Rectification - Random Thoughts!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah 7 years of parenting, 5 years of homeschooling! Yes , Need Rectification! 

As we finished our last school year I have been thinking how we really fared, what are the drawbacks, what are the achievements, where did we go wrong, what did we do well and what needs to be done to improve! Rectification! 

Last year has been a happening year as there were lots of changes, challenges and struggles with regard to homeschooling, family commitments and the growing little personality. And I feel most of the time I did not handle things well as a homeschooler, teacher and as a parent, Allaah knows best! Hence need Rectification!

We as parents, teachers and especially homeschoolers go through these different stages in our lives where we suddenly find the kids are different as they grow and we are stressed. I know this because many other sisters have written to me the same phase that they go through with homeschooling their kids. I tell them WE need Rectification! 

The purpose and need of humans, is that they rectify the things related to their worldly affairs and the afterlife. The path to attaining that is through sound intellect (guided by the Qur’aan and the Sunnah) and its symbol is the selection of affairs through discernment, and the accomplishment of discernment through determination. 

[Al-Adabus Sagheer Wal-Kabeer of ibnu Muqaffah: page: 43 and Al-Muntaqaa Min Butoonil Kutub: page: 6]

Powerful saying, Maashaa Allaah! But tells us how to Rectify ourselves so precisely. Alhamdulillaah! 

Here is where we need to refresh and think back why did we really embark into this journey of homeschooling? Didn't we all want this for the sake of Allaah alone! We did not want our children to be victims of the secular world rather we wanted them to be true slaves of Allaah with knowledge and actions that would make them earn the pleasure of Allaah! We wanted to make them the children of hereafter! We wanted them to get the much needed Tarbiyah or Cultivation from us! Right? 

Hence with this refreshment and keeping in mind that 7 years mark is a milestone where it becomes obligatory upon us to command the Islaamic regulations and duties upon the child and we are responsible and accountable for it before Allaah,   I am just noting down some of the areas that I need to understand and rectify Inshaa Allaah with the help and Mercy of Allaah. If you are in the same phase then it may help you too Inshaa Allaah! 

• Constantly seek refuge with Allaah from the accursed Shaitaan in every slightest situation of anger building up. Anger is the root cause for mishandling the kids.
• Continuous Duaa, despair not the Mercy of Allaah.
• Engage the kids in the conversation as much as possible. As they grow they need more attention, more than what we think. 
• Give responsibilities and give specific praise when they are carried out well, encourage when they slip, never criticise and demoralize the child. 
• Get organized to the extreme. Most of the time things do not go smooth when lunch is not cooked nor have no idea what to cook.

• Start a lesson when you are really ready with the lesson plans and resources. In case you are not ready with them do some thing else. When you do not know what to teach you get stressed and the child takes advantage. 
• Build up a strong relationship by listening to the kids with true attentiveness and sincerity. Take a walk in the evenings just listening to them and talking to them, topics can vary from the lessons from a life story of the sahabah to anything beneficial.
• Lessen the number of times we say "Keep Quiet" to a child. 
• Compromise at times. You have an important email to send someone, your kid wants to show you something she has made with the lego. Just take some time to look at it. 
• Be consistent in showing firmness.
• Stick to a routine and when you have to alter it for some reason explain to the kids why you are changing things. 
• Stop sounding like a military officer. Some kids may be fine with this but most do not like commanding, instead get things done as we would get things done by an adult! 
• Keep the tone low always. Other words stop shouting! Maintain Calm all the way! 
• Read aloud at least for half hour every day. Even if the kids at this age are excellent readers, they still love to hear us read to them. The best book to read aloud would the Book of Allaah! 

•  Stop worrying too much about the worldly affairs or any issues that come your way. Allaah is sufficient for us. Keep to the duties of Allaah and have tawakkul.
• Always remember that Children and wealth are indeed trails to us. ""Indeed, your wealth and children are a trial." [Al-Qur'an 64:15]

Anything else to add to this. Please feel free to leave a comment and share your experiences! 

