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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Ex Husband Homeschool Frustraition

Well ex husband isn't a bad dad. But there are a lot of things I DONT like about him. Which really most of the time doesn't effect anything anyway so no big deal.
I get My Little Man 1 weekend a month, 1 not 2 or more. Ex husband gets him 3 a month. Also 1 day where if My Little Man were in public school he would get dropped off by ex husband and picked up and in the evening get dropped off back at home.
But then we don't public school. SO initially I sent school work to be completed at ex husbands house. NOPE, that didn't happen. Then after a month or 2, I complained and make up scripted lesson plans. NOPE I complained and would call up ex husbands wife to explain the lessons and when ex husband came to pick up My Little Man I would go over then with him. Ex husband was uninterested. Less than half of the school work would get done. Finally  about 4 months ago he says "What time do you usually eat lunch?" "About 1" "How about I pick him up at that time so you can do most of his school work on that Saturday before." "OK"
He said he would do the rest of the work with him, did he? NOPE But he does pick him up at 1 on that 1 Saturday a month.
When I try talking to him about what we are doing for school he is inattentive and uninterested. And YET!, he complains because he thinks we are using that Saturday as a play day. He all but says I am stealing his time. >< If he would participate in My Little Man's education he would know why we do what we do. My choices in educating My Little Man are not about what ex husband likes or dislikes. They are about what is best both long and short term for My Little Man.

Inshallah 1 thing is for sure, I will not apologize for my choices for My Little Man's education. I do not have to prove to his dad, anything.

On top of all this he chooses to confront me in a hostile way in front of My Little Man, at a public event, outside in a crowd, with my husband dumb founded.

I stood there thinking "You suck. I am not going to argue. You suck. I am not going to argue. You suck. I am not going to argue. You suck. I am not going to argue. ...."

His pupils were tiny.

Over the past year or two he has been increasingly tactless and emotional when confronting issues in regards to My Little Man. I don't know what his problem is, nor do I care. 

Monday, May 28, 2012

What We're Up To Today

We practiced math facts, studied sabr and wrote about Nuh. Oh and My Little Man is doing a half day of fasting mashallah.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

So whats the plan?

Hmmm
I need to

  • decide what I will use for IS curriculum
  • decide if I will use a reading text book or not and if not do I want to use Islamic books as a main text? Do I want to use anything as a main text?
  • make a pacing guide for myself including all subjects
  • coordinate all the materials


Here we go again

Well I have had a month off and am read to prepare for next school year inshallah. This time I want to try to coorinate all the curriculum. So in Islamic Studies he might be learning about Al Qadr and in Arabic he might learn related words. In math the problem of the day might be Zain said Alhumdulillah 3 times for each finger on his right hand, then he did it again. How could you figure out how many times he said it? In science he might learn about the life cycle and his spelling words might be whatever, befalls, yourself, something, therefore, indicates, preordained, knowledge, somewhere, anyhow, certainty, preceded. He might have writing asignments like Write a paragraph telling about Al Qadr. Write advise to someone who has to move far from their friends. Finish the story Ahmed won a swim pass. He loved swimming so he told all of his friends over and over about it. All his friends were getting jealous and angry except Bilal. Ahmed's friend Bilal won a bike. Bilal.....
For PE that week maybe My Little Man would do things like jumping jacks while reciting an ayah pertaining to the Qadr of Allah.
Anyway thats what I would like to do, inshallah. 

Saturday, May 5, 2012

We took a break then began a much more relaxed approach. Starting in May our area has loads of activities for kids to do many for free. 

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

We are running on time!

Well English took longer than i wanted but alhumdulillah we are finished on time! Well we are finishing on time that is. I wanted to be done with English by lunch. Out normal lunch time is in 15 minutes and he is writing a sentence in his journal Then we will do a quick wrap up and have lunch. Then some math and science and if we have time Arabic or IS.
Inshallah I do think next week we will be able to have English and math or science done by lunch each day. This I like.

