Salaam,

She started on it a few days ago and it is slowly building up – she is quite excited as it is taking form. She’s quite happy that it is all her own work and has come up with an extra idea that she wants to make to go with it. Here are a few pictures from today.  Can you guess what it is???

Covering all sides of a box with blue tissue paper and glue.

Once the tissue paper dried, R is painting it black. Any ideas what it could be??

Drying on the kitchen counter until the next phase in her project.

R started this lapbook last week. And she spent the whole day yesterday finishing it off. I left her to it apart from two minibooks where I had to interview her and write down her responses. What was interesting was a question I asked her as part of the ‘Interview with me’ minibook. The question was ‘What have you learned?’ I was waiting in anticipation for this answer. We have been home edding for 2.5 years now and *’I think’* she has learnt a lot. But what would she say?! Do you know what she said?! All the lapbooks, unit studies were forgotten. And instead she said ‘My ummi taught me about what will happen on the day of judgment.’ This ‘lesson’ took place as a 3 minute conversation in the car some time ago. And that was the first thing that she remembered! Not the lapbooks, not the many books that were read, and certainly not the workbooks. But what she remembered was a quick conversation. Says a lot huh?!

Here it is (click on the images to see closer views of the pics):

After finishing all parts of the 'All About Me' lapbook, R designed the front cover.

Inside of the lapbook. Underneath the black divide are additional mini books (see next picture)

These are the minibooks underneath the black divide.

This lapbook was called 'Helping Hands'. On the front cover, R wrote 'I help' and inside she decided to write how she helps others. Remember, I didn't help her to spell for this lapbook so it was all her own work. It reads: My ummi is having a babh. I help her get the nappies and wipes and I help her get the bags (when I need to change baby Z)

What I liked about this lapbook was that it was all about her. Her height, weight, likes, dislikes, favourite things, about her schedule etc. She completed everything and it was nice to see her strengths and weaknesses in English.

By doing this lapbook, she had to independently do the following:  read, complete copywork, watch her grammar, use narration, arts and crafts, and lots of thinking skills.

This is a lapbook to keep. It will be nice for her to look back at it in future years. A definite recommendation to you all. It can be used for all ages. You can find it here:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/all_about_me_lapbook.php

On another note, I haven’t been using workboxes due to my little experiment but R told me that she wants to use workboxes for her HE again. So, I’m going to start using them again inshaAllah. I’ve decided to plan the week of workboxes in advance on paper and then just fill the boxes the night before. Made this simple planner:

Will keep you updated inshaAllah.

On Wednesday we joined other Muslim home educating families and attended a workshop run by an environmental project. It was a lovely day mashaAllah although quite cold. The kids really enjoyed it. Gave me some ideas of things we can do at home.

Here are some pics:

They started the day by going out to the local greenery and picked leaves, seeds and fruit. Never seen so many excited children with a plastic bag! lol

They then came back inside and sorted them out into leaves, seeds and fruit. Leaves were to be matched to a leaf key sheet.

The kids then did leaf rubbings with crayons. After this they played a game trying to cross their leaves to the winning 'branch' line.

She then made a collage with the materials she collected.

They also made kites using a straw, bin bag and string. But I guess the best part of the day was when they played a trivia game outside and then collected litter. Here is R in her gloves and litter picking stick! Gotta get one of those!

Aside from that, we have kept pretty much to schedule. R is loving First Language Lessons!! I am really surprised! As I write this, she is working on her lapbook. I am not helping her at all with this. She is writing everything on her own, cutting and sticking on her own. I really want this to be her own work (completely!) She is making some spelling mistakes and spelling correctly in other places. This lapbook has taught me a lot about her literacy skills. More on this later. Here are a few pics of her in action:

Sticking her timeline into order.

We have also been talking a lot about Hajj. R has started making something which I think we will enter into the IHSAN competition on the forum inshaAllah. More on that in another post.

And that is about it!

Last week at our weekly HE group, all the children and their mothers brought in stuff at home that they wanted to sell and we raised money for Gaza. It was so great getting the children involved and R was particularly excited about pricing the items we chose to sell.

On the day, she manned her stall and we raised more money than I expected we would. In total, the whole group raised £800! Alhamdulillah. I also came back with a yummy red pepper quiche, enjoyed a wonderful piece of very soft chocolate cake on the day and bought baby Z lots of ‘boys’ toys which were being sold for less than £1 or 50p. Baby Z has been enjoying his cars and trucks. I can’t believe how different boys and girls are!

