HANGING UP MY CAPE...

After a long hard talk with my husband and children and a good thinking session over a cup of tea I have decided to hang up my cape. No I am not giving up home schooling, I have simply realised that I am not super mum. I put far too much pressure on myself to get back into the routine that we had before baby I was born, and you know what, it just isn't going to happen!! 

Before baby I was born I never had to stop lessons to feed, change nappies, clean sick, and all the other wonderful things babies demand. We were able to spend the whole day baking, doing crazy science experiments, going out for long walks to see what wonderful creations of Allaah we could spot, and I think I automatically expected to go back to that after his arrival, and when this never happened I felt like I was doing something wrong. For the last few days I have felt quite sad and once again questioned my ability to home educate my children. However after my long talk with my family and a good old cup of tea (I am so English lol) I have realised that with a new baby comes new changes, and that is all it is, a change! It does not have to be the end, we simply have to adapt to having a little baby in the house. So as of today I have hung up my super mum cape and just put on my plain old mum one, it suits me much better I must say. I now see that it is OK if we do not complete some big project every week, or if every now and again we have a relaxed day where the children just paint or do some colouring in, or if we simply spend the whole day just enjoying each others company and just talking together about our interests and life in general. 

Today was a much better day with much less stress from me, which means less stress put on the children. Learning is no fun for them if I am miserable and always tired from trying to do too much. I hope this more relaxed way continues as it was so nice to see the children smiling and enjoying their time learning. Here is how our relaxed day went:

9am - Breakfast and then wash and dress (we usually start learning dead on 9am so I was panicking at this stage. I really have to learn to let go a little).

10am - Discussed today's weather (and weather in general) and filled out a weather chart that we bought in the 99p shop.

10.30am to 11.30am -  L done some colouring in and looked through a book to see how many words she could find that began with the letter blends BL, BR and TR. This gave me the chance to work with A on his measuring in cm work that he had started in his Maths book. 

11.30am to 12pm - A and L played with the shopping list game that we picked up for 99p in the charity shop while I fed baby (and had a nose on Facebook).

12pm to 1.30pm - Discussed Changing States and looked at how water can be solid, liquid and gas. We took some ice from the freezer and the children put some in the fridge, some on the side and some in water and they wanted to time how long it took each one to melt. A little mini experiment led by them which is always nice. 

1.30pm to 3pm - The children had lunch and played upstairs for a while and I managed to get some washing done and wash up all the lunch things. 

3pm to 4pm - The children sat and read some Islamic books out loud to each other which gave me the chance to listen to their reading while at the same time preparing some food for the evening. I was really impressed with how their reading has improved maashaaAllaah. We have picked up some really great books from local charity shops and A and L really do love to read. 

4pm to 4.30pm - We made cupcakes!! This was my favourite part of the whole day as it was so nice and relaxed. Usually I make baking a real structured lesson but today I simply let go and let the children have fun in the kitchen....we even licked the bowl clean!

We ended our relaxed schooling day with a nice tea and cake break where we all sat on the mat and discussed how we had spent the day. The children are now sat watching a wildlife DVD whilst I feed baby and share our day with you all :-)

FUNKY LIGHTS...

Here is another simple arts and craft idea that children can do with hardly any adult supervision (unless they try to drink glue like L did when she was younger, but hey that's another blog). 


All you need is:


1 Clear Plastic Cup
PVA Glue
Acrylic Paints and Thin Paintbrush
Glitter 
Small Child's Torchlight (You can still make the cups without the light)


1. Dribble the glue all over the cup in any pattern that you like, add your glitter and leave to dry.

2. Now simply paint all the different sections with your choice of colours and again leave to dry.

3. Turn your cup upside down and place your torch underneath and there you have your funky light.

If you do not have a torch you can use the cups as a pencil holder or any kind of storage pot that you like :-)

WOOL DOODLE...

Today for the children's arts and crafts lesson we used an idea from the Mister Maker book. It was nice and messy and they loved it!

