Weekly Report - 23rd January 2010

Our week went pretty well, we did the usual subjects :

Maths: Worked on times tables, Division. We've taken a small break from Singapore Maths so the girls can learn more of their number bonds, recommended in the book before moving on to further units. So mainly doing their work in their Schofield and Sims Workbooks.

Grammar : First language lessons, Dd(9) did lesson 36, which contained the story of 'The hen and the golden egg' and involved written narration work. Alhamdulillaah we are starting to do a bit more narration now, the more they do insha Allaah the better their mind will become at remembering the passage/information read to them, insha Allaah.


Dd(6) worked on lesson 3 - common and proper nouns, and lesson 4 - proper nouns - first names, in which she was required to write down names from our family, with the capital letters being emphasized to her.


Reading Reflex : Dd(6) is working on the 'oe' sound, and was required to sort all the ways that sound could be spelt, she did do well, Masha'Allaah, but I think she's going to need alot more practice before moving on to the next sound, it would be great to have some books containing that sound so she could practice more, she has been reading some Dr Seus books which is helping her to progress a bit faster with her reading alhamdulillaah, and is helping her gain more confidence, Allaahumma baarak feehaa (may Allaah bless her in it ameen)


Handwriting - Dd(6) did some more pages in her workbook.


Science - I read to Dd(6) about crocodiles and alligators from the 'First encyclopedia for animals' and she narrated back the main points she remembered, and I wrote it down, she wasn't too bad alhamdulillaah, it's a start anyway.


Dd(9) - Her animal was the cheetah, same method, I read, she narrated and wrote down on paper to be filed in her folder. I feel I have to explain something, I am kind of starting from about year 1 with her for Science and even Maths, she was in school for a while before we moved to Birmingham, but when we moved here and I started to home educate her, I didn't know what she'd covered and what she hadn't, for one she didn't really have a clue how to do a sum, not even by using her fingers, I had to show her that, she didnt know her times tables etc.. and with Science she could recall working on certain topics, but not much. She was a bit behind when she went in there, and I was told she would get extra help to catch up, but I'm not sure if she did get the help she needed, Allaahu a'lam.

I feel in a bit of a mess with it all really, I feel I shouldn't have to be going back this far, but I feel I have to, because I don't want to be leaving anything out, and I feel it's very important to set the foundation, to fully master the basics, because if not she probably will struggle with higher work. She does go to school also in the afternoon, and alhamdulillaah, there she is doing work more to her age group, and doing quite well alhamdulillaah.

As mentioned previously in my other posts we're using the methods set out in the WTM, for first grade, the child would first of all study about 20 animals, supposed to be 1 each week, then after that would be the human body, then plants, what I'm trying to do right now is work on each throughout the week, so for example this week we did the animal kingdom, and also started on the human body, which roughly takes about 10 weeks I think to complete, if done once a week. I think I will leave plants until spring insha Allaah as recommended.

I don't want to cram her brain with too much info, but I'm anxious for her to move on, one of my fears is that when she reaches high school age, she'll still be on primary work, I pray that Allaah will make it easy for me to help bring her more up to standard insha Allaah.

Ok, well back to what we did this week, like I said Dd(9) started on the human body, topic - bones, we did a narration page. I also had a set of worksheets that I'd printed off from 'The teacher file box' and in there was a skeleton she could make, so she cut all the pieces out, pasted on things such as the rib cage and the heart, and fastened it together with paper fastners, which enables the legs and arms to move, she really enjoyed doing that, so did I!

Both girls also finished their 'Animal classification' lapbooks, at long last ! although it wasn't that long ago they started on it, but just haven't been fully consistent with working on it, they look really good masha'Allaah, but unfortunately Dd(6) lost some parts to hers, which I'm sure will turn up soon insha Allaah, will also try posting some pics of these in the week insha Allaah.

