Written Answers

I'm working on formulating written answers with the boys. Over the last couple of days we have used the questions at the end of Unit 2 lesson 2 of "A History of Muslim Civilization". The first question asks about the aspects of Muhammad (saw)'s character which prepared members of his clan and tribe to accept his claim of prophethood. The second question was to describe Muhammad (saw)'s social position in Makkah before prophethood.
The information for these answers is contained in the three text pages of the unit, and it is fairly straightforward to pick out the points, but putting them together properly is another skill altogether, and this is part of the transition from primary to secondary education I suppose. The boys first response is to write out the information, in sentences, but in a way which forms little more than a list. This is fine at primary level, it shows you have the facts to answer the question with. But what we are needing to work on is:
a. constantly relating the information to precisely answering the question
b. writing a concluding sentence wrapping up the information into an answer

It is not so much about supplying the information to answer the question, but manipulating the information into a specific answer.
The only way to deal with this, as far as I can see, is to practice and to go through all answers to work out how improvements could be made and keep drumming it in:
How does this answer the question?
And, Where is your conclusion?

Any suggestions? Is there something I'm missing?

History

I have always covered history informally with the boys. I have not followed topics in any particular order, but I think they have a reasonable general knowledge of the kind of history topics children of their age may have heard about. Maybe the exception to this is Roman Britain.
Recently for history study they have been doing a little regular reading of Usborne's History of Britain. I think this is a very good book to have as a reference. Its chronological arrangement, covering all the periods up to the present makes it easy for a primary aged child to get an overview of the whole picture before looking in more detail at the periods which interest them most. The material is also published in a series of smaller books covering different periods, andwe've had these from the library in the past.
Anyway, since getting the Muslim history book I blogged about previously I thought we'd take a break from the Usborne and make use of the early chapters of the Muslim history book on the pre-Islamic period and on the nature and meaning of history itself. I'm doing this through reading aloud and discussion. Today we read about what makes a civilization, the rise and fall of civilizations, the pre-historic (pre-written records) era and then the early civilizations which grew up near major rivers. I really like the broad approach here, and I really liked the discussion of how early peoples organized themselves. The writer really relates the behaviours of early people to the behaviours of people of all times (arguing over small matters, needing a leader to get anything done). It makes for interesting discussion, maashAllah!

Akimbo

This is what I'm reading to the girls in the evenings at the moment. Under the flash glare the author's name is Alexander McCall Smith. The girls both enjoy watching their Big Cat Week DVD, and to help them imagine the scene in this book I just asked them to think about the landscape in Big Cat Week. This helps them feel closer to the story. Although this book (about a park ranger trying to trap a lion which has taken to eating cattle, then adopting a lion cub) is very good for a 7 year old, it is less so for a 5 year old, but U is enjoying it anyway. There are others in the series, "Akimbo and the Elephants" and "Akimbo and the Crocodile", which I hope to read to them later, inshAllah.

The girls have done some drawing again today. Here U was copying a castle picture. Later the page became very full of action!

Wednesday

This is a home education blog, isn't it?

So, we are easing back slowly into our normal routines. The girls spent time on Education City today, we all watched Monday's Bang Goes the Theory and the boys did some reading and read aloud. The boys have been working on their Roblox games.

Still here!

Just popping in to say that I have not given up blogging!!! Just been having a hectic few days. InshAllah normal blogging will resume shortly!

Muslim History book

So, we are still on a break at the moment, and there is not too much that is blogworthy about the last few days. However, last week I received a delivery of books that I had been looking forward to and since then I've been reading "A History of Muslim Civilization". (Iqra publications)
It is a typical textbook style book, with plenty of illustrations and maps, laid out into units and lessons. At the end of each lesson are some review questions, with unit reviews at the end of each unit. The book does not begin with Islam at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), rather it spends quite a while setting the scene, explaining the international context of the era, describing the political and religious forces and influences which were at play before the Islamic revelations. The account ends in 750CE with the end of the Umayyads.
The introduction states that this is the first of a three volume series which should be completely published by 2005. Oh dear! I wonder what has happened to the project?
I am impressed with this book. It is clearly written and seems to be making a conscious effort to be strictly factual, whilst openly stating a Muslim perspective. I think this approach can be understood by the statements in the forward explaining that this is a Muslim history rather than an Islamic history.
Apart from just enjoying reading this book I plan to use it with the boys as part of their Islamic Studies work. We have been going through the seerah (history of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)) recently, and these concise, clear chapters will be a great help, inshAllah. I'm also getting the boys to develop their written answers skills through Islamic history studies and the review questions in the book are just right for this. The questions often lend themselves to short essay answers on main events/themes.
I have seen this book in one UK bookshop, although I don't think it is commonly stocked. I bought my copy via mail order from Al-Farooq International , based in Leicester.

Warm spring weekend

This weekend we have been looking at and touching fossils at the museum.

I have been gardening and the girls have played a lot outside too, maashAllah. They have also all been out playing with friends. Alhamdulillah for the good weather we've had.

The girls and I have also walked a little round the local area, where we came across this beautiful display of daffodils, maashAllah.

Plus there has been cricket and football.