Assalamu alaykum,
I was brought up in a house where I was surrounded by crafty people. My dad was exceptionally good in making anything out of woods, metal and any other good material. He could transform a woody board into a crib and he did!! My little brother slept in one of my dad's creation when he was born!
He was really good in gardening too and made lots of different items for the garden: chairs and a table, a small shed for the tools and even a bird feeder!
My mum on the other loved sewing and made great dresses for me and my sister. She enjoyed knitting and crocheting too. They all did something they enjoyed and produced really nice pieces.I remembered sitting with my granny, long hours in the afternoon;she showed how to crochet little granny squares. I was not too inspired by it but I did as i loved my granny and wanted to make her happy. My mum still knitting my baby's blankets ( a collection of blankets I shoul say!) and crocheting little hats.
My sister started knitting years ago and she said she gain pleasure by doing so. She produces lovely scarves for winter and hats and made a quilt using granny squares! Sorry I don't know all the proper technical words to use here.
I was never interested in any of those hobbies. Even when years ago a sister proposed to teach me sewing, I was not too happy to start. And in fact I never did!
I feel now it is the right time. Don't worry I am not going to get into crocheting or knitting, maybe later in life insh'Allah. Allah knows best. For now I found something that looks to me more adventurous and exciting: felting wool!!
It's easy and requires not tools or very little, only patience, soap and scrubbing!! I decided to take up an hobby as I'd like to pass on one to my boys. Now felting doesn't really look like a boy's hobby but in time I am sure they could develop their own styles. What I like about this hobby is that it requires patience and it is what I am aiming for my boys. I find that boys don't have much patience and loose quickly their concentration. I would like to work on that as patience is so important in life and a real skill in Islam to be rewarded! Insh'Allah. So felting wool here we come!!!
I purchased a book to get us started and it's full of easy projects to make, step-by-step guide and gorgeous pictures, I just feel that I want to start all the projects all at once. Insh'Allah, sabr!
On the other side of our life, home education has carried on as usual. We are now studying everyday except of Friday only day we go out and visit sisters, and my kids can see their little friends. Also we left Friday for our outings with the homeschooling group.
A. has carried on learning with Calvert. The past week it was the time to learn measuring using feet, inches, yards and metric measures. For obvious reason metric is the easiest way for me and my family but funny enough A. prefers the imperial one. In English he has been revising phonics, verbs and specially he has been using the dictionary a lot. I see that more the kids grow, more there is the need to use the dictionary, easpecially as English is not my mother-tongue. Mash'Allah.He has been busy writing two compositions one about his favourite food:pizza and the other about his favourite toy: a LEGO truck I bought him for 'eid.
In Science, we finished the chapter about forces, pull and push and also the lever experiment. (made a small version of a lever to lift up a pile of heavy books. we used two pencils to do that and it worked!) We are now doing ramps. We talked about what a ramp is and why it is used for. This topic fits very well with the Ancient Egypt because we talked about the way the egyptians used to build the pyramids using ramps to put massive stones in place. Pretty amazing how every subject can link to one another, it's like a jigsaw!
We started a new booklet from Calvert called Critical Thinking (CT).Now this book is so nicely made and it really stimulate the child's brain to think harder about how to solve a problem or a game. It makes use of games, mazes, wordsearches, lots of grammar and writing. Just what I need with my A.! In History, it was the time of learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and laws and rules. A. made a list of his own rules and how they apply to everyday life. Also he had to think about rules that could keep us safe e.g. no carry weapons. He carried on talking about the fact that we all have different thoughts and we don't all want the same things. So conflicts arise when arguments starts over differents of opinions. It's the beginning of a new section that would lead him into the major conflicts in History.
A. has been active in Art&Craft too.He painted a picture following a painting from a great Japanese painter named Hokusai. Another nice lesson from Calvert. This time the lesson was meant to teach the child about fine lines and wavy lines using paintbrushes small and big.