Just four simple steps and you too can have yourself a wool doodle :-)

1. Cut a long piece of wool and dip it into a bowl of glue. Make sure it's nice and covered. Place the wool on some card (we used a canvas from the 99p store).

2. Start to make a doodly pattern with the wool. When you are happy with your pattern, leave it to dry.

3. Now it's time to make your picture look colourful. Use paint to colour in some of the spaces and all around your wool shapes. 

4. Paint glue on bits of the picture. Sprinkle glitter over the gluey bits and shake off the extra glitter onto a piece of paper. 

The children were so pleased with their wool doodle canvases that they insisted I hung them up on their bedroom walls immediately!

BUT I AM JUST A MUM...

Recently a sister asked me a number of questions about home schooling. I could sense how keen she was to do so but at the same time I felt she simply did not believe she had the ability to teach her children. It got me thinking and as I sit here with my morning cup of coffee while the children take a break I think about how I felt back in June 2009 when I removed the children from school. For me it was not something that I had planned. I had looked into home schooling and I knew a few local sisters who were already home schooling their children but I had not done months and months of research. An incident took place in A's school that made me so mad I removed the children that very day and Alhamdulillaah that was the start of our home schooling journey. It was quite a scary time. There I was, this uneducated mother of two, no qualifications to my name, about to take on the responsibility of teaching my children. How was I going to do it? What would I teach them?? What if they wanted to learn something that I simply never had a clue about??? Panic set in and I was very close to finding a new school for them and giving up home schooling before it had even began but Alhamdulillaah I came across something on line that made me realise that I was in fact the best teacher they could ever possibly have. OK so I never knew all the rules of the English language (Let's be honest, does anyone?), and when my nephew asked me to help him with his Degree of a Polynomial homework I felt like he was speaking in some foreign language I was not familiar with, but I was their mother and who wanted better for them than me. Those words that I read made me feel confident that I could do this. They made me realise that I did not have to become some school master, I simply had to continue being their mother. Who had been the one to teach them to walk? Who helped them to take their first steps?? Who showed them how to clean their teeth and make their beds??? Me! It was all me!! I was already their teacher and all I had to do was continue guiding them through life (and possibly invest in a Maths Definitions Book). So here I am two and a half years later, still teaching them and simply being Mum :-)


If like me you are doubting yourself, have a read of those words that helped me back in 2009, and indeed all Praise belongs to Allaah...

    

THEY DON'T TEACH THAT IN SCHOOL...

Alhamdulillaah another day of learning is coming to an end (although I am sure we will learn something else before bedtime). Today has been another day that never went according to our planned timetable but was still just as educational. I had a few things that needed to be done so I planned to start the lessons from 1.30pm so that the morning could be used for doing all my jobs. One of those jobs was taking some parcels to the post office. Over the last two and a half years of home schooling I have realised that a lesson can be taken from almost anything, you just have to open your mind a little. So anyway as we walked to the post office we discussed the postal system and how we have to pay to send items and how the price depends on the size and weight of the item we are sending. I told the children about recorded delivery and explained how the person who receives the item has to sign for it and how the sender gets a receipt to prove they posted it (this led to a long conversation about missing post), we discussed all the different ways that post can be sent and how larger items need to go via post office rather than post box. L pointed out that you would not be able to post a Cat in the post box if you was sending it as a present lol. The children watched carefully as the cashier in the post office weighed and stamped the parcels and put them in his sack with all the other post (this led to another looooong conversation about how the postman must be very fit and healthy to carry all that post). I could hear the other people in the queue huffing and puffing as my children asked the cashier a thousand and one questions, but hey this was their lesson and they needed answers!! By the time we had finished in the post office, A and L were experts in all things post related and both said how they enjoyed their trip to the post office. Oh they are so easily pleased MaashaaAllaah :-)

