Curriculum choices

Umm Ahmad requested that I describe my curriculum choices, so I'll post a little about that today, inshAllah.

I don't follow any particular methodology or approach. In fact, I'd say I'm pretty conventional about the way I home ed, but I don't stick to any ideology. I don't think it is necessary to stick to any one curriculum until you are actually preparing an exam syllabus. I use the National Curriculum as a reference spine for some subjects, but not at all for others. I do not attempt to apply the whole National Curriculum. No way. Avoiding the limitations of the National Curriculum is an advantage of home education.
With my daughters, while they are under 7/year 3 I have focussed mainly on English and maths, with other subjects done on a topic basis. This means that I don't teach separate science or geography, for example, but these things are covered through projects or practical learning. Of course there is Islamic studies too, but again I cover this in a topic/project way. Only from year 3 do I start to make separate sessions for the different subject areas and think more carefully about what is covered under each subject heading.

So, with that in mind I'll run through some of the resources I'm using with my girls this year.

First the 5 year old. For English we are using Literacy Now age 5-6 (Andrew Brodie). I like this worbook, it has just enough to do, but its range is quite spread, from easy at the beginning to quite a bit harder at the end. For this reason I don't use it continuously, I use each double page unit as I feel that U becomes ready for it. So I might use this book several times in one week, then not again for a month.

We've also finished off Schofield and Sims First Phonics4, which deals with blends in a clear straightforward way. Then there is Bond No Nonsense 5-6 years. This again I use a sprinkling of, not too often, in this case because it is so boring. I see the virtue of this book, but it has the National Curriculum drill them to death mentality about it. As it says on the back it is for children who want to do better. Better in National Tests I presume, through endless repetitive practice.

I also have the Letts Literacy Activity Books for Year 1, which I intend to start using sometime during the next couple of months, inshAllah. I also hope to get on to some story book lapbooks, as I did these with Ia when she was in year 1. U is a springtime baby,and so a little younger for her year group. At this stage I think the months still count, so I'm delaying these things until she maybe more ready for them, inshAllah.

She also does some handwriting practice, and reads from the Peter and Jane series

For maths I'm using some Collins Primary Maths workbooks, and the very old SPMG workbooks which I'm not sure can be purchased any more. she also has accounts on Mathletics and Education City.

Everything else is topic based and chosen randomly. Plus there is reading library books and practical things like art and baking done here and there, but not in a sheduled way. I don't use any other specific resources, just whatever is helpful for a particular topic. U is also now going for Quran lessons with a teacher, alhamdulillah.

With the 7 year old I use Collins Primary Maths (the version has just gone out of print), plus Mathletics and Education city. Maths is the one area that I stick with a curriculum carefully. I think that it helps to keep to one style with maths, as soon as you find the right one, as different systems teach different approaches. I found Collins suitable for us up to year 5, so I'm sticking with it, inshAllah.
For English I'm using Collins Focus on Literacy, (can't locate on Amazon just now) along with Nelson Thornes spelling and handwriting and Spellodrome, which comes with Mathletics. I continue to read aloud to the girls, as this is part of their language learning too, in my opinion.
For science I'm using year 3 National Curriculum topics, together with the CGP topic workbooks on those topics. For the two topics we've covered so far I tried to make it more interesting with a lapbook or practical activities. I'm not worried about covering everything, it is more important I think to cover a selection of topics in an enjoyable way, inshAllah.
For geography we have started working on the Trail Guide to World Geography. There is really no rush here. We'll go at a nice, comfortable pace, inshAllah, and do as many or as few notebookpages at each desination as we feel like.
For Islamic Studies I'm using Iqra workbooks on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and also doing notebook style work on the other Prophets (as), in order. We are still on Hud (as)! I may do a lapbook approach for some history of the Prophets. With the boys I varied the approach with each Prophet's story, and the whole thing took up to year 5.
Ia also has Quran lessons and does a bit of art most weeks, plus reading of course. Sometimes she does a little French on the computer.
I wonder if I've missed anything? If not, then that's about it, inshAllah.
So, I suppose in general I just try to find resources which seem to suit for each subject are, then I just work with them until I'm no longer satisfied, then I'll look for something else.

These days

These days as we plod along with our usual book work, the children have been coming up with other things they are interested in doing too. R made some chocolate bread with a receipe he found in one of my baking books. it is basically a white bread dough enriched with a little butter,a spoonful of sugar and some cocoa powder. Finally a chopped up chocolate bar is kneaded in just before it does into the tin to rise. I've been training R in ordinary breadmaking, so he could knead this one successfully himself, maashAllah. It turned out well, alhamdulillah. It looks like cake, but does not taste like cake, it is much less sweet and has that slight sourness of yeast. It was lovelywith some poured cream, maashAllah.
U has suddenly taken an interest in art,maashAllah and has been selecting projects from one of our "make and do" books. She has also added "rt" (art) to her task list, as well as "bak", which means "I must make jam tarts now". This did not happen yesterday as the girls went swimming instead. You can't get everything in a day!
However the art has been going on for the last couple of mornings. Some results below.

Hajj Project

I'm currently working on a little Hajj project with Ia (and sort of also with U). I had lots of thoughts about this and kept changing my mind about what to do. First Iconsidered some kind of wall display, then a lapbook, until finally I ended up with a notebook!
I still have some copies of Islamic theme colouring sheets I got from a sister some years ago which I have used from time to time in lapbooks. I don't know exactly where they came from originally, so I can't link you in their direction.
There are quite a few sheets related to Hajj and I wanted to utilise them this year. When teaching about Hajj I'm not too concerned about the child remembering all the sequence of what happens on which day and the route the pilgrims take. I think this is a lot to remember, and it is more important at this stage that the child knows something about what is done on Hajj in general and the background to it in order to get a feel for its importance, inshAllah.
So I'm taking one colouring sheet scene at a time, talking about what is depicted, looking into whatever background I can then writing a sentence or more on thebottom or back of the sheet.
For example, when we did the sheet on the Talbiyah I found a YouTube audio for us to listen to and after that Ia wrote out its translation. When doing the sheet on the sa'y (running between the hills of Safa and Marwa) I read the story of Hajar, the wife of Ibrahim (as) from the Quran Stories for Kids book and then asked Ia to write about those events in her own words.
There are also lots of opportunities to look at pictures online of the various significant locations visited on Hajj. If I did not have these colouring sheets I would probably print off some of those pictures and use them for visuals. I might also encourage Ia to draw her own pictures, maybe using some basic notebooking pages.
We still have plenty of sheets to go through in this project, inshAllah, including,
drinking Zamzam water,
the Day of Sacrifice
throwing the stones,
standing at Arafat, and others.
I am actually trying to use them in the order in which events occur but I like the way the sheets have caused me to focus on one element at a time and have kept me away from trying to fit the whole thing around a sequence or order of events as I think it would have been less interesting for Ia that way.