Spring Planting

Assalamu alaikom

Coming out of winter always takes me some extra getting used to.  While most people around me are so excited for the longer days with more sunshine, I get a touch of anxiety adjusting to that feeling that I have to be more productive and have to deal with heat, sun, longer work hours.  I realize that's totally a personal perception, but I get those feelings especially in late February and early March when the time moves forward an hour.  It happens so fast here in Seattle that the days go from being from 8am-4:15pm to being from 6:30am-7:00pm.  I'd be happy to get rid of Daylight Saving Time! That would definitely help ease that seasonal adjustment; plus, sunsets after 9pm are just too late!

Now that it's April, I'm on board with spring and have started my garden.  My level of gardening varies year to year, but when I have a  younger school aged kid I like to give them a lot of exposure, and this year my youngest is 7 years old which is great for involvement AND learning!  This year we are planting from seed, from store-bought starts, and we're putting in flowers and herbs in addition to veggies.  

below: lavender with snapdragon flowers in back

 oregano and rosemary sharing a pot with snapdragons

 mint from last year

My friend scored some lemon balm from a community facebook page for free, and she kindly shared a bunch with me after I told her I wanted lemon balm to repel mosquitoes on our deck.  I potted some of those transplants: 

The pot on the right is lemon balm. Spearmint on the left

in the center is lemon balm. looks dinky but will be rockin in a few weeks insha'Allah

I went ahead and clipped my tulips to make a bouquet for inside (plus, I'm ready to use the pots for the herbs without those tulips shadowing over the little starts)

And finally, here's a look at the Mammoth sunflower seeds we're starting indoors in hopes of repeating our 8 foot tall sunflower from two years ago!

I'll post about my actual vegetable garden another time!

"And it is He who sends down rain from the sky, and We produce thereby the growth of all things. We produce from it greenery from which We produce grains arranged in layers. And from the palm trees - of its emerging fruit are clusters hanging low. And [We produce] gardens of grapevines and olives and pomegranates, similar yet varied. Look at [each of] its fruit when it yields and [at] its ripening. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe." (Qur'an, 6:99)

Ramadan Day 5 at home

Assalamu alaikom
Even though I'm fighting a painful cold, I really wanted to spend at least half an hour with the girls doing some things from our Ramadan pile of activities.  I can't believe how many bloggers are out there putting out free printables and lessons for the community.  It's easy to get into overkill and feel like you have to do it just right or do all the crafts, but luckily I'm not like that :D  I have printed a few blog pages I like and am doing them with the younger girls for a few minutes daily.
Today we talked about the five pillars of Islam while Aisha colored in the page I found from A Muslim Homeschool.

And Maryam worked on her binder which has a nice printout also from A Muslim Homeschool plus other printouts.  I'm having her practice Arabic writing by doing copywork in addition to reading verses related to fasting in Ramadan.  I included some Quran reading tracking and fasting tracking pages.  Here she is filling in one of those pages for some acts of worship she's done.

I've enjoyed having some focused Ramadan activities to do.  I find that a good time to do these are in the afternoon when it's too hot to play outside.

Ideas for improving Quran Classses

There has to be a way to reform the way we teach people (children) to read and memorize Quran.  Over the past ten years, we have tried at least half a dozen ways.  And each time we run into similar problems and complaints:
* teachers have a heavy foreign accent and the kids have a hard time understanding them.
* they sit around a table left to themselves for the majority of the hour (or hour and a half).
* they aren't given any tools to memorize except to read to themselves over and over.
* they get yelled at.
* they get compared to other kids in the class or to one of their siblings.
* other kids in the class are rude to my kids or just goof off because they don't want to be there either.
* my kids come back with headaches and whine for at least an hour before and after.
* the teacher takes phone calls or texts a lot during the lesson.

These are just a few complaints I have with the experiences we've had.  I'm so fed up with it.  I've tried incorporating memorizing Quran into our schedule, but it is much harder to follow through with it than you might think.  Talking to an experienced Quran teacher once, she told me that she sends her teen son to someone else to learn because it just doesn't happen at home. 

So I was thinking that maybe I could form some kind of format or suggested guide to improve Quran classes.  Since the teachers are usually volunteers with little experience in education or childhood development, they don't have the tools or resources to structure their class time with.  I'm no expert, but I have taken an early childhood development class, I've been homeschooling for over 3 years, and I read up about education as a hobby. 

Off the top of my head I would divide up the hour and a half into 25 minute clusters (or less) and do different things instead of expecting the child to sit for that long supposedly reading and memorizing on his own.  Other things I would suggest (and I might just think more on this subject and come up with a formal packet and present it)
* have a cheerful attitude.
* respect the child.
* take the age of the child into consideration including what skills he likely has and doesn't have.
* realize they are coming to you at the end of their school day and are likely a little tired.
* take advantage of multiple teaching methods: in pairs, have one student read along while another recites that sura from memory, then switch. 
* spend a few minutes actually showing them how to memorize and giving them tips and methods to memorize.
* realize that because they are young, you will want to repeat tips and instruction each time to drill it into them.
* set realistic goals.  or just set some type of goal instead of just showing up each time with no clear direction.
* show up 5 minutes before class starts so that you are there before the students. set the tone and get them busy as soon as they walk in with some type of warm up.

