Archive for homeschooling

a typical homeschool day

thought i’d share a schedule of a typical homeschool day:

7 am homeschool prep
8 am breakfast & dress
9 am – 1 pm homeschool:

  • circle time
    • greeting & alFatiha
    • date & current events
    • song/rhyme/poem
    • surah of the week
  • independent work & presentations
1 pm lunch & free play
2 pm quiet/nap time
3 pm outside play
6 pm dinner prep
7 pm dinner
9 pm bath, story & bed

notes:

  • i treat a schedule as a guide. i try to stick to it on a regular basis, but i’m still flexible, because if our eyes are open there are many teachable moments in just living life.
  • what happens in the gaps? life.
  • i try not to do personal stuff in the morning, like check email, facebook or blogging. i distracts me then and often for the rest of the day.
  • i try to put a load of laundry in right after breakfast, other than that, the chores can wait.
  • the girls often help with making meals and chores — it’s the montessori way!
  • i have not included extracurricular/enrichment activities, but they’d be worked in as necessary, preferably outside of our main homeschool hours of 9am-1pm.

“Interruptions can be viewed as sources of irritation or opportunities for service, as moments lost or experience gained, as time wasted or horizons widened. They can annoy us or enrich us, get under our skin or give us a shot in the arm. Monopolize our minutes or spice our schedules, depending on our attitude toward them.”
- william arthur ward

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why we homeschool: john holt

john holt
– one of the founders of the unschooling movement
is another author i read
back when i was first just thinking about homeschooling.
he was very encouraging to me
and help me understand
and put into words
why i felt how i felt.
when folks have questions about homeschool,
here is where i get many of my responses.

holt has several books but start with these two:
how children learn
how children learn by john holt
(the companion book is how children fail.)

and teach your own
teach your own by john holt

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why we homeschool: john taylor gatto

i’m revisiting this
because of a conversation my husband had
with a coworker
whose wife was a teacher.
my husband was amazed because
his coworker’s wife had never even heard of homeschooling.
she actually thought it was a joke.

i challenge every teacher
or teacher-to-be
to read
the underground history of american education
by john taylor gatto.
the underground history of american education by john taylor gatto

while we’re at it,
i might as well also challenge every person who has gone to school
from kindergarten to college
to read gatto’s
dumbing us down.
dumbing us down by john taylor gatto

these books may not change minds,
but they will certainly allow minds a peek outside of the proverbial box.
i read these when i was thinking about the options
for my, then, 3-year old, first-born toddler
and look where it got me!:
having fun in this daily, joyful struggle
instead of being a shuttle-bus driver
to and from “school”.

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eid al-adha activities

the hajj, or pilgrimage to makkah / mecca, is one of the five pillars of islam.
muslims of all races and tongues come together
for three days (minimum) in the month of dhul-hijjah
to worship and glorify Allah
in one of life’s most moving spiritual experiences.
listed below are many ways to celebrate hajj
and its culminating celebration, eid al-adha or the festival of the sacrifice.
eid al-adha is expected to be on or around november 27, 2009 this year.

if you appreciate this
gathering of information,
make dua’ for my family and i
on the day of arafah
that Allah gives us the good in this world,
the good in the hereafter,
and saves us from the hellfire, inshaAllah!

  1. make a kaba pop-up card
    kaba pop up card
    we followed the directions for this simple pop up.
    however we used black construction paper
    backed with construction paper of a contrasting color,
    turned it on its side,
    and added a strip of gold-glitter glue.
  2. read tell me about hajj book
    by saniyasnain khan
    tell me about hajj by saniyasnain khan
  3. read/recite surah hajj, chapter 22 of the qur’an
  4. watch PBS’s muhammad, legacy of a prophet
    there’s a chapter in the DVD that discusses the hajj, as well as a virtual hajj online.
  5. make a hajj map
    hajj map
  6. take part in a local sacrifice or zabihah
  7. read or listen to hajj stories
    some communities have an event that allows people who have made the hajj to share their hajj-stories. if not, ask someone that you know to tell you their hajj story with you. you could even interview them and publish their story in your local muslim newspaper.
  8.  

  9. discuss the virtues of the first 10 days of dhul-hijjah,
    the 12th and last month of the islamic hijri calendar in which hajj takes place.

