Oak Meadow Sixth Grade

Assalm Alykom:

The sixth grade is the best of all of the grades I taught this year. It is very organized and the material is interesting to my son. It starts out by having them make an outline map of the area of time that covers the Ancient Times up to the Renaissance. We are adding countries until the end of all the lessons. I love this integration of geography. The curriculum basically integrates the history with the grammar, vocabulary and spelling. I did not get the reading books because it was Greek Myths and another book about the middle Ages and the Renaissance. I really do not like those books for reading. So we just substituted reading other books from the library. There are definitely things that I needed to skip and substitute. However, overall the projects and papers had many choices. This way, we picked things that suited us from an Islamic view. There is a great deal of written Islamic History during this time. Therefore ,many of the written reports my son did was related to our history. The Science is good too. It is studying animal and plants. Each weekly lesson has many questions to answer and a project or two. In the end, they take a five question test that usually requires a little bit of writing. I really love the way the math is taught. Most traditional school text books teach a math concept, and then there is a test after a few concepts. They may never return to that concept the rest of the year. This math teaches a new concept each week. Every other week there is a "review" of all the concepts. Also every other week there is a test and this test has many old concepts from before. Therefore, every week there is either a review or a test. Overall, I like the sixth grade. There is a great deal of writing and research. My son does complain about this, but after all the whining, he is able to do it. He says that he cannot do it because it is to hard. My motto these days is "It may be hard, but it is not impossible, and you can do it". He does do it and does a great job!

Vintage and Violets

Assalam Alykom:

This is an introduction to a new category on my blog. The new category will be "VINTAGE" I have been selling on Ebay for about one year now. During this time, I have cased garage sales, estate sales, and thrift shops. During this most exciting search, I have bought many wonderful vintage items. Some I have kept and some I have sold. Many of them are handmade beauties. Some of the things are neat and interesting books and some of the things are beautiful pieces of costume jewelry. I am introducing this category with violets. My Irish grandmother always loved violets. Her house was filled with them, and I loved them. I love how their leaves look like a piece of delicate green velvet. I adore the delicate flowers that bloom continuously for my pleasure. Therefore, I like to keep violets in my home. A few weeks ago, I was at a garage sale and picked up an old book about violets. In this book, I found a lovely newspaper clipping with a wonderful poem. Here is the poem:

Home

Why turn so fast those pages of time,

Thinking happiness lies in some other clime-

When so much can happen within four walls,

Just making a home and meeting its calls.

For life's great happiness comes from within,

Not the number of countries we've been in;

It's simple contentment that makes life shine,

I'm thankful Lord, for this home of mine!

Author: Mildred Lee Klan

Walking Stick

Assalam alykom:

My children wanted to make walking sticks. We collected some sticks from outside and went to work. I decided that I wanted to try one too. My son started his first. He was working so long and hard to whittle the bark off, then sand it all down. He then varnished it, and it looked pretty good in the end. My stick was much taller than his. I started trying to take the bark off, and I really did not have the patience. So, I decide that I would just leave the bark on and decoupage it with Mod Podge and tissue paper. I started by tearing small pieces of tissue paper. I applied each piece over another with the Mod Podge until I achieved to color and look that I wanted. Finally, I just put several coats of the Mod Podge until it was very shiny. After it all dried, I wrapped gold jewelry wire at the top an glued a few beads and accent pieces. It turned out better than I expected. It was much easier than taking all that bark off and varnishing it too!

Clothes Pin Dolls

Assalam alykom:

A few years ago, I bought a huge bag of craft sticks at a yard sale. Well, we dug them out to make a covered wagon for my daughters 4th grade project. In the bag we found a whole bunch of wooden clothes pins. I had seen some projects about how to make dolls from them so, my daughters and I attempted to make some of our own. Here is how we did it:

We took the clothes pin and wrapped a pipe cleaner around the middle to form the hands. We used a hot glue to make it stay. Then, we picked our clothes from scraps of fabric and trimmings. We also glued them with the gun. We glued beads to the ends of the arms. I thought this made them safer. we glued yarn to the head for hair. The last thing we did was paint the face and paint shoes on some of them. The Praying ones, I did not put any hair or arms.


