So Far Today

So far today we have learned lots about bones, made a little field trip to the high school up the street to see a model skeleton. Walked a mile round trip to the grocery store, on the way back My Little Man carried a gallon of milk. And he has just pulled out a math book to work on some math. We spent a LOT of time on bones.

It turns out the local high school has college accredited premed classes. Plus they can leave with a CNA. Thats good to know. Anyway who knows what he'll want to study when we get that far.

PS We learned about the water cycle and about what Allah reveled in the Quran about water and rain. 

Mosaics

Well today we are learning about mosaics. I read a bit of information from the web to him about mosaics. Then he cut some construction paper into bits and started gluing them on to a paper. While he worked on that we watched these videos






Zillij tiles: Moorish tile - Moroccan tiles -... by sttropezboutiquellc
and he invited me to help him so I helped fill in some of the gaps. He just asked for a book about mosaics and if we had a car I would take him to get one at the library. Its just too cold for me.
I tried to explain that mosaics usually have patterns. I think after we eat lunch we will use pattern blocks.

What We've Been Up To

Right now My Little Man is using a calculator to create addition problems and then make up a math story involving the equation.
He worked on a Boating Safety booklet, reviewed Arabic letters and focused on dthal, thought up and started a science experiment to see if he could get too hot by drinking hot water with a straw so he could go outside with out a coat and not get cold. Next, inshallah he is going to read and test himself on comprehension. When he read a work he didn't know he wrote it down and studied it so he would recognize it in the future.

Oh when he was working on his dthal page he started experimenting with mixing colors. So lets see thats Arabic, art, science, math, vocabulary in English, and is getting a book now for reading.  4 hours of school work and no problems other than the occasional "Enough sound effects i can't concentrate!" coming from my end. not bad

K, we're being a little lame today

K, we're being a little lame today. My son worked on his math facts but, while he is currently supposed to be reading he is making sound effects. Along the lines of....well you just have to hear them LOL. Little boys!
I think I am going to ask him to do his writing and give up finish early today, LOL.

WOW I have 3 Followers!

WOW I have 3 Followers! He he! So Cool! Mashallah. Anyway HI!

A Blustery Day

Today we had a wind storm.My mom, who lives 21+ hours drive away heard about it on the news. This tells you about the wind. So how did we spend our day?
Well we woke to the power being off and since our furnace uses electricity to control the gas, we had no heat. I light both the fireplaces and started some water boiling on the one with "logs". I kept the house pretty warm this way.
Our neighbor friends came by and warmed up a bit then I took a couple with My Little Man and I to run some erands.
B is not currently on his ADHD medication and so B would get My Little Man going and the two of them drove me CRAZY at the store! lol. I do not know what I was thinking when I offered to take him LOL. Well I brought the kids back put away groceries, brought A from the family with My Little Man and I and we finished off our grocery shopping and went to Walmart. (I hate that I shop at Walmart)
When we finaly came home, after Arbys for lunch, I gave A and MLM (My Little Man) a banana and saw that the power was finally back on.
MLM reluctantly started on school work for the day and I kept an eye on MLM and A. Eventaully A went home and I made dinner. MLM still didn't do Arabic but completed all other tasks. 
I am TIRED and MLM is finally in bed. I think he fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

A Laid Back Day

Well today My Little Man did some reading in McGuffey's Eclectic Primer and the the cursive copy work. He couldn't remember how to make a cursive letter g so he got out his cursive writing book and taught himself the g. Then he decided to write a couple of sentences. Oh I forgot, before that he was working on a Road to Writing book called Animal Crackers. He draws pictures and writes in the details of the book. I had told him pick something to do from a certain book shelf. He also started a science experiment to make salt crystals. He is reading Frankenstein, it was adapted for children at about a 3rd grade reading level. We are reading the Wizard of Oz together. Also My Little Man timed himself going over his +0 +1 and +2 facts.

I am going to try to get him to do something from a book called Super Fun For One: 366 Solo Activities for Kids by Patricia Gordon and Reed C. Snow.   I just showed him the book and he is looking for something to do from the book.
Later I will have him do an Arabic lesson from the web and a little bit from How We Use Numbers.

No Fighting! Yeah!