Journal Entry: Bird Poop LOL

Today My Little Man is having a excellent day. He is staying on task and writing with out fuss.
He read Mole and Baby Bird and in his journal I asked him to write about whether or not he would want a pet for a bird and why. This was his response LOL.



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Working Plan.....for now

So inshallah I think that we will be more efficient with our English curriculum in another week or two. The science used to take a long time until I got a good enough feel for it that I always was ready. The math is in a very regular format so it is easy to be prepared for. None the less I think, inshallah I will write out(copy) the lesson plans for each day in math and English so I can be prepared and because the amoeba that was My Little Man's computer has become a vegetable, lol (the Pentium 4 processor is broken).
The way our day has been going
Wake dress teeth
eat read the Morning Warm Up and start
Break and back to work
Lunch and small break then back to finish up English
break, then math,
long break then science
I am hoping that by next week we will be used to the new curriculum enough to get to math by lunch and may be even finished with it by lunch. 

This Weeks Been Hectic in a Good Way

Alhumdulillah sometimes things are hectic and you pull out your hair and sometimes things are hectic and you just are thankful. Because of a multitude of reasons life was at a very slow pace for a long time and now with having a student to tutor and a change in our curriculum, plus have the blessing of regular visitors,  along with some other reasons life is busy again. Its nice having all this going on. I thank Allah. 

Hmph

Well My Little Man was supposed to get 1 day's worth of school work over the 3 days at his dad's house. He did approximately 1/4th of his English lesson and that's it!
If he went to public school and needed to do 1 days worth of work at his dad's house each month it would get done. But nope.......ARG! drives me nuts!
Well Bob did apologise but this is absolutely not abnormal.
Bob offered to have Carter stay until lunch on Saturdays of the weekend My Little Man stays late so that he can get the work done for the most part at my house. I am ok with that except it means the poor guy will have school 6 days in a row the one week of the month then 4 the following week.
Oh well at least then I know he will get a fair amount done the one day.  Alhumdullilah. Well My Little Man got home at a little past 7 this evening and we started his school work at 8ish so he is wrapping up the last thing and its 12:30. We skipped 1 or 2 things and saved his math practice pages for tomorrow.
I really don't see what the problem is. I send all the lesson plans, printed out and customised for My Little Man. I print off all the materials necessary. I Send all the counters and manipulatives. I go over what the lessons will be with My Little Man the day before hand. I even go through the lessons with Bob before he leaves with My Little Man for the weekend. I am available to help.
I have suggested that My Little Man get dropped off in the morning for schooling and picked up afterward but somehow that offer is rejected each and every time.
I think Bob really just isn't thinking of My Little Man's needs at all. He thinks i am trying to steal his time but my son needs an education and he just doesn't respect me. Grr.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Just finished My First Tutoring Session with Iron Man

I just finished my first paid tutoring session! I assessed his attitude towards reading and I I tested him for fluency. He scored 18wcpm, very low but he could very easily bring that up I feel. I also asses how he processes things.
I think he is mostly a visual learner, but physically doing something nearly always helps a child, or person reinforce a concept.
For the next session I think I would like to start working on ck and short a. Maybe a game? Inshallah

Monday, February 27, 2012

What we're learning

This weekend I was at the computer from the time I woke until very early morning making plans for school.
This week we are learning about estimating using groups of 10 as a base, and using data from a graph. We are learning about the sufixes -ly, -ful, -er and -or, pronouns, the main idea and writing a report. We are wraping up a chapter on energy in science. In IS we are learning about Nuh and in Arabic working on building vocabulary and reading fluency.

