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.