder boasting a picture of something they made on their own. Inside the ringbinder are dividers for subjects and many plastic wallets. In our yearbook, the dividers are: Reading, Maths, Writing, Islamic Studies, Arabic, Science, Art Work, and Trips which stores entry tickets to museums, bus tickets etc etc.  All of her work will go inside these wallets with the ‘best work’ on the outer part of the wallet.

Before the dividers, I have three other sheets. One is a picture of my daughter. If you do not take pictures, then you can think of something else. The other is a sheet headed ‘My handprints’ and we painted her hands and she printed them on to the sheet. And the other is a sheet entitled ‘All about me’. On that we have the following:

Name:

Age:

Favourite Colour:

Favourtite Book:

Favourite subject:

Favourite Surah:

Favourite food:

Things I like:

Things I dislike:

I allowed her to fill this in on her own and helped her with other sections. The reason for these three pages is to see how much she changes through the yearbooks we will do every year. Not only physical changes through her photos but also how her likes and ‘favourites’ also change.

The yearbook is also an opportunity to store work done, allow for her to show her work to guests which she loves doing. Helps me show other homeschooling mothers what we are doing which can give them ideas, and also helps me to look back at this yearbook when her brother is due to start work at a similar age insha’Allah. As well as R being able to look back at things we have done.

And that is it for now.