The following was my plans for English today (They came from Reading Street 2007)

ENGLISH
  1. People have different responsibilities at home and out of the home. (helping with the dishes, feeding and caring for pets, completing schoolwork, respecting others) People have responsibilities to others in the community (being kind, taking care of friendships, keeping the town and streets safe and clean) Many people in our community are responsible for taking care of others (firefighters, nurses, veterinarians, teachers, police officers, mail carriers)
  2. You are going to have a big project on What Does It Mean to Be Responsible. Brainstorm, or come up with different community workers and their jobs. This week we will talk, sing, read, and write about Responsibility.
  3. Now we will write and read a message and discuss it.
  4. Turn on your computer
  5. Open file named “School”, then “Open 1st” then open the day's Morning Warm Up. (On Monday it would be “1 Monday.png”.)
  6. Read the Warm Up and think about it. Did Jeremy Joe do a good job helping Smiffy Blue in Smiffy Blue Ace Crime Detective? What did she do? Did Dr. Frankenstein do a good job of taking care of his monster in Frankenstein? Why or why not?
  7. Find the word that starts with an “E” in the Morning Warm Up. Read it and spell it in the air. Find the word that starts with an “l” in the Morning Warm Up. Read it and spell it in the air.
  8. Open the grey notebook that says “Weber State” on it to the first page, “My Work Plan”.
  9. Read the page and when ever you complete an activity put an X next to the activity.
  10. Copy the Morning Warm Up of the day into your note book with nice handwriting.
  11. Now we are going to sing a song about firefighters working as a team. Turn the page in the grey notebook.
  12. Before we sing the song I want to tell you about some a group of words that your book calls Amazing Words. They are your reading vocabulary and when you use them they help to tell others what you mean. This weeks Amazing Words are: community, responsible, teamwork, operation, instrument, caretaker, lug, and supplies
  13. Take the words from the Amazing Words bag in the shoe box and put them in the pocket chart.
  14. You, your whole family, and all the people who live around you are your community. The community pitched in to clean up the empty lot. Your community includes which of the following: the president of Mexico or your next-door neighbor?
  15. Write the word community in your notebook. Run your hand under the word parts in com-mu-ni-ty as you read it.
  16. If someone is responsible, that person must do a job or take charge of something that others are counting on. I am responsible for raising you. Jason is responsible for feeding his dog every day.
  17. Write the word responsible in your notebook. Run your hand under the word parts in re-spon-si-ble as you read it.
  18. It is teamwork when a group of people put a lot of effort into doing something together. The swim team made money for uniforms by using teamwork to wash cars. We need teamwork to clean the garage in one day.
  19. Write the word teamwork in your notebook. Point to the two smaller words in the compound word teamwork.
  20. Listen for Amazing Words as you sing the song. Jump to your feet when you hear it. Then explain what the Amazing Words mean, and sing along with the verse in which the word appears. Sing the song again with out jumping up.
  21. Our question of the week is Why is it important to do a good job? Turn the page in the grey notebook.
  22. People use graphic organizers to help organize their thoughts. Write A Good Job in the center
    of the web. Now we will brainstorm reasons for doing a good job. Think about the Amazing Words.
    When you read “A Good Job” what do you think about? If you think about monkeys write monkeys between the lines around your word web. (Thats just silly!) What could it mean to do a good job? When do we use teamwork in our home?
  23. Hang up your word web after it is filled out so we can use it later this week.

    Blending Strategy
  1. Write quickly, joyful, painter, and actor. What do you know about reading these words? (They have a root word and an ending.) Today we'll learn about adding suffixes -ly, -ful, -er, and -or to the end of words. Each suffix has a special meaning:
            -ly in a ______ way
            -ful full of
            -er, -or a person who _______
  2. Write quickly. This is a two-syllable word formed from the root word quick and the suffix -ly. You can cover the suffix, read the root word, and then blend the root word and the suffix to read the whole word. This is how I blend this word. First, I chunk the word into its parts—the root word quick and the suffix -ly. Cover the suffix to read the root word; uncover and read the ending.

