Minibook on Surah Al-Mulk

The boys have been working on these mini books for the last couple of weeks. Today we put them together.

Page 1: Copied out the hadith on the virtues of Surah Al-Mulk.

Pages 2,3,4: On these pages the boys found the Names of Allah which occur in this surah, copied them out and noted their meanings.

Page 5: On this page the boys used silver pen on black paper to note what this surah mentions about the seven heavens and the stars.

Pages 6 and 7: These pages are about the description of Hellfire and those who will enter it.

Pages 8 and 9: To cover the rest of the tafsir of the surah I wrote some comprehension style questions and the boys wrote out the answers. The questions and their answers covered these two pages.

The whole project was studied from the tafsir by Ibn Kathir.

More on keeping busy

Ia's day:

Played with model playground made yesterday

Played imaginative games with U

Jigsaw puzzles

Recited some short surahs

two phonics exercises

reading book

swimming lesson

joined in tarawih prayers (at home)

U's day

Played imaginative games with Ia

Used iboard website, and others

jigsaw puzzles

listened to some short surahs



R and J's day

Listened to me read aloud (book on fasting and book on sahabah)

Read for themselves from "Tell me about the Prophet Yusuf (as)" and " Stories from Islamic history"

Multiplied decimals

Rolled about and tussled with each other

Recited Surah Mulk, and other surahs of their choice

listened to me finish reading the tafsir of Surah Mulk

computer games

tarawih prayers (at home)

Keeping them busy all day

Just before Ramadan, during a phone call with a sister with whom I had not spoken in a long time, the topic of keeping home educated children busy came up. The sister commented that when home education is going well the children should be busy all day long. I do agree with this. I don't think this means their every last second has to be planned and organised for them, I don't think that is what the other sister meant either, but it means that most of the day should be spent in useful, meaningful and stimulating activities. That could mean all sorts of things, from structured academic work, sports or outdoor play, the children's own projects. But it shouldn't be the same old every day.
What is the ideal? A household where the children dutifully complete their textbook type work in the mornings, then go off and do chemistry experiments, make model battery powered vehicles, produce beautiful pieces of artwork. All busy, busy with amazing projects and not a computer screen in sight (unless it goes with a computer they built themselves of course.)
If those households exist, I congratulate them.
As for the house of Always Learning.... Well, I do try. I really want them to be busy all day long. I'm certainly busy all day long. I really don't like to see any child waiting around for what to do next, or drifting off and messing about. If they go off and do something else productive, that is fine. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
I'm frustratingly slow in the mornings. The first hour after waking is very non-productive for me. My brain does not seem ready to go. In Ramadan we get up later, having gone back to sleep after Fajr. Alhamdulillah, my energy levels rise throughout the day of fasting, so I try to make up for lost time in the afternoon. However I should be doing more to keep everyone productive. (Don't worry, I think imaginative play for under sevens is very productive.)
This morning Ia wanted to make a playground model. (Kitchen foil type box supported by toilet roll tubes for the slide, roundabout from half a toilet roll tube supporting a disc of card with a lolly stick through it. etc) Then I got her through some workbooks before the boys got up. And so it goes on, throughout the day, completing the lists. Now it is shortly before Iftar time and Ia still needs to do her reading. The other evening she read to J, while I was praying, maashAllah.
And today everyone has got sweets as Ia, R and J all memorised a surah they had not known before. Alhamdulillah. R and J have not had their sweets yet, they have managed to keep most of the fasts so far, alhamdulillah.

Books we've been using today

U gets out a big pile of these kind of books every day. If she asks me to read to her, this is about how many books she will present to me with her request. MaashAllah. How many she actually uses each day, I can't say.