Well today was a pretty good day. My Little Man definitely got bored working on his math facts, but there was no yelling and arguing and what not. I let him do his reading before his math and after he had reviewed the facts for an hour he asked to do his How We Use Number's book. I said "Sure." And he was very happy, and when he finally figured out he could do as many pages as he wanted from the book he was even happier. I just reminded him that if it asks him to do an activity he does it.
He didn't really want to do his writing but he didn't give me too hard of a time about it. In the end he wrote about his new kitchen timer. I gave him the timer so he could time himself doing math facts.

Bangladesh

Hi Bengali folks! Apni kimon achin? hehe that is almost all the Bengali I know but I thought I'd share anyway.

My Dreams for Him

So in an ideal world my son will know calculus by the time he is 19. He will be a great writer, full of imagination and skills. He will know basic programing at least, type way faster than I can, with out looking :P and speak Arabic near fluently. He will know how to set and reach goals effectively. Have a few hobbies, at least 1 of them being near free in cost and be looking for a wife. He will have a level head, knowing how to have fun, communicate well with others, and get a job done. He will make fajr at the masjid everyday and most other prayers as well. He will be reliable and have good pious friends. He will know how to cook and clean and how to grow food. He will have survival skills like how to make a fire and CPR. He will spend time regularly helping others and if he is living far away for college he will call me everyday, even if he is busy. He will eat well, get plenty of exorcise and have most if not all of the Quran memorized with its meaning. He will be an example to others on how to live. When he is angry or frustrated or just worn out he will know how to take care of himself in a way that will resolve the problem effectively.
When he is a little older he will have wisdom, and at minimum 4 children. His wife/wives will be beautiful and kind and good mothers. I will adore her/them. She/they will be the ideal fit for my son. She/they will be patient and understanding when money is tight.
When I am an old woman, and my husband can no longer take care of me, my son will. If one day I need to move in to a facility with 24 hour care, my son will come daily to spend time with me. He will have raised his children well and they will come to see me at least 1x a week if not daily. My son will be described as intellectual and open and generous and gentle. He will never get too fat nor ever too thin. He will maintain his beard with pride. He will proudly wear his thobe and will be consulted for advise in his old age. He will be an excelent grandfather to his many grandchildren.
And when he dies an old man his family will mourn him but he will have taught them well so that they will not be devastated but proud of him and looking forward to seeing him again in Paradise.

Time to Rearrange the School Room Furniture

Fact: My son needs me to be in the same room 99% of the time in order for him to focus on required tasks
Fact: I tend to resent this. (I want the freedom of going to the bathroom or unloading the dishwasher while he is working on something)
Fact: If I am doing the same thing he is, his focus is better
Fact: I could benefit from some academic review
Fact: I don't like doing the same thing everyday
Fact: I feel a lot of pressure to show my son is doing as well or better than his peers
Fact: When I feel a lot of pressure I am impatient
Fact: The better my attitude, the better my son's
Fact: This list is getting long LOL
Fact: My son focuses better in a quiet, unstimulating environment
Fact: I have big pimple under my skin on my chin and it hurts
Fact: I am frequently tempted to do laundry when my son is on task, thus creating a noisy environment for my son.

Conclusion: I need to simplify, simplify, simplify. I need to find a way to keep me in the the room, doing the same kind of thing my son is, with out getting bored or multitasking and making sure the environment is quiet, and with out much on the walls.
HMMMM
I could move my computer to the school room but this would be a bit arduous. (I just learned how to spell arduous :) The more i blog the better I spell! )  I could move his desk in to this room but then why do we have a school room? After all having a school room is the main reason we moved homes. I could make this room into the school room/study and use the little room for the TV, we basically never use it anyway. (Again arduous) We could continue to use the little folding table as a desk for him, having him sit next to me while I am at this computer. (Again why do we have a school room then?)

