Conker Time

We are still enjoying days of warm, autumn sunshine, maashAllah, and now it is conker time! Those conkers look so shiny and beautiful and they are thick on the ground too. So today we were out for a walk, playing with friends and collecting conkers.

Geography

We spent most of the weekend out of the house enjoying the company of friends and the autumn sunshine, maashAllah. I seem to go through cycles of being indoors a lot and then out a lot. The state of the housework is a good indicator of what cycle I'm in.
Anyway, today was a busy learning at home day, so I hardly saw any part of the house that is not the kitchen and dining room.
Geography. Last year we didn't do much geography related work. I seem to remember some good documentaries being watched, and of course some library books with geography themes, online puzzles and games but no more than that. For this year I thought we'd try the Trail Guide to World Geography by Cindy Wiggers. I first heard about this on a blog somewhere I think, and then I read more about it on a forum where it was given a good review by a very experienced home educator, so I thought I'd give it a go. it basically provides a structure for a touring study of different parts of the world, along with the learning of geographical terms and facts. I like the fact that it is not too prescriptive. There are lots of ideas to investigate, but you can use the structure to investigate the countries further in any way you want to, looking at the aspects most interesting to your own children. Some will want to know more about the animals, others about the culture, the landscapes or even the foods. In a way these things may seem obvious, but when you work mostly on your own you lack that other person to bounce about ideas with, and this book can act like the other half of the dialogue. It suggests something, from which you think of something else, and so on. I imagine it will take a long time to use this book fully, as we'll be constantly digressing...
There are also lots of accessories to go with the book if you like, but I'll be improvising as usual!
The boys will be working on this in topic blocks, a couple of weeks at a time inshAllah, then a break for something else and so on.
Ia is also getting her own spin off version. When the boys were her age they did a "Where I live" project, which I am planning to do with Ia this year too, inshAllah. However, hers has been extended to cover looking at the continents and oceans first too. We'll have a look round the continents coming to Europe last, then we'll zoom into the UK, then into our town and the local streets, rather in the way you can zoom in and in on Google Earth, until you can almost see your house. There you go, that's my plan, a project version of zooming in on Google Earth. Let's see if it works, inshAllah!

Friday

This morning the boys stayed awake after praying Fajr and so they were able to get almost everything done before 11am. Just their Quran reading remained, which they did after Zuhr. It would be good if they could manage this regularly, as then they had the rest of the day free to play in the garden, play with their Wii and read.
What did they do before 11am? Maths word problems, revision of the rules of wudu, spent time on www.brainpop.co.uk, listened to me read aloud, shaded a map of continents and made a list of Earth facts and stats.
The girls began the day looking at animal facts and pictures on Sheppard.
Later in the day my Book People order arrived. U received the Usborne alphabet sticker book, which she got started with right away after lunch. With any alphabet things she insists on working through in order. This is because she can confidently recite the alphabet and if she does this carefully she correctly identifies the letters. She is still not sure of them randomly. At this rate she will, inshAllah, have a good grasp of alphabetical order, so it is not a problem!
I also bought a set of drawing books, (some of which we will have to discard as they are about drawing living beings), and Ia was keen to start tracing a car sketch, and shading it in. Many of the books are for drawing planes, cars, robots, which appeals to J. I think these may be useful for him in the coming winter months when outdoor play gets limited.

Beginning again

Autumn has arrived. Ramadan has passed, Eid has been celebrated. Now it is really time to remember what it is we do with our days of home ed!!
I think it is going to work like this...the boys will get most of their work done in the morning, and the girls will do more in the afternoons. I'm not sure that this is a good idea, but whatever I intend it seems to end up that way. Hmmm.
Another small change is that the boys will do their maths and English tasks first thing and then I'll do the read aloud. Although it is nice to start with read aloud, this way will probably break things up more suitably. The boys usually like to zip through tasks as fast as they can, and it will be nice to have those daily ones out of the way early.

Here Ia addresses the problem of "How many less than 22 is 16?"

U has many of her own ideas about learning. She did not want to do a task today, so I said we'd leave it, to which she responded "So, then how will I know how to teach my own children if I don't learn it?"

Well, learning it later is OK too! But, interesting viewpoint!

In the photo she is doing something she enjoyed, threading the buttons and then counting how many were on the string.

Over the past month...

Yesterday was Eid, alhamdulillah. We had a quiet time, but I wanted to get some refreshing air after last week's germs, so we went out for a walk in the afternoon. Today R is unwell!
Here is a pick'n'mix round up of what was done in Ramadan, (not all of it Ramadan related).

* Ia checked off each day on her Ramadan calendar without reminders, and was aware of how many days had passed, how many to go.

* Ia learnt how to make wudu.

