Reader question: When a child asks about school and finding friends their age.

It's funny, when people think of home education what often tends to come to mind first is socialisation and peers.

And then when we think of main stream school, we think exactly the opposite; finding both teachers and parents alike telling the kids they are at to school to learn not to socialise. Go figure!

This months reader question asks about socialisation and kids asking about school.

You can ask your homeschool questions through the contact page, Facebook,  or Instagram and help build a list of Home School FAQ's which I hope will benefit our community bi'ithnillah. 

I want to apologise in advance for the text in this post....it is a little all over the place with changing sizes and fonts....I don't know what happened but I can not figure out how to adjust it to follow the default font settings - and I have tried everything I know!
Please forgive the erraticness!

Reader question: Choosing between home-education and School

It may or may not surprise you to know, that most of us look for the answers to the same homeschool questions.

Many of the questions I receive from you guys are very similar, and so last month I announced the launch of a new segment to build up an on-going list of FAQ's to give you an opportunity to ask your homeschool questions and make it easier to search them out bi'ithnillah.

I'll endeavour to answer as many as possible inshaAllah, so please do keep checking back, and if you have a question you'd like to send in, you can post it through the contact form.

So as they say, without any further ado, let's jump in with our first question:

Creative homeschool projects: The hadith of the four best women

With the number of blogs and education websites that are available now, it seems that ready made printables are becoming the work of choice for both parents and teachers because they offer a ready-to-go solution for quick easy lessons.

And this is awesome, don't get me wrong, I love a printable...I make and share plenty of them!

However, I fear that with this ease we as parents and educators find, we are kinda short-changing our children by not giving them so much opportunity to be creative and more hands on in their approach.

And this creative thinking is so important to their growth.

One thing I love seeing is kids original work. I'm not so imaginative when it comes to setting out projects, so being able to see what other families have done certainly helps me to direct the girls workings in a more authentic way.

Wading through the fog: Your home school questions answered

If there is one thing I know home schoolers have...it's questions, and lots of them.

If you think I'm talking about the kids, you're wrong. I'm talking about us, you and me - the grown ups!
We have a gazillion questions when we are home educating, as we try to figure out what we are doing.

 I look back to when I first jumped headfirst into my home school shoes; I wanted to ask anyone and everyone how they did things. I felt completely blindfolded and in the dark. I remember it seeming like I was searching for a needle in a haystack to find anyone who could, or who had the time, to answer me with the depth that I craved.

It's all about the Adjectives: Arabic Scrapbook part 3

The third part to our Arabic Scrapbook looks at page 6 in Gateway to Arabic, introducing adjectives  الصفات.

The secret to perfect Motherhood

We are living in a time where everything has to be picture perfect, from the food on our plates to the décor in our homes. And number one in view of the invisible camera of scrutiny is motherhood.

Being a mother today is hard. With all the information gleaming the pages of Pinterest, directing us to websites and blogs around the world showcasing the perfect nutrition, the perfect post pregnancy tummy workout, the perfect parenting strategies, the perfectly organised home, the perfect kids education....the perfect life!

Homeschooling with Brave Writer

One of the most common questions I get from sisters contacting me is about Brave Writer. If you see me on Facebook, Instagram or any Whatsapp groups we share, I'm always recommending it and so you come to me wanting to know more. I feel as though Brave Writer really should be paying me because so many conversations I have with mums are like sales pitches convincing them why Brave Writer is so awesome.

I'm going to set out in this article everything I love about Brave Writer and explain what it is so that you can understand it a little better. I kindly request if you have questions about which programme you need for your children, to please contact Brave Writer directly to help you with that....I'm not a Brave Writer employee (I felt that needed clarifying).

I totally get why Brave Writer causes a little confusion. We tend to be more familiar with English and Literature studies through the eyes of workbooks, textbooks and worksheets. Brave Writer uses non of these things, so we are puzzled. How does Brave Writer work if there isn't a textbook in sight?