I am out of ideas lol

Was a good but short week

Well it was a good but short week. My Little Man was picked up to go to his dad's house Wednesday night.
Anyway we do 4 things for school now, math, reading, writing and Arabic. Of course reading will really cover a multitude of subjects but for simplicity's sake we are calling it reading.
My Little Man's favorite thing to do for fun is read so why not base his education around that? He can read about history, geography, science, even math. Books have been written on virtually everything, and usually you can find a free ebook on the web on a given subject.
So the way I am setting it up is inspired by Robinson Curriculum or Self Teaching. The goal is for My Little Man to teach himself. So the day would eventually go like this, 2 hours math, then 2 hours reading, then an hour writing and working on an essay then an hour of Arabic.
The Robinson Curriculum is easily secularized but is Christian based. For math you have your child memorize addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, then once in rote memory they go to Saxon Math 4/5. I don't know that we will use that particular math book but I have decided to follow that basic plan.
You can find RC book lists on the web, and most of the books can be found for free on the web at places like Archive.org. Therefore (what a fun word) we are using some of those books.
I assigned some books, made sure he knew my expectations regarding them and let him dig in for 2 hours. Currently he has been assigned McGuffey's Eclectic Primer,  How We Use Numbers, The Life of George Washington in Words of One Syllable , A Book of Nursery Rhymes, Usooluth Thalaathah, Al-FAWAID.
The only requirements I have are that he spend a little time on the first two i listed each day, do any activities suggested and that he spend 2 hours reading from the books assigned.  He can pick which books he wants to read and for how long.
For the writing I just have him fill one page. The ruler is that it needs to be mostly writing. He can draw pictures to go with what ever he writes. Eventually I will require more than just filling up the page, but for now it is enough. I do not correct spelling, or punctuation or even grammar. The point is just to write. And blessedly we have had no problems so far. Of the three day's we have done school like this he has written a letter to me each time.
For Arabic I had not planned to change curriculum but ran into the perfect thing for us, for free, on the web. Arabic is Easy the guy teaching it makes it, well, easy. He has videos here. He has made very nice PDF books for each lesson here is the first book.
My son finds them less dull than the Madina books. So far the vocabulary is almost exactly the same. And really we are stuck until he learns the vocabulary.  He just hasn't figured out how to learn second language vocabulary yet. I really need to learn the vocabulary so i can throw it in to our every day speech. I use kursi, kitab, shajara and this is occasionally but he needs to here them more, and other words. 
I am also helping him keep a record of his work. I am pretty sure that this will be very beneficial so I am making it a priority.
I would like him to work on Quran daily as well but at this point I think just establishing those basics is more of a priority and the point is to keep it simple. If i could get him an Quran tutor then I think that would be easy to accommodate with out detracting from the other subjects. I just feel like since he doesn't speak Arabic and doesn't even really understand the translations it can wait until he does understand one or the other.

What We've Been Up To

Well for about a month we had been really butting heads. I didn't want every post to be negative to I didn't post. Well we took last week off, every single day! Today was our first day back to school work. With the exception of Eid's and a couple other days we had been going for 3 and 1/2 months strait.
We'll with only 1 minor blip we had a good day. We started after lunch and are wrapping up now.
My son spent 2 hours on math, much of the time day dreaming but eventually he got down and did the work. Either way he did a page of addition problems equaling 15 or less, and learned his +0 facts to 13. He has know how to add for quite some time. He was just hadn't realised that +0 is always the other adden. Anyway I am pretty condifant that he knows his +0's now by rote.
He read nursery rhymes, and lessons 1-5 in McGuffey's Eclectic Primer, even doing the cursive copy work.  He did 2 pages from How We Use Numbers.
He did lesson 1 from Arabic is Easy with the video and we read the lesson in the book together. He still isn't solid in his vocab despite all but 1 of those words he has be "learning" since he was 4! Oh well
Right now he is writing me a letter. His task is to fill his page up. The page is ruled at about 1 inch so it's not an over the top request and he hasn't complained, even though I have sent him back 3 times saying. "This is very good. Now finish filling up the page." I told him he could draw picture but that I mostly wanted words.

Well today we have acomplished nothing achedemic

My son is in a "phase" at 7:30 we walked down stairs to the school room. I got out a workbook for my son to do a couple pages of review on long vowel sounds. He seemed excited and ready to work. It is now 11:30 and he has written nothing. literally not a single thing. These pages would take him about 3 minutes a pieces and there are 3 of them, I gave him his assignment cheerfully. I calmly reminded him to get back on task. Put him in time out and gave him opportunities to get his work done.

This most recent time I asked him if he would rather do his work or continue to sit in time out. He said he wanted to do his work. I warned him that if he lied to me about doing his work he would be grounded 2 days. I sent him to his desk with his work and gave him a few minutes. He did nothing.
He is now throwing a temper tantrum about being grounded.
At least I am not in a bad mood from all the troubles. He has made his bed now he is laying in it.