* Boys made good effort over fasting and helped to prepare iftaar.

* U asked to learn how to read, and complained that learning the letters was not helping her to read AT ALL.

* Ia chose books from the main children's paperbacks section of the library for the first time.

* Boys kept their reading logs, showing that they read a book per day (while stocks last!).

* Ia started new swimming classes and met another HE girl there.

* Boys received trophies for their performance in the past cricket season. (R best all rounder, J highest scoring batsman).

* Girls were patient and considerate of other people fasting.

Captain

Critics of home education would like to point out how a home educated child misses out on opportunities to work in a team, develop leadership skills, and how, unsocialised as they are, they will always find themselves maginalised and dominated by their school going peers.
*rolls eyes*
This season R is captain of his football (soccer) team. The only other home ed boy in the team is (of course) J.

An off day

Alhamdulillah. We are in the last few days of Ramadan. I wanted to keep working all the way through, as much as possible, but I've come down with a bad cold and had no energy for anything today. The boys did some of their daily work, mostly the bits involving the computer and Quran review, but I couldn't even read aloud to them today.
But days like these do have their blessings. This evening R made pizzas for iftar, and J washed up. As for the girls, maashAllah, they played their imaginative games all day long, I just needed to feed them and help them in the bathroom.
Yes, their imaginative games are a little messy. They build little worlds for their soft toys. The toys need furnitue and all manner of household goods and these must be arranged and organised all over the house. On the windowsills, under and on side tables, on shelves etc etc. Everywhere there are little piles and collections of small objects, but it is all there for a purpose, part of the fabric of the game, and to tidy it away too soon would be to disrespect the intense imaginative creativity that has been invested there. Not that I could have tidied it today anyway!

In the library again

We have self service machines in the library. When we arrive I return all the books, while the kids go off to choose more. It takes a while because we have a lot of books to return and because the machine does not recognise all books at the first attempt. A small queue of children stands right behind me, each child clutching their one or two books, while I apparently return half the library.
Later I have to check out the other half of the library. J does his own pile of books, then I get to work with the girls' cards. Behind me two little boys stand, with their two Horrible History books, one says "Look at all those books, how is anyone going to read all that?"
What is wrong with the children of this town? How do they not go into a library and want to help themselves to everything, or at least their full quota of 15 books per ticket? Even if they don't want to read, they could look at the amazing pictures of the natural world, or anything else.
What has happened to them to make them think that two books is enough at one time and that 30 books looks like a lot???? And those are the kids who are actually in the library.

Project on Prophet Isa (as) and others

This is the boy's project on the Prophets Isa (as) Zakariyyah (as) and Yahyah (as).
I wanted to make clear the relationships and links between these Prophets, and also the mother of Isa (as) in addition to learning about the events of their lives. For this reason I wanted a family tree style way of displaying their biographies.
We began by reading through books on stories of the Prophets and the relevant portions of tafsir, making notes under the following headings:
Imran and his wife Hannah; Maryam, mother of Isa (as); Isa (as); Zakkariyah (as) and his wife and Yahyah (as).
Once the information had been collected the boys wrote up mini biographies for each person inside mini booklets. Next we stuck them inside a square cut folder and drew lines to show their relationships to each other. The tafsir was unclear on the exact family connection between Hannah the mother of Maryam and the wife of Zakarriyah (as), but they were related. In this way, and from a hadith we know that Isa (as) and Yahyah (as) were cousins.
The boys are still not interested in presentation, so this is not good example of how a lapbook should look, but I think it works on a practical level, alhamdulillah.

Old books, and more on those letters!

Before sleeping Ia has been reading these little books to herself in bed. Each story takes her a little over 5 minutes to read, maashAllah. These are old, old books, but the storylines are really sweet and I like the values of thrift, simplicity and hard work they express. In the book shown with the open page Hazel squirrel needs a new dress because her old one is too tight, but her mother is too busy to make one right away, so a friend helps her find a seamstress. In another story Hazel works hard all morning to earn enough for a small treat from the shop.
Apparently some children find reading classics (childrens' classics) hard because of the cultural differences and older style of language often found in those books; so I think it is helpful to encourage my children to read older works from a young age, to make sure they are used to various styles of writing.

U has been doing more non-colouring alphabet work today. In her Letterland handwriting book she had to trace and write the letters "C" and "O". After that I asked her to find all the Cs and Os from a tub of magnetic letters. Finally she sorted through a set of word/picture flashcards finding all words containing a C. There were 12 (she counted).