May Allaah make us of those who are grateful to Him in all situations and May He help us throughout in cultivating our children for His pleasure alone and keep our children firm upon His Straight Path and grant them and us the highest place in Jannah. Aameen!

End of another School Year & Assessment - 2013/2014

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Innal Hamdalillaah! I have not been blogging since Ramadhaan due to many other commitments Maashaa Allaah! Obviously when I do not blog I feel so thoroughly disorganized with regard to homeschooling, subhanallaah! We are slowly trying to get back to organizing and starting the new school year soon. What I want to do in this post is to sum up our last school year Inshaa Allaah along with information on how we did our Assessment! 

Qur'aan

Qur'aan reading has tremendously improved especially after Ramadhaan in which Maimoonah read at least one page a day, Alhamdulillaah. she is still continuing to read and understand the meaning by reading the Tafseer.

As for Hifdhl, subhanallaah we had a very rocky year. At the moment we have stopped memorising new soorahs as I see the old Soorahs still need perfection. So the last few months of last school year we have been only concentrating it perfecting the old soorahs. I find that she is getting mixed up with the old soorahs when she is going ahead memorising the new soorahs. Inshaa Allaah next year want to be more organized. I feel I am very much partly responsible for this as I was not too organized with her Hifdhl the last full year. 

Islaamic Studies

We covered many areas especially most of the parts of Aqeedah Alhamdulillaah, mainly due to our Tarbiyah Girls Club. We covered the Scrapbooks on Usooluth Thalaathah, Essential Lessons Every Muslims, Inheritors of the Prophets and Our Role Models.

As for memorising Usooluth Thalaathah Maimoonah has completed upto the First Principle. And we have been doing the Scrapbook with detail explanation for the first part of the book before the Principles. We did not complete that part yet, Inshaa Allaah we will continue next school year.

We went up to Eemaan in the Last day in Essential Lessons for Every Muslim (I have not blogged a couple of lessons on this due to time constraints, Inshaa Allaah will do so soon). This was indeed a great way to learn and live Eemaan.

We learnt about few scholars on Inheritors of the Prophets and I got stuck with preparing for some scholars due to lack of information about them in English. This was one reason I could not continue. Inshaa Allaah we hope to do more on this next year.

As for the Sahaabah our Role Model, Alhamdulillaah Maimoonah has been reading and re reading the Golden Series of the Sahabah and pretty familiar with those 20 Sahaabahs and their wonderful stories. We could not do more on the scrapbook due to time constraints. We want to continue that next year as well Inshaa Allaah.

We only read about the Prophets this year and did Aadam Alaihissallaam Activity Pack. Again we just could not find enough time to complete all what we wanted to do. Inshaa Allaah next year I have thought of an alternative way to do about the Prophets.

She has been reading both the Sealed Nectar and When the Moon Split for seerah but we could not really do more worksheets on Seerah. Hope we are able to do more next year.

ICO Islaamic Studies Books got stuck in UK and we eventually decided to not use them. Also I think most of it is covered in the books of the scholars we are using and Qadarallaah.

Arabic

We have been able to complete Gateway to Arabic Book 1 and about 6 lessons on Madeenah Book 1. Her writing has improved as well as reading. Lot more to go Inshaa Allaah!

English

We completed Nelson English Fiction and Non Fiction Books 1 and covered half of Nelson English non Fiction Book 2. We also completed Nelson English Workbooks 1 and 2 along with Ronald Ridout's English Workbook 1. All what we have covered so far with regard to Cambridge Primary Curriculum has been ticked off and you can see it here.

Spelling 

We have completed Spelling Workout Level B and little more to finish Level C.

Mathematics

We completed Nelson International Mathematics Book 2a, 2b and 2C and finished half of Nelson Mathematics Textbook and Workbook 3. We are still doing MEP Maths Year 1, as Maimoonah sometimes feels bored to do the same thing over and over again on MEP. Thinking of starting Year 2 straight away Next year. The areas we have covered so far with regard to Cambridge Curriculum have been ticked off here

Science

As for science we have been doing topics from here and there this year as many areas were covered before. We did some topics from Junior Science and some from CGP Key Stage 2 - Book. We also did many hands on Science fun activities. All what we have covered so far in Cambridge Primary Curriculum has been ticked off here.

