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.

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

Handwriting

So the options seem to be, first of all, do we want to continue manuscript or move to cursive?
I gave an impromptu lesson in cursive today. He though it was cool. I wonder if it would be easier because connecting letters is already familiar to him via Arabic.

 I think it would be cool to learn how to write in the older style, Spencerian.  It also seems to lend itself to learning calligraphy more readily. It might force both of use to slow down and really pay attention to letter formation. (My hand is aching just thinking about handwriting.)

This is Engrossers Script

Just for fun

Of course there are more moder scripts like D'Nealian

So if we learn cursive, what is the end goal? Simplicity or beauty? I think it just depends. If he is capable, beauty because this could be one more way to express himself, on the other hand if it is just not with in his abilities then simplicity would be the obvious choice.  Simplicity would allow him to read cursive and take notes faster.
I still think making beautiful handwriting the goal could be a wonderful choice because it could become an art form, as I mentioned before.
MMM I think I am going to poll people on facebook. 

Links to Free Math Books (1st grade)

I am on the great journey of selecting math curriculum. I know that I could buy something, or I could just kinda do an ad-hoc kind of thing but I want to do neither. I want it free, not counting the cost of printing and manipulatives. I want it to be very interested to my son and preferably scripted or at least very heavily outlined. I am not very comfortable with math and I want my son to love it and do well with it. (The opposite of me.)
There are actually quite a few options out there. We could use a very old fashioned text book like First Lessons in Arithmetic published originally by Brothers and Company. The Grammar of Math is a site that a private school teacher has made video lessons and supplemental materials to accompany the book. I think she uses the book in her class room. There are other similar books that I like. For example First Lessons in Numbers, Oral and Written by Benjamin Greenleaf, A.M. The problem with it is that it does not cover geometry or algebra. I covers measurement and somewhat covers money. There are other books that do cover these areas but the money part is out dated. Pictures of money from when I was a child are out dated so one can imagine.
There is the MEP program. It looks a little in appearance but it seems to be primarily activity based and would take quite a bit of preparation. They use it in Hungary and the UK. A similar program is CSMP.
And of course there is the typical school books. I will just list them rather than give much info as they are all kind of similar anyway.

• Go Math Florida TE (Intended for children that are either up to 2 years behind their peers or more than 2 years behind their peers.) This is the TE. Here is an index of many other resources that go with it. Take your time and explore.
• Go Math Florida Student edition. 
• Think Math TE
• Think Math Student addition
• Math Expressions
• Math Expressions TE A cool thing about this one is that you can access a lot of resources that go with each lesson by clicking the resources button. Tests and everything.
• HSP Math NC I don't like how this one id displayed, but NC is known for the best schools in the US.
• HSP Math NC TE It seems to be very similar to the Harcourt book we had.
• CA Mathematics McGraw ID camath01 password redwood Has a student handbook. This is a site that has mini lessons and games to accompany the book.  D6FFE73DD6 is the code to link and had the text book with audio available and occasionally links to the games page under the resource button.
• NCERT Mathmagic is made by a government agency in India I believe. Scroll down to Class 1, which is for 6 to 7 year olds.
• Georgia Math ID fcsfirst password fcsmath 
• Math Connects D6FFE73DD is the code. F765640977 or AEF03A3C25 for 2nd, A838535E8A or DA4F562186 for 3rd, CB77A58EB7 or E3488CCEF0 4th, A7B8EC5CE9 or E3F898A3AB 5th, A8FBM1C38F or F066E2B8F1 6th, A84CFF6287 7th.
• HM Georgia Math ID 1classdekalb Password dekalbstudent1 you can change the grade by changing the number