We have since settled to 'mix and match' : Quran, Islamic Studies and Arabic go along with our family plans - non negotiable, but anything and everything else is negotiable!
(Eldest has proved the method works as he has gained many skills eg. Woodland and Survival, Caving experitise, Leadership ( he's a Scout Leader at 15 and has completed many of their adult modules),Camping etc.. Some skills have been self taught from his interest base eg. programming, graphic and website design. Also academically he has tried bits and pieces as the interest took him : eg.sat Maths. English, and Islamic Studies GCSE's at 10 and 12, also completed a 60 point Open University course gaining a Certificate in Natural Science at 14.)
The Journal below was first put on our home education list as many members were sharing how the home ed. day pans out.Boys at this time were 12, 8 and 7.
*****************************
Youngest was up first, who re-arranged his bed to look as though he was still in there, so brothers would not follow him down! I was next up and found him in front of the computer playing 'Fate'!(conversation was brief: 'assalmaulikum' , 'waalikumsalaam' : 'washed?' , 'no' : 'had breakfast?' , 'no' : 'read Quran?' , 'no' :'then get your butt back up here!!!!' , 'aaaww!')
Other two up shortly and all washed and dressed. They sorted their own breakfast except younegst who couldn't decide till I said 'Fine, out the kitchen' and then wanted eggs and toast!
Eldest working on Quran with al Qari over the internet while middle son tidied living room.Eldest doing some english work on sites I'd put for him into bookmarks (at this time he was working towards covering the syllabus for the English exam)Youngest onto Quran reading and middle son working on a school express unit on Lions, to be added to his Africa lapbook.
Eldest worked on the english for a while then found this to 'help' ds2 for his Lion lapbook, hilarious!!I'm calling it free delivery : lion lunch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3YJUdChx8s&search=lions(the lapbooks were started after ds2 decided he wanted to record some of the information he found and also when he realised he enjoyed writing stories and summarising the documentaries he watched).
Once Quran lesson over for youngest, ds2 took over for his and youngest started on his explanation of why he didn't need to finish his Spider unit fromschool express, despite the fact he had asked for it, and in fact insisted I print it out immediately!But now, having completed a few pages, he just didn't 'feel like he wanted to' , and could he take his scooter round on the front instead, and he'd hopefully get it 'done in the next few days depending on his schedule'!!Yes, he went scootering!!
Once middle son had finished Quran, youngest also came in and they both helped with the baking,heart shaped cup cakes and a plain sponge for my brother and uncle who were visiitng later in the afternoon.Stayed on to help cook the fish and rice for lunch: lots of sharing, measuring, weighing and recipe reading!
I had a quick tidy up, ocassionally 'commandeering' the odd one for help round the house- (housework comes under life skills for us and as all contribute to the mess so all have a share in the clear-ups)
Everything done, and sat down for a rest, which was the moment ds2 was waiting for as he wanted to read.Book chosen was one we'd got a few days ago from the 'withdrawn' box at the local library.A brillaint story of a young lad named Wesley who creates his own staple crop, and founds a civilization!! all in his own back garden!http://web.syr.edu/~jjvizthu/weslandia.htm
guests arrived, mum busy in chat etc. group prayers, eating together on the floor, all help clear up
older two went off to continue with the garden ( we have had nothing done for months in the garden and kids weren't interested in doing anything tillabout 2 weeks ago when middle son wanted to know, Why didn't plants grow in some parts of Africa? why were all these people starving?so discussion started and we also used the internetrains have failed --http://www.afrol.com/articles/13298http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=2855governments have failed --http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13885409and poverty-- because the rich are greedy: in western Kenya, fertilizer costs more than twice what it costs in France... other rich countries have not delivered the promised foreign aid necessaryhttp://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/crosscutting/poverty.html)
Showing that it wasn't a problem that had just appeared but something that was the result of years of failure was important -actions and consequences is something that must be taught as Islamically we are answerable for what we do... lots more on economics,governments making promises they don't keep, even people failing to pay sadaqa and zakat (poor due) which is a Islamic duty, .............and then back to science and how plants grow!
Final result has been where the science is concerned we have a bunch of seeds which he is going to grow in different locations and under different conditions to see what happens. He liked my suggestion of measuring the growth as an indicator of success, and producing some sort of chart to display results!The trip to the garden center also resulted in eldest wanting to look after something in the garden so we came back a few days ago with Gourd seeds,tomatoe, carrots and herbs, and the odd flowers. All the current activity in the garden if the preparation for these seeds and plants to go in.
They stayed out till online tutor signed in , Quran sessions for all 3,(this is seperate to their Al Qari work which is more for correct pronunciation and helping in Hifz).
guests leave, and we all have snack time and cuddle up to watch Patch Adams :http://www.patchadams.com/wonderful story! and very good for high lighting the meaness of people who perceive you as being 'odd', as the one who 'doesn't fit in'
Asr prayers together, and hubby took us to Ealing Common for the fun fair.Back home for prayers, quick snacks, duaas and bed
looking back at the day and trying to see this as 'curriculum' I would say
GARDENING: Nature-- identifying flower bulbs, weeds, dead roots, grasses, digging and weeding
ECONOMICS World Trade Wealth/poverty issues
ISLAMIC STUDIES-- sunnah of eating, keeping your prommises, paying the poor due, giving extra when Allah has blessed you with wealth
SCIENCE -- plants, light, water, chlorophly
MATHS -- collecting data, presenting on chart, measuring
ENGLISH-- writing in the Lion unit, reading and comprehension, spelling
QURAN-- Tajweed and meaning
LIFE SKILLS -- housework, helping others, keeping a tidy home,
COOKERY / HOME ECONOMICSI.T. - use of net as a research tool
Alhumdulilla
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment