Hijab and Time Lapbooks and Traffic Lights!

Firstly, for those of you who were having problems subscribing to the blog, I have rectified the problem. Please visit the page at the top of the blog that is called: ‘To subscribe to this blog…’ and follow the directions.

Secondly, do visit the old entries of the blog for work that we have done when R was 2.5 years+. (See the side panel for the monthly archive).

 

Like I stated in a recent post, we have become a little lapbook crazy! Last week, we completed 2 lapbooks and this week we are working on another one.

TIME LAPBOOK

As you know, we are working on telling the time. R had a wristwatch that I bought her, but has lost it. She is absolutely devastated. But I am adamant that I will not buy her another one as she has to learn to look after her things! Anyway, we made this lapbook – which in my opinion has everything you need to teach your child how to tell the time. Here are some pics:

Front Cover:

R making a paper clock to go into the lapbook.

The digital card packs have different times on them. R pulls out a card and then has to show the time on the clock.

This fan mini book teaches the 5 minute ’slots’ of time.  She had to draw the clock hand to represent 10 minutes past, 20 mins  past. She uses this mini book a lot to help her put the time on the analogue clock as per the digital card.

Here, R had to colour in the triangle to represent the 15 min ’slots’. This has taught her quarter past, half past, quarter to and o’clock.

 

HIJAB LAPBOOK

I took this from this wonderful blog. R really enjoyed making this. A lot of copywork went into this blog which was an option I took.

I measured and weighed R to put into this heart-shaped mini book. And she uses the tape measure to measure her doll’s hijabs etc.

This was her favourite part of her lapbook and she at least takes her Muslim doll out weekly. Here, we cut out the doll, laminated it and put it together. Then, we printed and cut out all her clothes. R coloured them in and the doll sometimes wears a skirt and blouse if she is at home, and puts on her abaya and handbag if going out! R loves it.

To finish off this long post, we also made this; it was to reinforce the ’sh’, ‘ch’, and ‘th’ sounds. In case you think it is a lollipop – lol. It isn’t. It is a traffic light. R copied the sh, ch, th on the outside and wrote words with that sound in them on the inside of the traffic lights.

Godstone Farm and Hastings

Today, we took a trip with another family to Godstone Farm and finished off at Hastings Beach.

We have been to some farms in our time, but I must say this was a wonderful place – designed especially for children in mind and has everything for a wonderful and educational day out.  Do visit the website above -  I would recommend this to anyone. Included are: Lots of animals, an animal-touching tunnel, 5 sandpits, at least 4 adventure play areas designed for all ages, a nature trail, a woodlands maze and the best thing about it is that there are educational trails posted up, educational information about the animals written in attractive colours and written in easy-to-read language for children. Everything is at children’s height. It was a superb day. Masha’Allah. Here are some pics (which doesn’t really capture the wonders of the farm):

We finished the day off in Hastings. The other family who are friends, wanted to visit the castle associated with the Battle of Hastings, but we opted for a picnic on the beach. R splashed about in the sea, made sand castles with the little sand there was (it is a stony beach) and just enjoyed being surrounded by the beautiful creation of Allah (Swt). Seeing her so carefree and happy made me realise how important it is for her to be surrounded by nature. MashAllah, they grow up so quickly and so I have decided to schedule in more time to get dirty by climbing trees, jumping in puddles and rolling down hills. You’re only young once right?!

A little news on Baby Z. 13 months old now masha’Allah. Finally, pulling himself up on tables and sofa. Quite slow physically but already saying quite a few words mashAllah: mama, baba, ya yaan (for his sister), zunka (to go out in Algerian), nini (to sleep in Algerian), six (his sister taught him that!), lala (‘no’ in Arabic) and he likes to try and sing tala al badru alayna! LOL! As soon as he hears it, his face lights up and he starts talalalalalallaaaaaaaaaaa!

Busy busy!

I am really going to try and make a conscious effort to blog more. We have been so busy – so this is going to be a longish post.