Geography

We completed the Developing Maps Skills Book 2 and a little more to complete Maps Skills Book 1 which is another series. We also completed Geography Success Starter Book started on Book 1 as well. What is completed with regard to the UK National Curriculum has been ticked off here

ICT

We did not do ICT this year as we could not get down our books till recently.

Assessment

Just to see where Maimoonah stands with regard to English and Mathematics as per the UK Curriculum I decided to give her the Sat Key Stage 1 Past Papers and made her do all on her own. Then I got a friend of mine to correct and mark the papers. These papers come with Teacher Instructions and Answers and Marking Schemes making it really easy for us homeschoolers!  I also gave her to do some Cambridge Sample Papers to do.

   

English she was able to do both and scored well Alhamdulillaah. The sister pointed out her careless mistakes with regard to not reading the whole question before answering for a couple questions. Other than that the sister marked her to be above average, Alhamdulillaah!

 

 

  

    

Maimoonah really enjoyed doing the Sat English Papers as all questions were based on little stories and the format of the paper is very appealing to the kids.

 Maths was also the same Alhamdulillaah!

  

  

  

As for science and geography I gave her some revision worksheets from the Internet to check her and Alhamdulillaah she was able to do all of them independently. 

I did not do testing on other subjects as any way I really do not believe in exams for kids at this age. The only reason I wanted her to do the Sat papers is to know what I have taught her and if she is in level with what we are following as a curriculum. 

So that sums up our end of school year post. Inshaa Allaah look out for our Next Back To school post!

Ramadhaan Journal - 2014

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Hope and pray all of you are benefitting this Ramadhaan so far and your kids are enjoying Ramadhaan as well. Maimoonah has been enjoying doing her Ramadhaan Journal every day. I have allowed her to be free in what she wants to do this year and so far she has been in control of her journal fully and asked me to help her only with some writings. Here are the pics of her journal so far.

Everyday Arabic Series - Books Review

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah we received these wonderful series of books on "Everyday Arabic" from Taalib Al-Ilm Educational Resources 

This will be a general review of these books just to give you an idea and possibly you can consider giving these books as gifts for your kids or your loved ones for Ramadhaan and Eid. Inshaa Allaah after Eid we will review each of these books and share with you how we would include this into our arabic Studies while homeschooling.

These books have 8 titles

• Everyday Arabic: Colors -Book 1
• Everyday Arabic: Fruits -Book 2
• Everyday Arabic: Vegetables -Book 3
• Everyday Arabic: Kitchen Items -Book 4
• Everyday Arabic: Tools -Book 5
• Everyday Arabic: In The Garden -Book 6
• Everyday Arabic: Spices -Book 7
• Everyday Arabic: Camping -Book 8

The publishers say these books are suitable for Ages 4-6 & Above. In Fact its even very much suitable for me too and for the whole family as well. Each books have more than 40 pages and some have more than 50.

All of these books are Questions and Answer Books with pictures pertaining to each title. All are in the form of sentences and have Arabic on one side of the page and English on the other side. The words are colour coded too. 

The quality of the paper inside and outside are pretty good infact when you touch the cover page you feel very nice. 

At the end of each book you also get a couple of  colouring and other activities.

What we like about these books

• This goes beyond just learning vocabulary
• Its structured in such a way, where we can start talking Arabic instead of studying only grammar and not being able to speak
• The English Translation along with the Arabic
• No transliteration so that the child somehow reads in Arabic only (with transliteration around I have notice the kids really do not make effort to read the Arabic)
• It is good for English Language and Vocabulary too
• Can be used for read aloud family session or circle time
• Illustrations are beautiful and do not contain any pictures of living beings with souls

What we feel that could improve the look and feel of these books!

