Another year down in homeschooling

Assalam alykom:

I have been so busy to put time in my blogs. I have really wanted to update my readers on my homeschooling journey. This is our 9th year of homeschooling with the exception of one year that we all went to an Islamic school. This year and last we used the Oak Meadow books. I had one child at 7th grade, then, 5th grade, and 1st grade. I have to say, this is the most economical full packaged curriculum. I also have to say it is not the most high quality either. The saying goes that you get what you pay for. For first grade, I still am not happy at all with the level of teaching. It is so light that it almost seems uneducational. I realize that it is a different form of education that is similar to the Waldorf style. However, I wonder where the child eventually catches up with reading and math. At first grade, there is still very little reading, if any and math has almost no computation at all. I supplemented my own, and felt I wasted my money on the curriculum. For second grade, I just went to Ebay and bought some things. I got the Scott Foresman Language Arts and Singapore Math. The local Catholic school was retiring their Science, Health and Social studies. I bought them for a small donation along with the teachers manuals. Last year, I had a 5th grader and a 7th grader. I like some parts of the Oakmeadow in the upper grades. For next year in 6th grade, I already have that whole curriculum from my other child. To save money, we are just going to go ahead and teach it to my daughter. For 8th grade, I decided to pick and choose. I like the English and the History in Oak Meadow. It has them reading classics instead of the new books. These classics tend to be more wholesome and have more meaningful stories. I also like the writing that is in the Oak Meadow. It has a great deal of writing and my children are really good writers from it. They can writer a 2 to 4 page report on something in a blink of an eye. Their reports are organized and their content is very good. I decided to switch to Singapore Math and Science. The science in Oak Meadow is really uneducational. There is not much explanation and the experiments almost never work. The math is very light and easy for my son. I think that he could be more challenged. So, I decided to try the Singapore math. Also, I got it much cheaper on Ebay than the Oak Meadow Math. This year I am going to also add another student. My 4 year old daughter will now be part of our school. She will be 5 soon and needing to be taught kindergarten. I have not worked with her at all. I am in no hurry since I have my hands full with the other three. My husband is taking over my oldest exclusively. This way I have more time to spend with the other three. Also, the higher grades are more complicated, and I spend alot of time studying and understanding the material so I make sure they are getting the best knowledge. Overall, we had a great year! Our new little farm was a great educational lab for the kids. We saw baby goats born before our eyes, we watched barn swallow build nests and raise their young, we have so much area to run and play, it is so dark we can see every star like a planetarium, the list of wildlife is on going, we have seen pheasant, deer, porcupine, raccoons, woodpeckers, opossum, chipmunks, honeybees, lighting bugs, coyotes, hawks, geese, humming birds, rabbits and the list goes on. I pray that all of you homeschooling families have had as much success this year as my family has had!

A Recycled Picnic Table

Assalam alykom:

The nice thing about old farm properties is that you can find alot of Junk. I made this table out of old planks of wood that I found in my barns and cinder blocks that where scattered through out my pastures. My kids and I cleaned up the wood an nailed them together to form the top. Then we just used planks of various sizes to form the seats. It is not as stable as a real table, and I always tell everyone to sit at your own risk. We have enjoyed many dinners outside so far on it. I love any craft that turns junk into a usable item.

The Good Life

We have lived in Nebraska for about 7 months now and survived the winter. When we first entered Nebraska upon moving here, we noticed the sign at the state line saying: "Welcome to Nebraska...... the "Good Life". We now have a little masjid with a handful of familes, Alhamdolilah. My husband has been recently doing some very inspiring khutbas about living the "Good Life", not just in Nebraska, but everywhere and for everyone. I hope you enjoy them and have as much inspiration as our little community has had from them. Just click the words next to the number and have a listen to each inspiration.

Good Life
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Good Thoughts

2. Good Words

3. Good Deeds A
4. Good Deeds B

5. Corporate Mercy (will be added soon)

6. High Standards

Good Life Through Remembering Allah
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Your Wali

2. Let Allah Remember You

3. Keep Your Inner Peace
4. Remember Allah's Names

5. Remember the Day's of Allah

6. Remember Allah's blessings

Good Life Through Keeping Allah's Commandments
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Remembering Allah's Commandments

2. What are the Commandments

3. Purpose of the Commandments-A

Learning Geography

Assalm alykom:

I have been really busy with life to commit time to my blog. This is my latest craft that we did with my first grader. As you know, I use the Oak Meadow curriculum. They teach the beginnings of geography in a different way that I am not used to when comparing the ways to my older kids. My older kids you would start with a flat map or a globe and teach them North, South, East and West. They would always look a little lost because that cannot conceptualize it to their scale. With Oak Meadow, they teach the child from his/her small surroundings. They have them make a map or a model of their room. With this, they can relate to where something is because they are familiar with it. Then, you teach them the directions from their room. The next step, the place gets a little bigger. The child needs to make a map of their house. Also, they need to know the directions here. Again, the child learns a little bigger area. They need to make a map or model of their neighborhood. I like this method very much. At this age, they really can conceptualize each step of making the area bigger. We made this little model of her room that she shares with her two other sisters. We made the all of the furniture from boxes and then painted them. The bed is a bunk bed that we made from Popsicle sticks and small boxes. We made the floor, which in their room is wooden, from Popsicle sticks that we varnished. We made the windows from magazine picture of the outside and the put fabric curtains. She loves it and does not want anyone to touch for fear it will break. I encourage you to try this concept in teaching. I really loved it!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Assalam alykom:

We were doing the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. My girls had happen to check a book out at the library with crafts related to old stories. This one was in there and we thought it would be fun to act the story out with them. They are made with little toy cars. We just used double sided tape and tabed the puff on the rabbit and the paper for the turtle. Since they have wheels, we could just race them accross the floor. I love the story too! It is such a classic!

Weather/Wind Vane

Assalm Alykom:

With my first grader, I have been teaching about the weather. They have the typical weather vane that you make from a straw, pencil and paper. I wanted it to be more exciting. We made this one from junk we found in our barns. It took a little bit of engineering and rigging, but it actually turns. We used PVC piping, metal scraps that we found, a long nail, washers and a metal hose fitting. The girls painted it funky colors, and now it sits on a post near my pasture.

Fancy Bird Feeders

Both my 5th grader and my 1st grader have studies of birds and making feeders. Well, here is our idea. I visit local auctions where I live. At these auctions, they sell everything by the box load. Therefore, I usually have a few treasures that I do not want or need. So, we made bird feeders from them. The first two feeders, we painted a hard plastic bowl, glued some buttons, and stenciled some teapots. We glued the bowl on to a glass vase using Hard As Nails Glue. Lastly, we used the same glue to put it on a fence post near my pasture. So far, I am glad the glue is holding up to the fence post, but we still have not seen a bird. The bottom feeder was a little more complicated. We uses to glass candle stick holders, a vase and a piece of pvc piping. We glued the first candle holder on to the vase. We then glued the pipe and then another candle holder on top. The way we mounted the candle holders, allows them to be like cups to hold the seeds. The pvc pipe, we coated with peanut butter and than seeds. Again, there are no birds, but they look nice on the post.

James Herriot

Assalm alykom:

Last year my daughter did the Oak Meadow 4th grade. This book was part of the reading for that grade. I had never really heard of James Herriot and thought the book looked childish for 4th grade. However, after reading the book, my daughter loved it. I read the book and loved it too. I looked in the library for more of his books and found he writes adult books and have been enjoying them ever since. James Herriot is a Veterinarian and all of his book recount his adventures as an animal doctor. I love all the animal stories. They are heart warming as well as educational. He is from England and all of his stories revolve around small town farmers and their animals. His books are pretty wholesome and can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Duck Light Bulb

Assalam alykom:

We just got a couple ducks on our farm. My friend has so many. When we visited my husband cornered a male and female and brought them home. Since we have our little farm, I decided to work in to our studies with my first grader lessons about a farm. We studied a few animals and of course we had to study the duck. I am amazed at how freezing it is outside and the ducks are swimming in the little tub we have for them. While studying ducks we read that they have no nerves in their feet so they do not feel the cold. Also, their feathers are designed in such a way that their skin does not ever feel the water. Glory be to Allah how he creates things so perfect. You can see my ducks in my other blog. Here is our little craft we did about ducks. We made it from a old burnt out light bulb. We painted the light bulb with Kilz primer. This stuff will stick to anything. We cut the feet and beak out from foam and colored them orange with a permanent marker. We used feathers from our chickens and we glued the eyes, buttons, hat and lace with a glue gun. We drew the eye lashes with a sharpie pen. I think she looks really cute!

Live Your Life on Purpose

Assalam alykom:

This is a spectacular book that everyone should read. There is nothing in Muslim publications like this. It was such an easy to read book. It was not a book of rules like most Islamic books. It was done in a light conversational tone that mixed humor and great advice on spirituality and just living life the right way. Here is the abstract on it:

Book Abstract

In Live Your Life On Purpose, Radwan endeavors to awaken our senses by sharing with us basic truths about being more successful and fulfilled through living our lives according to God’s purpose for us. This book is replete with quranic and biblical passages, yet it is laced with humorous anecdotes, clichés and quotes that make the tone of the book conversational, rather than as an aloof religious authority. Radwan expounds in a loving and peaceful manner to all people of God, seekers, and skeptics. Also, he offers chapters of positive and practical solutions to life’s stumbles, with simple yet invigorating advice that helps view ourselves with a fresh and positive perspective. The book shows a behavior model and sheds light on understanding and appreciating our relationship with God, improving our interactions with others, as well as building and maintaining a healthy, functioning community. Whether contemplating the age-old mystery of the purpose of life, seeking to enrich your spiritual path, or desiring to improve your Islamic knowledge and character, Live Your Life On Purpose will provide food for thought, inspire, and leave you hopeful and uplifted.