Firstly, I received some advice in one of the discussions on the IHSAN forum. A sis mentioned that she does her cleaning in the evening when the kids have gone to bed, that way – when she wakes up, its dishes and beds to do and then she is free to home educate. I have implemented her advice and alhamdulillah it has proved wonders for our HE as well as me being less stressed during the day.

So, what have we been up to?

MATHS

Lots of addition work. Wanted to buy the rods that aid addition, but they were soooo expensive, so decided to use tiny pasta shells. Worked a treat. I know I keep going on about the Big Sticker Book of Maths from Usborne (bought it at bananas.co.uk for £3). But it really is fantastic.

We have been working on Time in Maths a lot lately. R has a watch which I bought for her a few months ago. She loves it and wears it almost everywhere. She is constantly telling me the time and asking if she is correct, so decided to really work on ‘telling the time’. The above book is excellent, it has a movable clock. We enjoy reading this book a lot.

We have also been working on a time lapbook which we completed today. I will do a post about that in the next couple of days insha’Allah.

LITERACY

I am really focussing on her reading. So a lot of work on the oo, ie, ee phonics. Alhamdulillah she is reading much better now. And can read the level 2 oxford reading tree quite well. Level 3 still requires my help but she is getting there masha’Allah. As you can see from the pics below, I really want her to remember a lot of her phonic work. So, I am going to try and make the learning of sounds like ‘ng’ and ‘ie’ etc more fun.

 

R loved writing and still does but I guess she is getting a bit tired. I still ask her to do copywork and a lot of our copywork has been based around another lapbook we have been working on – almost finished – but more on that in another post. Due soon inshaAllah – promise.

QURAN

Masha’Allah, she has been really working hard on her hifdh. She finished memorising surah Ghashiya and Surah Ala and is now on surah tariq. Not long to go insha’Allah before she completes juz amma.

ARABIC

She has been working a lot on Arabic. Alhamdulillah, I was fortunate enough to receive 2 big bags of books I ordered which a dear sister (I miss her soo much) brought with her when she was visiting the UK from Saudi. We have been using these with R. And alhamdulillah her vocab has improved. She speaks fusha fluently masha’Allah, but I keep telling my husband to use different vocab with her so as for her to improve. We are using this series (there are quite a few books in the series): From the book, the new words were drawn in pictures and written. We are going to make a huge wall poster out of them. This seems to be a good way for R, as this week she keeps telling me what the name of this is in Arabic and then cheekily telling me ‘But don’t worry Ummi, you don’t know! But one day insha’Allah you will learn Arabic!’

We have met up with quite a few HE families recently, and it is nice to see her form some lovely relationships with some friend’s children. Eg. today a sis called me, and all 3 sons wanted to speak to R which they did. I am very happy with the friendships she has formed. Alhamdulillah.

Not sure if I have ever posted these. The pics are not very clear, as they are stuck on the wall. These things have been on our wall since R was 2.5 years old. And they moved to our new place and are still on the door/wall. Every time we leave the house, she does through the checklist. Have I combed my hair, am I wearing hijab? Have I said my dua. You can find this here. Also, this poster from muslimstickers is ideal for any child who is memorising juz amma.

And that is it for now. See you soon insha’Allah when I post about the 3 (yes 3!) lapbooks we have been working on this week.

Happy Home Ed!

Quickie

I am really failing at blogging! Feel quite bad that I am neglecting ‘Ummihomeschoolsme’. But, my heart is attached to another!

Anyway, thought I would quickly post a little update (no pics sorry!) of our HE.

We have been doing things slightly differently. A lot of nature walks – I’ve been inspired by the Charlotte Mason method. This has gone down very very well masha’Allah. It is great for R and for me. Love it.

I try and read to R every day, she practised reading to me every day.

A lot of our HE has been mainly reading and Qu’ran recently. Alhamdulillah she finished memorising surah Ghashiyah and is now on to the next surah. Her reading of the Qu’ranic script is improving very slowly. I think we are trying to work on the hifdh more than the reading.

