Welcoming the New Homeschoolers

We have some new Muslim neighbors a few houses away, AlhamduLILLAH and their children are similar in age to my own. They are planning to homeschool their children this fall for the first time, InshaALLAH.

Yesterday, while the oldest was in school, their mother brought the younger children over to sit in during our school session. My children completed minimal work due to the novelty of having guests, but I’m sure she got the idea. I did advise her that each child, each family and teacher for that matter is different, so her style will be her own.

Over time, many layers are added to each and every homeschool, and some of those layers may be peeled away, never to be used again while others become permanent, ongoing fixtures of one’s routine.

Do any of you work with other families on a regular basis or have you done so in the past? How is it for you? Do you meet the entire day or only for specific subjects and how often?

For us, it would be too difficult to do this permanently because of our lack of space (my four kids fill the classroom and anyone extra makes it tough to move around), but I was thinking that we might meet once a week for arts and crafts or some type of Islamic studies activity. What do you think?

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Toronto public schools to Dump Paper Textbooks?

Toronto public schools to Dump Paper Textbooks?

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I Love to Catch the Blooming of the Trees

AlhamduLILLAH! Such beauty in ALLAH’s creation.

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Wrapping Up Earlier Than Expected

Without intentionally planning to, we’ve almost finished our school work for the year, AlhamduLILLAH. My daughter has finished her math book and is just about done with language arts. Science will be continued throughout the summer, InshaALLAH and Islamic Studies is ongoing as well. This has given us some extra time and she has finally learned to crochet, AlhamduLILLAH.

She still has eight books left to read from her list of fifty, but she says that she’s run out of reading materials. I checked her shelf and saw that there are quite a few books left, but I think that they may be a little too advanced for her, so I might have to run over to the library soon, InshaALLAH.

I am planning to give her a gift for completing the list of 50 books – she started in August and was given a full year to finish, so I figured that I had lots more time to think of something. She’s 6 and pretty easy to please but I want something inexpensive and just for her. Any ideas?

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I Waited All Month To Shoot The Moon

The full moon is on the 28th of April, InshaALLAH. I have been waiting all month to get outside in the dark and attempt to get pictures of it. I am terrible with night shots but I was determined to get out there and try. This is manual focus with no tripod. I have one but found it was better to just hold the camera and deal with the shakes. I was pleased and I might try it again. 🙂

Here, you can see how cloudy it was. This is one of the mistake pictures – the moon is way too bright, but it was the only way to get the clouds.

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AlhamduLILLAH, Check Out These Images of the Sun

Click this link.

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Be Out There – National Wildlife Federation

Be Out There – National Wildlife Federation

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Books for Kids That Every Business Student Should Read

Interesting list.

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Curriculum Planning

I’m planning next year’s curriculum and need to figure out what materials I have and what must be purchased, which is probably not a lot, InshaALLAH. My daughter is about 40 pages shy of finishing her grade 2 math (we finally got through multiplication and she breezed through fractions like she learned it years ago). I think the biggest need will be math and possibly something for science and geography.

I like Singapore Math a lot, AlhamduLILLAH. It’s not for everyone but it is a good fit for us. I’d like to once and for all figure out what I’m trying to teach in science, lol. We are pretty eclectic for now.

I’m thinking about using Singapore’s Science and Art books but I will have to think about it, InshaALLAH.

The younger kids are easy because I have built the foundation of curriculum with the oldest, AlhamduLILLAH.

For Islamic studies, InshaALLAH, we will cover the 10 people promised Jannah next, InshaALLAH.

I would also like to focus on reading Arabic a little more. We still have to get through the Arabic books from Scholastic that my husband purchased and we are working steadily on Rosetta Stone as well, so we definitely don’t need anything for Arabic.

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Hijab Exchange Canada – If you are in Ottawa – check it out.

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