You can read the first 45 pages HERE

Here is where you can order your copy today!

http://loveallah.net/main/etools/LYLOP.html

Fabric Notebooks

Assalm alykom:

I am an avid thrift hunter. I scour thrift shops, estate sales, and yard sales. I was recently at an estate auction where I picked up a huge box of vintage fabric scraps for a dollar. Here is what we did with some of it so far.

Materials: Fabric scaps cut in small squares with pinking shears, Composition book, Mod Podge or any decoupage medium, 1 button, elastic hair tie, paper punch, paint brush.

Directions:

After you cut enough fabric squares to cover the book, you can begin to over lap them on the front of the book. I left about 2 inches on the end so I could fold them over to the other side. After I was sure I had enough squares I took them all off. I would put the Mod Podge in a small area, and then I would place the fabric with overlapping them. Then I would put the Mod Podge over the fabric until I covered the whole book. I let the first coat try and then applied a second coat. After that was dry, I used a hole punch to make a hole and tied an elastic hair tie through it. This is how I closed the book. I glued a vintage button on the other side and pulled the elastic around it.

A Year in Homeschooling

Assalam Alykom:
















This year for me was like no other for homeschooling. It took us a whole year to finish. We lived in three states, and stayed in five different homes. We have finally settled in Nebraska. It looks like we are here for a while. While living in all of these temporary places, my schooling was very different. We had three plastic tubs that we kept all of our school supplies in. We had everything from books, to markers, paint, glue, notebooks, maps........Just everything we needed. Every time we moved, I would just pull those tubs along and set up our little mobile school. We started in Florida living in a vacation condo along the beach. We did many science experiences from the beach. I capitalized on the museums in the area, and we did field trips. We later moved to Tulsa Oklahoma. But, before we did, we stayed a few weeks in Orlando with my husband's family. I could not just sit around and not school the children for two weeks. I brought my plastic tubs/mobile school into my in laws home and started our school again. We spent 6 months in Tulsa and lived in an apartment until we were able to find a house. My mobile school started for a little longer period of time. During our time in Tulsa, we had taken a few road trips to Nebraska to visit friends there. We loved the area and found a house we wanted. We were at the end of July and we moved all of our things with the idea we would close on our home in a few days. We went to our friends house. The closing of the house was not going as planned and we ended up staying three weeks with our friends. We had to put all of our things into their garage. Well, I only had a week left to finish our curriculum. I could not let the kids not finish soon. I searched through the garage for my tubs, and I found them after much difficulty. Alhamdolilah after a week we did it! My advice to parents who always need perfect conditions for homeschooling is that you really do not. You just have to have a great deal of patience and for me I needed determination to keep going and finish. Parents need to ask Allah for patience and determination because I believe under any conditions and circumstances you can make it with these two attributes. May Allah give us the patience, strength and determination to educate our children to please Him. AMEEN

Vintage Embroidery

A finely done crewel embroidery from 1965

Embroidery can take on many different styles. There is crewel embroidery which is usually done in yarn that can be wool or acrylic. Embroidery can even be done on sweaters using this method. There is embroidery that is done with fine cotton floss or even silk. This is usually more delicate in nature and can be found on linen, cotton or even silk. There is long stitch embroidery too. This is usually done with yarn that is similar to crewel embroidery. Creating a picture that is a work of art is very rewarding. All of the pictures shown here are items that I have picked up and sold through Ebay. Some are just exceptionally beautiful.




This is a stunning sweater from the 1950's. I gave it to my daughter and she loves it!

This is a cute folk

art style using crewel

embroidery

Another fine example of crewel embroidery in a folk art style

This one is done in a cotton floss and is machine embroidered on a napkin.

The next two are antique table runners that have a beautiful crocheted lace.

This one is another example of cotton floss with a folk art look.

This is an old pillowcase doll that I picked for my daughters. It combines embroidery with crochet. The detail is just fabulous!

A nice sachet that is done on linen and uses silk floss.

This one as an Asian design. It is done in a wool embroidery yarn.

Beautiful 3D flowers in crewel embroidery.

This my only example of long stitch embroidery. A Very nice picture and done in a stunning frame!

I apologize if this was a little hard to read. Blogger does not always cooperate with me when I try to put alot of pictures with the text. I hope you enjoy these works of art!