I was in the mood for spending yesterday, and so I came across a website called Bright Minds, who by the way have a sale going on, with up to 80% off, so I ordered a world globe and a chemistry set , oooh I get soo excited waiting for parcels, can't wait to try out the chemistry set insha Allaah, you'd think I was the student ! :D
While on my spending spree, I also ordered the workbook to go with our writing programme 'Writing with ease' By Susan Wise Bauer, it basically will save me time gathering together bits from different books for copywork and narration.

Today we also went to Thinktank Science Museum in Birmingham, it was excellent Masha'Allaah, kids had a great day alhamdulillaah. Insha Allaah I will write more about our trip there tomorrow hopefully and put up some photos, but I'm just waiting for my usb cable to come for my phone, so hopefully the beginning of the week pics will be posted.

If you've read this far, well done!! Thankyou :)

Weekly report January 17th 2010 (bit late this week!)

We haven't really had a great week, Ds(7) was off school due to the snow, and so mummy ended up crawling back into bed after fajr most mornings, shattered from going to bed at not a very decent time :( .......................... so our mornings started late, and the workbooks were brought out, I don't fully rely on them, the girls do a page or so a day normally, but I was happy they were doing something at least.

The girls carried on practicing their number bonds, I really want them to memorise them insha Allaah, we're currently working through Singapore Maths and it does mention how important it is for the child to know them before moving on to further units. I put together two small booklets for them, with the number bonds up to ten, progress is somewhat slow, but I think because we're not spending enough time practicing them.

They both reviewed the time we've been working on, like 'o' clock, half past the hour, quarter past and quarter to, Masha'Allaah in the last couple of days, Dd(6) has been telling me the time alot more from her watch her Nan bought her recently, so it's nice to see that it is going in, insha Allaah.

Dd(6) has started 'First language lessons' she will be going on to lesson 3 this week insha Allaah, Dd(9) will be going on to lesson 35, I just can't wait for her to get on to the second part of the book now insha Allaah, we try to fit in a lesson a day if things are going well.

English and Maths was done in their workbooks.

We also had a bit of fun with the snow last week, it's not often we really do anything creative, so I was determined this week that I would fit something in for them, so Masha'Allaah they made pictures on the snow and sculpted igloos and teddybears (Dd(9)'s idea :)

We also did a very simple experiment which I found online, which was to see exactly how clean the snow is, I put some snow in a pan, heated it until it melted, then I poured it into a dish which I had covered with a few sheets of kitchen towel paper and taped it around the edges, there were a few small specks of dirt, but not alot.

I did take some photos of the week, but unfortunately I'm having alot of problems right now, the one memory card I was using with my camera has all of a sudden become 'write protected' and so I'm unable to upload them to the computer, I've just bought a new one, thinking it would be fine, but I'm having exactly the same problem with that one too, I'm feeling soo frustrated as I don't know where the problem is, the cards/my camera/the card reader or the computer??? Insha Allaah I'll get to the bottom of it soon.

The coming week......

I've been planning a few things I'm going to do with the girls this week insha Allaah, with K I will be re-introducing money for Maths, I don't feel she's competent enough for her age in this area, and it's been a while since I first did the lessons with her, so we will go over it again insha Allaah, with T, she will be learning about solid shapes. This evening I printed out some flashcards and worksheets to accompany the lessons, as well as some colourful posters to put up on the wall.

We're also gonna work a little more on nouns, just so I know K completely understands it all, we are working through 'first language lessons' by Jessie Wise, Co-author of 'The Well Trained Mind' and so I've just printed out a few worksheets for a bit extra practice, I also intend to introduce verbs with her, we were talking about them last night, and she caught on real quick masha'Allaah, so insha Allaah we won't have to stay on that for too long.




With T we will pick up where we left off in the 'Reading Reflex', and for both I want to continue doing daily narration work, using 'Aesop's fables' insha Allaah.

I posted a link to a poem on the parts of speech last night, well here it is, we have it up on our wall, ready to be memorised, insha Allaah it'll be a help.


And with Autumn upon us now, I would love to start a wall display, 'sparkle box' have some nice pictures and other resources on this season which would come in very handy for this.