The Only Child Myth

But is there any science that makes the stereotype stick? "No," Newman said. "There have been hundreds and hundreds of research studies that show that only children are no different from their peers."


This is comforting because while i would like to have more children, I have yet to get pregnant a second time. Some of my worries about having only one is what about those times I didn't savor the moment, will I never get a chance again to try to enjoy pregnancy? How will my son be able to provide and care for us when we are old, with out siblings to help? Since we live so far from other family, will growing up in such a small family mean he misses out of so much that makes life beautiful? Will he as a result not value family? Will he only give me 1, grandchild? (I want at least 3 if not 10) 
I want another person to share this genetic bond with, not just my son. (I was adopted so there is this special added bit to my feelings towards my son. Not only am I his mother and love him but physically, in his DNA he is part of me. )
On the other hand, having just one child means that he will probably do better academically than if he had 4 siblings. Also if I decide to spend money on clothes or gifts as a treat for my son all of that money can go towards him and not just a fraction of it. I do not have to worry about dividing myself in anyway amongst other children to be fair, unless I want to spend time with other children.  I have time for all of me and all of my duties. There is no worry of sibling rivalry, favoritism or what ever. I can honestly say that my son is my FAVORITE child in the UNIVERSE! I can tell my son I love him more than any other child he has ever met, or will meet, or is in the world. 
For my son, there aren't really any drawbacks for being an only child. For me there are drawbacks for  only having one. So if we choose to get help getting pregnant, or adopt it would be for us, the parents and not for my son so much. Not to say he wouldn't have some advantages by having a sibling but not that many and I think it would even out with being an only child. 

Just an Update

        So we have a routine finally. Now I am able to focus on some other aspects of our lives. We homeschool but it is most certainly not the be all end all of our existence. I completely caught up on laundry on Monday, put everything away on Tuesday, including a bit of ironing. Yesterday I made hard rolls, English muffin bread, coffee cake, spritz cookies, and raised doughnuts. Inshallah my intention is to deep clean the kitchen and as  many other places as I can. Yesterday wore me out!
         My son is currently working on some subtraction. He has a science test, writing, Quran, Arabic and social studies to work on still. He is pretty antsy today though. lol

The days are going a little smoother

Well now that its back to just My Little Man and I, the days seem to go a little smoother. They certainly go faster. He still gives me a hard time about a few things but basically he is in the mode . We started an hour late but I have 4 loaves of bread in the oven and the kitchen clean from breakfast. Also beds are made.
My son is supposed to be writing a few of the names and attributes of Allah but is waisting time instead. Some one is going to bed early tonight, inshallah.

Almost done for the day

Well some friends came over for a play date and even so we are nearly done for the day. My Little Man is working on some math, subtraction, and then we will move on to cursive. Then we will be done for the day!

WOW We are on a roll!

So we are back to our old routine and its not quite 2 and we are on the last assignment for the day. A little cursive practice!
He gave me a bit of attitude this morning, which is not unusual. I was penitent as long as I could then he got it. Since then we have been fine. I just have to stay on top of him. What do you know I come in here to write this and he is already playing around instead I doing his letter As. Geese!

Back to 1

Well I am back to one after our homeschooling with B experiment. B is just not in a place where he is ready for my bossing him around. He wants to stay home and play, mostly video games and give both his mom and I a very hard time. He'll get it figured out but I think he was happy to get back into school.

I am glad. He is a wonderful kid. Twards the end I decied I was not going to stress myself out making sure he would show up. If he did he did and if not that was fine. It made me a lot happier.
Anyway monday we are back to normal. My little man got to experience what it would be like to have another kid in the school room. He liked it for the playing part but he had a little bit harder time concentrating, and if there is a tree in the yard he can get distracted.
I am relived honestly. Less planning, printing and time overall. Less stress.

Wisperphone

We used the whisperphone today! B was starting to loose concentraition and My Little Man needed my focus. B need to read directions about what to write and use a map.

I think the found it helpful and he thought burping in it was just the coolest thing ever.

