Note to self: Next time, stand away from the air conditioning unit when turning it on for the first time to avoid getting dust in the face. It’s that time again in Canada: warm, sunny and getting hotter. It feels so incredible to be able to put shoes on the children and quickly get outside instead of worrying about snow, missing mittens and boots.
A couple of days ago, we were discussing the role that Islam has played in astronomy, noting that the sundial was greatly improved upon and how Muslims used them to keep track of the daytime prayers. I found a nice link online which has a template and the details for making your own sundial (scroll down), so we gave it a try. SubhanALLAH, the sundial was correct! The sundial in the pictures was made by my daughter.
This week, we are also studying the Ancient Greeks and putting together a lap-book, (can you believe that? I am not fond of putting them together but it’s growing on me). We have some bits and pieces that we are organizing for the layout so everything looks a mess right now. 
After the Greeks, we will start on the Romans, InshaALLAH, then move over to some Ancient African kingdoms.
My son is participating in the space unit study and is helping us build a space station. We will either finish that at the end of this week or next week, InshaALLAH. He’s only five but I do present everything in a manner that is comfortable for them both. At the moment, we are working on his reading fluency. 
He knows his phonics rules and he’s slowly piecing them together as the words and books get longer. I recently started filming him as he reads so that I can keep track of his progress. In August, he didn’t even recognize all of the letters yet and didn’t know the sounds of all of them, but he is now able to (very slowly) read compound words and long vowels, MashaALLAH. My goal is to get him to do some serious reading over the summer, InshaALLAH.
Daughter #2 is learning her alphabet and the letter sounds, a few at a time. We are mostly using flashcards and making folders to go along with the letters. Remember these? 
I never finished them with my son so I kept the ones that I made with him and will complete the rest with her, InshaALLAH.
My goal for her is to get her to recognize the alphabet and its sounds by the end of the summer and write her numbers, 1-10. And of course, everyone must continue to memorize Quraan.
take care,
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Question In The Comments
Wa alaikum as salaam,
Yes, I am using Safia Iqbal’s. I do skip around a bit because I see that she has bits and pieces of topics in other books in the series. I am trying to cover Ancient History this year and next year, InshaAllah we will continue with seerah in a more in-depth way, along with the Middle Ages.
I don’t mind following the Well-Trained Mind’s study sequence, i.e.
Time Periods:
Ancients
Medieval
Early Modern
Modern
For Science:
Biology/Classification/Human Body
Earth Science/Astronomy
Chemistry
Physics/Computer Science
These are done in four-year cycles. We’re a bit off but it’s still early….
I plan to give a more in-depth look at what we will do next year very soon, InshaAllah. Right now, I am taking classes with the Student’s Guild of Al Kauthar, Arabic four days a week and the Women Only FiQh course twice a week via The Fiks so my time is really limited. InshaAllah I hope to take this blog to the next level soon, so make du’a for me.
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*photo: by Svilen Milev