Going back to Ramadhan, we did do a display, but unfortunately it never got finished, but I was happy that we had it half finished, rather than not done at all, insha Allaah I will take a few pics and post them before we take it down for the next one :)

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

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.

The week so far...

So what have we been up to so far this week? well, mainly the usual subjects, alhamdulillaah the girls are coming along well,Allaahumma baarak feehim.

I'm not going to ramble on tonight, feeling rather tired, so instead have just put up various pictures of the last few days.

Dd(5)decided to do something creative today with the money, I was rather impressed masha'Allaah, she said it was a whale.

we played a couple of card games to help aid memorisation of number bonds.

Dd(7) has been working on the unit, doubling plus 1.
Reading time!


I think last time I updated properly I mentioned about no longer having a lift to school for my son, I wasn't sure what was going to happen, if I was going to homeschool him or find a way to get him there, well anyway, there is a sister living not too far away from me, who was willing to take him to school and bring him back. Morning times we do have to take a little walk to her house, which takes about 10 mins, we have to get there before 8, alhamdulillaah, so far things have run quite smoothly, I feel like crawling into bed when I get back though, it just shows how unfit I am! today we decided to take the shortcut through the park, which insha Allaah we'll probably do from now on, much nicer than walking down the main road..

A squirrel in the tree (not very clear though )


Oh, and just had to squeeze in one of my little cutie! Allaahumma baaraak feehee.

Daily Report (well, trying to make it 'daily!' lol)

We started off today a bit late in the morning, waiting for Dd(8) to wake up, and myself just dawdling, I get like that just after breakfast some mornings, but we need to start working on having an earlier start. Our average start lately has been around 10am, at least an hour earlier would give us more time insha Allaah.

We worked on usual subjects, had a good Maths lesson with Dd(8), we are working from the Singapore Maths workbooks, as I mentioned before she's a bit behind on Maths, and so I started on yr 1 book with her, some of it we just skip, anyway, today's lesson was introducing the method of counting on, I have encouraged this with her, so she was familiar with it, but I think today just reinforced it more for her, Allaahumma baarak feehaa.

With the reading reflex lessons, Dd(5) is flying through them, Allaahumma baarak feehaa, we did two today, they were easy for her masha'Allaah. Not many more lessons, and then she'll be moving on to the advanced code, where it will introduce sounds like 'ch' 'sh' 'ck' etc... I need to buy more readers for her insha Allaah, still haven't got anymore yet, I want her to be more encouraged to read insha Allaah, but hopefully as she progresses more with her reading, she will be eager to start hitting some books.

For Science, we are following the methods and suggestions in 'The Well Trained Mind' , we are working on the animal kingdom, and the second animal Dd(8) chose was 'Domestic Cats' this order was great, as we've just got a cat a couple of wks back, and it's encouraged my daughter to read the book I got from the library on taking care of cats.
So, I read from the encyclopedia a few paragraphs, then Dd(8) narrated back to me what she remembered, she did rather well, Allaahumma baarak feehaa, a tip I picked up from Karen Andreola's book 'The Charlotte Mason Companion' when doing narration, is at the beginning for starting, write down some of the important words, like dates, places, names etc... which are contained in the paragraph, chapter you are going to read to your child, and read them out to your child, mentioning that they will hear these words, and are free to use them when narrating back if they need to. I will start off doing this, but I think as they get the hang of narrating more, I may stop doing it, Allaahu a'lam.
Then, Dd(8) went and drew a picture of the cat (without the face) to accompany her narration in her folder.

Well, still haven't completed the lapbooks, hopefully by the end of the year! haha, insha Allaah they will get done soon. The kids have been talking about doing another lapbook, I told them they need to get this one done first before moving onto another one, it's my fault really, they're happy to do it, it's just getting the time on top of everything else to sit there with them and get it done, but hopefully soon insha Allaah.

Spoke to the school today, and said that Ds(6) may have to stop coming after the holidays, the brother said not to worry, something will be sorted out insha Allaah, so I will wait and see what comes up.