This first doll in blue, I used an old piece of linen that had some nice embroidery on it. My 9 year old daughter picked out the outfit.



My 3 year old daughter picked this wild hair!





This is my favorite. She is made with vintage fabric and an old piece of embroidered linen.




Another wild hair by my youngest daughter.







This one is made from an old vintage pillow case that had the trim that was unusable. Part of the trim was still good and made a lovely skirt for her.









My 5 year old picked this one's outfit. I love it she looks so elegant.

Oak Meadow Fourth Grade

Assalm Alykom:

I have kind of a love/dislike relationship ship with the fourth grade. Compared to the 6th grade in which I also teach, it is like it was written by a different company. It has some of the aspects in which I love, but in my opinion, it was not written or organized very well. The substance is there, but the material is disorganized. The 4th grade is summarized by saying that it teaches state history and moves a little into U.S. history. It begins by having the student learn the topography of his state. The student makes a model of the land he lives in. Then, it moves to learning and observing all the plants, animal and habitats. After that, the student starts to research the people that inhabited their state. They have to do some research on the Indians and do a report on them. Along, they are reading very nice books that are related to the subject. We did some projects and reports on our state history, bird, flower, motto and seal. We have about 11 weeks left and the subject has moved to the U.S. history and the movement of the people out West. Along the way there is some nice projects that my daughter has enjoyed. We just finished making a log cabin and a covered wagon. As soon as I get a picture of it, I will put it on my blog. The thing that I dislike is that sometimes it just seems like there is not enough to do. It will have about 2 weeks in a row that just says review and teaches no new skills. Maybe, for my family this is not good. During these times, we just supplement more. The Science is kind of integrated into the Social Studies. There is not much to it. We studied the native animals and habitats in our state, a little about nutrition, and we are now studying about the stars and planets. I think the thing I really dislike is the Math. It has a large amount of errors in it. They are aware of the problem and hopefully will issue new editions to correct it. I would not advise that you not waste your money on the teachers manual. It only has answers for math. You can work the problems yourself. The rest is not answers but guidance in your teaching. I did not find it much guidance. If you have a library near you, do not buy the reading books. There is one Indian reader that you need that Oak Meadow makes themselves. Overall, I liked the curriculum. It has great substance and teaches the child learning through his own research. My daughter expressed to me that she liked the independent work. I do supplement the website edhelper. I print out grammar,math and reading worksheets to make sure that she is at a 4th grade level and to plug in work when there is nothing but review in the curriculum.

Kindergarten Oak Meadow

Assalm alykom:

The first thing you need to know about the kindergarten is that it is VERY informal. It does not have the child reading. It only focuses on recognizing letters. It does not really even focus on writing them. My daughter was in a Pre-K 4 program and she knew all her letters and could read easy words. Once I started this program, I could see that it was not going to be enough for her. As far as math, it was only having them recognize numbers up to ten. She could already write them up to 100. I think if you have a child who your starting from scratch with, this would be fine. For reading them stories, they have the Beatrix potter stories in one book. You could save some money and just get them from the library. There is a nice craft book. I really should not have bought it because I have a passion for crafts and usually incorporate my own with my kids. I did buy the health book called Growing, Growing, Strong. It is used for the first three years. It is a really nice book. It teaches them about their body parts, germs, washing and more. It has nice activities and is put together very nicely. The rest of the curriculum has them connecting with nature and observing things outside, such as the change of seasons. Even though the kindergarten was less than I wanted, I am still going to purchase the 1st grade for her. I could see the reading book titles and they will be the level that she is at. I do not know about the rest. It is all a chance I have to take. However, based on the higher grades, it seems to be a good fit for my family.