I also bought him his own pens as he loves using his sister’s pens but I’m not too keen with the ink. So bought toddler friendly ones and he is just loving them. Here is him in action  whilst we did our English lesson:

R is now reading the Oxford Reading First Experiences Set mashaAllah. The books are longer than what she is used to and contains more difficult words, so it is a challenge, but she is doing well mashaAllah.

Can’t remember if I mentioned this series but R is in love with them and makes me read at least a few chapters to her every night. They are the ‘My Naughty Little Sister’ series. We finished one of the books. I would definitely recommend getting them. They were written in the 50s and she just loves the stories:

I try and make her read to me every day and to read to her every day. To keep a track of what is being read, I made the following chart. Nothing special but you are free to use it if you want. It makes me keep track of what is being read and how often and how the level of reading is progressing.

Here is the file: 

I also made a Quran Record chart. Every day, she practices her Qaidah/Quran reading. We go over surahs she has already memorised and work on the new surah being memorised. I have been keeping a messy record of this in a notebook but felt I needed something neater. So, I made the following chart. Again, nothing special – feel free to download and use it if you want.

Here is the file:

As you probably know, we are following the Hungarian MEP program for Math. It is at Year 1 level. Although R would technically be in Reception if she were at school, the Reception stuff that we were doing was too easy for her. So, I thought, why waste her time. Lets just move on – the beauty of HE. It has suddenly become a little more difficult and she is not used to being ‘challenged’. For example, she had to complete a chain today of more than (>) and less than (<). Like _ + _ > _ <_ + _ (the underscores is what she had to fill in).  I’m quite pleased with this as it is making her really think very hard about certain concepts.

Today, we were learning about more than and less than but in terms of their signs. Here are some pics:

The whiteboard has come in handy again!

R interacting with sums I wrote on the whiteboard.

This was an interactive activity but required oral work. Earlier on, we had completed two English lessons from First Language Lessons (Grammar book from the well trained mind). I used what FLL taught and made R answer the math questions in full sentences rather than just one-two word answers).

Aside from this, we are working on a few Hajj topics to learn about this wonderful time of the year. More on that later inshaAllah.

I have also had to think really hard about what it is that I want her to formallu learn before summer arrives. Baby is due in March inshaAllah, and I know that I will be taking some time out of formal HE for a while so I really need to take all of this into consideration. When I set our timetable at the beginning of September and thought about goals etc, I didn’t take into account that we would be moving etc. So, here is my list of goals. If I can achieve all of this by the summer, I will be more than happy inshaAllah.

1. Finish memorising Juz Amma. She isn’t far off from finishing it, but she really should have been done by now. But with the interruptions of pregnancy and moving, she is behind where we expected her to be.

2. Reading Quran with tajweed. This is coming along nicely alhamdulillah.

3. Finish first grade of the First Language Lessons Grammar Book. That is 100 lessons and we are currently on lesson 8 I think.

4. Reading confidently. Again,  our reading practice and phonic work is helping and I am pleased with how she is coming along mashaAllah.

5. Spelling at year 1 level. We are using mixed resources for this. And I find that the spelling lessons we do is helping with her reading.

6. Finish Year 1 of the MEP Math Program.

7. Reading and writing in Arabic. A lot of work is going to have to go on this. Arabic is not my language. Initially my husband was supposed to teach her this on his days off. But he just doesn’t have the time. So, it has been left to me. R can speak Arabic fluently mashaAllah but she is more behing in reading and writing in Arabic than English. Any tips/advice would be much appreciated.

8. Better understanding of Islam. This really is down to how I act in front of her. I have realised that she picks up my good and bad habits. And if I want her to have a good understanding of the deen as well as exemplary character, then this requires me to change my bad characteristics. Something I’m trying to do but gosh its hard to change! Make dua for me.

9. Any topics that she takes interest in plus a few I have noted down. This year, I have realised that separate geopgraphy, science, history lessons just aint gonna happen! So, it will have to be a project at a time. A project can last about a week.

10. Improve in her cycling and swimming.

And thats about it!

I copy and pasted my last blog post on the IHSAN Forum and received some good advice from other sister home educators. So, further to that advice, I decided to try something in the middle.

Here is how our day unfolded (in order):

After waking up, eating breakfast, washing up and getting dressed:

1. R decided to take down the folder that contains all her lapbooks that have been completed and looked through her hijab lapbook.

2. Arabic handwriting practice

3. English handwriting practice

4. We are now using First Language Lessons by the Well Trained Mind for grammar lessons. I thought that R wouldn’t like the style as it is less ‘child friendly’ in terms of the fact that there are hardly any pictures etc. She actually likes it more than most of the ‘child friendly workbooks’ that we have. We did a couple of lessons from this.

