End of Another School Year

Alhamdulillaah we have reached the end of another school year. With relocations and other issues we were unable to finish all as we planned but qadarallaah maashaa Allaah, since we have been doing work a little higher than for Maimoonah's age we have still managed to cover a lot alhamdulillaah. Blessing of homeschooling bi idhnillaah.

I did not have enough time to blog about each subject. So I am just recording a summary here for all subjects inshaa Allaah.

Usooluth Thalaathah

Alhamdulillaah we have covered up to the first Principle both in Arabic and English. We used Umm Saffiyah's work book and completed it and now waiting for her to release the next book to cover the rest inshaa Allaah. So we will continue the rest next year and hopefully finish the book next Inshaa Allaah.

Qur'aan/Hifdhl

After finishing Juzz Amma, Maimoonah is memorizing Soorahs what she likes from the whole of the Qur'aan, so I am not fussing about it and letting her do what interests her. She chooses soorahs from here and there and tries to learn them. She also reads the Tafseer.

Alhamdulillaah she will start reading or reciting the Qur'aan this Ramadhaan from the Mushaf Inshaa Allaah.

Arabic

She is reading the last Iqraa book now and alhamdulillaah learnt to read Arabic. We will start reading the Qur'aan and this would the best to practice her reading inshaa Allaah.

We also completed up to lesson four in Madeenah Book 1. She knows to read so things are much easier now on Madeenah book.

 

We also used the Gateway to Arabic Book 1 and her writing has improved along with vocabulary alhamdulillaah. Few more chapters to go and we should start with book 2 next year inshaa Allaah. 

English

We finished 6 units each from both the books. Nelson Developing Fiction and Non Fiction Skills Books 1. Each book has 12 units. The rest we would finish up next year inshaa Allaah.  So we covered

• Alphabetical order
• A thesaurus
• Using a dictionary
• Suffixes
• Contractions
• Different letter patterns
• Nouns
• Proper nouns
• Verb families
• Adjectives
• Speech and speech marks
• Ending sentences
• Key words
• Simple reports
• Capital Letters
• For and against
• Instructions
• Synonyms and antonyms
• Past tense
• Commas and lists
• Settings and play scripts
• Poems on the same subjects
• Compound nouns
• Collective nouns
• Comparing words
• Silent letters
• Story beginnings and story planning 

I am pleased with these books alhamdulillaah. We avoided all magic and myths and did not do any comprehension activities on these topics. Each unit covers, grammar, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary and writing skills. So it's comprehensive in that sense and even though the ages recommended for these books are 7 and 8 Maimoonah finds them challenging and interesting. I help her with copying the sentences on to the notebook as sometimes she feels bored to write the same thing all over again. We will try to finish the books next year and get on to book 2 inshaa Allaah. 

 

She also reads chapter books now and checks for new words and their meanings in the dictionary. Alhamdulillaah only by the mercy and guidance of Allaah she is able to read and comprehend well and I think overall she has a good command of the English language for her age, alhamdulillaah. Early reading has helped her a lot I should say to achieve all this at this age with less stress alhamdulillaah.

Spelling

We have completed three quarter of the Spelling Workout Level B. few more units to complete. Inshaa Allaah we would finish it next year. This book is also very easy and interesting for the kids and good to learn spelling along with grammar and comprehension. We use a spelling notebook in which she writes when I dictate the list words after we complete each unit.

Mathematics

We have completed Nelson Maths 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, and 2B. Book 2C we will start next year inshaa Allaah. We have also completed the MEP Maths Year 1a and in 1b we have few pages to complete. We may complete before the next year or else we will continue next year inshaa Allaah. We have covered many important concepts this year and Maimoonah is enjoying Maths alhamdulillaah. Some of them are

• Telling the time
• Symmetry
• The calendar
• Tens and Units/ place values
• Organizing data, graphing
• Halves and quarters
• Grouping
• Rounding up numbers
• Measurements
• Measuring length and mass
• Odd and even numbers
• Skip counting
• Multiplication Tables
• Adding and subtraction with two digit numbers
• Adding and subtracting 3 or more numbers
• Shapes and patterns
• Mental Maths
• More than less than equal to

  

This is a game she did on her own and wanted me to play with her  with remaining sticker paper. I was so surprised as to how she has displayed her understanding of Multiplication, Maashaa Allaah!

The Nelson Maths books are interesting and covers the concept well while MEP has been a tool for the development of critical thinking and alhamdulillaah it was a good move to continue using both the curriculums so far. 

Science

We have completed the the CGP Science book 1. Also completed as planned for this year alhamdulillaah. I did not blog in detail as I was pressed for time. We covered electricity, light, shadow, forces, sounds, floating and sinking.

     

 

Most of the topics were covered last year in more detail with hands on so this time we just stuck to the text books, work books and the encyclopedia along with the Internet activities as we did not have all the resources we needed. We ended our science lesson with the interesting project the compiling of the Star Book. 

Maimoonah also got some fun science kits as gift from another fellow homeschooling family here in Doha who are very close to us Maashaa Allaah! This was a pack of test tubes with different experiments to do.

 

 

Geography

We completed the Evan Moor Daily Geography Practice Book for Grade 1. Also we have few more chapters to do in our Maps Skills Book 1. We covered the following other than mentioned in this post.

• Intermediate Directions
• Direction connections
• The USA
• Symbols makes a map
• Natural resources
• Population
• Community helpers
• Neighborhood Plan

 

Seerah

We have  been revising our seerah study on the makkan period. And this year we used the book " When the Moon Split" this is easier than the sealed nectar for kids and Maimoonah uses this book to read aloud to me. It helps her with advanced vocabulary and helps her know the seerah of the Messenger of Allaah. We have not done any activities but will do more next year inshaa Allaah.

So I think I have covered all the subjects here. And as for my evaluation I feel even though we missed many months this school year we did well to cover up a lot. Since I am using the Cambridge Primary curriculum it does not matter in which year the child finishes which stage. It is designed in such a way that you can go according to the pace of your child and of course your situations. So alhamdulillaah I am pleased with what we have done with permission of Allaah.

As for Maimoonah she has improved in her writing both Arabic and English. Reading skills have developed. Comprehension is much more. And understands many things than before. Since motor skills are also developed alhamdulillaah she is able to do lot of independent work. And enjoys finishing the work when I am not around.

As for weaknesses and shortcomings I feel she gets distracted fast especially when she is with a group of kids. And gets bored with lessons that are too easy or too cumbersome. Also does not like when she has to do copywork and hates doing that. She reads well within herself but does not read aloud with confidence. So need to work on this. Same goes for the reciting of the Qur'aan, need to boost her confidence to recite aloud inshaa Allaah. 

Alhamdulillaah for everything and Allaah has blessed us to continue this journey and we look forward to have another exciting school year which would help us know our Lord more and make us closer to Him bi idhnillaah.