Old Skool

Sometimes you just gotta do what you’ve been accustomed to doing!

I like talking to sisters about how they HE. I enjoy it, but I think recently I have been ‘listening’ too much and as a result our HE life changed slightly.

I was beginning to feel guilty about doing a lot of work with R. Was I pushing her too much. ‘She isn’t even 5 a sister told me.’ I really was beating myself about it and so tried to take things ‘easy’, and I felt more tired than when we were actually following a schedule.

So, with myself almost falling into a HE burnout, I formed a new timetable to follow until Ramadhan (yes, we are going to work through the summer insha’Allah as Ramadhan will be our break. Last year, we did so many activities and I didn’t have enough time for my own ibadah, so this year I will only be doing Qu’ran with her and reading) and I cannot tell you how this week has been for both me and her. She even told me how much she has enjoyed this week so far. Alhamdulillah, the good old way of doing things has made me feel calmer and she enjoys it too. So, I now know that our way of following a schedule works for us. We enjoy our time together and we stick fairly to our routine. Smiles all round.

Masha’Allah, my beloved sister who gave me dawah when I was a non-Muslim gave me some good simple advice. ‘Be yourself and just do what you’ve got to do, not what others expect you to do.’ I do love her so much and please make dua for her – she is due to have a baby anytime now.

So, this is roughly what we have been up to:

QURAN

Still working on the Qaeedah. She finished memorising another surah and beause it was one of the longer ones in Juz Amma, I treated her to this which I bought from thebookpeople.co.uk (there were over 10 different ones in the pack): She has had a ball with this. In fact, as I write this, she is colouring and cutting out more clothes. The pack comes with a dinosaur set, under the sea and much more. Definitely worth it, and a good incentive to get HE work done.

READING

We are rounding up our phonics work until Ramadhan. You can kind of say that our HE til Ramadhan will be a round up of things I want her to work on ready for HE next year insha’Allah.

A kind sister on the IHSAN Forum had a whole load of school exercise books to give away free and so alhamdulillah, I took quite a few and they have come in very handy. May Allah (Swt) bless the sister. Ameen.

We now have a ‘Phonics consolidation’ book. Remember our phonics caterpillar, see the older posts. Well, we take three each day and I write a few words, ask her to read them and then she has to write a sentence on her own trying to spell the words correctly in each sentence.

We have also started a handwriting book with 1-2 letters each day. Again, this is all prep for HE next year. You see, these lessons don’t take long to do, but a little every day really does have an effect masha’Allah. I split each line into half using a pencil and explain to her that she needs to touch the middle line and the bottom line, that the circle needs to be drawn anti-clockwise. When she was writing something else at another time, I noticed that she wrote the ‘a’ in the same way.

We practise reading with Snapdragons series which she loves (again from The Book People) and Oxford Reading Tree.

MATHS

I think I have found R’s forte: Maths. Masha’Allah she is good at the other subjects, but I think when your kids get to a certain age you can see which subjects they are stronger in and which ones they are weaker in. I think Maths is her strong point. I was amazed at how quickly she wizzed through some addition and took ages over some literacy work.

ISLAMIC STUDIES

We have started an A to Z book on Islam. I feel that now she is older she is more able to produce it on her own. Today, she wrote A is for Allah all on her own. I asked her if she needed help with the spelling. She said no, and mash’Allah, she wrote it correctly. I then wrote ‘Allah’ in Arabic and she decorated it with glitter. We will continue with this insha’Allah.

ART AND CRAFT

She is making her own doll using a kit from the £1 shop. She has finished sewing and stuffing the doll. Pictures to come soon insha’Allah.

SPORTS

My little brother bought R a bike a few years ago, and she was riding it with stabilisers. She has frequently expressed her wish to ride without the stabilisers but I was reluctant. So, she joined a cycling club in East London organised by my dear lovely sister and her husband. They have 8 kids masha’Allah and HE all of them. Anyway, it was the first time R rode without stabilisers and she did it masha’Allah. Since Saturday, she has been whizzing around on her bike whenever I have taken her out. It was definitely a moment for me when R did it. *sniff* My little girl has grown up masha’Allah.

And lastly, she can’t get enough of these Hama Beads and produced these by herself:

The fish was actually quite large but doesn’t come up in the picture. It took her quite a few days. She kept asking me to iron them (when you iron them, the pieces stick together and you can take it off the base. I kept putting it off. And then….BAAAAM! Baby Z came along and pulled them both down and there were pieces EVERYWHERE! She took it well and just said ‘Z, that wasn’t very nice.’

More from us soon insha’Allah. Oh, and if you haven’t registered on the IHSAN Forum (link above), do so. We have a wonderful summer’s competition for the kids on the forum.

Phonics Caterpillar

It has been a long time since I actually posted about what we have been doing, so here is a wee update:

READING

A kind sister who was Home Educating left four huge bags of books that she no longer needed. Masha’Allah, some excellent non-fiction books in there. So, R has been enjoying looking at pictures and attempting to read a few.We made the following caterpillar. I cut out the caterpillar parts of the body and R decorated them. She then wrote the phonic blend on each one. We then made the caterpillar and stuck it on the wall.

After we made this, we have been covering three ‘parts of the body’ every day. I ask her what the sound makes. Eg: ‘ay’ makes the sound ‘a’. Or ‘y’ at the end of a word makes the sound ‘I’. We then bring out the whiteboard and we practice some words. I put the blend all over the board. I ask her to spell a word for me by writing it down, or I write out a word and ask her to read it.

R also has a new penpal masha’Allah. She made the following card for her and unfortunately we have lost it! She made it over a week ago, and we have been searching frantically for it! Today, she received a letter and a drawing from her penpal and was so upset that she hadn’t managed to send her card first. Anyway, she is making another one. I really recommend this, R’s face lit up when she received her first bit of post!

R has also been working on addition, her hifdh, reading the Quran and enjoying meeting up with her friends at the Thursday Club for Home Educated children.

So far, that is about it. Will update more soon insha’Allah.

Tailor Made Educational Guides

No, we haven’t disappeared. Just been very busy with myself finishing up with my own studying for this year. So, we have been taking it quite easy.

Am writing this post, because I really do like to support my brothers and sisters in their business ventures, especially if it has anything to do with HE. This is a sister I know. Please do spread the word. I know that she is putting a lot of effort into this and is very good masha’Allah. Here is her message:

In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Asalamuu ‘aalaykum,

Are you a Home Educator who wants to provide your children with a fun education, specific to their own interests and needs? Do you want your children to learn the ‘traditional’ subjects but in a fun way related to their hobbies? Are you a parent who is unhappy with the ‘boxed in’ approach within your children’s school and wish to provide a supplement at home to your child’s education that they will enjoy? Are you a parent who not only values the education of your children but also is passionate about them excelling in their unique interests? Are you a teacher who works in a private school and needs help with planning for your unique students?

 If you have answered YES to any of the above questions, then I am excited to announce something that will insha’Allah meet your needs, more importantly your children’s needs and will give you more time to enjoy educating your children. My name is Umm ‘Adbullah and I would like to introduce you to Tailor Made Educational Guides.

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Waalaykum ‘aasalam Umm ‘Abdullah