Last week's update/report

I've been meaning to come on and do a post before this, but been busy busy and just didn't have the time to come on and blog. So just a brief update for last week. Alhamdulillaah the week went well, we've been doing the usual subjects daily, Qaa'idah, Handwriting, Reading, Maths, we're still working on number bonds, trying to get the girls to memorise the different combinations for numbers up to 10, it's kind of a slow process though, and don't want to hold them back until they've memorised them. In the singapore maths guide, it recommends your child learning them as quickly as they can, even though some may learn it quicker than others, apparently it can be a great help as they progress with Maths, it says to give your child lots of practice with the number bonds, but you can move on and continue to have the child memorise them through the next few units. It's kind of getting a bit boring staying on the same topic, so can't wait to move on insha Allaah.

Dd(5) has been practicing some stories in the Reading Reflex book, she's coming on really well, Allaahumma baarak feehaa. But normally one story is enough for her to read, she get's a bit fed up of reading after a bit. She's quite different to how Dd(8) was when she was learning to read, she was alot more eager, and read loads and that really helped her to progress quickly, masha'Allaah she's the kind of child that when she wants to do something, she'll put her mind to it and keep trying till she's learnt it, she learnt to tie her laces by herself, and plait hair, I was shocked when she did her first plait, same with riding a bike, Allaahumma baarak feehaa.

I introduced history last week, we are working from the book 'story of the world' by Susan Wise Bauer. The first chapter was on ancient nomads, I read aloud to the girls and then Dd(8) narrated back what she remembered, and drew a picture to be filed in the history section of her folder along with the narration page. Insha Allaah we are going to continue with that lesson tomorrow, Dd(8)really loved the story about a young nomad girl, and can't wait to continue with it, she came downstairs not long ago looking for the book so she could read the rest, but I told her that it was just for our lessons, and besides I don't think we'll be working on everything in the book, I'm gonna leave alone myths and the like insha Allaah.

Have been reading through the Charlotte Mason Companion, masha'Allaah I love this book, it contains much useful info on child rearing, such as bickering amongst siblings, instilling of good habits etc... and also the home education side. I find the book to be very inspiring masha'Allaah, after it I would like to try and read Charlotte Mason's homeschooling series through properly.

Lil update of yesterday and today

Yesterday we only managed to do our akhaar, Qaa'idah, handwriting and some Maths practice, I had a guest coming for the day, and had to go out to get some things, felt a bit gutted we weren't able to do more though.

Today, I had an appointment, so we didn't do anything today, time we got back it was duhr time, had to serve lunch etc.. It started snowing again when we were out, the bottom of my abayah,my socks,trainers were all soaked through! my feet were like ice.

Bought a few Islamic books today, masha'Allaah they were quite cheap, there was one I bought called 'My Yemeni Village' by Goodword Kids, and written by a 13 yr old boy living in Yemen. Earlier when taking a look at the book, it dawned on me that maybe this is what is classed as a 'living book', it gives a personal insight into life in Yemen, and not a book of dry facts. I was so excited, lol, ok I was probably was a bit over the top,lol.

Tomorrow we'll be going to a sisters house insha Allaah, that we go every 2wks to do a lesson there, we're going to do a sale with things we no longer need/want etc.. insha Allaah there should be quite a few sisters there, so looking forward to that. The last time we did it, the kids really enjoyed, it gave them the opportunity to handle money in real life situations, which was one of the main reasons we did it.

Oh, and Dd(5) can now write her name Allaahumma baarak feek. I am so pleased, her name is quite long, but she just copied it almost daily, until she was able to write it by herself. So well done T!

Ok well that's it from me for now, will try and remember to take some pics of the sale tomorrow and post them up if I can.

P.s You may be wondering what's with the flowers at the top? lol, well, was looking for a picture to go with my post, related or not, and just loved this one, it's so beautiful masha'Allaah)

Monday's Report (we're back!)