A Review of Oakmeadow

Assalam alykom:

I get quite a few private emails asking me what do I think about the Oak Meadow. I decided to just make it a blog entry and hope people can be helped from it. This entry is going to be the advantages and disadvantages of the curriculum in general. I used the kindergarten, 4th grade and 6th grade this year. There is a definate difference in the quality of each grade. It is not completely uniformed. I like some of the grades better than others. I would say one of the biggest advantages is that it is very affordable. Compared to other major curriculums, it is functional for a large family to be able to afford several grades. Another great advantage is that it is reusable from one child to another. There are no work books. There is only text books. The student writes all his work in a note book. This is great for someone who has four children like me. I can just pass it down to the next child with out having to buy anything else. Oakmeadow is designed to teach the child to independently learn and observe. Therefore, he or she is not just reading from a text book and then being tested on what he or she read. Nor, is he sitting down being drilled with worksheets. The student is continually researching and learning through writing assignments and projects. This could be an advantage or disadvantage, depending how your child learns. Because the price is low compared to other book companies, the text books are pretty plain looking. The ones I bought last year are all black and white photos and not very exciting looking to the student. I found each grade to be different and not all grades that I taught, I feel the same about. Stay tuned to my blog and I will go into more detail about each individual grade. One more word of advice, If you live in the States or Europe where there is easy access to the library, I would not buy any of the reading books. They are all common books that are found in the library. This will save you some money in the end.

Decorated flower pots

With a little of my assistance, My 5 year old and three year old daughters made these. We tore small pieces of floral printed tissue paper. We took these piece and used Mod Podge. We just applied the Mod Podge onto the small pieces of paper until we covered the pot. The next day I hot glued lace and beads onto them. I had some wild flower seeds that we planted inside them. The turned out so Victorian. The girls just loved them. They are so excited because the seeds are already starting to grow.

Vintage Tea Cup Pin Cushion

I made this from a small vintage tea cup. I glued the tea cup to the saucer. I made the cushion part from an old vintage crewel embroidered pillow. I even put a steel wool piece in the top to keep pins and needles sharp. I glued an old vintage butterfly pin to the handle. The I glued ric-rack ribbon and small paper flowers on to the edge. I made vintage pins from old buttons that I glued to the top of the pin heads. I have made this for sale on Ebay,
If it sells, I think I will try to make more. They are alot of fun to make.

Grass Heads

Assalam alykom:

This project has been in the crafting world for along time. We did this a few months ago. Once the grass started to grow, my kids cut really wild hair styles. My son cut his in a mohawk. My one reccomendation would to make the heads smaller. Our heads were huge and heavy and the little plastic cup kept tipping over and making a mess. We should have used a bigger cup or smaller head. It was fun and the kids love them!

In Touch with the Creation of God

Assalam Alykom:



I have always instilled in my children to have a keen sense to what God created for us. I absolutely love and find pleasure in the nature outdoors. This love has spilled over into the hearts of my children. We love to take walks on trails or parks. It always takes a while because they find bugs, intricate leaves and flowers that they would like to preserve. The following pictures are from walks we have taken recently and trips in the car when we have been out running errands.






This picture was taken on a walking trail near our house.

















On this same walking trail, my children spotted a nest of worms weaving their nest in a tree.














Tulsa had a frightening ice storm a few months back. There are many trees fallen through out the city. On the walking trail, there is no exception. There are creeks running through this walking trail and one area had a great deal of fallen branches. I spotted one branch down by the water were a beaver had obviously munched on it. We could see were the dam was, but we never saw the beaver.


Every weekend, I go to garage sales and estate sales looking for things to sell on Ebay. While stopping at a yard sale there was a squirrel moving very slow across the road. From far away, it looked like it was carrying a toy football. As it got closer, the kids and I could see it was a baby she was holding. Of course, I had to attempt to take a picture of it.





Another yard sale stop, the lady had beautiful tulips blooming. I asked to her permission to go into her yard to snap some pictures. I really adore tulips.






