Home education is a patchwork of educational experiences, throughout which the home base remains the constant. Other things change, opportunities come and other experiments cease to work. This time last year the boys were going horse riding every fortnight, but the stables were too far away to continue that. Today our group sessions in the centre have ceased, at least for now. Not all the children were benefiting and it was becoming tiring for the adults, not least for me with all my “are we ever moving” hassles.
We finished today by looking at the life story of Abu ad-Darda (ra), practising using grid references on maps and drawing maps on a grid, and writing conversation poems. When this was done the boys wrote stories freely until the end of the session.
Also today they saw an old friend who has been abroad for a while. Ia went to nursery and brought home another junk model. This afternoon they are playing something complicated that involves having a lot of toys all over the floor and table.
What else? The boys are still reading loads. We picked up more library books on Tuesday. Maths has been resumed and Ia has been doing more cut out crafts. They’ve also been watching Springwatch, which does at least teach them something with no effort from me! I’m pleased they are interested anyway, alhamdulillah.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Trying to give up waiting
09/06/07
After a very stressful week we’ve had a lovely day out at the invitation of a friend, maashAllah. She invited us to come with her to a special reopening day at her local library. I have never seen such rowdy chaos in a library. The story teller could barely make himself heard. The boys took part in a general knowledge quiz, and everyone got a balloon.
After that we had something to eat in the bakery and walked to a park, then we walked all the way back to the forest and had a wander round and an ice-cream. (It is a suburban forest, lots of deforested grassy spaces with wooded pockets.) We all enjoyed it thoroughly, may Allah reward the sister as I certainly needed the break and time to feel normal. I think it is better to just assume we are not moving anywhere and plan for staying.
The home ed timetable has taken a knock from all the disruption and stress. They’ve had a week off maths, but the group day subjects continued. The boys have been reading loads. Ia has been doing more writing, inspired by a trip to Tescos with the nursery and the shopping list she prepared for it. She also enjoyed another session with Teacher S, who showed her how to draw round her hand and decorate it as if it was being decorated with henna.
A report out this week described how children these days are not allowed out to play freely as they were in the past. The report suggested that children are now being deprived of the chance to form strong friendships and socialise with their peers. Presumably the children studied for the report were school going. So school was obviously not seen as a place for forming strong childhood friendships then. So that whole socialisation argument……? Means what? They’ve reported themselves full circle on this one.
10/06/07After my driving lesson I dropped myself off at a park and met up with the rest of the family. The boys enjoyed a football training session organised by a friend and coached by another friend’s husband. H and I played with the girls in the park and watched the boys. The weather was just right, maashAllah. There was hardly anyone else in the park – really relaxing, and even the driving is improving now, alhamdulillah
After a very stressful week we’ve had a lovely day out at the invitation of a friend, maashAllah. She invited us to come with her to a special reopening day at her local library. I have never seen such rowdy chaos in a library. The story teller could barely make himself heard. The boys took part in a general knowledge quiz, and everyone got a balloon.
After that we had something to eat in the bakery and walked to a park, then we walked all the way back to the forest and had a wander round and an ice-cream. (It is a suburban forest, lots of deforested grassy spaces with wooded pockets.) We all enjoyed it thoroughly, may Allah reward the sister as I certainly needed the break and time to feel normal. I think it is better to just assume we are not moving anywhere and plan for staying.
The home ed timetable has taken a knock from all the disruption and stress. They’ve had a week off maths, but the group day subjects continued. The boys have been reading loads. Ia has been doing more writing, inspired by a trip to Tescos with the nursery and the shopping list she prepared for it. She also enjoyed another session with Teacher S, who showed her how to draw round her hand and decorate it as if it was being decorated with henna.
A report out this week described how children these days are not allowed out to play freely as they were in the past. The report suggested that children are now being deprived of the chance to form strong friendships and socialise with their peers. Presumably the children studied for the report were school going. So school was obviously not seen as a place for forming strong childhood friendships then. So that whole socialisation argument……? Means what? They’ve reported themselves full circle on this one.
10/06/07After my driving lesson I dropped myself off at a park and met up with the rest of the family. The boys enjoyed a football training session organised by a friend and coached by another friend’s husband. H and I played with the girls in the park and watched the boys. The weather was just right, maashAllah. There was hardly anyone else in the park – really relaxing, and even the driving is improving now, alhamdulillah
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Holding Our Breaths
This is the opposite of how I feel as we await exchange. InshAllah that house is written for us.
Meanwhile Ia has been doing some writing, copied from a story book. The first couple of words say "five dinosaur". She wanted to write a book because
J has been writing one! This is an example from the 22 pages written so far. It is a cricket story. He wants to get it published.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Still waiting
The boys were doing their regular spelling work when they came across the word “purser”. (ur words). One of them looked it up and this sparked lots of drawings of ships, with diagrams of where everything is located. All imaginary of course, they wouldn’t want to draw something realistic!
Today they’ve done a maths assessment, which they were really excited about (!). But of course one has to get a lower mark than the other, sparking a tantrum. This always happens. They say they really enjoy the assessment, both do really well, but this is not enough as one will see himself as the loser. It’s the same as with board games or races. We finally finished off the symmetry work today too, which is a relief as they really don’t like that type of maths.
Ia has done some counting and threading buttons, drawing and a session with i-board.
