"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."
-Charlotte Mason

Friday 26 December 2008

Too much play, not enough work!

I haven't been posting my daily updates like I should be, but most days it's just the same work we do each day, not much to tell about, so I've been wondering whether to update once a week, or just when I feel we've done some interesting things that day and worth writing about, hmm, not sure, will see.

Well, this week there's not much to update on, what's with me and consistency ey?! Most day's by the time everyone's had breakfast, got dressed etc... the morning's almost gone, then the baby normally needs a nap, food has to be cooked etc.. I don't know what the best way is to organise our time better, and get the most out of it, another hhmm! But the kids have done a bit here and there. They did some handwriting practice, and masha'Allaah they really tried hard to get it neat, I was very pleased with the effort they made.






I paid for a subscription again with Whizz Maths, an online tutoring programme, as I mentioned before, Dd(8) is quite behind, and really needs the extra help, the programme costs £27.50 a month, bit steep, but it monitors your child's progress, and alters the programme accordingly, so it's kind of like having a virtual maths tutor. The last time she used it, her maths age shown on her progress report was 5.97, today it's up to 6.12, obviously she has learnt more since stopping it before, but apparently the child can improve on their maths by up to 2years/grades using whizz maths, according to previous results they've seen, I hope it works for her insha Allaah. Here's a couple of pics I took earlier of the lessons.




Dh has been helping out with teaching the Qaa'idah alhamdulillaah, been great with the extra help and the kids are loving it masha'Allaah. Dd(8) and Ds(6)began to get a bit confused with some of the words, and were not reading the sounds properly, I don't know what happened, especially with Dd(8),she was progressing very well masha'Allaah, but that one day, it's as if she had forgotten some of what she'd already learnt, so she had to be taken back a couple of pages, which she wasn't happy about, but today things were alot better alhamdulillaah. SubhanAllaah, when you teach your kids you need so much sabr, at times when I'm teaching Maths or the Qaa'idah, and it seems like they just don't get it, or sometimes with Maths, like yesterday, I was trying to suggest to Dd(8)some quicker ways to solve some of the problems, she didn't want to listen, and she worries I'm going to confuse her, but all I expected was that she listen to the suggestion and at least give it a go a few times, but no she didn't want to, times like this can be very frustrating, but I guess it's all part and parcel of homeschooling, alhamdulillaah.

Lately I've been doing more reading into Charlotte Mason, I've joined a couple of yahoo groups, and just tried to find out more about her philosophy, methods etc... it very much appeals to me, but I know I need to do more research first before we change over completely. Narration and dictation appeal to me very much masha'Allaah, but I have yet to incorporate them into our daily routine, but what I need is a schedule, when oh when will I ever put pen to paper and write one down?! put the procrastination to the side, and just do it! (just telling myself off, hehe). Insha Allaah, this weekend I need to sit down, away from the computer, and sort out what we're going to be doing, what methods I want to introduce etc.. and try harder next week insha Allaah.

4 comments:

ummrashid said...

Glad your home school blog is back, alhamdulillah.

Naimah said...

Jazakillaahu khairan sis, I'm glad it's back too.

Anonymous said...

as salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh

What a lovely read! It sounds like your children are blossoming ma shaa Allah. When my younger was born, I worried that I wasn't doing enough, but reading was a mainstay so a lot was covered just through good books. How nice also to meet someone interested in CM :) I don't consider myself a true CM-er ... I think I will use a modified Waldorf approach with the younger one who is less auditory :)

Love your journals :)

Naimah said...

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakatuhu, Nice to see you back sis!

I really need to start with the reading insha Allaah, I've been looking through the book lists on Ambleside Online, masha'Allaah there's quite alot you can get online free, so may just print some out and take a list to the library and have a search.
Right now, I'm wondering whether to kind of combine classical and CM, I've been reading a few blogs which mention they've adapted this kind of style, but I'm still very new to it all, so I don't want to rush into anything insha Allaah.