5. She read to me and the book was her choice. She has read two different sets of readers to me: the Ruth Miskin set and the Snapdragons set. Seeing that she has completed all of the books in each set, we have now switched to reading anything.

6. I read to her. And the book that I read is a definite recommendation. It is called ‘A Day with Dinosaurs’. Although I’m sure we’ve read this together before, I didn’t realise how good a book it is. It is a mix of the knowledge of dinosaurs and Islamic morals etc.

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7. We did two lessons of the MEP Math program. This seems to be going well alhamdulillah. It includes lots of games/physical activities to teach the concept being taught. This is a nice change from just doing written work. For example, we stood at other ends of the living room and we threw a cushion to each other whilst saying the opposite of a word. Eg, up-down; thick-thin, sun-moon.

8. She made bookmarks.

9. Started on a new lapbook – more on that later.

10. Practiced her Quran reading and revised old surahs memorised.

11. Was Miss Paleontologist and has started working on uncovering a dinosaur skeleton which is buried in plaster (got this from the internet). She loves it!

As you can see, she pretty much completed what I had set for her to do. But it took longer as it was more spread out and she also did stuff that she wanted to do in the order that she wanted to do it in.

To be honest, it was more relaxed and we still got everything done. Alhamdulillah

In light of recent discussions on the IHSAN Forum,  I set myself an experiment. I wanted to see what would be different about a structured HE day and an unstructured day. Monday, I set up the workbox system for the first time and R used that system for her HE. Today, we had an unschooling day! Yup, thats right we had an unschooling day.

So, lets compare the two different days:

WORKBOX MONDAY

Preparation: I set up R’s schedule strip on the Sunday night, and filled her boxes according to her schedule which can be found at the top of this blog. What went in the boxes?

Box 1: Word level worksheets (independent work)

Box 2: Handwriting book – 2 pages (independent work)

Box 3: A book read to me (work with Mum) and Making sentences activity

Box 4: 3 pages of surahs she has memorised (work with Mum)

Box 5: 2 pages of Qaidah practice (independent and work with Mum)

Box 6: Maths – 2 lessons from the MEP program (work with Mum and independent work)

Box 7: Arabic – writing practice on her wipe board, 2 pages from Madinah Arabic for kids (independent work)

Box 8: Read a recycling book to R (work with Mum)

Box 9: We began to recycle scrap paper to make homemade paper

Swimming lesson

When she awoke, she followed her morning routine and took her schedule strip at 8.30am. She worked through her schedule strip from 8.30am to 1.30pm (this included any breaks, free time, lunch that I had scheduled in into the schedule strip but not including her swimming lesson).

Here are some pics:

This was R's schedule strip. The numbers refer to the box number and the pictures are breaks etc.

R making some sentences which she later copied out and illustrated.

The recycling book we read. Since we moved, we have really got into recycling. So, we read this and discussed it at length. We have a green recycling box and orange bags from the council and are actively recycling.

Scrap paper that R ripped up and placed into a bowl of water to soak overnight. This was to show how something old can be used to make something new.

UNSCHOOLING TUESDAY

Preparation: She woke up and I told her that she could do whatever she wanted to do today as long as she at least read to me and did her Quran practice. She agreed.

What did she do today? She started around 9.30am and finished around 4.30ish, again that was with meals, breaks etc. Although now, she is reading to her brother. So, I guess an unschooling day doesn’t really end. Mmmm….

Finished making her homemade paper recycling project (it is still drying as we speak).

Dressed up and played

Did her 3 pages of Quran revision with me and 2 pages of Qaidah practice

Painted two pictures

Made a picture using stamp printing.

Made salt dough pieces (they are currently drying)

Read 3 books to herself

Made a geography puzzle

Here are some pics:

We drained the paper. Then placed the soaked paper into a food blender and blended it. R then added food colouring and glitter and mashed it even more.

I used an empty frame and the netting of an old niqab and stretched it over the frame and tied the back.

R spooned the recycled mixture onto the netting and squashed it into the open space of the frame. It is currently in the boiler cupboard drying.

Made a salt dough mix for R (so easy to make - got the recipe from TMEG's Ramadan pack. She then modelled it into what she wanted. They went in the oven and are currently cooling ready to paint tomorrow inshaAllah.

So, I asked R which day she preferred. Drum roll please………………………

She said she preferred UNSCHOOLING TUESDAY because it was fun! I really don’t know what to say. Yes, she had more fun today because she did more arts and crafts. But then on WORKBOX MONDAY, she completed more work in different subjects.