Well, it's been a little while since I last posted, I have not had much time lately to update, and I decided for us to take a break last week as it was Ds(6)'s last week of his holiday, not much of an excuse huh? but this week things have got to start getting a bit more serious insha Allaah, alhamdulillaah we started the week off well, we did:

Our daily adkhaar

Qaa'idah - Dd(5) has now finally moved on to recognising the small letters, how they look when joined up and used in words. Dd(8) is progressing quickly Allahumma baarak feehaa.

Handwriting practice - Dd (5)practiced the letter 'a' and 'd', she can write these masha'Allaah, but does need just a bit extra practice in forming them correctly.
I have decided to move Khadijah on, rather than hold her back going through the letters, majority of them she forms correctly masha'Allaah, there is the odd one that she doesn't, but insha Allaah we can work on them as we move along. She did practice one or two letters today, but tomorrow insha Allaah she will do a couple of pages from the end of the Zaner Bloser book, copying short sentences. Insha Allaah I intend to start doing more copywork with her.

Reading Reflex - Both doing well on their lessons masha'Allaah, I do need to find some good readers for Dd(5), she has read through the first set of 'bob books', I'm not sure what the second set are like, but I really feel she needs to have more reading practice each day, but with phonetic books, not whole language, as this is what I normally come across in the library etc..

Maths - We're still working on number bonds, have included Dd(5) I think she is capable of understanding the concept insha Allaah, I just need to reinforce it more with her. Dd(8) is understanding it masha'Allaah, but we're gonna spend a few more days on this unit in the Singapore maths book. We have started memorising number bonds, starting with 1 and 2. we will do this at the beginning of each maths lesson insha Allaah. I feel it is important they understand the concept and know the number bonds off by heart.

Science - We are following the study suggestions in the 'Well Trained Mind' so our lesson consists of me reading a passage from the animal encyclopedia, Dd(8) had to choose 20 animals she would like to learn about, the first one we started with is the anaconda, Dd(8) narrated back to me in her own words what she remembered, while I wrote it down. Narration apparently is an excellent form of training for the mind, and is used in classical education and was a method used by Charlotte Mason also.

Grammar - Working from 'first language lessons' by Jessie Wise. A new poem was assigned to be memorised, called ''work''by anonymous,

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
This is the way
To be happy each day,
All that you do,
Do with your might;
Things done by halves
Are never done right.

Alhamdulillaah we fitted everything in, I was very pleased with that. I've done my planning for tomorrow, insha Allaah, it will be an even better and more productive day.

I am still currently in the process of looking into Charlotte Mason's philosophy, I ordered the book 'A Charlotte Mason Companion' by Karen Andreola, it arrived last week, I was so excited, I've started it, and read quite a few pages, it has alot of useful information. I would like to read the 'original homeschooling series' by Charlotte Mason after this insha Allaah. I just want to take my time, and introduce things slowly, we may end up a mix of classical and Charlotte Mason, as both sides appeal to me, but are very similar with certain things, such as narration,copywork.
Ok, I'm off to read, will try my best to update tomorrow insha Allaah.

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.

Daily report (22/12/08)

Sorry, I know I haven't been updating much lately, Dh came back from hajj masha'Allaah, may Allaah accept his efforts, ameen, the kids were very excited as he'd been gone for about 2 weeks, so we didn't get much school done, plus haven't been able to come online that much. So I made sure tonight I got on here and wrote something, may not be exciting, but for me this is a place I can record my little ones progress, and gather our memories of homeschooling.

Well, today, I must say was a great day, alhamdulillaah. I'm trying to get myself to bed alot earlier these days, aiming for 10.30, last nite got into bed just before 11pm, which is great for me as I'm the kind of gal who could stay up practically all night, but my average time of going to bed was about 2.30, sometimes 3 or 4, but started bringing it back to about 1, so 11 is a great improvement, just got to stick to it now insha Allaah. It is vital I get more rest, as lately I've really started to feel the tiredness, and it's affecting the schooling, so a big reason to break this habit of mine.

