Story Writing

Story writing. Never mind the kids, this is MY favourite activity for them to be doing!!!
Why? Because they are quietly engaged with an activity for a long time without my involvement!!!
And I think that they learn a lot more from this activity than they do from certain other English language learning. Also, when I see them writing (or typing as it was today) I can see that the best way for them to learn how to write well is simply to read well written books. I can see the direct relationship between the books they are reading and the writing they produce, maashAllah. Sentence structure, characters, plot structure are all learnt about through reading, I've found. The only thing it doesn't seem to work for is punctuation, probably because the punctuation marks are so small that a reader ceases to consciously register them, although you certainly do notice when they've been left out!! (Enough said.)
So, lots of typing done today! Even Ia typed up a story she had handwritten, maashAllah.

Paint

Do you know what programmes are on your computer? I must confess that I don't know all the features that are on mine. For example, I only recently came to know of the Microsoft Paint programme, which is really old. In fact I think it is so old that I remember using it (or something very similar)in the handful of computer lessons I had at school. (I went to school before the ICT age!!!)
Anyway, I know it is there now, buried somewhere because I have to use the search box to find it, and when I open it it takes long enough for me to go make a cup of tea before it comes up. But maybe that is just my computer!
So, today everyone had a go at using Paint, and for the girls that can go down as ICT. Probably considered a bit "keystage 1" for the boys, but they still enjoyed it. For their ICT I could probably jot down that they worked out how to send each other messages with Bluetooth using the old phones H has let them have, and that they enjoy taking photos and turning them into the background on my phone.

Workbook Fun (!)

You know the rule, workbooks are dull and boring, practical activities are much better for younger learners.
When I started out on home ed with the boys I was especially keen on the practical activity approach, especially for maths. I'd read a lot about it. The written work they did in the reception year was mostly about learning to write the numbers. I worked hard on making lists of practical maths activities and games to cover areas of counting, pre-addition and shape. The next year these activities were further worked on with some other children and eventually I typed up the lists into a set of activities sufficient to occupy the whole reception year. I worked through these activities with Ia when she was aged 4-5. Now it is U's turn.
Today I had ready a pre-addition activity involving sticking pieces of ribbon of two colours into sets to show different ways of making 5. Yesterday I had ready an activity to show the distribution of 5 spots over a butterfly's wings, using a cut out and cubes. Does U want to do these activities? No. She wants to do a workbook. She wants a workbook for maths.
As for letter forms and alphabet, this morning, maashAllah, as she came downstairs still half asleep she was saying something about "that workbook with the snake on...". The Fun With Letter Forms book, which she wants to do everyday. How about all those activities for learning the alphabet and letters, the cutting out and sticking, the lap n note. Thankfully I didn't go and buy aCD rom for this as well, because U does not want to do jigsaws, colouring, cutting or sticking to learn about letters. She wants to do a workbook. Oh, yes, Education City is acceptable too.
Alhamdulillah, I am not complaining, because it doesn't matter which way she learns as long as she enjoys it. It is just so surprising though!

General Knowledge

There are so many decisions to be taken over what to learn, how and when. There are so many different ways of going about learning. Now that the boys are 10 they are learning about topics in more depth than they were at say, 7, so it takes a lot longer to go through a topic. This is a good thing as I certainly don't have the worry that their learning is superficial, but on the other hand spending longer on one topic leaves less time for something else and this leads to the wondering about when we will do "something else"?
That home educator doubt...the "Could we be doing better.?".....I don't think it ever goes away. There are really no good solutions for this except for just giving up on the wondering, worrying and indecision, and I'm not likely to do that! The reality is that noone can cover everything, and why would anyone want to?
To compensate for all this, and to offer some comfort is General Knowledge. Because if you are sampling some general knowledge here and there you are surely learning all sorts of everything, and that has to help.
At the moment General Knowledge is coming from www.brainpop.co.uk which the boys are using regularly, and to which the girls listen in. Sometimes J has decided to explain something to me and I find myself asking, "Did you learn that on Brain Pop?" Even when the answer is "no" I'm sure some credit has to go there for the manner of explaining something, which J seems to have picked up, alhamdulillah.

Quiet

The last couple of days have been pretty quiet in learning terms, due to some of us taking turns to come down with a bad cold.

The girls were feeling creative again on Thursay, maashAllah, when they decided to make their own library by copying out books. They made a small start with a few pages. Ia has also been using Hama beads again.

The picture is of a few books the girls enjoy having from the library. Ia has reread Baker Cat so many times, yet she still borows it again. The story is about an abused, overworked cat helped by mice to drive out its owners. We can at least still read whilst feeling unwell, alhamdulillah!

Work and play

So, continuing on from the last post. Ia's typical day is very similar to U's but with a few more "work sessions" inserted here and there. Both girls very much drift between structured activities and their own play. Their days are still very fluid because I allow them to make time for their own activities. This is because their play is still very meaningful and needs space to happen. This seems contradictory to the fact that I also use a task list to cover structured activities for Ia, but somehow the two do seem to work together, alhamdulillah.
Today they were playing at "school work"!!!! U wrote several lines of squiggles about her family. Ia wrote out a series of additions for herself, then worked them out. They wrote on paper attached to clipboards. Ia also used a ruler to draw some shapes. They did this in the living room, which they had set up with tables and various other specially designed corners which, to the untrained eye, would appear to be a lot of junk heaped on the floor. MaashAllah.

U's typical day

Today has been a typical at home day for U, aged 4 and a half.
This morning she began playing with toys, but when Ia got ready to do her spelling work U asked for her letter forms workbook. She did two pages and coloured a picture. Ia then wanted to do some colouring, so U joined in with that too.
Later they both decided to do some junk modelling. U covered the base of a chocolate box with torn off bits of patterned paper. She made several layers. Later in the day she and Ia turned this into a mini dolls house, furnished with bits of toys and other junk. Right now they are playing with that.
She has also spent plenty of today in her room reading library books. She can't read, but she talks to herself about the story, if she knows it, or the pictures if she doesn't know the story or if it is a non-fiction book. She has also spent lots of time playing with Ia.
U has also used Education City today, and listened along to Ia's Quran practice.
Again when it was time for Ia to do maths U did a couple of pages of a workbook that required counting numbers of objects. When Ia did another section of their dinosaur lapbook U prefered to build with interlocking cubes, so she did that instead.
We have not done art and craft today, but the junk modelling and colouring fills that slot.
Later, inshAllah I will read aloud to them both a story book and an Islamic story book.
And that is about it. Very typical day for her at the moment.