Meeting Goals

So when you homeschool 2 kids, or at least these 2 you cover a LOT less material in the same amount of time, but I feel like we got a lot done this afternoon none the less.
I decided this week that I would just lay put the whole week for myself as a plan instead of daily plans. Today I kinda wish I had done the daily plan thing instead. On the other hand we covered Math for My Little Man, Science for both. Did some reading/science for B, Arabic for My Little Man, Social Studies for both and a little English for My Little Man. B also corrected has papers that I had checked, this morning.
Ideally we would cover English, Math and Science everyday and Social Studies a few times a week for B and once a week for My Little Man. Also covering Arabic and Islamic Studies daily for My Little Man. Health about once a week and making sure we use the computer each week as well, other than just reading our text books.
We will just have to see what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow is the play group day. At 11 we have the one that is just a few ladies from the neighborhood and at 3 we have the one that is for a homeschool group. Also B celebrates his birthday tomorrow.
B keeps coming a couple hours later than we planned and that bugs me. I talked to his mom about it today and told her it is just not worth it if he doesn't come when planned because it just throws off the whole day. Ideally I would like to start with My Little Man at about 8:30, B at 9:00 take breaks as necessary until 1 for a nice long lunch break and end the day by 4:00. This way we have plenty of time to take breaks, send one kid off with a break if necessary while I work with the other and still have plenty of times to do things together.
At least this afternoon was better than the morning. My school boys were in good moods.

My Little Man at 2 houses

My Little Man is at dad's for the week but is home first thing in the morning for a couple of hours to some of his school work. We cover Arabic and IS and what ever else we have time for. At the moment he is working on his Arabic. We are using Madina Arabic Reader for Children. He is on the second half of lesson 3.

Plans for a week with B

So My Little Man is at his dad's house for the week. He will be home for a couple hours monday-friday in the mornings so we can do our Arabic and Islamic studies together. Other than that it will just be B and me.

So I am trying to figure out where he is academically. I know that his reading level is about the same as My Little Man's and that his vocabulary is a little low as well, probably as a result of the low reading level. His strongest subject is math right now, but from the assessment i gave him he is not at the same level as his peers. He seems to be behind generally in all subjects although he has nice handwriting and is certainly more mature than My Little Man. He is clearly light years ahead of My Little Man when it comes to writing.

I think B is just a bit of a late bloomer. He has a fair amount of life skills, now we just need to beef him up in academics so he will be ready for the world.

I am thinking this week he may act out a bit given it will be our second week together. Thats ok, he will probably just need to test the ground to see where he and I stand. Therefore I think i need to have a behavior plan.
If I really focus on reading, math, and writing with him I think that might be best. He said he wanted to learn about bugs so maybe having him do a lap book about bugs might be a good starting place. hmmmmm

Day 2 with 2

The second day of homeschool with a second student went well.  The running plan is for B to do religious studies and german at home then head down to mine to do all other subjects with us.

I think they both will really benefit from the arrangement. B gets a whole lot more specialized education and a lot more attention and C gets more opportunity to learn life skills aka co-operation and sharing of my time. It also makes me more patient with C because I realize he may have some jealousy issues at first.
Thats all for now because we are off to the park inshallah.

What a week!

So we had a less than stellar day. It ended pretty good though. I wasn't actually planning on having school today but think about how little academically work we had done this week I decided that we would do a little.
While My Little Man was ok with updating his calendar he really didn't want to do anything else. ARG! We did science together which he did like but when it came time to doing a couple worksheets, in order to practice spelling, he decided he was done.
We had a long talk about choices to no end. Then I decided to pare everything down to the bare essentials and ask him how he wanted to accomplish those. That did the trick. I told him you HAVE to practice Arabic daily. You HAVE to learn something new in science each week. I and you need to show me that you have learned something new. I went down my list of 5 or 6 essentials and it clicked for him. He understood that they were essential.
I asked him how could he learn new things in science because I don't care how he does it as long as he can show me he has made some progress. He suggested playing web games for science and reading his favorite comic for English.
I told him I could work on the games thing but the comics would take a lot longer to happen. I also explained that he would HAVE to do some work alone, with out me. "I can not poop for you and I can not learn for you." He finally understood that he was going to have to do some stuff sitting down with a pencil in hand.
My point of view is, in the end he is going to have to do some writing by hand in order to be a better writer. He is going to have to practice spelling in order to be a better speller. I know he doesn't quite understand why he needs to know how to spell, despite my efforts to explain. On the other hand, frankly he hated the first lessons we had in reading but now he is the biggest book worm I know.
I am hoping he will do the same with writing. Maybe he will hate it now but in a month or 2 he will not be able to get enough of it.
I asked if he wanted to continue how we had school during Ramadan. Some lessons together them him alone doing work boxes. He said he did.
I would love to have lessons outside sometimes but i have the feeling that he would be overwhelmed by outside noises. Then again i don't know. Either way soon it will be cold and I do not want to go out in the cold. YES, I am a wimp. Hot, up to the mid 90's and I am fine. The cold, after 72 I start to complain.
LOL I am cold 3/4 of the year.
Anyway, Eid was nice, a bit quiet but nice. The past day or 2 the large family from down the block has been over to play. They are sweet little boys, wild but sweet. There is 1 child on the block that I no longer allow in my house or back yard due his discourteous and destructive behavior so i am glad my son has new little friends.
Today my Little Man was grounded due to poor choices the night before. I hated that he was grounded, especially the 10th time the kids came by, alhumdulillah I locked the front door so despite their trying they could not get in. I wanted to unground him so badly, but he had run off down to the end of the block around Isha with his little friend to his yard. He had been warned several time to stay in the back or in the house. So not only did he disobey by going out front again but he left the yard without asking and down to the end of the block where I can't see him even standing in the front yard but he did this after dark!
So Mom had to be strong and say no. When the neighbor kids came by the many many times they did I had to tell them over and over he was grounded. Actually I think by the end of the day My Little Man didn't mind as much as I did, lol. 

