Conker Time

We are still enjoying days of warm, autumn sunshine, maashAllah, and now it is conker time! Those conkers look so shiny and beautiful and they are thick on the ground too. So today we were out for a walk, playing with friends and collecting conkers.

Geography

We spent most of the weekend out of the house enjoying the company of friends and the autumn sunshine, maashAllah. I seem to go through cycles of being indoors a lot and then out a lot. The state of the housework is a good indicator of what cycle I'm in.
Anyway, today was a busy learning at home day, so I hardly saw any part of the house that is not the kitchen and dining room.
Geography. Last year we didn't do much geography related work. I seem to remember some good documentaries being watched, and of course some library books with geography themes, online puzzles and games but no more than that. For this year I thought we'd try the Trail Guide to World Geography by Cindy Wiggers. I first heard about this on a blog somewhere I think, and then I read more about it on a forum where it was given a good review by a very experienced home educator, so I thought I'd give it a go. it basically provides a structure for a touring study of different parts of the world, along with the learning of geographical terms and facts. I like the fact that it is not too prescriptive. There are lots of ideas to investigate, but you can use the structure to investigate the countries further in any way you want to, looking at the aspects most interesting to your own children. Some will want to know more about the animals, others about the culture, the landscapes or even the foods. In a way these things may seem obvious, but when you work mostly on your own you lack that other person to bounce about ideas with, and this book can act like the other half of the dialogue. It suggests something, from which you think of something else, and so on. I imagine it will take a long time to use this book fully, as we'll be constantly digressing...
There are also lots of accessories to go with the book if you like, but I'll be improvising as usual!
The boys will be working on this in topic blocks, a couple of weeks at a time inshAllah, then a break for something else and so on.
Ia is also getting her own spin off version. When the boys were her age they did a "Where I live" project, which I am planning to do with Ia this year too, inshAllah. However, hers has been extended to cover looking at the continents and oceans first too. We'll have a look round the continents coming to Europe last, then we'll zoom into the UK, then into our town and the local streets, rather in the way you can zoom in and in on Google Earth, until you can almost see your house. There you go, that's my plan, a project version of zooming in on Google Earth. Let's see if it works, inshAllah!

Friday

This morning the boys stayed awake after praying Fajr and so they were able to get almost everything done before 11am. Just their Quran reading remained, which they did after Zuhr. It would be good if they could manage this regularly, as then they had the rest of the day free to play in the garden, play with their Wii and read.
What did they do before 11am? Maths word problems, revision of the rules of wudu, spent time on www.brainpop.co.uk, listened to me read aloud, shaded a map of continents and made a list of Earth facts and stats.
The girls began the day looking at animal facts and pictures on Sheppard.
Later in the day my Book People order arrived. U received the Usborne alphabet sticker book, which she got started with right away after lunch. With any alphabet things she insists on working through in order. This is because she can confidently recite the alphabet and if she does this carefully she correctly identifies the letters. She is still not sure of them randomly. At this rate she will, inshAllah, have a good grasp of alphabetical order, so it is not a problem!
I also bought a set of drawing books, (some of which we will have to discard as they are about drawing living beings), and Ia was keen to start tracing a car sketch, and shading it in. Many of the books are for drawing planes, cars, robots, which appeals to J. I think these may be useful for him in the coming winter months when outdoor play gets limited.

Beginning again

Autumn has arrived. Ramadan has passed, Eid has been celebrated. Now it is really time to remember what it is we do with our days of home ed!!
I think it is going to work like this...the boys will get most of their work done in the morning, and the girls will do more in the afternoons. I'm not sure that this is a good idea, but whatever I intend it seems to end up that way. Hmmm.
Another small change is that the boys will do their maths and English tasks first thing and then I'll do the read aloud. Although it is nice to start with read aloud, this way will probably break things up more suitably. The boys usually like to zip through tasks as fast as they can, and it will be nice to have those daily ones out of the way early.

Here Ia addresses the problem of "How many less than 22 is 16?"

U has many of her own ideas about learning. She did not want to do a task today, so I said we'd leave it, to which she responded "So, then how will I know how to teach my own children if I don't learn it?"

Well, learning it later is OK too! But, interesting viewpoint!

In the photo she is doing something she enjoyed, threading the buttons and then counting how many were on the string.

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!