Time management for homeschool mums - Free-ebook!

I don't know about you, but I'm not all that great with my time management, some days I'm on top of everything, the day's plan is going great, place is clean, kids in bed on time, you name it, but then come another day, everything is a shambles, the place is a mess, don't have time to fit all our lessons in, kids in bed late.... you get the picture right? I'm constantly up and down with my time management, so when I checked on homeschool freebie today, I was delighted to see that they're giving away a great resource to help with this, check out the description below -

Finding Time To Do It All: Homeschool Moms Share their Time Management Woes and Solutions (PDF ebook) - In today’s resource, we went right to the source and surveyed over 400 homeschool moms to discover what Time Management concerns, secrets and suggestions they might offer if they could share their experiences with other families. The “real life” insights, frustrations, tips, and ideas that they share here address the unique time management issues that homeschool families face. Discover what Time Management solutions have worked for others, and apply them to your own household!

Click here to download today’s resource!

Note - The free resources on homeschool freebie are normally only available for 1 day, sometimes longer.

Green thumb family toolkit

This is crazy, we know… but sometimes that’s the way we do thing around here.

With garden season right around the corner… and the economy being the big scary mess it is… we just decided (literally on the spur of the moment) to offer our huge Green Thumb Family “Toolkit” at a jaw dropping discount you’re not gonna believe.

19 wonderful resources designed to encourage and inspire your family to learn together, work together and grow together in the great outdoors… all Spring and Summer long!

And it’s… how much?

Click here to check out the Green Thumb Family Toolkit… and prepare to be amazed!

I just went ahead and purchased this, I personally think it's great value, and seen as we've recently started doing a bit of gardening of our own, thought it'd be a great resource to have.

btw, I am not an affiliate for homeschool freebie, I will not get anything back from this, Just wanted to share with whoever may read my blog.

Note - Resource will soon expire.

Inspiring Quote

This morning I came across this beautiful quote by Og Mandino, I found it really inspiring and motivating, I think I'm gonna print it out and pin it up on my wall! insha Allaah.

“Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.” Og Mandino.

Tuesday's update

I know, haven't posted any of our 'learning' updates for a while, afwan, blogging seemed the last of my priorities lately, but I have missed it, insha Allaah I'll get back on track.


Well we started off our day a little bit later than I wanted to today, but alhamdulillaah it was still early.

We got started on our morning adkhaar, masha'Allaah the girls are starting to remember many of them now.


Dd(8) got her qaa'idah out, she's now learning the long vowel 'a' , progress could be alot faster if we spent more time on it insha Allaah, would like to start doing an extra lesson in the afternoon insha Allaah.

Dd(5) still working on the small letters, just going over it each time until she can recognise each letter well, she's getting there Allaahumma baarak feeha.


As I wasn't able to get most of the planning done for this week over the weekend, except really for maths, today was a bit unstructured, but actually seemed to get quite a bit fitted in, I chose some things randomly, and to tell you the truth I kinda enjoyed it, but I do still like to have some structure, but it made a change.


I signed Dd(5) up for Whizz Maths, Dd(8) is also doing it, masha'Allaah after doing her assesment, it showed that her maths age is 6.31, Allaahumma baarak feeha, I was very impressed, alhamdulillaah, I'm hoping insha Allaah this programme will benefit both of them, I have seen progress with my other daughter also, masha'Allaah, but we haven't been using it consistently, would like to try and schedule 3-4 days for them to go on and do a couple of lessons insha Allaah.


So today, Dd(5) did a lesson on place value (on whizz) and measures, I could see she was getting a bit frustrated with the programme, as there's so many questions, and sometimes she just wasn't getting it, but she was determined to keep going, I think probably because she knows that they give you points for each lesson and test, and then the child can go spend it in the online virtual shop, she really wants to buy a pet! lol.


She also did some pattern worksheets, we've done a few lessons on this topic, alhamdulillah all has gone well.

played a few learning games online, some memory games, watched little bit of adem and the ants (what a name ey?! lol) on bbc, it's kinda like a maths cartoon, first sounds game (also on bbc).


We did some sight words practice, masha'Allaah she knew quite a few of them, plan on doing a little bit of these each day insha Allaah, probably just about 5 minutes, as at this age they tend to lose focus easily, and don't want to be burning her out now! insha Allaah.

" Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. "-- Roger Lewin


I probably did less with Dd(8) today, I think mainly because I had to spend alot of time sitting at the computer with Dd(5) doing her assesment, I couldn't leave her do it by herself as not everything on there is voiced out.


She did also go on Whizz, she worked on doubling, which I think she got,alhamdulillaah, when she came out of school back last year, her teacher told me she was having trouble understanding doubling and halving, so I'm glad it came up now, she also did place value,seasons.


Did some workbook exercises for Maths, she worked out a few money problems, and did subtraction.


I copied some worksheets from a couple of her english books for her to do, one was 'simple sentences' which focused on capital letters and full stops, also 'letters and words, the 'ow' sound'


Science - Just a bit of reading and a worksheet on the topic 'growing up' looking at the stages of life etc...


I know it doesn't look alot, but at the moment really trying to work on my consistency, last week we did 'school' each day alhamdulillaah, and so today I felt this was better than nothing, insha Allaah, at least they'll learn something, I don't really want to be dishing out worksheet after worksheet, but it's made me realise that when I need to get busy with something, for example the cooking, attending to the baby, my eldest daughter at least can be sitting down with a workbook, instead of wasting time, I like to see them more as a backup, but i think they are great for subjects such as english/maths.

" Teaching does not make learning --- organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to 100% false. Learners make learning. "-- Education Reformer John Holt

Free poetry e-book

Don’t Forget the Poetry by Amy Ringger (PDF ebook) — This brief but activity-filled unit study on poetry will get you excited about studying poetry with your kids this coming year. This little gem was written to put the tools in your hands to immediately be able to bring poetry to life for your children!
* Learn how poetry opens the door to improving your grammar and spelling skills.
* See examples of poems in different forms that her family has written (that you can emulate) to show you that anyone can write poetry.
* Learn how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h your kids’ own imagination and writing skills by creating their own poems.
* Follow Amy’s helpful tips and instructions for compiling your own book of poetry favorites using blank books.
* Also included: Amy’s own “gold nugget” resource guide to favorite family-friendly poets and poetry books, to ensure you get started with some wonderful poetry your kids will love.
This short little guide will help you put together a concise, “hands on” unit study that — accompanied by a trip to your local library — will give you all you need to conduct an entertaining, educational and memorable study of poetry. It does NOT require a lot of preparation on your part to implement. You can read through it and map out your study plan in about an hour.
To download this freebie, click here!

(offer will soon expire)

The importance of friendship

Did you have a best friend when you were a child? well, I'm sure most of us did, my bestest friend before high school was a girl called Heidi, she lived next door but one, we would have sleepovers and all sorts, we had some good times.

Well, now it's nice to see my eldest daughter who is 8 becoming rather fond of a close friends daughter, Masha'Allaah. Up until recently she always preferred playing with the boys, before we left Cardiff her best friend was Abdul-Hakim, and she just found boys more exciting than the girls, more energetic like her masha'Allaah.

But now, as you can probably understand, I'd prefer her to develop friendships more with girls around her age, she's growing up masha'Allaah, and I think it's important that she can have friends who are being raised in the same way she is, learning the morals and manners she is insha Allaah.

Companionship is very important for us as adults, and who we choose to keep as our companion, and likewise for our children too. We want them to be influenced in a positive way, and feel proud of their islamic identity insha Allaah.

So tonight my daughter wrote out a beautiful poem from one of her books for her friend, and on Thursday she gave her a gift of a book she had copied out herself, which took a bit of time to complete. Alhamdulillaah, it's nice to see children eager to give one another gifts, and to feel the joy out of 'giving' not just when 'recieving'.

The water cycle

Every two weeks we go to Umm Faatimah's, who also homeschools her children, we take it in turns to plan the lesson, this time it was her turn.

The topic was the water cycle, Masha'Allaah, everything was planned really well, may Allaah reward the sister ameen. The lesson started with a brief talk, and then the kids watched a short video clip, showing how it actually rains, the kids enjoyed it masha'Allaah.

Then we had a little demonstration using the kettle and a cold spoon, to show how when it boils, the steam rises up, and created tiny droplets of water on the underside of the spoon, this helped them to understand the water cycle a bit more.

The kids then had an acitivity to do, I didn't event think to take pictures until this point, hence the reason there's only a couple here of the finished job.





I think we all learnt a thing or two that day! alhamdulillaah.