We also started a new Unit Study about Ancient Rome. We just started to collect all we need from the internet. We are also using couple of books we have at home for History, one of them is from the same collection of Ancient Egypt (thebookpeople).
Qur'an and Arabic as usual. A.is now doing Qur'an everyday for 30 minutes a day. Carried on with Surah Al-Baqarah, mash'Allah,long way to go! Insh'Allah. He is also making good use of the website quranexplorer.com
With S. I had such a great week. I am so proud of him and all that he is learning. He is really coming along very well, mash'Allah tabarak'Allah and even his Qur'an Teacher praised him so much for his efforts in reading the Qur'an beautifully. Mash'Allah.
In English, S. has been revising all the phonics he learnt so far. Lots of reading and comprehension of the text using quizzes and worksheets from mindsprinting.com. Also he is learning consonant clusters e.g. pl,cl,gl,fl,tr,cr. etc and making sentences using words with those consonants blend.
In Maths he has been doing ones, tens, hundrends and just started thousands and ten thousands. I have also integrated his lessons with some additions and subtractions with a book I had left from the Schofields and Simms collection from last year.
In Science I carried on using parentsintouch.com and S. has been learning about plants life cycle and the food chain.
The past week, we have been mainly indoors and busying ourselves with cooking and gardening. Potatoes are really shooting up as well as the chillies and peppers! So pleased with my kids gardening skills! I am so looking forward to pick up our efforts in the garden, insh'Allah. And indeed Allah is Al-Khaliq!!
For now that's all. Watch this space if you like to see our new hobby in practice and the new Unit of Study:Ancient Rome.
Wa alaykum assalam
New projects, soon to come insh'Allah
A paper plane, one of the many science activities we made
A. showing his paper plane. It flew for 18 feet
An easy bubble machine, we called it the 'bubble-o-matic!'
making the 'bubble-o-matic'
All we need for the 'Bubble-o-matic'
And there it is, it really worked!A shower of bubble came out of it!
A new exciting, easy to use book with lots of experiments that use stuff around the house
My new hobby...to share with the kids!
Ancient Rome is coming...
Hokusai painting 'The Wave'
A. painting following Hokusai
Working on it
My new hobby...to share with the kids!
Ancient Rome is coming...
Hokusai painting 'The Wave'
A. painting following Hokusai
Working on itA's painting, 'The Wave 2'
A. made a pizza with a baquette just added tomatoe sauce and grated cheese
A. made a pizza with a baquette just added tomatoe sauce and grated cheeseA fresh bowl of salad
(all for the 'change 4 life ' chart)
Hot from the oven
Our cherry tomatoes
The peppers are sprouting up
The potatoes!!
Hot from the oven
Our cherry tomatoes
The peppers are sprouting up
The potatoes!!
10 comments:
So much going on, maashAllah!
My grandparents and other family on my mother's side were also very creative people, always making something.
Assalamu alaykum sister ummrashid,
so much is going on these last few weeks! Problem is I need more hours during the day because my kids constantly asking to do something and there is never enough time! Mash'Allah.
Insh'Allah I am studying about this new hobby I decided to take over. It's all new to me and I am just gathering lots of info here and there. But I am so looking forward to get started! Kids are too, they saw the pictures of colourful toys, book covers and all that they can do with this new material. Insh'Allah soon.
Jazakillah for stopping by
wa alaykum assalam
x
MashaAllah sis you have been soooo busy, I hope that Allah Ta'ala inspires me to be as good a teacher and example for my kids inshaAllah. I read another blog (from the US) about the felting wool stuff mashaAllah, it looks really cool. I also wanted to ask you about the Calvert stuff.... DS1 (aged 10.5) likes structure but I am not at all structures so was thinking of something like calvert for him so questions:
1. Not having followed a curriculum he will have gaps in his knowledge and be more advanced in others, does calvert cater for this.