Ok, back to today, I know I went a bit off track there, hehe, well Ds(6) is off school for 2 weeks, so schooling the 3 of them right now, masha'Allaah we had a good day, few tears and squabbles, but we made it through alhamdulillaah, and the kids benefitted masha'Allaaah.

Started our day a bit late in the morning, but we did:

Daily adkhaar (rememberance)

Qaa'idah - Dd(8) now moved onto a new page, introducing the sound made when fat-hah comes before waaw, and makes the 'ow' sound as in 'now', I tried to push her a lil bit harder today, as I don't feel we're doing enough, and the girls, I feel are getting used to only doing little portions of work, she did bring on the tears a bit, and complained she couldn't do it, but I knew she could as she'd already read out the sound, so I persisted and the tears eventually stopped, and the page got read a few times, alhamdulillaah. I'm really pleased with the progress she's making Allaahumma baarak feehaa, and I know she can progress alot quicker if she does just a bit more a day insha Allaah. The other day when Dh was here, he was helping her with the Qaa'idah, and he said he thinks she would do really well in Damaaj (yemen) insha Allaah, a place of gaining knowledge, that we may go to insha Allaah.



Dd(5) is also making progress Allaahumma baarak feehaa, insha Allaah with being more consistent, which I am trying my hardest to attain, she will move along alot quicker also.
Ds(6) doing well Allaahumma baarak feehee (think that ending's right?!)

Maths - Used some blocks today to try and reinforce the concept of number bonds, hadn't thought of doing it this way before, but got the idea from Let's play Maths, and the kids loved it! it's the first time I've seen them this excited about Maths, lol, so maths can be fun! I also gave them some numbers on a sheet to work out which two numbers add up to make that particular number, they enjoyed doing this also masha'Allaah. It helped them to really understand the concept, and it was nice to see Dd(8) understanding it, as she did struggle a bit the other day, working from her workbook.






We also carried on practicing telling the time, I showed a few examples on the clock face, and then they completed some worksheets. I've promised them that when each of them learns to tell the time properly, I will buy them a watch as their reward, so they're quite excited about that, masha'Allaah.



Reading Reflex - Started Ds(6) on the book today, he done well, baarakAllaahu feehee, I've wanted to start him for a while now, I intended to do it after school with him but have never started the routine, so now is the perfect time insha Allaah. I have alot of confidence in this programme masha'Allaah, I have seen results with Dd(8) and Dd(5) and find it an easy programme to teach masha'Allaah.





We weren't able to fit in handwriting today, I tried to do as much as we could, but insha Allaah we have tomorrow.

Daily report (16/12/08)

Today we only managed to do work in the morning, but we covered quite a few lessons alhamdulillaah. I let dd(5)sleep in a bit, as she didn't go off to sleep till a bit late, felt bad to wake her, so she did miss out on most of the morning.

Well, we started off again with our morning adkhaar (remembrance) really trying to keep this up insha Allaah, and make it a daily habit, alhamdulillaah I'm starting to remember some of them off by heart, as well as dd(8).

Qaa'idah - still working through the lesson on 'sukun' Now on line 3 masha'Allaah.

Handwriting - dd(8) didn't get to start her worksheet yesterday, so started it today, same as what dd(5) did, started on the O's and C's, as I mentioned before, the reason for taking her back to the same stage as dd(5) is to ensure each letter is being formed correctly, and any bad habits are corrected early on insha Allaah, also to encourage neatness in each individual letter.

Maths - Both dd(8) and dd(5) started on the Singapore maths books today. dd(5) started on some counting exercises, this is actually a year one workbook, so I'm gonna see how she gets on with it insha Allaah. dd(8) worked on number bonds, there was a few tears, as she didn't quite get it at first, so I had to keep explaining, and giving different examples, eventually she seemed to understand the concept of the lesson a bit more, but I want her to start memorising her addition facts again, as this will help her in this area insha Allaah.

