Creating Vision Boards

I've been using vision boards for years, and it recently occurred to me that I should introduce this life planning tool to my children. It was so beautiful for me to visually see my children's future through their beautiful eyes. And I must say their future is bright. I need some shades!

Homeschool Update!

Wow, I almost forgot this blog was suppose to be about our homeschool! Nah, just kidding. Alright this is where we are halfway through this year!

Islamic Studies
Our Islamic Studies has morphed into our history study as well. We begin our year in Triple Darkness and have been working our up through the annals of time. Much of it has been review for the Twins, but new to Hassana so still time well spent. My approach to a history study is to concentrate on people and the impact that these events have on us today rather than dates and rote memorization. We are also still memorizing our short surahs from the Holy Quran and well as questions and answers from the Supreme Wisdom book. Our school day begins with what would be considered a devotional time. After the prayer, pledge, Fight Song and drill, we read and discuss a random section from the Holy Quran. I've found that this really sets the tone for the day.

Penmanship
Copy work continues in the Muhammad household except now for the twins it's in cursive! Finally! Amir started cursive awhile ago, but I had to put it off for my leftie, Yasina. Well, she's caught up and now everyone is looping it up. My kindergartner is learning to write her name and doing quite well.

Math
Still rolling with Math U See! Right now we're working to master subtraction regrouping with 3 digit numbers. (I still call it borrowing.) We've begun multiplication tables also. In the coming weeks, I'll be ordering the Gamma and Delta levels of MUS which cover multiplication and division.
My kindergartner is ready to begin Primer, which is the introductory level of Math U See. The only requirement to begin is knowing your numbers and she does. So, we're off!

Language Arts
We've been reading, reading, reading! I did what I said I wouldn't do and tested the childrens' reading levels. I was so pleased with the results. Both of the twins are reading on a 5th grade level! I pretty much expected Yasina test high, but I was honestly worried about Amir. What we found was that basically when he feels pressured to read aloud he gets nervous and it effects his performance. So what I've done was instead and hovering over the book while he reads, I sit next to him and croquet while listening. What a difference it makes! He doesn't feel like I'm pressuring him, and he reads so much better. Right now, he's reading the Wimpy Kid series, and I introduced Yasina to the Babysitters Clubs books which I used to love.

We have been keeping our I am Grateful journals for some time now, and they are really paying off. The twins are now writing a 5 sentence paragraph each day about anything/one  for which they feel grateful. Within that writing assignment we are able to review spelling, grammar, and pronunciation. I still incorporate Natural Speller and Growing with Grammar, but the bulk of our learning comes from practical application.

I still highly recommend the Explode the Code series. So much so, I ordering the prep books for Hassana, Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code. Leap Frog videos have done wonders for helping learn the letters and their sounds, now it's time to read! We are also loving Starfall.com and Fisher Price games.

Science
I just posted about our Chemistry study this year which is going beautifully. We went back to science journals this year. I'd tried them a year or so ago, but they just weren't feeling it. This time around they're drawing a picture and writing at least a couple sentences about the experiment. I also make certain I focus on "science" words that they should know as well.

Geography
If you've following the blog, you may know that I've started a childbirth services business which has been very successful thus far. In light of this, I've outsourced our geography studies. We've signed up and began receiving a subscription from Little Passports. We are also swapping postcards around the world on Postcrossing.com. Both are awesome programs that I would recommend you look into.

Foreign Language
Spanish, Spanish, Spanish. We are picking up so much from neighbors and friends, but I'm still looking for a formal program. Ugh! Why is this so hard to do? My hopes for Hassana have to do with linguistics, so I've got to get it popping in this area.

Fine Arts
The twins are taking piano lessons! As soon as I think Babygirl can handle it, I'm adding her to the rotation.

I used to focus on vocabulary and such, but I've found they learn so much from life and just don't single it out any more. I'm looking for a great Latin roots program though.

Exploring the 5 Senses

Hassana and I had fun learning about the 5 senses. We made it interactive by arranging hearing, seeing, smelling, touching and lastly, tasting tests. Above you see our taste test with nachos, a pickle, sunflower butter, mustard, and soy sauce. Sana loooovvveddd this! She even replicated it for her Daddy when he got home, blindfold and all.