Back to School After Eid

Well we are back to school work today. Last week was a bit hectic so while we did some schooling we didn't get too much done academically. Although I do think our Arabic skill benefited quite a bit.
Tuesday was Eid and yesterday we also took the day off from school work for recuperation purposes.

So far to day we are in a pretty relaxed mode. We started an hour ago and began with our official math book. It has manipulatives that you punch out of the back of the book which is always fun. The lesson was basically just review of Kindergarten level math.
Currently he is making his invention from his English lesson. It goes with the book Tools by Ann Morris. It talks about tools giving examples from around the world. My Little Man drew a picture of a tool of his own invention and is now creating it using legos.
I would still like to cover Islamic studies, Arabic and science. As well as practice spelling and writing, both handwriting and composition. Like I said we are going about it very relaxed so if we don't get to them today I wont fret.

Eid Mubarak...yesterday

Eid Mubarak! Yesterday was Eid and we had a great day, mashallah. I decorated the night before and in the morning we got ready then I gave my son gifts. Next we walked to the masjid and it was lovely. My poor hubby carried the a box full of bags of candy for the kids. We had the prayer and khutbah and then the kids jumped on the moon bounce. We had a BBQ at the masjid then a kind brother gave us a ride home from the masjid mashallah.

We just chilled out for a bit, hubby too a nap, my son played with gifts, I did a bit of cleaning. As a special treat we ordered pizza and decided to invite some dear friends over. They are not muslim but know we celibrate Eid and were happy to join us. I showed my friend some funny youtube videos and she showed me some cool science videos. (Nurdrage) We said good night and hubby and I watched a show we both like. It was a good day mashallah.

Field Trip!

We went to the zoo today. Ok, so it was an unplanned field trip but between all the Arabic practice we got, having gone with an Arabic speaking family, and learning about bats, dinosaurs and how to use and ipad I think we did a fair amount of learning today.
He is working on a poster with the takbir to say on Eid and then we will say done! inshallah

PE or how the big man is not following up

So my hubby, a very busy man, was going to do PE/Health with my little man  this year. 3 weeks in and he has had 1 lesson with him. Yes I am disappointed.

Three Weeks in

Well we are 3 weeks in and have a routine.
We do our American calendar, then our Hijri calendar
Next the weather and our prediction
Next we do our daily Islamic Studies lesson
Depending on the length of the IS lesson we will either take a break or do our Arabic, then take a break
Next is math
Followed by Science
And then depending on the day, art, PE, or social studies.
Then he does his work boxes.
The length of time it takes varies.
Today we slept in a bit and then went to a park to meet up with other HSers. It was awesome! Anyway we didn't start school until 2 oclock today. My little man had a snack and is now on to work boxes.

RAMADAN MUBARAK!

4th Day of school

Today we really didn't have a whole lot of work to do. Unfortunately someone's focus is at the level of a fly on caffeine.  I was very excited to have a short day. But he is still at it. He needs to draw a picture of a party with as many details as he can, then write a sentence using a descriptive word. He after 2 and a half hours has nothing on his page, not one doodle or line.
The thing is I know he loves to draw. It took him half an hour on another assignment that should have taken him about 5 minutes, 10 at the most. I don't know what his deal is.