Filling in details

"Oh you who believe fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you so that you may learn Taqwa" (English meaning of Quran 2:183)

When it comes to Ramadan I feel a continual sense of urgency. I should be working harder, doing as much as I can to make the most out of the time. I apply this to home education of course. If I'm teaching my children for the sake of Allah there is no way I could take a break now is there? Also I want my children to learn to work hard during Ramadan, so that they will, inshAllah, be ready to make the most of the Ramadans of their adulthood, inshAllah.
I have noticed around on other blogs that Ramadan will be set aside for a home ed focus on Quran reading and memorising. When I read this I'm eagar for more detail! How much time would be spent per day on Quran for a seven year old, nine year old or eleven year old I'm wondering? My boys struggle to manage about half an hour a day each. It seems very little to me, as they are capable of more (I think). Exactly how busy are other sisters keeping their children, and with what! Nosy? But I always doubt that I'm doing enough. And when I read about another child's achievements I point them out to my children. It gives a context. I don't expect them to match up to what others are doing, but it helps to view ones self within a landscape of similar experiences, in my opinion.
So we began today by reading about the details of performing sujood correctly. Then we went on to finish reading about Khalid bin Waleed from another collection of biographies of the sahabah. Although we have read different books on the sahabah I do find that each one focuses on events in a different way, and brings a freshness to the history so that is never repetitive.
Then the boys did their own reading from the list of Islamic books I've made for them.
I've also got them using "My Ramadan Fun Book" workbook from Goodwordkids. This is surprisingly age appropriate. It doesn't ask for much from each page, but they do need to go look things up, so it is keeps a bit of challenge. I'm thinking about getting the other workbooks in the series later on, inshAllah.
Also today we have made a small start on a mini book on the tafsir of Surah Mulk. When it is eventually finished, inshAllah, I'll post its description.
And we have restarted with the maths. Some dismay has been expressed that the course book now requires two pages of work per day rather than the one page from last year. I point out that in schools it is done in the numeracy HOUR. This doesn't help much in the case of people who have had enough after the numeracy 20 minutes.
Ia has been making good progress with her reading, maashAllah. The exercises on Education City have been very useful. I get her to repeat them, especially those which teach reading vocabulary.
Yesterday I sought out some video aids for learning Arabic letters on UTube. Just enter "Arabic alphabet" or "Alif baa taa". There are some useful ones out there and plenty not so good ones too! Unfortunately the best one I found (in terms of presenting the sounds) went on to become very musical, so wan't the best after all! Just got to keep on trying! Anyway I did flashcards with Ia today, and she remembered quite well, alhamdulillah.

Getting things clear

I need to keep working on my goals for Ia's learning. That is establishing them, getting them in the right order and then achieving them, inshAllah.
Maths: reading the number words to twenty (making good progress on this)
Knowing the number bonds to ten by heart. Get this thoroughly sorted before place value.
English: Get more fluent in reading. Do this by reading more and using phonic and wordbuilding workbooks. Currently we are using Letts Phonics, stage 3, Schofield and Sims Sound Practice 3, Learning Rewards, Spelling Practice age 5-7.
All three of the bigger ones need to try to memorise some more Quran. The trouble is their patience is so little. The boys especially expect to finish tasks very speedily, and memorisation of anything is a slow process. Time for a tweaking of tactics tomorrow, inshAllah.

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan begins! We seem to have ended August in a rush of unexpected activities. Now it is time to quieten down and refocus on our studies.
Taking inspiration from the sister at We Love Home Ed 2 I made a list of all the Islamic books we have that the boys can read by themselves. It turns out that we have 28 such books, alhamdulillh. Some of these books are very brief and easy to read, while others are more substantial. I have made a list for them and asked them to read through the books, whenever they want, in whatever order they want, just as long as they get this done within Ramadan. They began this today. They also have extra Quran reading to do each day, but again I have given them some responsibility with this. I have set them a certain amount to do and then said they should add to that with whatever they can.
Ia began today reading a phonics reader. She is slowly getting better with blending the sounds, alhamdulillah. She is also more willing to have a go with new words. She has also used Education City and iboard, done some spelling workbook, maths workbook, handwriting practice, used the computer for Quran and restarted with Arabic letters. I had paused on Arabic letters as she was struggling with the English letters,and just let her learn Quran by memory instead. Now I'll try to reintroduce the Arabic alphabet, inshAllah.