Chemistry~Things that go poof!

We have officially begin studying the science of chemistry. Fun, fun, fun. My approach to teaching science is like my approach to teaching almost anything else, hands-on and experiment-based.  I have a huge book of experiments and I plan to do at least one each week. First up was a couple of tried and trues, baking soda and vinegar reactions and making bread. We've made a couple volcanoes and played with soda and vinegar a lot, so this time I demonstrated and explained what was actually happening to create the bubbles and fizz. We haven't made bread in a while (grasp!), so they enjoyed this and we learned about how yeast works.

Montessori Monday: Big to Small, Small to Big!

This was a cute way to learn gradualism in size for Hassana. You could also combine texture with this exercise by making each circle out of a different type of fabric. It's a nice opportunity to talk about pattern as well.

The Adventures of Princess Yasina

Yasina wrote and illustrated a book. Her idea, her vision, her work. This is what's important to me as a facilitator of my children's education. I love seeing their ideas and creativity come to life. It makes me so proud. Way to go, Yasina.

Montessori Monday~Shape Pizza

With colors down pat, Sana and I are working on shape recognition. This was fun activity (pretty self explanatory) that she enjoyed. After it dried I used the pizza slices to review fractions with the Twins. Talk about double duty!

Montessori Monday ~ Counting

Diamonds are a girl's best friend even at age 3! I wrote the numerals 1-10 on each of Sana's fingers. As she put on her Dollar Tree diamond rings, she says each number. She can already count to 15, but now she's learning to recognize the numerals 1-10.

Montessori Monday ~ Transferring Water With a Spoon

Sana loved this activity. She would spoon all the water and then start over. We are really trying to work on concentration and remaining focused until we complete our work.

Homeschool Budgets or Lack There of

I'm sitting here catching up on one of my favorite homeschool forums, The Well-Trained Mind Hive. I'm basically blown away by the amount of money being spent on homeschool books and supplies. Wow! I wish I had it like that! I see long lists of workbooks and kits and these are from families who have been homeschooling for years. I don't get it. I don't know if its because I just make or create a lot of the things we need, but the longer I homeschool, the less I find I need to buy. We are also blessed with a really good public library system which we use heavily. Our biggest purchase is usually our Math U See curriculum for the year, everything else is minimal. Or maybe it's because I'm the queen of free? I'm sure as high school approaches, the expenses will mount, but 100s of dollars for 3rd and 4th grade? Homeschool moms, am I missing something? How much do you spend of homeschool stuff?

With that said, some of the most profound teaching advice I've ever read was the best way to teach a subject is by doing it. To teach reading, read. To teach writing, write. Teaching science, experiment; math, work the problems, but be creative and make it fun. I just don't think it takes a lot of money to do that. 

Our New Favorite Author

My newest big girl and I have discovered an author we really enjoy, Rachel Isdora! We started with her African rewrite of Rapunzel. I could hear Sana around the house saying, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Then The Ugly Duckling has never been so cute! Her illustrations are simply amazing and so eye catching for little people and big folks alike.

Of course, we could not pass on a book that has As Salaam Alaikum on the front.

 
















Ms. Isdora has written and retold many more and we plan to read them all. In our house, she's the new Eric Carle! 

Copywork Lives On

Right after Islamic Studies, the muscle memory in my children's feet take them to the kitchen table. It's time for copywork. A tenet of the Charlotte Mason method, copywork has been faced with a gamut of emotions over the past couple of years from all smiles to tears. I've been consistent and it's paying off. Remember Yasina, my leftie, her English handwriting used to look like Arabic sometimes! My poor child, we found out that she was truly a leftie kinda late in the game. Well, she's made a full recovery. Amir has always had a neat, controlled penmanship, and copywork has just helped to refine and enhance his fine motor skills. I've also been able to introduce punctuation, grammar, and proper spacing into our daily practice. Copywork in our house serves as a reinforcement of memorywork--so we copy the Surahs or Lessons that we are memorizing.

Homeschool Storage, How do you do it?!