These are just a few of my thoughts.  I've been a little fired up about this topic (again) for a couple of days, and I really want to organize my thoughts so that I might present it to our Quran school.  I don't personally want to teach the classes, and I don't want it to depend on me; rather, I want a successful model to be used by all the teachers so that the students and families can have a better experience.

Little Homeschooling Update

Assalamu alaikom

End of the week :)  We've settled into a nice routine here at home, alhamdulilaah (have my non Muslim readers figured out my Arabic words yet; this one means 'all praise is due to God'=thank God).  Even little Aisha isn't as crazed anymore.  She's taken to sitting on the floor nearby and playing with coins, that was her favorite activity this past week.  She won't put them in her mouth, so I feel safe letting her fill and empty the bucket with the coins. She also moves them from one pile to another.  Once I finish up my morning chores and sit down at the table is when I feel that the kids also buckle down and start their work for real.  Otherwise they might be kind here and there, but not really working.  And that IS my routine.. to sit down at the table by 8:30 (ok sometimes it is 8:45) and get started for the day.  We normally work til 11:45 or noon (they take a little snack break in the middle).  After lunch we meet back for Science/History depending on the day, and then we do our activities (tennis, football, gymnastics, Quran class).

My goals for the begining of this venture were multi-faceted:
1. to give us all time to unprogram our brains from what we thought 'school' looked like
2. to give the kids leeway in general to adjust to our new way of life
3.  to focus mostly on the 'core' of education (reading, writing, arithmatic) and not to panic if I didn't get a lot more things done, at least for the first few months.  i do have science and history in the plans, and so far those are going on schedule, too
4.  to not let myself get carried away compaing myself to other homeschoolers b/c there really is so much you can do out there
5.  to incorporate those religious elements into their lives like i had originally dreamed of doing

So I think I've done pretty good at pacing myself.  I've wondered if I were doing enough, and then sometimes if it were too much, but all in all they're getting work done, retaining it, and the best part.. regurgitating it!!! Unprompted, too! Yippeee!!! It's working :) 

I had to think long and hard about one little subject though, and that was Arabic language.  We don't speak it much at home since my husband and I have always spoken English as our first language.  The kids do read Arabic in the Quran, but they don't know its meaning nor can they have a conversation.  After much thinking I am now confident that they must learn it as best as I can teach it to them.  It's their heritage and it is the language of their holy book.  A lot gets lost in the translation, so it will only benefit them to know it.  I settled on a program to use, and have sent the company an email asking if i can get the 'teacher discount' :)  (which, by the way, Staples gave me their teacher discount card b/c i'm a homeschooler.. yay Staples!)  So pray for me please.. I will be adding one more subject to our curriculum. 

Ok, so that leads me to the other 'religious element' I mentioned in the goals up above.  After I felt confident after a couple of weeks of homeschooling I realized I didn't really have a fixed time for Islamic Studies.  Okie dokie...ruffled through many old books the older kids used back in Seattle at the Islamic School.  I wasn't sure which curriculum to use (there were two good ones, at least), and I wasn't sure what levels I should start the kids at.  Grrr, I didn't like this.  Well, subhanAllah, when you just ask your lord for help He surely won't fail you.  Somehow, one morning, I had one of those books in my hand and I was at the breakfast table.  Somehow we all ended up at breakfast at the same time.  Somehow I opened the book and started reading from the begining, and the story was so interesting that I found 4 pairs of eyes staring at me!  (ok, well, maybe not Aisha's)  The older 3 loved it, and I suddenly figured out how and when we would cover our Islamic Studies.  This week's breakfast time was awesome.  I would read from that textbook which has verses, hadith (sayings of prophet muhammand, peace be upon him), skits, and stories from the quran.  It's had a tremendous impact on them already, as I can see their awareness of their faith grow, just from talking about it for a few short minutes in the morning.  Masha'Allah, what a blessing. 

I've learned that 'learning' looks different now that we are free of the schedule of public school.  Reading about our religion together at breakfast is an awesome way to make it a natural part of our family instead of a boring class they have to go to on the weekend.  We also do some read-alouds at night (a fiction book like currently The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), and none of this could have happened during public school time.  They used to come home so ready to turn their brains off that it was like pulling teeth to get them to read, to pray, or to talk about anything learning-related.  And now, suddenly, we are learning ALL the time and they are happy with it! I am so so grateful to have been shown this path and to be on this adventure.  Life looks different to me in regards to my children, my future, and their future. 

So we're half way through our first trimester.  I'm glad things are moving along well, and I am glad I didn't stress over the extra subjects that I had wanted to cover but hadn't gotten to yet.  I know it'll all work out in the end, and alhamdulilaah, so far it's been great.  May Allah keep us successful and guide us to please Him.  Now that we're half way done we can start the countdown to our first official family roadtrip to visit my mom in Mississippi!!!  We'll be taking one month off from mid December through mid January. :)

Thanks for reading and I welcome your comments!
Love
Zein