Apparently there was no wholemeal bread flour in the supermarket so I’ve had to manage with white today. It is so gloopy and doesn’t behave well at all. Two very odd looking loaves in the oven right now.
Today they’ve done a maths assessment, which they were really excited about (!). But of course one has to get a lower mark than the other, sparking a tantrum. This always happens. They say they really enjoy the assessment, both do really well, but this is not enough as one will see himself as the loser. It’s the same as with board games or races. We finally finished off the symmetry work today too, which is a relief as they really don’t like that type of maths.
Ia has done some counting and threading buttons, drawing and a session with i-board.
Apparently there was no wholemeal bread flour in the supermarket so I’ve had to manage with white today. It is so gloopy and doesn’t behave well at all. Two very odd looking loaves in the oven right now.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Waiting
First sponge cake for years!
Robot construction replaces cricket when rain stops play.
Another robot.
Mr Fox and his sad friend with balloons, as previously blogged.
More art by Ia. Friday was warm and sunny and saw us in the park with friends again. Ia was very good with U, helping her over the play equipment (which was really a too big for her), especially coaching U over the wobbly plank bridge, maashAllah. U said “This is really fun.”
The weekend was a fed up couple of days. I found it hard to fend off worries about the whole move being about to fall through. Trying to bring myself round to accepting that we could well be staying put for some time, and trying to forget about the house that we now have all the documentation ready to purchase. The overall mess everywhere doesn’t help. As I tidy one room another is simultaneously reduced to chaos again.
The kids generally entertained themselves, with no park outings as by Sunday the rain was continuous. Today H has taken the bigger three out for a walk, wearing their winter jackets! We’ve done a bit of English this morning too, and should get a few more bits done this afternoon, insh’Allah.
The weekend was a fed up couple of days. I found it hard to fend off worries about the whole move being about to fall through. Trying to bring myself round to accepting that we could well be staying put for some time, and trying to forget about the house that we now have all the documentation ready to purchase. The overall mess everywhere doesn’t help. As I tidy one room another is simultaneously reduced to chaos again.
The kids generally entertained themselves, with no park outings as by Sunday the rain was continuous. Today H has taken the bigger three out for a walk, wearing their winter jackets! We’ve done a bit of English this morning too, and should get a few more bits done this afternoon, insh’Allah.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
wash clothes while the sun shines
L came over this morning and we continued our study of rocks. Today I decided to look into igneous rocks as a group, how they are formed and so on. Then we did a study of basalt, the most common igneous rock, we have a sample of it in our rock set. The boys seem really interested in this topic, alhamdulillah. Next time we should look at granite as we didn’t have time today. In the afternoon, while Ia was at nursery, they played with a barcode battler game (?) and did a couple of activity sheets on right angles. In between they are really into their cricket computer games at the moment. One that you have to select a team and play the shots and another that is a “cricket manager” game. Ia wants more time on the computer, they have to be prised off to let her have her go!
J also finished the story he began yesterday in English. It is long, illustrated and action packed, starring himself and a list of friends. R wrote a similar story. From their writing you can detect the influence of Enid Blyton, vital adventure equipment luckily carried in one’s pocket for those days when, whilst out for an ordinary walk, one stumbles across bands of shady men up to smuggling or whatever and one is compelled to investigate and take them on.
Meanwhile Ia was in the winning team of the nursery sponsored obstacle race. She was so tired that she had a nap before dinner!
This all sounds so lovely when I read it back, but don't be alarmed, we did also have an anger outburst, a falling over with bloodied hands and knees, and a messing about on the bus incident today too. Does that make it sound more normal?
J also finished the story he began yesterday in English. It is long, illustrated and action packed, starring himself and a list of friends. R wrote a similar story. From their writing you can detect the influence of Enid Blyton, vital adventure equipment luckily carried in one’s pocket for those days when, whilst out for an ordinary walk, one stumbles across bands of shady men up to smuggling or whatever and one is compelled to investigate and take them on.
Meanwhile Ia was in the winning team of the nursery sponsored obstacle race. She was so tired that she had a nap before dinner!
This all sounds so lovely when I read it back, but don't be alarmed, we did also have an anger outburst, a falling over with bloodied hands and knees, and a messing about on the bus incident today too. Does that make it sound more normal?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
What you know about your child
Ia got homework from nursery today, and they have been doing calculations on paper using the plus sign and numerals only. I was rather surprised about this. Do the children have enough understanding of the underlying process of addition to introduce the plus sign? I asked Ia about it, and she didn't know what it meant. I wouldn't expect her to, I prefer to delay the introduction of formal notation until loads of practical adding has been done. Otherwise I think they just end up memorising the calculations without understanding the process. Anyway, maybe I'll mention it to them.
As my friend was picking Ia up and receiving the homework sheets she overheard another mother remarking, on receipt of her child's worksheet, "Does she recognise the numbers?". My friend was shocked, the mother is asking this about her own child? I suppose for us home educators the idea of not knowing this about our child is like not knowing about our child's food preferences or favourite toy.
As my friend was picking Ia up and receiving the homework sheets she overheard another mother remarking, on receipt of her child's worksheet, "Does she recognise the numbers?". My friend was shocked, the mother is asking this about her own child? I suppose for us home educators the idea of not knowing this about our child is like not knowing about our child's food preferences or favourite toy.
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