  1. Blend the two parts. Let's blend this word together: /kwik/ /l/ What is the word? (quickly) What does it mean? (in a quick way). Repeat with joyful, painter, and actor.
  2. First, I chunk the word into its parts—the base word and the suffix. Then I read the root word, read the suffix, and blend the two parts. Continue with closely, helpful, reader, inventor
  3. What do you know about reading words with suffixes? Chunk the word into its parts. Read the base word, read the suffix, and then blend the two parts.

    BLEND WORDS
  1. Now blend the words wonderful, gently, actor, teacher, farmer, graceful, lightly, editor. Tell what you know about each word before reading it.
  2. Read and follow the directions on page 53 in the grey note book.
  3. Read these words to me
      slowly quietly wonderful graceful closely
      helper dancer visitor reader editor
      fullest joyful bravest clearly softer
  4. Each week you will learn how to spell new words. This week each spelling word ends with a suffix. You can spell words with suffixes by thinking about the base word and the suffix.
    What base word and suffix make up
    sweetly? Start with the sounds in the root word: sweet. What letters spell /sweet/? Write sweet. Now add the suffix -ly. Now spell sweetly. Repeat with harmful, waiter, actor.
  5. Now you will take a pretest to see what words you already know how to spell. Take out the next page from the grey notebook and put the notebook on the floor. Fold that page in half so that you can't see the words. I will now read them to you and you will spell them in the boxes. When you finish, check for mistakes.
  6. Now to practice, open your grey notebook back up and read and follow the directions on spelling practice page 81.
  7. Get the little stapled book from the shoe box. We will read the first two pages together, then you will read the rest.
  8. What does Janet like to do? What hobby does Kelvin have? What do Kerry and Ben have in common?
  9. Locate words with suffixes -ly, -ful, -er, and -or in the story. Take the Reader # 21 Word Sort bag from the shoe box and sort the words by suffixes.
  10. Reread the story. Now reread it again as fast as you can. And then one more time to me so I can listen for how well you read the tuff words.

Main Idea and Details
Text Structure

  1. What was the main idea in the story Mars Needs Moms? When would it be helpful to be able to tell the main idea of a story?
  2. Go to your computer and close the Morning Warm Up and the folder it was in. Open the folder that is named “Open 2nd”. Open the Unit 5 week 1 file.
  3. Scroll down to page three. Read it out loud.
    1. The topic of a story is what the story is about. The topic can be said in one or two words. The main idea is the most important idea about the topic. Smaller facts make up the details.
    2. The way in which a selection is organized is called the text structure. Sometimes a selection can be written in the order that things happen. The main idea can be given at the beginning, middle, or end of the selection.
  4. Lets look at the page on my computer together. I know the main idea is often given in a sentence at the beginning, middle, or end of a selection. I can read the first paragraph to look for the main idea and some details about it. Read the paragraph aloud. I think the main idea is My Uncle Ernie is a firefighter in our town. Now we will do the next 2 paragraphs the same way.
  5. I will read to find out the way in which this selection is organized. I see the clue words one morning and next. This tells me the selection is written in the order things happen.
  6. Now we will do the Write to Read section. We will put the graphic organizer in your notebook.
  7. Now read and follow the directions on the next page in your grey notebook, Comprehension 54.
  8. When you read ask yourself, “Do I know how the selection is organized?” and “Do I know the order in which things happen?”

Shared Writing
  1. Go to the next page in your Grey notebook. Read the sentences and On the line below fix the Sentences by rewriting them the correct way. Do number 1 and number 2.
  2. Now we will do some shared writing, or writing together using teamwork. Read aloud each group of community workers on the page on my computer. Explain what each group does to help people in the community.
  3. We are going to write a report about several kinds of community workers and their jobs and then summarize, or sum up in a few words what these workers do for the community.
  4. A main idea ties many details together. Come up with a main idea that tells something important about what community workers do.
  5. Read the title. Think about community workers they see around their neighborhood and the kinds of activities these people do. Reread the names of the different community workers. As you tell what they do I will record your answer.
  6. Read the report while I track the print.

