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.

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.

So Where are We? Choice curriculum/Getting back into the routine.

Well it looks like we have the Arabic picked out, Math, Science, and English picked out. This leaves handwriting, Islamic Studies, Social Studies, Arts and Health.
I have all but decided that we will learn Spencerian Penmanship because it will be an art as well as a tool for communication. I think I really need to spice things up for penmanship otherwise we'll be miserable.
Also I figure for arts just making sure we have various art projects going on regularly. I will just let it be mostly child directed inshallah.  Say we love reading Three Little Bikers, maybe we can make a puppet show of it, or are leaning about the food groups, painting a poster about it, or we write and learn a little nasheed about what good writers do. Things like that.
Also I am thinking that SS and Health do not need to be done every day. Ideas i have for them are teaching one subject, a few times a week and then when we have mastered the concepts and skills do the other.
We could have one week with one subject and one week with the other or One day with one subject and the other a day or 2 later.
As far as IS goes I think we will do Quraan everyday, and other subjects on certain days. Maybe Aqeeda on mondays, that kind of thing.

This brings me to Mondays. Mondays are the hardest day of our week because he is often tired coming home from a fun weekend at Dad's. It seems also to very important that with in the first few mins that he walks in the door that he gets started on school work. If he does not he has a hard time with the transition back to Mom's house all day. I tend to want to chat with his step mom about what he did on the week end and what not. I guess I will just have to give her a call later in the day. 

Passwords for various text books and links

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=82095303
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=82095304
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=82095381
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=82095505

English
	Languages of Literature Grade 6	http://www.classzone.com/books/language_of_lit_gr06/index.cfm?state=MD
	Languages of Literature Grade 7	http://www.classzone.com/books/language_of_lit_gr07/index.cfm?state=MD
	Languages of Literature Grade 8	http://www.classzone.com/books/language_of_lit_gr08/index.cfm?state=MD
Health
	Teen Health Course 1	http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078697603/student_view0/
	Teen Heath Course 2	http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078697611/student_view0/
	Teen Health Course 3	http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/007869762x/student_view0/
Spanish
	Realidades 1 Web Code jck-0001	http://www.phschool.com
	Realidades 2 Web code jdk-0001	http://www.phschool.com
	Realidades 3 Web code jek-0001	http://www.phschool.com
French
	Discovering French Bleu 1	http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/french_1/book_home.htm
	Discovering French Blanc 2	http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/french_2/book_home.htm
World Studies
	A Message of Ancient Days World Studies 6	http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/6/index.html
	Across the Centuries World Studies 7	http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/7/index.html
	Creating America World Studies 8	http://www.classzone.com/books/cas05/index.cfm?state=MD
Math
	Math 6	http://www.glencoe.com/sec/math/mac/mac01/course1/
	Math 7	http://www.glencoe.com/sec/math/mac/mac01/course3/
	IM	http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078738180/student_view0
	Algebra 1	http://www.glencoe.com/sec/math/algebra/algebra1/algebra1_05/
	Algebra 2	http://www.classzone.com/books/algebra_2/index.cfm?state=MD
	Geometry	http://go.hrw.com/gopages/ma/geo.html

Science Curriculum Choice

I am almost certain we will use Scott Foresman curriculum again for science. Everything is laid out for you as the teacher, I found basically all the goodies and texts online free and we are familiar with the format.
He can do it fairly independently, despite being a public school text book. He really like to do the Before You Read page prior to each lesson, which is a true/false questionnaire that helps him start to think about the subject at hand.
Apparently the math a few years ago wasn't very good but I haven't looked at their math yet.

I don't know how to directly post files to the page so when I find the links I mentioned I'll post them In the mean time if you have a bit of free time you can find the curriculum online free. Try searching for Georgia and Scott Foresman.

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 

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.

So I think I will follow a posting schedule. inshallah.
Monday: Cool Links!
Tuesday: Miscellaneous Lessons
Wednesday: Islamic Studies
Thursday: Arabic Studies
Friday: English Studies
Saturday: Mathematics
Sunday: Science

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!