Thursday, November 20, 2008

Back in the saddle again...


As you may know if you follow my blog I should have a bumper sticker that says I'd rather be home-schooling, but DH and I have differing views on the matter. I have to admit that after the first year of having the kids in school I stopped working with them after-school due to frustration levels (theirs and mine). However, recently it has come to my attention that DD #1 has stopped making reading skills progress since then. And DS #1 needs some serious help with his handwriting and geography.

So, during the time that the kids were in school this week I redid their rooms. Now we are going to make a special trip tomorrow afternoon for desks and a list of various study center pieces I have deemed essential. We are going to do some serious work at home again. And now that the kids are older they need to have a study zone. So we are making one.

I am breaking out the zayner-bolser handwriting books and have decided to go back to some phonetics stuff with Layla. I know she is going to hate it, but I think the problem she is having is an inability to sound things out. So, back to the basics. I am thinking Dr. Seuss and Shell Silverstein might be a good way to get some non-sense words into her reading and force her to sound things out. We'll see.

I am also going to start more Islamic education for them again. Truly, I have been a mess with that. I have no weekend school within reach, so it's all me and I have to get back to doing it on a regular basis. I do have one question though. How do you no-Arabi speakers like me handle the memorizing Quran? And what about resources for kids that aren't all just "memorize this, memorize that?" Hmmmm, if you have thoughts let me know. Actually the whole memorizing focus of Islamic education is a subject I would like to tackle, but it deserves its own post.

I have a digital camera again, and I will post pictures of their "study centers" when we get them finished, insha'Allah. If you mommies out there thoughts on good things to have in the home classroom just let me know;)

6 comments:

Mona Zenhom said...

I love the idea of homeschool, but just that. The idea. I can't wait to see the study centers, I think if they help picking stuff out and setting it up, they will be more exited about working there, inshaAllah.

Anne Marie said...

Salam alaikum. We homeschool and enjoy it very much. Inshaallah, we will be able to continue, but it looks like they may be going back to school. There is a website that may help you with Holy Quran it is http://english.islamway.com/. Masha allah it has helped us a lot. Take care.

Anonymous said...

As Salamualykum theres reciter.org as well, you can set the verse and number of times you want to hear it as well as choose from some reciters. hudayfhi/ minshawi and husri are the best for clear slow reciting, to get the correct tajweed. i found in the beggining that for me it was difficult to listen to slow reciters, i like abu bakr ash shatiree and saad al ghamdee. now though as i feel more inclined to clear up my tajweed and memorise i find husri good to listen to.

as for learning what it means and implementing it in life then tafseer ibn kstheer is excellent for us adults to read and maybe even read it to the children.
i also have Dr. abu ameenah bilal philips islamic studies book 1-3 worth getting. it has very short chapters and explains things in a straightforward way. this was written for the manarat english school in saudi and it is one of the best, i have found.
i also have the emaan made easy series by dr. al jibaly which is good but i preferr the bilal philips one at the moment!
they cover differnet things in different depths. i have been reading the jibaly book to dd as she asks for it. be prepared for a hughe amount of questions though!

another thing is the tj website. a lot of homeschoolers find it useful.
http://www.talibiddeenjr.com/
hope this helps.
we also homeschool dd and ds and insha'Allaah no.3 on the way.
takecare
wasalam
umm maryam

Katherine said...

Hi,Hope these can help:http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/kids/colour.html

http://www.islamicplayground.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=57

http://www.noorart.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a0105531f432318aef587614241aa54c437d2520833.e3eSc3uRax8Te34Pa38Ta38Mbxr0?it=A&id=2828&sc=1&category=-101

http://www.yemenlinks.com/Islam_Download.htm#Learning%20Tools

lala said...

mounthira.com helped me a lot! inshAllah you'll find it helpful, sis. I would love to inshAllah in the future homeschool when I inshAllah have children. Sounds like a great idea

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