R has been working on addition and masha’Allah has grasped the concept quite nicely. I’ll post a pic on this later (we used pasta shells as an addition tool!)

We have spent a lot of time talking and me answering her 1000s of questions. I have realised this is just as important, if not more important than workbooks. Listening to a child can lead to so many things and we too can learn so much from them.

Now, another reason why I have been taking it easy on the ’structure and timetable’, is that I have been given a challenge!

I am to homeschool R for 2 weeks using the unschooling method (AHHHHHH!)This challenge has been given to me by my dear sister who runs SISTERS Magazine. Now, for those of you who know me, or who have been following the blog, I am not an unschooler at all! Hence this being a real challenge. I basically need to put the timetable aside and unschool. How on earth am I going to do this?! Just so that I don’t completely freak out when I start the challenge (I’ll let you know when I officially decide to do it), I thought I’d give myself a little taster and so that is kind of, emphasis on ‘kind of’, doing.

I have been reading a book my dear sister who is HE via the unschooling method lent me. It is called The Unschooling Handbook. A very interesting read – but am still freaking out!!

Anyway, you will be able to read up about my challenge here as well as in the SISTERS Magazine where it should be published later this year.

Also, I have uploaded a new page at the top called Resources for 1-100.

A surprise for me and our HE!

Can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted! The IHSAN Website is really taking up a lot of my time. It is still in its early stages. Actually, it is the IHSAN forum that is the real culprit!

Anyway, we have been quite busy. I think I’ll start with the ‘Take it to your seat centers’ that we made together. I know I have said this before, but I really think a lot of the learning occurs in making resources together.

We made two centers: a Time center and a Human Body center for the two units we are currently working on. Here are the pics:

 

 

These centers were really easy. I bought them about a year ago and haven’t started using them until now. I doubt I’ll be making anymore as they are preK-K. Think I’ll put them away in storage to make and use with her little brother insha’Allah. You can buy centers for any age level and they really are worth it. I bought a book that contained 14 centers for just over £10. Each game would cost you just less than that in a shop. All you need to buy is a laminator (in this case we didn’t use one), the paper bag or envelope to store the center and thats it.  You can buy the centers from a dear sister who sells them at Stimulus Learning. She sells all the age levels.

R has shown an interest in shapes recently. Apart from when she was 2 years old, we haven’t really studied shapes. But have to go with what interests her. One morning after waking up, she immediately took a bucket of bricks I bought her when she was 18 months old and made this by the time I brought breakfast in! I was quite impressed masha’Allah:

 As you can see, she copied the picture on the actual ‘box’ (or bucket!)

Again, was making dinner and when I came into her room to check on what she was doing, she had completed this:

Okay, now here is the exciting part. And I have been wanting to blog about this ever since I got it. I am the proud owner of a second-hand bicycle! Complete with basket! (BIG GRIN) Now, just so as you know, I do wear full hijab with abaya and half big hijab and yes I am able to wear exactly that and nothing shows at all! It is a lady’s bicycle which I think makes all the difference. Went for a ride with R today and it was gorgeous masha’Allah. Wanted to take a pic but forgot! Anyway, whilst we were out cycling we talked about road safety. So when we got home, we worked on this:

Masha’Allah she enjoyed it so much she actually finished it. We got it free from somewhere but I know you can call the Department for Transport and they will send it to you insha’Allah.

We have also been reading a lot. I received the full set of the Oxford Reading Tree series from my library. She is continuing to read them to me. She seems to be trying to read most things especially billboards when we are in the car. I’m kinda worried what to do when she reads the billboards that advertise things she shouldn’t be seeing!

Not as much Qu’ran has been done as in the last few weeks. But alhamdulillah she completed memorising surah fajr and keeps telling me she is almost there til she gets her party here and Allah (swt) reserves something for her in jannah (inshaALLAH).

And that is all I can think of at the moment…feeling very sleepy…those long summer days!

Happy homeschooling!