Simple Ways To Make Babies Smarter

Parents.com

*Make eye contact. Take advantage of those brief moments when your newborn's eyes are open and look right into them. Infants recognize faces early on -- and yours is the most important!

*Each time he stares at you, he's building his memory.

*Stick out your tongue. Studies show that newborns as young as 2 days old can imitate simple

facial movements -- it's a sign of very early problem solving.

*Let him reflect. Have your baby stare at himself in the mirror. At first, he may think he's just eyeing another cute kid, but he'll love making the "other" baby wave his arms and smile.

*Make a difference. Hold up two pictures about 8 to 12 inches away from your baby's face. They should be similar but have one small difference (perhaps a tree is in one but not the other). Even a young infant will look back and forth and figure out the distinguishing features, which sets the stage for letter recognition and reading later on.

*Chat Her Up, Make Her Laugh, Blab away. All you may get is a blank look, but leave short pauses where your baby would speak. Soon she'll catch on to the rhythm of conversation and start filling in the blanks.

*Go gaga. Your baby really tunes in to your silly cooing and high-pitched baby talk.

*Clue him in. When you announce, "I'm going to turn on the light now" before flipping the switch, you're teaching cause and effect.

*Tickle her toes. In fact, tickle her all over. Laughter is the first step in developing a sense of humor. And playing games teaches your child to anticipate events.

*Be a funny face. Puff up your cheeks, and have your toddler touch your nose. When she does, poof! Have her pull your ear, and then stick out your tongue. Make a funny noise when she pats your head. Keep to the same routine three or four times, then change the rules to keep her guessing

Free islamic resources

Assalamu 'alaykum,

Masha'Allaah I just took a visit to the lifetime learning blog, and found a link to a great site in which you can download free du'a posters, and which I'm sure will make for a good colourful display on your classroom wall, insha Allaah. The sister also had a link to the freezone section on the Ad-Duha website, where you can find e-books written specifically for muslim children, and are fully illustrated but contain no images of humans/animals.

THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD QUR-AAN

I was just forwarded this in my email, thought it would be a good poem for kids to memorise insha Allaah.


The word Qur-aan linguistically

When broken down methodically

Means reading or recited piece

By most of those who dare to teach

It's reached us in its purest form

From massive chains still carried on

The Arabic speech of Allah

Revealed to Ibn Abdullah

In word and meaning both preserved

In mus-haf form gone undisturbed

A standing challenge for all time

For those who claim it's just a rhyme

(source-TheFiks.Org)

This tickled me....

My eldest daughter (8),

"Hoyo, these are called eyebulbs?" (pointing to her eyes)

I could not stop laughing, and she then corrected herself with the right word 'eyeballs'

Tagged:Mom of the year award

Masha'Allaah I was recently given a 'mom of the year' award from homeschooling muslimah, wow! jazakillaahu khairan sis, even though I feel I'm really undeserving of this, I really appreciate your kindness.

The rules of the tag are:

1. Admit one thing you feel awful about (involving being a mom). Once you have written it down, you are no longer allowed to feel bad. Remember you are a good mom!

2. Remind yourself that you ARE a good mom, list 7 things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you.

3. Send this to 5 other moms of the year that deserve a reminder that they are too the best moms that they can be. Remember to send them a note letting them know you have selected them, and also add a link to your post that directs people back to the person who nominated you.

*1. I feel awful that I don't do enough with my kids, like activities, crafts, taking them to the park etc...

2.

*Alhamdulillaah I'm happy that I'm trying to instill in them good mannerism, and teaching them the importance of worshipping Allaah alone.

*I love how they're sometimes so eager to please me, I may find one cleaning the bathrooom or kitchen as a suprise, masha'Allaah.

*I love seeing the look on their faces when we go somewhere special and different than usual.

*I love it when they quietly utter the words 'I love you' what mother doesnt?!

*I love seeing my girls dressed in abayah and hijab, Allaahumma baarak feehim, may Allaah always guide them, ameen.

*My kids love it when I'm a 'cool mum' lol, and act all silly and giggly with them.

*I love my kids' individual characters, Allaahumma baarak feehim.

I think that those deserving of this award are:

Oum Anas

Independant Learners

Umm Rashid

Anne Marie

The Homeschooling Ummi

Some of you may have already had the award, if so, don't worry about doing the tag again.