Inshallah our next day will be better. He knows as soon as he finishes he will be done and can play the rest of the day, with the exception of emptying the dishwasher. PS he is not fasting today so that is not why.

DAY 2

So today we started on time! At 9:02! Today I have learned that letting him play on the computer for break is not conducive to getting more school work done. He had a COW despite advance warning, when I told him it was time to get beck to school work.
Right now he is having PE with the Big Man. They are learning about food groups and then will do some physically active stuff.
We did our IS for the day and Arabic. That covered handwriting as well. After he takes a break when finished with PE he will then, inshallah have English then  preforming arts.
For PA we will just briefly identify good public speakers and discuss what makes them good speakers. I figure 5-10 min at most. After that work boxes.

Work Boxes so far

So far he really likes work boxes. I am glad. I wrote the directions in cursive because he said he wanted to learn cursive. I figure reading it could be good practice for him.

Well we got started late....

Well we got started late but we are having a good day, mashallah. Things are taking long than I anticipated, namely we spent about 40 min doing handwriting but what are you going to do. If I could do it for him I would.It didn't need to take that long it was 3 sentences but what can I do?
We took about an hour break and skipped PE since we started about 2 hours late. We did our calendar, read together then worked on IS. In IS it included handwriting, a tiny bit of math, our Quran lesson for the day and art. The theme for the day is How to fast. We are using TJ Ramadan lessons. We just finished our Arabic.
We have actually done more than I thought. 
I am so proud of my little faster! He is getting to the tired part of the day so we will try to do 1 more thing but if he is not up to it I am not worried. I want to do some English reading. And maybe his science. Inshallah.

1s Day of School

We are getting a late start but I am excited about our first day of school. My son should be home from his dad's in a few minutes and then we will begin, inshallah. He told me yesterday that he is most excited about his new books for reading instruction and I am the most excited about the great science curriculum we will be using, Scott Foresman Science 2nd grade level.

RAMADAN MUBARAK!

Just a few days until Ramadan and School!

I have just a few days before school starts and I am ready. I am impatient for my son to get back from his dad's and I am excited begin our new school year. I am also exited for Ramadan to begin as that is my favorite time of year.
The year has been paced, the room is clean and organized, my little man's computer is ready and updated and all I need to do is adjust his desk. The floor in the school room is sloped so the desk is slanting currently. I have my first weeks battle plan. I have everything printed off and organized for the first month. The only thing I need to do is print for the following months and make the subsequent weeks battle plans.
As far as preparing for Ramadan, the house is tidy.I need to clean all the floors and dust. I'd like to cook all the dinners ahead of time. I also need to start going to bed earlier so that waking for suhur will be easier.

I I put together the work boxes for the first day of school!

I I put together the work boxes for the first day of school! I also put all printed material into note books, 1 week per note book.
I still need to tidy the school room and get his computer all plugged in. I also need to print all the rest of the years school stuff and make myself an action plan so that I am organized and prepared.
In addition to getting ready for a new school year I am preparing for Ramadan.

Clock in and Out

To go with our use of work boxes I made Super Pickle clock in and out pouches. I bought 2 pouches at the local Idaho School Supply for $.09 a piece. When he comes down to the school room for the day he can take his Super Pickle to the clock in pouch and when he is done for the day he can move it to clock out. I think he will love it.
I used LibreOffice pasted this picture 2x, and typed clock in and out under. I also printed a large version of it on card stock. 

An Animation

www.goanimate.com is a site that you can make basic little cartoons. This is mine, there isn't a lot of choices for free so i picked armless pirates. http://goanimate.com/movie/0ctpS6O17Fwo/1

Yeah for Free Library Printing

So te ink for my printer is expensive, 50 bucks a pop. So I went and printed a lot of the black and white stuff for the school year. Bad news is some of it got wet. Well, wet is an over statement, moist is better.

I finished the school room!

I finished setting up the school room. I am trying to keep it simple. We are going to try workboxes and I took the computer out. I have it in the downstairs living room at the moment but will probably move it to the laundry room because that is even closer, just the other side of the door.
Meanwhile, my little man is at the age of praying so were are adjusting to him having a new schedule. I still need to print a lot of stuff and gather supplies. I want to double check that my list of science supplies is complete. Anyway I may not be posting much this week.  