     

  10. discuss the pillars of hajj:
    1. wearing ihram,
    2. making tawaaf (circumambulate) around the kaba,
    3. going back and forth sa’i between safaa and marwaa, and
    4. staying on arafah.
  11. read stories about the history of hajj including
    • the story of sa’i when hajar and baby ismail (as) are left in the desert and discover the well of zamzam
    • the story of the sacrifice when Allah tells the prophet ibrahim (abraham) (as) to sacrifice his son ismail (as), including the stoning of shaytan
    • the story of the building of the kabah
    • the story of prophet muhammad’s (saws) hajj

    all of these stories can be found in these books by saniyasnain khan:
    my first quran story book by saniyasnain khan
    my first quran story book
    and
    goodnight stories from the life of the prophet muhammad by saniyasnain khan
    goodnight stories from the life of the prophet muhammad

  12. learn and recite the talbiyah
  13. arabic:
    talbiyah in arabic makedua.com
    transliteration:
    Labbaika Allahomma Labbaik.
    Labbaik La Shareeka Laka Labbaik.
    Innal-Hamdah, Wan-Nematah, Laka wal Mulk,
    La Shareeka Laka

    translation:
    Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am.
    Here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners.
    Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty.
    Thou hast no partners.

  14. take 3D virtual tour of the inside, outside kaba and masjid alHaram in mecca
    kaba tour from 3dkabah.com
  15. watch journey to mecca
  16. participate in a mock-hajj
    many schools set up a model kaba and allow the children to dress in ihram and “make” hajj. ask your local muslim school if you can participate.
  17.  

  18. play this “i’m learning about hajj” memory-style game
  19.  

  20. go on hajj!

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free montessori font

montessori script from mac rhino fonts
http://www.macrhino.com/free.html
free for personal use from mac rhino fonts

for when you need to print out desk name tags
with all the letters of the alphabet
(mom, how do your write “d”?)
or label something in the classroom.

now all i need is a free d’nealian font in print
dnealian print font by schoolfonts
and cursive…
dnealian cursive font by schoolfonts

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ramadan 2009

ramadan 2009 found us in atlanta.
we did several activities from my own post in 2008.

we did a ramadan dawa project:

we baked crescent cookies for our neighbors
to tell them about ramadan.
crescent cookies
i somehow forgot to get a picture of the final products.
we outlined the sugar cookies in white icing,
and ate just one a piece after packing a couple in each plastic baggie
to hand out to the neighbors
along with a little note about ramadan.

we made kaba pop-up cards
kaba pop up card
and beaded crescents for friends and family.

first we bent jewelry wire in a crescent shape
leaving enough to finish with a twist
and make a loop.
then we threaded clear beads.
it took lots of concentration for the 2 year old,
but then she wanted to make another and then another and then another…
beading crescent
beading crescent
beading crescent

after the beading was complete
and we’d twisted the top into a loop,
we added pretty, silver-lined, white ribbon so the crescent could hang
and glitter in the light.
they were very satisfied with the finished product
and couldn’t wait to give them as gifts.
aya's ramadan beaded crescent
rahmah's ramadan beaded crescent
sanaa's ramadan beaded crescent

we made a good deed trees to keep track of the girls’ good deeds.
first we talked about what good deeds were
and how during ramadan
Allah multiplies His reward for good deeds.
good deeds tree
alHamdulillah the girls were SO excited to do good deeds
that i soon knew that we’d run out of good deed leaves
so i modified the rules for getting good deed leaves:
they would start out with 5 leaves each day
and a leaf would be taken away if they did a bad deed.
good deed trees
ever the artists, they added tree houses and other flourishes to their good deed trees.

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in the trees at the children’s museum of atlanta

taking advantage of target’s free second tuesdays
at the children’s museum of atlanta
it’s always a nice monthly treat.

we took marta,
which requires a short hike through
centennial olympic park.
the girls took a quick break
to cloud-gaze
on the way to the museum.
cloud-gazing at centennial olympic park

this time the children’s museum was all in the trees.
the fishing area was still a hit with the girls,
sanaa fishing
rahmah and aya fishing
but this time they got to pretend to be birds
rahmah red robin
whether flying on the screen
rahmah on TV screen
and making their own nests.
sanaa in nest

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artspalooza at woodruff arts center

we don’t have a home
but we’re still homeschoolin’!
since we’ve got back from turkey
we’ve been living with the grandparents
so there’s no homeschool room
and our montessori tools aren’t available,
but we’re being flexible, organic and mobile.
i think folks call that unschooling.
we use the library a LOT,
we sit at a big table together
doing whatever folks are interested in
– from cursive to mathematics –
there are a lot of arts and crafts,
and we take advantage of whatever community is offering.
this time:
artspalooza at woodruff arts center.
there was arts and crafts room that seemed like mass-arts-chaos.
artspalooza at woodruff arts center, august 09
you could make hats, masks and other things.
there were short performances
and you could also go meet artists who taught art
(from dance to improv)
in the local area.
LOTS of fun.