The colors are just breath taking!

Spring is in the Air

Assalam Alykom:
Have you ever heard the saying or maybe it is lyrics from a song "You do not know what you have until it is gone" For me, that would be the change of seasons. Living in Florida for so long, I have not experienced the change of seasons for 20 years. I am just driving around starry eyed from the blooming flowers. The trees here in Oklahoma have these beautiful flowers on them and no leaves. I drive around on the weekend to garage sales looking for treasures to sell on Ebay. I am armed with my camera and I stop at these beautiful trees. I think the locals think I am a little goofy taking a picture of the tree in their yard. I am ooohing and ahhing as I snap the picture. They probably have been looking at that tree for the last 20 years and never noticed the beauty that I held in the tree from my eyes. I just marvel at the beauty that Allah creates. I implore you to enjoy my pictures as much as I enjoyed seeing them first hand.

Compass Rose

Assalam alykom:

While teaching my 5 year old a little geography, we found this little project. It is a nice little compass rose for telling direction. After we made it, we have been using it to learn our directions. She is learning her continents, oceans and direction. Here is how we made the compass rose:

• Materials needed:
• *Compass rose template
• *Flat glass marble
• *Mod Podge
• *Old Cd or DVD

Instructions: Color your template as you wish. Put a coating of Mod Podge on the disc. Place you template over the Mod Podge. Next ,do one coat of Mod Podge on the template and place the glass marble in the center. Last, apply several coats of Mod Podge, allowing each coat to dry. This will make it more glossy.

Polymer Clay Bugs

Assalm alykom:

When teaching my 5 year old daughter about insects, I wanted her to understand the three body parts and the names of the parts. So, I came up with this idea. Here is how we did it:

Materials needed:

*Polymer clay(Sculpy or Fimo)

*Jewelry wire

*Glass Beads

*Google eyes

Directions:

Make three small balls from the clay. Stick them together to form the bug. Stick colored glass beads all over the body. Next, measure out about 3" of wire and wrap a small glass bead at the top for the nose. Stick the other end through your insects body. Leave some of the wire sticking from the end for a stinger or tail. Cut wire for the antenna any link you want. Wind the top for the appearance to look real. Cut three pieces of wire about 3" each for the legs. Stick the legs through the body and bend them to make them stand. Cook them according to the directions you have for the clay. After they cool, just glue on some eyes. The bigger the eyes, the more bug-like they look.

Art Deco Clock

Assalm alykom:

I love this clock. I made it from a vintage ceiling light plate. I had stopped by an estate sale one Saturday morning and found it on a shelf in the garage. When I saw it, I thought it looked like a clock. I had purchased the mechanics of a clock on sale last summer. I put the mechanics through the clock and added the rhinestone stickers. I think it looks like it came right out of the 1950's. It was so easy to make! I decided to try and sell it on my Ebay listings. So far, there are no takers. Inshallah there will be before the end!

Taking an Unplanned Day Off

Assalam Alykom:

The great thing about homeschooling is that school is when you want it. For someone who has lived in Florida for the last twenty years, we really needed to play in the snow. When we woke up in the morning, we found a blanket of snow on the ground had fallen peacefully during the night. In Oklahoma, if you do not get out before noon the snow will be gone from your eyes. We took the children to the park in the morning.
















Here are some Canadian geese that were sitting by the pond. I think that they look so majestic, until they honk. Then they sound like a broken semi-truck horn.














I like to call this picture above Powdered Sugar Rocks. It looks just like someone sprinkled powdered sugar on the rocks.















By the afternoon, we decided to explore another park area outside Tulsa. It is a huge lake that has a dam on it. As you can see, the snow has all melted and disappeared from the land.














Homeschooling can be busy, stressful and an immense load of work. However, you can take a break from that work at anytime and enjoy the beautiful world that Allah created!

Friends

This was an interfaith event that took place in Tulsa, OK. Have a look it is a great talk!