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

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.

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.

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.

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 for Free Curriculum or Text Books For 1st Grade

So here is a list of links that could be useful for other young families.  BTW North Carolina is supposed to have the best schools in the country so I use their standards and pacing for guides.

• Used homeschool curriculum, and homeschool groups, events, and activities 
• Home - Rainbow Resource Center, Inc.  
• SCM Curriculum Guide – Simply Charlotte Mason 
• BCP Glossary Lesson Pathways Browse Categories 
• Free Homeschool Curriculum and Educational Resources - Homeschool Buyers Co-op 
• Curriculum Based Programs, Interpretation and Education, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior 
• TJEd Online.com: Your online resource for education, training and support for A Thomas Jefferson Education 
• Old Fashioned Education Freely Educate LeapingFromTheBox - Homeschooling and Unschooling Information and Educational Resources 
• كتب مباحث الصفوف الأساسية والثانوية 
• Classic Curriculum Scope and Sequence Grades 1 - 12 
• Pass Words For Georgia Text Books in Fulton
• Text Books 
• Ideal Muslimah and other books
• The Presidents Challenge (fitness) 
• Dictation lessons in drawing for primary grades
• Object Lessons 
• Pearson - Prentice Hall Social Studies 
• Grade 2 Science
• http://activities.macmillanmh.com/science/ca/grade2/index.html 2nd Grade Science
• FOSSweb - Air and Weather 
• http://msnucleus.org/curriculum/curriculum.html Free k-12 science curriculum!
• http://science.education.nih.gov/customers.nsf/ESDental.htm Dental unit for little ones
• Technology Curriculum k-6 
• The arithmetical primer. Underhill's new table-book; or, Tables of arithmetic made easier. By D. C. Underhill ... 
• 19th Century Schoolbooks Collection 
• First lessons in arithmetic on the inductive pl... 
• The Grammar of Math: First lessons of Arithmetic  This site has videos and many other resources to go with the previous link 
• California Mathematics - Grade 1 - Chapter 1
• http://ceure.buffalostate.edu/~csmp/  CSMP complete curriculum for math
• http://www.sfreading.com/ Has grammar book, and various other materials
• Language Arts: State Resources take some time and explore this one
• The gradual primer, or, Primary school enunciator: The child's first step, taken in the right place, Part I
• McGuffey's eclectic primer 
• The new Franklin primer and first reader
• For reading Assessment 
• Starfall's Learn to Read with phonics 
• http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/harcourt_brace_spelling.html
• http://www.homespellingwords.com/1st-Grade-Spelling-Words.htm 
• Mrs. Perkins' Dolch Words
• http://www.k12reader.com/first-grade-spelling-words/ 
• http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/national/teachers/building-reading-writing-skills/supplementary-grammar-writing-activities
• http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/national/teachers/building-reading-writing-skills/supplementary-grammar-writing-activities 
• spelling assessment
• First lessons in language, or, Elements of English grammar
• The Grammar of English McGuff 
• McGraw-Hill | Grammar & Writing Activities »
• Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Products - Grade 1 - Zaner-Bloser Teachers' Store  free page maker
• Islamic Copywork
• Arabic primer 
• arabic primer audio
• Comprehensive List of Madinah Arabic Resources 
• Learn arbic: lesson 1
• Learn Quran 
• TJ Blog MY FAVORITE SITE IN THE WORLD! 
• The site Talibiddeen JR 

Handwriting Pages

I made some handwriting stages....well just about copied them from a used up commercial handwriting book, but I added my own flare. I mean really there is only so much one can do to make handwriting pages. lol
Anyway as soon as i figure our how to up load them I will post them.
Ok here are the links:
Tall short and below the floor
Cc
Cc word
Ee
Ee words
Ff
Ff words
Practice
Application 

Writing about snail

Just this moment my little guy came in and told me about a snail he found in the back yard. He is now drawing a picture and writing a sentence about it. Yeayh! I asked what he was going to write and asked what are some more details he could tell about.
I asked "Where were you."
He responded "Outside."
"Where outside? You were by the tree right?"
"I was by the back, back tree."
"Ok, yeah, add that to your picture. What other details could you add? Think about it"
He added the sun, grass, the "back, back tree" our house, and he is drawing up a storm now. How can I tell, sound effects, lol. O he added this room, our basement. it is so cute!

I just told him to do a really good job with his best hand writing so he could share it on the internet.

The little thing above the n on the ground is the snail. He is in front of a tree. The back porch has striped awnings and he shows the stairs in our house.  The text reads "A snail was on the bottom of my hand when I was outside. The snail was going to the top." His handwriting is very nice here, mashallah.
If I am right behind him prompting him to hold his pencil correctly, sit up and hold his paper this is what his handwriting looks like. Sometimes we "chomp" that is we will tap each finger to our thumbs to practice coordination. I need to look up some more ideas for small little things that we can occasionally do to increase hand strength and coordination. Both his hands and mine get tired easily.  I'll post my findings inshallah.

Subjects We're Studying

Hi world! Aslamulakum muslimeen!
So first thing is first we are studying Arabic, Aqeedah, Salat, Penmanship, Writing, English, Math, Science and what ever comes along ;). We informally study nutrition and health, along with other things.
Our current goals are as follows:
Arabic, increase vocabulary, an strengthen letter formation.
Aqeedah, Who is Your Lord?
Salat, perfecting physical positioning and meaning of the words
Penmanship, pencil grip, correct formation, leaving space between words
Writing, letter writing
English, spelling, thinking about what we have read
Math, review and assess
Science, Space and technology!
Other, Ireland!