Last steps to getting ready

Well it looks like I am finally ready to just print off things and purchase science lab items. Most of the items for science I already have and only 1 will cost more than $5. By far the most expensive item to purchase will be ink. I'd like to get a self inking system, and those run over  $100. Still, I think it would be well worth it.b

Oh Irony or I Opened a free curriculum kit from Dow Jones and it stank like plastic

LOL I just got a freebe curriculum kit on economics from Dow Jones and it stunk like plastic. You know when the chemicals are leaching out. So ironic. lol

My Hubby Will Teach PE/Health

So, inshallah, my hubby will be in charge of gym essentially. I asked to get involved in my little man's schooling and we talked about different ways he could be more involved. He decided he would like to take charge of PE/Health.
I gave him some tips regarding how to set goals and break them into lessons. I told I think of what my long term overall goal is then keep that in mid as I break it down into smaller goals. I then think, "What goal could we meet this year that would bring us closer to that over all goal?" I break that down into smaller and smaller pieces until they are so small we can make them into individual lessons.
I made some suggestions like looking up a pacing guide and standards. Trying The Presidents Fitness Challenge, and offered to put together some information for him.

Whisper Phone

I got my little man a Whisper Phone. He is very easily distracted and I am hoping that this will help him concentrate  LOL It will either do that or make things worse, lol.  This could be especially useful with Arabic studies!
Even if it doesn't work he will love playing with it.
This is what the add for it says:
WhisperPhone is an acoustical voice-feedback headset that enables learners of all ages to focus and hear the sounds that make up words (phonemes) more clearly as they learn to read, spell, or process language aloud. 

WhisperPhone is fun and easy to use, and research has proven that users can hear phonemes ten times more clearly when theyre wearing the WhisperPhone! That means that they can hear themselves better over background noise, and they can focus better on what theyre learning.

Goals

The next step for planning the next years worth of schooling is pacing. I need to give my self a basic plot out of when we will cover each goal.
Which brings us to what are our goals? Well my number one long term goal, aka mission statement is to prepare my son for adulthood by teaching him how to teach himself. In other words give him the basics so that when he needs to learn something new, weather for work or life in general he is able to figure out what he needs to learn and then learn the skill or concept. I want him to go to college and get a degree so that he has more opportunities, I want him to be able to teach his children Tawheed. I want him to be confidant and well rounded. I want him to be healthy and have goals for himself.

So what does all this have to do with next school year?
Keeping the end goal in mind, coloring all that I do, I can keep perspective in planning. Is it essential? Does it conflict with the overall goal?

The Next Step/I have decided what we will use in each subject!

So here is the big list:

• English
• reading: Scott Foresman Reading, Harcourt Collections
• writing: 6 Traits of Writing 1st Grade, Scott Foresman Reading, Harcourt Collections
• grammer: Scott Foresman Reading, Harcourt Collections
• spelling/phonics: Scott Foresman Reading, Harcourt Collections
• Penmanship
• English: Spencerian Penmanship
• Arabic: Iqrah Reader, and various printables
• Science: Scott Foresman Science 2nd grade
•  Social Studies
• History: Our Prophet, and Our Country
• Civics: Our Country
• Geography: Our Country and Al Ummah
• Culture: See IS and Geography
• Economics: Our Country
• Mathematics: How We Use Number, and Mathematics in Action
• Islamic Studies
• Salat: My Salat Companion (TJ)
• Quran: Juz 30
• Aqeedah: Most resources from TJ (Talibideen JR)
• Arabic:
• Reading: Madina Arabic Reader book 1
• Writing: Madina Arabic Reader book 1, Iqrah Reader 1st grade
• Oral: Madina Arabic Reader book 1, Iqrah Reader 1st grade
• Health:
• cooking/nutrition: weekly meal prep,
• other: Harcourt Health, and various other individual resources for each topic

Islamic Studies Plan

So at this point the most important things for my little man to know is Aqeedah, salaat and Quran. For Quran we will continue to use Juz 30, a nice little program on his computer. For salaat we will use lessons that go with The Prophets Prayer Described from TJ. It has 23 lessons. For Aqeedah we will use the huge note book full of resources, mostly from TJ.

I have decided what we will use in each subject! Alhumdulillah!

This si just cute