My dearest readers,  your comments and advice are much welcomed – structure vs. unschooling…where do we go from here? I did this experiment to see what works/how it works. Yes, they were only two days – so can’t really say much but what do you think? Right now, I don’t know what to think. lol

Salaam,

I would just like to add to the post below that I didn’t buy the system from the website. I just did it myself. So, it only cost me £12 for the boxes. I already had card and printed the stuff off and I already had the laminating stuff.

You don’t need to buy the package from the website.Just do it yourself at home. Also, you don’t need a separate homeschooling room. We don’t have one. Our HE takes place on the table we eat our meals on. The boxes we have are placed on a bookshelf.

Hope this helps inshaAllah.

Alhamdulillah, we moved into our new home just over a week ago. It is always a little strange being in a new place. It doesn’t feel like home yet, but I’m sure it will come inshaAllah.

Anyway, I’m not the type of person who can sit and live with boxes for months on end. Whenever we move, we literally work day and night until everything is unpacked. Alhamdulillah, everything has been done – just a little painting to do here and there. The kids love their new home. I hope we have many happy memories here inshaAllah.

I have been working on how our HE will be set up in our new house. Made a reading corner for R. It includes a large ‘puff puff’ (cushion/chair); it is near her books, and I printed this from sparklebox.co.uk, laminated it and stuck it up on the wall. Now, when she reads she doesn’t need to ask me how to read certain words. She looks at the letters and sounds chart and attempts it herself. I cannot tell you how much this has helped her with her reading.

She spent most of all day working on this. I was quite surprised that she made it all on her own. She followed the instructions in the booklet, made it, then her baby brother got hold of it….there were loads of tears and I begged my husband to put it back together. She was so happy when she woke up the following morning.

And finally, I am so excited about this!!! This will be our new way of organising our HE days! It is a system devised by Sue Patrick and it is called the Work Box System. More can be read here.

Firstly, let me show you a picture of the workboxes I made a couple of days ago:

So, here is what I did:

Sue Patrick advises that you buy transparent boxes but at £2.99/£3.99 each and you need to buy 12, I just thought ‘forget that’ and instead bought them for 99p each at the 99p store.

I then came home and printed out the numbers and signs which you can find here.

Cut them all up, laminated them all and cut them all up again. A bit tedious, but worth it.

Then velcroed the back of each piece and put the other side of the velcro on the boxes in two places. The number was placed in the middle of the side of the box. And another velcro was placed on the bottom right hand corner for a ‘Work with Mum sign’ (see the above links).

So, how does it work? You can read more about it here:

But to briefly explain, this is what happens.

1. Depending on your curriculum, requirements of each child, you would prepare the boxes the night before the ’school day’. What is great about this new method is that the child doesn’t just do ‘written work’ but you can use all the fun stuff you at home which are normally left in cupboards etc. What is also great about this, is when preparing the workboxes, you can take into consideration what the child liked/didn’t like, found difficult/found easy and fill your boxes accordingly.

For children that don’t like maths, maths could go into box 4 and then they could see a really fun activity in box 6, so it will make them motivated to complete box 4.

2. When the child wakes up, they go to their schedule strip. The schedule strip includes the order each box should be completed in as well as break cards, library card visits, lunch break, exercise etc. They then begin their day and take the first box.

I made our own schedule strip with the laminator, velcro patches etc but my phone isn’t working for me to take a picture of it. Example of a schedule strip which can be found here.

3. A great thing about these workboxes is that it encourages independent work. When you prepare the workboxes, you decide which boxes will have a ‘work with mum’ card on them. When the child takes a box, if it doesn’t have a ‘work with mum’ card, then they have to work on it independently. It it does, then the child works with you. Again, it is your decision.

4. The child feels a sense of satisfaction upon completing all the workboxes and has fun doing so.

I have personally found that our HE recently has not involved as much ‘fun’ activities. This way, I can include these in some of the workboxes and allow to basically ‘get on with it’.

What I really love about this system, is that it will allow me to spend time with her brother inshaAllah. I have been feeling very guilty about the way in which I have neglected her brother. When R was his age, we did so much together and I just don’t have the time for him. So, this way, whilst she is working on her boxes without the ‘work with mum’ card, I can read and play with her brother inshaAllah. I only have four months left til the next baby is born, so I want to use this to spend as much time with him as possible. He is still my baby even though he is now 19 months old mashaAllah.