Remembered to continue our lesson on telling the time, this was very informal, just told dd(8) to get the baby's play cube which has got a clock on it, and just revised what they learnt yesterday, dd(5) decided to join in and grabbed one of the time books with a clock face on, this was while I was in the kitchen doing something and they sat in the hallway, the simplicity of homeschooling ey! Not every lesson needs to be done at the table masha'Allaah.

Reading Reflex - dd(8) worked on the a-e word list, she had to sort the different words all with the a-e/ay sound, but into different spelling groups, for e.g rake would be in the a-e list, day would be in the ay list and so on. Need to start working on her spelling insha Allaah, I intend to put together some word lists based on sounds/words we've already covered and work through a few at a time, it's through teaching this book, that I've actually realised how confusing the English language must be for a child and someone who is learning the language, but with time and effort it can be mastered insha Allaah.

We didn't do science today as I intended, late morning the baby needed a nap, and I ended up taking a lil nap with him, I was so tired! dd(8) read a bit from her madinah arabic book, the one for kids, and that was our homeschooling done for the day. SubhanAllaah I'm just finding it a bit hard to fit everything in, the morning flies by, by the time we've had our breakfast, got dressed etc... but I'm trying to make good use of the time we have and mainly get the most important subjects done, if they're done I'm happy masha'Allaah. One thing we need to focus on also is Islamic studies, this is most important along with the Qaa'idah, insha Allaah I need to make a plan for it and get started asap.

Daily update (15/12/08)

Well, today went pretty well, got up about 6.30 with ds(6) saw him off to school and waited for the girls and the baby to wake up. Masha'Allaah in this time I was able to have my breakfast, organise a few things, and have things ready for the day, what a great start to the week! alhamdulillaah. It did really feel good.

I actually held back from going on the computer last night (well, not the entire night, I did go on for a little bit before going off to bed), I really wanted to go over some of the Well trained mind again, and start implementing some of their curriculum into our learning. It helped so much to get it written down onto paper, to have a plan of action, it helped me to feel more motivated, as it kind of started to go down a bit recently, but alhamdulillaah I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things, May Allaah help me (and others who are in need of it) to be more consistent and hard working when it comes to teaching my (our) children, ameen.

Ok, so back to today, we started off with our morning adkhaar (rememberance) and then started on the Qaa'idah (to read the Qur'an), Masha'Allaah DD(8) is doing well, and progressing quite fast, Allaahumma baarak feek. Today she learnt a bit more about the rule of the qalqalah letters, which when appear with a sukun above, they are to be pronounced with an added stress, qalqalah meaning 'shakiness'. I had her copy the rule down onto paper, which will be filed into her folder insha Allaah, and added to when necessary.

DD(5)is working through letter recognition practice, she is doing well Allaahumma baarak feehaa, but I just need more consistency with her insha Allaah, so she can progress faster insha Allaah.




Handwriting
I have decided to take things a bit slower and not rush them with their writing, I want to make sure they are forming each letter correctly before moving onto the next, so DD(5) and DD(8) are both working through Zaner Bloser's handwriting programme (as recommended in the Well trained mind)DD(8) is able to write masha'Allaah, but I know that she doesn't form all of her letters correctly, and bad habits can be hard to break if left.
DD(5) is also working through her numbers one by one, if I can see that she is able to write a certain number correctly and neatly, then I do allow her to move on to the next.

Grammar

We're working through 'first language lessons for the well trained mind' We are now on lesson 12. Today I read out the Aesops fable 'The lion and the mouse' which both girls enjoyed, I then asked DD(8) some questions from the book, to make it easier for her to remember parts of the story, I wrote down her answers, and she drew a picture to illustrate the story. This was a narration exercise,used regulary in classical education, which is what I'm trying to implement bit by bit insha Allaah.



Maths

We didn't do a full on maths lesson today, but we did have a mini lesson on telling the time, DD(8) did a few exercises in her workbook, starting with '0'clock and half past, it went well masha'Allaah.





Unfortunately we didn't manage to do the Reading Reflex today as we started out a tad bit late, but insha Allaah tomorrow will be better.