A better morning

To make amends for yesterday I got Ia started on shape work first thing this morning. Well, first for her because before that I had read to the boys. I'm currently reading "There's no Escape"by Ian Serraillier to them.

U joined in with shape work as soon as she woke up. She told me that she had not been able to get any sleep because of the loud noises the boys were making. It was 9:30am.

While one boy did his Pashto work the other revised from his science book and played with the magnet set, then they swapped over.

Before I could start the maths with the boys Ia's friend arrived, so the boys went off to play and Ia and friend started work on another Islamic lapbook together.

After some play time for the girls the friend left and it was time for lunch. U went on the computer for her current favourite mix of Education City, French and puzzle story CDroms.

After lunch we had a couple of hours before more friends arrived in which to finish off the rest of the work. With the more reading approach in mind we worked on the mapwork textbook orally, as the current topic is about getting information from maps, (rather than measuring or labelling), so is suitable for read and discuss.

Effective learning

What is effective learning and how is it achieved? There are so many answers to this, 1001 theories. You'd have to be an effective learner to effectively learn all about effective learning. I haven't got time, and anyway, everyone is different. Well, not everyone, but there are sufficient variations for it to look that way.
Personally I used to learn best by just reading. Some subjects, like maths and languages can't just be read, but wherever possible it seemed to be both the most effective and easiest option. At age 14-15 I had a geography teacher who taught the old fashioned way, dictated notes and diagrams copied from the board. No worksheets, no discussion. Those were great lessons, I can visualise some of those diagrams still. The next year the teacher changed and so did the lesson style. Now it was all practical, applied, worksheets. I was so bored, I felt the lessons would never end.
So I'm all in a dither about whether to switch to more just reading work with the boys. A certain amount of learning how to answer questions and apply information is of course important. But maybe we could do less of that, and more just reading. Is it more important to learn information, or learn how to use information? There is no use knowing something that you can't apply when needed, but there is no use applying stuff without really knowing what it is.
I don't really want to know the educational theories, because these change with the decades as each new batch of academics seeks to make its mark. Isn't research as much about leaving behind your name on "progress" as it is about solving problems?
All these thoughts take up time, and whilst they are a part of the evolution of the HE process, they also distract from it. I need to learn to use my time more effectively. But that is another matter.
The boys have been a bit under the weather recently. We have a strange illness going around, which begins with a sore throat but leads to a headache, rather than the usual cold, alhamdulillah. R had the headache this morning, so things got off to another slow start. I spent a bit of time this morning trying to show the boys where we could head education wise, why it is generally a good idea to learn about a wide spread of subject areas in order to find out what they prefer. Then I read to them, they played some Top Trumps, then slowly, slowly did their science. The afternoon was a bit more productive, and in the end, despite the disorganisation I only missed out English with them. The usual casualty when the day gets crowded.
I was not satisfied with Ia's work achievements today. It was not her fault, she did fine at what I asked her to do, but somehow there wasn't enough to it. I really need to stop thinking and getting doing stuff with her tomorrow, inshAllah.

New Post

On Always Learning Resources. Names of Allah colour wheel.

Testing

The testing of children is a matter of much discussion in the UK. Some say there is too much, others say testing is essential. Some schools of home education thought do not believe in any kind of testing at all. Certainly not in the primary years. With all the anti-testing talk I get to feel guilty about testing, for example today as I wrote out a science assessment for the boys to do next week. But life is a test, our every decision in this life will be assessed in the hereafter. As children grow up they need to really understand what this means.
I test my children when I review with them the surahs they have memorised. I test them when they do spellings. And I do expect them to take formal qualifications when the time comes.
Surely the real trouble with "school" testing is when it is made to look scary, and made to dominate the whole learning process.
I was scared of an exam when I was eleven. The very large Mrs Hill, with the booming voice and floorboard shaking tread threatened unspecified doom should we fail to memorise French irregular verbs. I almost passed out in the exam hall, and was sent home without completing the paper. How ridiculous. I was never scared of an exam again, there is no need, it is not THAT important.
So a little bit of "schoolwork" testing here and there seems quite OK to me, as a realistic preparation for the wider learning environment. Nothing to get worried about.
The test of life and the accounting on the Day of Judgement is what should be feared. Preparation for that Day SHOULD be dominating our lives.

End of week

Yesterday we had surprise guests, so I rubbed out the task list, (this week written in pencil, although usually done in pen!!) and we just enjoyed the company.
Such breaks from routine are necessary I think, but they can be unsettling too. Today it was much harder to get everyone concentrating on the day's work, even though I shortened the timetable to just cover the morning, so that they could enjoy having other friends over in the afternoon. Some days are like that. Even things which are usually seen as interesting are approached reluctantly.
So, another week comes to an end. We've had plenty of socializing this week, visited two museums and covered our home ed basics. There has not been much on the creative side, but this is the balance I suppose. We can't have everything at once. Alhamdulillah, we have a lot to be grateful for.

Wednesday

Yesterday we enjoyed a day out visiting a museum and old friends. Simultaneously exhausting and refreshing!
Back to usual work today, but the week seems to be rushing by, alhamdulillah! Today, in the English textbook J and R had to explore the Greek and Latin origins to some words in English. I found this etymology dictionary useful. I would like to sit and investigate that dictionary some more, so I saved in in my favourites. I used to read etymology dictionaries in the university library many years ago. Of course I'd like to find a way to include this somewhere in the home education, I'll just let that thought simmer away at the back of my mind and see whether anything comes of it!
With Ia today I began a copy-cat lapbook of the"5 Pillars of Islam" lapbook I posted at Always Learning Resources a couple of weeks ago. I want to make it as exactly like the one my friend's son made as I can, although I see already that my pillar shapes are not as good!

Monday

What did we do today? Well, the home education journey continues, alhamdulillah, and so it was mainly more of the same! In the science session J and R finished off this lapbook on healthy bodies, which they made most of last month. This was from a Hands of a Child kit, and I think that having tried the kits now I mainly prefer to make our own lapbooks. I think the kit contents are very useful, but I much prefer the look of a child made lapbook to the printed out version. Also the children take more interest and pride in something they made themselves, as opposed to something they have filled in. The kit saves time by placing all the information together in one place, and I will use kits again, inshAllah, but I've satisfied my curiosity over them now!
Now, when the boys reach the stage of being able to design the booklets on the computer themselves, that will be something else, inshAllah. I think it is a bit too fiddly for them to have patience with at the moment though.
Also today the boys have practised Quran, touch typing, tried out multiplication tables on Excel, continued their Pashto course, read some biology, done a reading comprehension, split calculations using factors to help, played Age of Empires on their computer, read fiction books and attended cricket training.
I forgot to mention spelling, and that I read to them from "Knowing the Last Day" by Muhammad al-Jibaly.
Ia and U spent ages watching a French language DVD and trying to play the games at the end with the cumbersome remote control. Ia began some work on fractions, continued her All About Me lapbook, did her other daily bits and bobs.
For U I took a spur of the moment decision to enrol her with Education City just before the weekend. She was asking yet again to use Ia's games, which is fine for the languages, but Ia was not pleased at U messing up her games on the other subjects (as she saw it). She has used it loads since.


Sticker book fun also continues.