I really pride myself in being an organized person, but managing homeschool materials has posed my greatest challenge. What do you with all the stuff? First we have school at the kitchen table, I don't have a classroom nor do I really want one. So I have bookcases throughout the house holding reference books, a large storage cabinet in my son's room that contains Montessori, other preschool items, and art supplies, and lastly the kitchen island cabinets basically hide the rest of it. The top on the island use to house our materials that I know we would use everyday. My logic was I would just keep them out and readily available all week then put them away on the weekends. I didn't anticipate how badly looking at all that stuff all day would get on my nerves! It was driving me crazy. Imagine having to push a math worksheets out of the way to chop tomatoes!

My prayers were answered when I came across the Free.99 beauty above. Thank you, Lord! I cleaned her up and covered the glass panes by taping scrapbook paper to the inside. My island is clear and my sanity is restored.

Montessori Monday ~ Walking the Line

We easily recreated this Montessori classic with tape and yarn. She was really challenged by this activity, trying to keep those tiny feet on an even tinier piece of yarn was pretty tough! 

Read to Feed with Heifer International

Another great free curriculum offer! This is from Heifer International. The organization works worldwide providing families in developing nations with farm animals to promote economic development. They gave us two sets of curriculum, one for 3-4th grade and another geared toward 5-6th grade as apart of the Read to Feed program. Both are based on books about families who have recieved animals and how thier lives changed. We are currently working 3-4th grade curriculum which is based on the book, Beatrice's Goat. The curriculum covers economics, biology, civics, and geography. The story of Beatrice is so touching and the children love it. We are saving money now to buy a goat for a family. I got this about a year ago, so check out Heifer's website for current info.

Planet Protectors Club

We are the newest members! Our homeschool schedule has been going great, but my Mommy senses saw a rut on the horizon. So I went into the arsenal and pulled out some new materials, some of which I've had for awhile and have been waiting for the right time to break it out. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) provides lots of fun materials for schools and individuals to help teach children learn about protecting the environment.  They provided coloring and activity books, membership badges, and a calender of activities for about 8 months. We began our lessons last week.We revamped the April activity which was to make flower pots out of newspaper to recycling old paper to make new writing paper. Of course, we'll post the results. You can visit the web page for inform and to get your materials.

Montessori Monday: Sensory Activities

Water is known as the universal solvent. So if you have a cranky child, give her a pot of water and problem solved! All of my children love water play, always have. It is a great, easy sensory activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Of course, watch the little ones closer around all water. Final tip, do this activity on days when you're going to mop the floor!

Science Blast 2010 Wrap-up

The Science Blast was an outstanding success! The children had a ball. We began by dissecting cows's eyes that I purchased from Home Science Tools which is considered a high school level lab. I used the guide that came with the kit to help the children along. They worked in groups of about 2 or 3. Next, we created our own veggie pizzas. Then made ice cream in a bag. This was a big hit. They keep asking, "Is it ready?, is it ready?". I would tell them, "No, keep shaking." The children then made ice cream sundaes with chocolate syrup and sprinkles. The smoking punch was fascinating. I added dry ice to fruit juice and foamed wonderfully. Last on the agenda was the rocket launch. After a brief lesson in the laws of motion, we all went outside. Everyone was waiting with baited breath to see our little rocket go, go, go. It didn't go. My husband and I followed the directions perfectly, it just would not work. We tried and tried to no avail. So I sat all the children down outside and explained them there would be no rocket blast today. They of course understood. Children are so forgiving. We went around the circle and everyone commented on their favorite part of the party. Each child left with a certificate of participation and two homemade chocolate chip cookies. Watch out for Science Blast 2011! I'm already collecting ideas.

Montessori Monday: Sensory Activities

Sensory Activities have always been a big hit in my house from the time my oldest were very young. I really just keep recycling the same activities over and over again and I plan to share them over the next few weeks. I put this one together a couple weeks ago using various types of beans. I hate to waste food, so I use beans that we don't eat. LOL. The tools are just various kitchen items. Clean up can also provide an opportunity for sweeping practice.

When We Make Wudu

Need a cute, fun way to help your children remember the steps of ablution. I took pictures of each part of the body they are to wash and hung them in order in the bathroom. It has worked great.

Ablution or Wudu is a cleansing process that also has spiritual meaning that Muslims complete before they pray.