Alphabet for the Non-Colouring In Child

The thing with the alphabet is that it is so long. U can do a cut out lap'n'note style activity for one letter, two letters, or even three letters, but after that she gets fed up with it. (And I did not mean do them all on the same day). Writing or colouring books have the same problem; the novelty is fleeting.
But she does enjoy listening to me read this Letterland alphabet book. I bought this years ago in a charity shop. There is a short description of each Letterland character per letter. It is an old series, this book is a 1985 edition,but we have some of the story and handwriting workbooks too.
Recently a school teaching assistant told me that in her school they are not allowed to call "k" Kicking K, because of the kicking. So presumably the character below is off limits.

They are also not allowed to refer to the "Magic E" spelling rule in those terms. (Magic E rule: the e at the end makes the earlier vowel say its name, as in pin/pine, or can/cane.) I asked why they couldn't say that, it used to be the common, usual way to refer to this rule. She didn't know. Do they think it has some drug connotations????
Another way to learn alphabet is to use the computer, at Education City, Starfall or Create a Reader, or with a CDrom.
Or the cut out and stick method I blogged about before.
Anyway, I hope she gets it soon, so we can move on, inshAllah! Although, having said that, knowing letters is not an essential for reading. Ia now reads small chapter books, like Lucy Daniel's "Little Dolphin" series, but she still forgets the names of some letters from time to time.

15th Ramadan

It is already Saturday evening, subhanAllah, and already the middle of Ramadan!!!!
Time passes so differently in Ramadan it seems to me. We sleep after Fajr, and by the time I'm really awake again and ready to think straight the morning seems very short!
I've been keeping the learning activities short, so it has been easy to complete the list each day. Usually I'll get the boys to work in the morning, and scatter the girls' activities throughout the day. The boys are working on a project on Prophet Isa (as), as well as doing Ramadan related Islamic studies. Ia has been doing some practical learning about making wudu, and how to pray. She is not seven yet, but it won't be long, inshAllah, especially in terms of the Islamic calendar. Ramadan seems a good time to get started.
The girls have also been doing some Ramadan colouring sheets, although really it is Ia who prefers this. U does not really like to colour. When you have a young child who does not like to colour you really notice how many resources for the young age group are based around colouring. Last week U asked to do a maths workbook. She has two books in use at the moment, on the next pages she had the choice of a shape colouring activity, or a "draw one less" activity. She decided not to do maths, unfortunately. U is the kind of person who expects her drawings to come out looking exactly right, so if she can't get the flower right ,she's not doing it. The boys did not like colouring either, but a quick scribble would seem good enough to them!
Next week, inshAllah, all the after school activities begin again with the new school term. I hardly feel ready for all that rushing about! Seems like I've become lazy over the holidays, although I did manage to do some garden tidying and bulb planting today.

More Islamic Studies and Baking

For today's Islamic studies with the boys I made use of a link from TalibiddeenJr blog to an article about mistakes made in Ramadan. This was a read through and discussion type task, as the sister suggested in her post, maashAllah.
Then, this afternoon, I did some baking with the girls. Really I find that I can't do baking with both of them at once. They compete for the space and for who is going to stir first and so on. I don't feel that they really learn much about the baking that way, they are too busy thinking about whose turn it is to concern themselves with the process of what they are making. Ia should be learning more about using the scales and so on at her age, so it is better to bake with them one at a time.
U went first,helping to make chocolate cupcakes. She mainly helps me mix, and spoons it into the cake cases. Ia was able to do much more this time, maashAllah. She could weigh out ingredients, whisk egg, pour the liquid ingredients on to the dry ones. (This was a melt method plain cake - which she later iced).
Not a Ramadan craft, but making something for her fasting family to enjoy at iftaar time, inshAllah.

Islamic Studies in Ramadan

Since my self critique session over Islamic studies at the weekend I have sourced out some more interesting approaches for the boys. Alhamdulillah, may Allah reward those people who take the time and effort to post their work and ideas online, and from whom I learn so much.
I also spent some concentration time working out a post- Ramadan shedule, so now I'm no longer wondering how I'm going to fit everything in. For now though we continue with a scaled down approach.
SubhanAllah, one third of Ramadan has already passed! Today for Islamic Studies the boys read an article on advice for a beneficial Ramadan. I set them a task consisting of copying out a hadith; a few comprehension style questions, to ensure they understood the text, and then I asked them to take points from the article and compile a list of 10 things they could do now to improve their observance of Ramadan, inshAllah. I try to scale the Islamic Studies down to a level at which they can realistically hope to implement what they are learning. So, although the article recommended performing Umrah in Ramadan, for example, I would not want them to include this on their list as it is not something they can actually do at the moment. They can however observe prayers on time, read Quran, try to avoid losing their tempers etc. I think this is important, as Islamic knowledge needs to be implemented and lived, not carried around as information only. For this reason I try to extract the aspects of Islamic learning most relevant to them, at their stage of life. This is not always easy, and that was part of the cause of my weekend confusion!