INDEPENDENT WRITING
  1. Write your own report about community workers in your notebook. Use words from the Word Wall and the Amazing Words board. Illustrate your writing. You may display your work on a on the wall if you would like.

Grammar
  1. A noun is a word that names a person, place, animal, or thing. Look at the grammar page on my computer. Read the definition to me.
  2. Sue Kresky is a person's name, so it is a noun. Instead of using the noun Sue Kresky, we can use a pronoun. Sue Kresky is a woman's name. That tells us to choose the pronoun she. Lets do the rest of the page together.
  3. Write these out:
    • Firefighters work hard.
    • They rescue people and put out fires.
    • I want to be a firefighter.
    • Abdullah wants to be a firefighter too.
  1. I will read the sentences and you decide if it contains a pronoun.

Wrap Up
  1. Suffixes--ly, -ful, -er, -or I will write quickly and you tell me what suffix is found in the word. Name other words containing the suffixes -ful, -er, and -or.
  2. Spelling with Suffixes--ly, -ful,-er, -or Spell the word fight and write it on the board. How do we make the word fighter, as in firefighter? Continue with nicely and thankful.
  3. Main Idea- What is the main idea of "My Uncle the Firefighter"? How can you tell?

  4. Lets Talk About It-Remember "My Uncle the Firefighter." What did you learn about what firefighters do from this story?
  5. Practice working with suffixes by going to the Amazing Words in the pocket chart and saying the root of the word and the suffix.
  6. Tomorrow we will read about a day at a fire station, inshallah.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Spring Cleaning

Well I have decided its time to revamp the school day and since he is a reader, new text books. Every couple of months he is so tired of what ever we are doing I get to restructure frequently. Still using Scott Foresman Science but will use the same publisher for Reading and Math.
Inshallah I'll make update posts to show where we're at planning wise.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Science and what not

Well My Little Man choose to spend an hour on 1 page of math. and 45 minutes on 2 very quick pages on word choice in writing so we are just now getting to science. We spent the last 10 minutes learning what a hypothesis is. He is now reading about an experiment and will, inshallah form a hypothesis about it, write it down and then experiment.
He still needs to do reading, writing and Arabic. For reading I think I am going to have him work on a Science reader called Ships and Boats because it relates to energy, which we are learning about in science and for writing do the next section in his book about prophet Nuh, peace be upon him. For Arabic I think I will have him read a book, inshallah.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Update

My Little Man did his math in good time today. I am very happy about that. He got a big break in the middle so we are still working on a few things. He did all his math, writing and reading. He is currently working on science. He will do a bit of Arabic and be done for the day, inshallah.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Things have been in an uproar

Dispite all the crazyness we have managed to do Math, reading and writing daily and some days Arabic, Quran or science. My son is really enjoying the book The Little Prince. I was surprised he didn't struggle at all. He made a little poster with about what he has read so far. As always my sons illustrations are very active ones.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Today

My Little Man started learning officially to tell time and we spent a long time working on that. He then reviewed phonics. This evening we learned about String Theory and I think what he got out of it the most was that all matter is made up of smaller and smaller parts.
He did some reading before he went to play with B and also did chores. It was a good day.

From String Theory to Alien Gore

I wanted to watch something educational....well I wanted to watch something while we ate dinner, educational was a perk. Anyway, I went to the PBS site and picked a full episode of NOVA something  Cosmos: String Theory.
I found it incredibly interesting. My son liked it but of course didn't understand a lot of it so I followed it up with a couple quick videos explaining it from youtube. Then I tried explaining it. Personally I think it makes a lot more sense than quantum theory but that's besides the point.
A little bit later my son decided to get out his molecular model kit. I joined him and made a dodecahedron and my son suggested it was Doctor Who's new Tardis. Then that it was the doctor.
I then joined a larger second one to it. I realised it looked like a snow man and started belting out Frosty the Snowman in an obnoxious voice. My son made a small companion for it and we added hair to her, the double dodecahedron figure, ears and a hat before she was consumed by the companion.
So silly!