So, that is it. Anyone has any questions, I will try my best to answer them for you. A special jzk to Umm T for reviving the thread on the forum. I had completely forgot about it and this system seems to suit us just right! Alhamdulillah.

So, where do I even begin?!

Our life is in boxes and it has been a little difficult with the kids as they want their things. We were due to move into our new place on Sat 17th and then I received a phone call saying that the landlord has withdrawn! I broke down crying out of pure frustration (and tiredness). We had booked the van, cancelled bills etc and even put a deposit down. When my hormones settled, I realised that Allah (Swt) had definitely saved us from something. Both DH and I had prayed istikhara, so without a doubt Allah knew that this place was not good for us. The only thing was, the flat we are currently in had already been taking by new tenants and we were due to move out on 17th Oct which is only a few days away!

So, the hunt was on. We needed to find a new place and fast. Really  – Allah is indeed the Best of Planners. And last night we found a place which is much better in all ways than the one that we lost. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. So, we will be moving out as planned in a few days inshaAllah.

As all of our stuff is in boxes, I am trying to be out as much as possible with the kids. So we have spent some lovely sunny days here. I love this place and am happy that we are not moving far from it:

Do you know what I love about HE? The relationship between siblings is strengthened. Alhamdulillah.

The time was spot on on the sun dial and we discussed how 'telling the time' has evolved throughout history.

R was thrilled that the olives on this olive tree were growing. I'm not sure if you can make them out, but this olive tree was FULL!

After this lovely day, R collected some leaves and did some leaf printing at home.

What was especially nice this week was attending the shahaadah of a lady I’ve been in touch with. MashaAllah she decided to take her shahaadah and along with another sister, we were honoured to witness her enter into Islam . It was especially nice as R was there to witness it. She was very happy and asked me a sweet question “Ummi, did she become Muslim because of the dua I make every night for all the non-muslims to become Muslim?” And you know what, who knows… Sometimes we do not know whether the dua of one of our sisters/brothers changes our situation or indeed those of others. When I was hunting for a new place, a sister texted me and said “Making dua you find a place near the masjid.” And that is what we found, alhamdulillah.

This week has made me think about sincerity. My level (and lack of) sincerity, my weaknesses as a Muslimah, and how important it is not just to teach my kids to read or write or even memorise the Quran but subhanaAllah, to try and build a beautiful Islamic character by the will of Allah. And it starts by me changing myself so that I can be a good example inshaAllah. Here are some pictures of ourselves in Regents Park, the day that the sister entered Islam:

R was intrigued by this bird. The subject of animals is not my thing, so only know what a pigeon and swan is. Alhamdulillah, the sister to be knew that it was heron. So we both learnt something today!

And to leave on a deep note, please read the following entry from my dear sister and friend’’s blog. Her words struck a very deep chord…

http://muslimmotherhood.blogspot.com/2009/10/reflections-of-transient-nature-of-life.html

I’m a little stressed – my next university year starts at the end of this week. And we’re moving next week inshaAllah. And I haven’t started packing yet.

But I’m trying to continue with HE as normal. We have been keeping to our timetable but have not done anything with Arabic or topic work. Everything else, Quran, Islamic Studies, Literacy and Numeracy has been going well. I don’t really want to start any topic work until we are settled in our new home inshaAllah.

Numeracy is going to change because I came across a new Hungarian Numeracy programme being used in UK schools as a pilot.

A few sisters on the IHSAN Forum are using it and so I called them up and asked my many questions. The friendly guy explained that it has been used in quite a few schools and that the marks achieved by these students in comparison to the marks achieved by students following the numeracy strategy was amazing. He also explained that the difference between this MEP programme and the Numeracy National Curriculum Strategy is that the MEP is mathematical whilst the Numeracy strategy is numerical. This was like Japanese to me and so a kind sister on the forum explained the difference as:

Mathematical means the science of maths as opposed to learning just about numbers (numeracy) and I’ve been searching for something like this for ages! The science of maths is like learning what the difference between a square and a rhombus is. I grew up thinking they’re totally different because a rhombus is like a parallelogram when actually a square is a rhombus, just a more complex one because it has equal angles.

What is great is that all the materials are free on the above website. However, I ordered the books as they are very very cheap. Haven’t received the order yet due to postal strikes but I have decided that this is the way we are going to go with Maths inshaAllah. The guy also mentioned that it is more vigorous and pushes the child more.

A Hungarian sister who is also on the forum said that she was so happy it has been translated into English and is being used here as she was quite disappointed at seeing what the NC uses here. Check it out!

Aside from that, I just can’t wait to get the move over with and get on with our normal routine. Did I say I hate moving…