Back to School 2011/2012

Assalamu alaikom,

I'm sitting on the couch after our first day back to homeschool.  What a great day it was; I have great kids, masha'Allah.  They know there is a place and time for things.  They don't try to be all goofy or distracted when school starts.  They don't try to sit and play video games.  They know when it's time for school that they're on a schedule.  MashaAllah, la quwwata illa billah ( this means there is no might or power except with God, and that what He wanted to happed did happen ).  So our first day back went really well. 

The funnest addition to our day is the "Jogging Club" I started (stole the idea from their public school).  I used an iPhone app called iMapMyRUN (free) to see how far it was from our door to the water fountain located on the city trail by our house (and back).  That is 0.86 miles and it took about 8 minutes for my son to run it.  I'm going to have them do that little run/walk every morning.  I spent some time figuring out a schedule so that we can all get some exercise in addition to schoolwork.  It's worked great so far, as I'm on day 6 of my morning walks.  I'm also going to have them record their time once a week, and then we can graph it (math lesson).

A tradition I started last year was for the kids to fill out this questionnaire on the first day and then to share it.  At the end of the year we were amazed at the change in handwriting and likes/dislikes!  I'm filing this sheet in their Geneology Binders (blog on that later) for a memory.

It was fun showing them new books I chose for this year.  We're using a new curriculum for Science, and I'm beefing up History and syncing up their Reading with the History as is explained in The Well Trained Mind.   An awesome mom made up lessons on her own that coordinated the reading with the history including questions, copywork, and other activities.  Here's a link to her blog Classical House of Learning.  So I'll be going with that for a few weeks and see how that works. It is completely free. 

Alhamdulillah, all praise to Allah, everything was fine and will be fine I hope.  It feels great to be into the routine; I can't go on enough about how right that feels.  It felt great to be homeschooling, and I was reassured a few hours into it that I was, indeed, doing the right thing.  We're incorporating Arabic, Quran, and Islamic Studies into our day now which is different than last year.  I found a new-ish company called Ad Duha whose products are laid out similar to our other homeschool books; language easy for the student to understand, short easy lessons, and a layout that is updated.  I didn't buy a whole grade level, rather I had to pick and choose b/c my children were at different levels in the different subjects.  However, for my youngest one, I could easily start with their preK level and then she could move up with their program.  If you're interested in something to do at home without paying for and driving to lessons (kids and I dreaded that routine), then I highly recommend you check this out.

Last night I had a good little pep talk (from a fellow homeschooling blogger) and summoned up my words of encouragement, some patience, a few prayerful words, and a good attitude for the new school year.  May Allah guide me and give me the strength and knowledge to be successful in raising and educating my children!