I also had to collect a parcel from the sorting office that I had missed a few days before. I could not think what it was as I could not remember ordering anything, but was delighted to see it was some books I had ordered last year (that sounds bad for royal mail lol). They were from the Eemaan Reading Series and I had heard such great things about them. As soon as we got home the children wanted to start on them and as I had planned for 2 hours of Islamic Studies this afternoon I allowed them to do so rather than the Stories of the Prophets lesson I had scheduled (well as long as they learn, who cares about a change here and there - isn't that one of the benefits of home schooling). I had ordered the complete set for level 3 and two work books to accompany them. I read the two stories that came in the first book entitled Sharing and Caring and then the children answered the questions in the workbook. One of the stories talks about how when we give for the sake of Allaah, we will one day get back what we gave and so much more inshaaAllaah. We discussed this for a while and then the children coloured in the pictures in the workbooks while I washed up and tidied the kitchen a little.

Eemaan Reading Series Level 3

Then a little bit later on we sat and read some books that we had picked up for just 40p each from our local Islamic charity shop whilst on the way home from the post office.

After reading them we discussed how buying things from a charity shop is a great way of giving to others and also a way of making use of things that other people no longer need or want. Alhamdulillaah the children then asked if they could sort through their toys and bag up the ones they no longer play with and give them to the charity shop.

Days like today make me really happy MaashaaAllaah as they remind me that I do not have to be stuck at home all the time and home schooling does not mean that I can not get anything else done. Today the children have learnt a number of things including life skills and the importance of sharing with others, and let's be honest, they don't teach that in school! ;-)

IT'S JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS...

Today is one of those days that remind me why I love home schooling so much. Did we get loads done? Did we make some great arts and crafts design? Did we cover a project in great detail? Nope! In fact we hardly done a thing!! Last night baby I decided that we should stay awake all night, so this morning at 9am when we were due to begin our lessons, we were in fact all fast asleep, and we stayed that way until gone 10am. Time we all got up, had breakfast and got washed and dressed the morning had passed and it was time to pray. At first mini panic set in that we had not followed our schedule and that my careful planning had all gone wrong. But then I reminded myself that as a home schooling family we are not tied to such timetables, and although it is nice to have them and have some kind of schedule to follow, it is OK to just go with the flow at times, and so that is exactly what we done. The children done some work in their Maths and English work books (yes the work books I said we were not going to use), then we discussed all the different ways we can collect and display data. A asked if we can go to the park when it is a little warmer and use our magnifying glasses (Jazmin these are the ones that came with your books, so a big thank you!!) to see the insects and bugs up close. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for a maths lesson and to put into practise collecting and displaying data. So as I type the children are sat designing their bar charts all ready for our trip to the park.

I used a wonderful little booklet to explain all about data handling and the children liked being about to see the different ways in which it can be done.

This booklet, as well as others on different subjects can be purchased at: Daydream Education

Home schooling is not about turning our home into a school, it is simply a relaxed way of learning and getting a good education whilst being at home (or the supermarket, park, doctors etc, you name it, we learn there). Today was just as much a day of learning as any other, and although we never done a whole heap of work, we still learnt a thing or two, and that at the end of the day is why we chose to take the home schooling path to begin with :-)

ACTING SHADY!!

So today we made a Solar System mobile. Children happily chose their planets (polystyrene balls) that they wanted to paint, L had a great idea to put them on kebab skewers to make it easier to paint them (I was shocked as it meant less paint on their hands which they usually love), the messy mat was out and away they went. Then I realised we had no Sun!! How could we make a 'Planets Orbiting Sun' mobile without the Sun?? Hmmm it was time for a quick search of the house. I searched the kitchen...nothing! I searched my bedroom...nothing! Then I entered A's room and there it was!! It was perfect, but I couldn't possibly take it from his room.....could I??? I did feel guilty for a minute or two (OK maybe a second) but I knew it would be perfect and I just had to have it. With a promise of a brand new one and a few persuasive words to A, his big round paper light shade was all mine. The result? See for yourself...

Now I am off to B&Q to get that new light shade I promised :-)