2. How does the tutoring work, as they are US based?
3. Does the work need to be completed to a schedule?
That's it for now, I am sure there will be others lol
Fi amanillah x
Hi There!
This is an awesome blog. And I love the projects your children are involved in. I just wanted to drop by to say thank you for joining me in my resource blog. I hope you find something useful in your homeschool journey.
Subadra
http://bookslinksandmore.blogspot.com/
Assalamu alaykum sis Umm Adam,
Jazakillah for stopping by. I am sure you are a great teacher and I read this in your blog. You are busy too!!! Mash'Allah.
About Calvert, it's a complete curriculum that cover all the year including all the subjects that you need for your child/dren.
It's like if you follow the UK curriculum. Also it all depends what curriculum you have been using so far. Remember that Calvert is an American curriculum, your child is expected to learn american history, american monetary system and lots of words in their dictionary! There is so much new there to learn. You can still incorporate some more if you like. We do English History, Islamic History and even integrate some english literature! But that's only if you like to do so.
We use the ATS system (accredited teacher support) and we get the support we need when we need, Also the teacher check the assessment tests every 20 lessons. We send it to her in US and she marks it for us and then send it back. It's great! She is a really lovely teacher and always write a letter to my child to let him know how please she is. Of course the tutoring is based in US.
You do not need to complete the work on a schedule, only if you opt for the ATS. But you can opt out if you think you can do the work yourself including assessing your child.
Hope this helps,
keep up the good work
wa alaykum assalam
x
Assalamu alaykum sis Umm Adam,
Jazakillah for stopping by. I am sure you are a great teacher and I read this in your blog. You are busy too!!! Mash'Allah.
About Calvert, it's a complete curriculum that cover all the year including all the subjects that you need for your child/dren.
It's like if you follow the UK curriculum. Also it all depends what curriculum you have been using so far. Remember that Calvert is an American curriculum, your child is expected to learn american history, american monetary system and lots of words in their dictionary! There is so much new there to learn. You can still incorporate some more if you like. We do English History, Islamic History and even integrate some english literature! But that's only if you like to do so.
We use the ATS system (accredited teacher support) and we get the support we need when we need, Also the teacher check the assessment tests every 20 lessons. We send it to her in US and she marks it for us and then send it back. It's great! She is a really lovely teacher and always write a letter to my child to let him know how please she is. Of course the tutoring is based in US.
You do not need to complete the work on a schedule, only if you opt for the ATS. But you can opt out if you think you can do the work yourself including assessing your child.
Hope this helps,
keep up the good work
wa alaykum assalam
x
Hi Sravani thanks for stopping by!
And thanks you for your nice comment.
I will keep on checking your resources regularly as I think there are really useful things in there.
x
Assalaamu alaiki sis
JK for all the info mashaAllah, I will try and absorb it and make a decision inshaAllah. Would you say it's worth the money?
Also, completely on a different track but I have been trying to 'follow' your wonderful blog but when I click on the follow button nothing happens!
Fi amanillah sis
Assalamu alaykum Umm Adam,
wa yaki. I think Calvert is really worth the money. It's complete, well laid out, great textbook and workbook and the teacher support is fantastic but even if you opt out the ATS (teacher support) you can still get support from Calvert by email. I like it and it has been a great 'scholastic' year for A. Pls do read the rest of the blog and see what A.my almost 9 years old has been learning with Calvert (2nd grade). I am seriiously thinking to purchase next year already!! I am so looking forward to it!!
RE: follow the blog. *blush* Jazakillah kheir sister for your lovely blog. I don't know about wonderful...just blogging our weeks in and out. When you click on follow you will have a pop up window. Make sure you pc doesn't have a pop up blocker on.To check if the pop up blocker is on go to tools up right corner in internet explorer and then check if there is a tick in the pop up blocker.
HTH
Wa alaykum assalam
x
Jazakillahu khair sis
I use Firefox which didn't recognise the box for some reason - tried in Explorer and it worked fine, alhamdulillah.
Wassalaam, x
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