• The Arabic letterings are pretty thick and some of the letters are not very clear for kids or the ones who are learning Arabic to read
• Too much colour in the words and letters is not very soothing to the eye
• The pictures are too large and are sometimes a distraction to concentrate and read, and one or two words are not clear due to the pictures
• More Activities for all ages could be a plus

We hope the publishers would take these drawbacks and make them better when they re print Inshaa Allaah.

Other than this I love the concept of these books are looking forward to make use of it to improve our Arabic Studies and I am sure this would add more flavour to it when we start homeschooling after Eid Inshaa Allaah! These set of books are really worth it for the this price and will serve as a wonderful gift too. Check them out and share with others Inshaa Allaah!

And the good news is Taalib Al-Ilm Educational Resources have agreed to giveaway each of these books to one of my readers. So look out for the grand Giveaway after Eid and a full review of each of the titles Inshaa Allaah. They also have many other publications. Its worth having a look at their store. They also have just put out this lovely Ramadhaan Journal

Ramadhaan Basket - 2014/1435

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah! Allaah has blessed us with looking forward to another Ramadhaan! This year we are just concentrating on few things only! Due to many reasons and one being a space problem we decided to just have everything we want to do in Ramadhaan in a Basket! Hence a "Ramadhaan Basket" for Maimoonah. She really liked the idea and helped me make her basket and decorated it!

So what is in it?

The Ramadhaan Journal and the Materials to be used for the Journal! She also did her Goals pages for Ramadhaan!

 

The Noble Qur'aan. She wants to read one page in Arabic each day and read the Tafseer of it too Inshaa Allaah!

Do you see some of those lovely looking Everyday Arabic Books? Yes we got all 8 of them from Taalib Educational Resources and Maimoonah chose to read two books on Camping and Tools all by herself in Arabic and English in Ramadhaan. So we included both of them into the basket too. Look out for the next post on a Review on these lovely books and a surprise too! 

A sewing kit called "A Fancy Pouch" and yarn for some knitting!

Usooluth Thalaathah to read and revise so that she does not forget what she has memorised and learnt.

The Salaah Workshop Notes to revise and perfect the Salaah as she will be 7 this Ramadhaan Inshaa Allaah!

The Golden Series Sahabah books. she wants to read Islaamic Books only during Ramadhaan. These books are lovely to read again and again and contains good revision too.

And a small Notebook, some colour pens and stationery items.

Tarbiyah Girls Club - Final Class for Level 1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah! last Saturday was the last Class for level 1 of this Course. So this class included a revision test of all what we have studied. This was a set of simple worksheets for kids to review what they have done during the last 10 classes. 

Since we missed out one hadeeth from Umdatul Ahkaam - Book of tahaarah we completed that one at this class. This hadeeth deals with urinating it still water and having a ghusl in still water while in a state of janaabah. We did not explain to the kids the meaning of a junoob except we said we will talk about it later and it is a state of impurity. 

Then we had an oral quiz contest. Divided the kids into two groups and the one who answered the most amount of the correct answers and got the highest points was chosen as the winner and we gave some sweets to the winner too.

Then the girls decorated cupcakes and had some fun. These were carrot cupcakes which were baked and the kids decorated their own cupcakes. 

They also had some fun playing around. Finally each girl was given a gift bag. They all seemed happy about it as this came as a surprise to them.

 

Alhamdulillaah we were able to cover Al Waajibaat upto Knowing Your Religion, We completed the Book of Tahaarah - on Wudoo and purification from Umdatul Ahkaam, we have also done around 6 hadeeth on Adab Al Mufrad and learnt about 3 Great Women of Islaam.

We hope that this initiative benefited the kids and their families and we look forward to continue this club after summer too Inshaa Allaah!

I would like to thank the girls and their parents for enrolling, the sister who opened up her house for this club and for initiating this project and working tirelessly throughout. The sister who took in charge of home making activities for the girls and for a job well done. Sister Umm Aayaah for helping me with all the graphic design and layout for the documents. May Allaah reward you all and make your scales heavy with all the good deeds. Aameen. Jazzaakumullaah Khayr.

May Allaah accept this from us. Aameen.