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children’s day in turkey

on april 23, 1920, the grand national assembly
laid the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic
from the ashes of the ottoman empire.
atatürk dedicated april 23 to the children of turkey
to emphasize that they were the future of the new nation.
other nations send groups of children to turkey
to participate in the festivities and learn about each other’s cultures.
the official name of the holiday is
23 nisan ulusal egemenlik ve çocuk bayramı
or april 23 national sovereignty and children’s day
source: http://www.turkishnews.com/DiscoverTurkey/culture/april23/

children's day turkey

now here’s the unofficial version from kayseri:
it was april 22
– earth day –
and we were making biscuits for breakfast.
when we heard music outside.
i also thought i saw a parade near the local school.
i was too curious to just look from afar.
so, instead of staying in our pajamas,
eating breakfast,
and then getting ready for a typical homeschool day,
we quickly got dressed,
but the biscuits and some pretzels in a bag
and headed out to see what what going on.

the music continued as
groups of people headed toward the school
with some children in costumes or traditional dress.
all of that just peaked our curiosity.

it turned out that the local school
was putting on an outside show
for national sovereignty and children’s day.
the national holiday is officially on saturday, 23 april,
but the school held the performances on the preceding friday.

we saw several dance performances
and a short play
that seemed funny even though i barely understood a word.
we left before the show was finished
because the girls were tired, hot and thirsty,
but we enjoyed experiencing another taste of turkey’s culture.

children's day turkey
dancing to hadise’s latest hit “dum tek tek”.

children's day turkey

children's day turkey

children's day turkey
curious girls looking at us instead of the performance

children's day turkey
belly dancers

children's day turkey

children's day turkey
representing several nations

children's day turkey
the crowd

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where is Allah?

it’s questions like these that children come up with.allah calligraphy by samir malik
it’s also a good time to reconnect with the basics of islam.

when one of my girls asked me this question
i answered “everywhere.”
then i rediscovered
alAqida alTahawiyya
or “Tahawi’s Statement of Islamic Doctrine”.

“everywhere” is an incorrect answer
because Allah cannot be bound by time or space.
He is unlike anything we can imagine.

alAqida alTahawiyya is a concise statement
of the creed of islam.
just re-reading the first 28 points
every once and awhile
can readjust our islamic perspective on Allah.

i plan to share them with my girls
during our studies of quran and islam
and just in daily life
when questions like
“where is Allah?” come up.

just to get us started
here are the first 28 points:

We say about Allah’s unity, believing by Allah’s help that:

1. Allah is One, without any partners.

2. There is nothing like Him.

3. There is nothing that can overwhelm Him.

4. There is no god other than Him.

5. He is the Eternal without a beginning and enduring without end.

6. He will never perish or come to an end.

7. Nothing happens except what He wills.

8. No imagination can conceive of Him and no understanding can comprehend Him.

9. He is different from any created being.

10. He is living and never dies and is eternally active and never sleeps.

11. He creates without His being in need to do so and provides for His creation without any effort.

12. He causes death with no fear and restores to life without difficulty.

13. He has always existed together with His attributes since before creation. Bringing creation into existence did not add anything to His attributes that was not already there. As He was, together with His attributes, in pre-eternity, so He will remain throughout endless time.

14. It was not only after the act of creation that He could be described as “the Creator” nor was it only by the act of origination that He could he described as “the Originator.”

15. He was always the Lord even when there was nothing to be Lord of, and always the Creator even when there was no creation.

16. In the same way that He is the “Bringer to life of the dead,” after He has brought them to life a first time, and deserves this name before bringing them to life, so too He deserves the name of “Creator” before He has created them.

17. This is because He has the power to do everything, everything is dependent on Him, everything is easy for Him, and He does not need anything. “There is nothing like Him and He is the Hearer, the Seer.” (al-Shura 42:11)

18. He created creation with His knowledge.

19. He appointed destinies for those He created.

20. He allotted to them fixed life spans.

21. Nothing about them was hidden from Him before He created them, and He knew everything that they would do before He created them.

22. He ordered them to obey Him and forbade them to disobey Him.

23. Everything happens according to His degree and will, and His will is accomplished. The only will that people have is what He wills for them. What He wills for them occurs and what He does not will, does not occur.

24. He gives guidance to whomever He wills, and protects them, and keeps them safe from harm, out of His generosity; and He leads astray whomever He wills, and abases them, and afflicts them, out of His justice.

25. All of them are subject to His will either through His generosity or His justice.

26. He is Exalted beyond having opposites or equals.

27. No one can ward off His decree or delay His command or overpower His affairs.

28. We believe in all of this and are certain that everything comes from Him.

read the rest here: http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/aqida10.htm

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