Introduction to demonstrative pronouns: Arabic Scrapbook part 2

It's Friday and as promised here is part 2 of our Gateway to Arabic Scrapbook. There is no new vocabulary this week, so it only includes one file.
If you missed the first part, you can find it {here}. Look out for part 3 next Friday inshaAllah or subscribe so you don't miss it!

Download this weeks

Gateway to Arabic Scrapbook Printable part 2

and join in with us.

The postman is coming: This Years Home School Curriculum choices 2017/18

It's that time of year again, and the tills at Amazon and ebay have been cashing in, as home school mums across the globe go into a frenzy getting next years supplies ready....and I am no exception.

This week we've had several (okay, maybe more) packages arrive with new books, as well as a trip to the shops fill up on sharpies, felt tip pens and glue sticks.......rows upon rows of brightly coloured stationary....I love it!

After unwrapping all our new books, I thought it could be helpful to share our curriculum choices for this year. Although I have to admit, we have never been good at sticking consistently to a curriculum style book before we loose interest, other than Math U See which we have stuck to because of its open and go ease.

Gateway to Arabic scrapbook

{this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure}

Learning Arabic has always been a huge goal in my house....although admittedly efforts to do so haven't always been consistent, or as dedicated as it could.
Despite the fact that my father's side of the family are indeed all native Arab speakers, I am not. I feel the struggle to master this massively important language skill as an adult, so its something I hope my children will achieve whilst they are young, despite my own shortcomings bi'ithnillah.

Arabic word bank for kids

To help develop new vocabulary, I've produced a simple printable to help my children jot down new words they come across as they read their Arabic books.

I've included space to write both the Arabic word and its translated meaning, as well as a small area to draw a simple picture to help remember the new word.

Take a look with the virtual preview below, and download My Arabic word bank printable to print at home.

Home School Shopping...The "new home schooler trap!"

After months of research, months "discussing" with my husband how amazing it would be to home school our children, months romanticising how fun it would be if only he would agree....finally I hear these words with a serious look "Khadeeja is not going back to school!".

.....Ooops!!

My heart jumped out of my throat! Really? We are going to home school? You're kidding... right!?

I remember questioning every home schooling mum I met, asking "how do you do school?". I'd find myself trailing blog after blog, buying book after book desperately trying to reach someone who could tell me what we were meant to do now.

Enjoy the ease that follows mastery

Have you ever noticed so many of us, both parents and teachers alike, tend to focus on only seeing educational value when there is a challenge or difficulty in learning?

We don't seem to value quite so much or appreciate the joy in having mastered something and being able to do it easily.

Have you ever noticed that?

When we see our kids sat at the table, struggling over something new, we see growth, we see development, we see that as progress. But once that same child "gets it", we quickly move onto something new and start back at the beginning again.

I want to hear from you

In my early years home educating, I was quite a regular blogger. I found blogging a great way to really help my home schooling endeavours with my own children.
However, as the years went by, I found myself dedicating less and less time to it, as the demands of every day life threw themselves my way.

I really miss the motivation it used to give me, and so I would love to get back into it bi'ithnillah.

And so, here I am, calling out to my readers, whether you are a home schooler or not (if you are a parent....you are always an educator!) to ask what do you want?

What is it that you want from a blog?
Do you want printable resources?
Do you want lesson plans?
Do you want ideas?
Do you want how tos?
Do you want home school support or coaching?
Do you want to be able to connect with more Muslim parents or home educators?

Whatever it is you feel you would benefit from, I would absolutely love to hear from you, so please don't be shy!

Let me know in the comments below and I will add it to my list of possibilities for my future planning inshaAllah.

Growing up

I shared an important lesson with my eleven year old daughter earlier this week. It wasn't a "school" lesson, but a life lesson.
For E'id, my husband and I gifted her a large handbag to take her books to classes, or just to carry her purse inside when we go out.
It is an elegant bag, navy blue: simple so it isn't a form of beautification or adornment.
From the minute she saw it, she loved it. We both knew she would. It was made for her, Allahumma baarik laha.

A few days ago, she was getting ready for another class, and I asked if she was putting her books in the bag ready. She hesitated, so I asked whats wrong. She told me in class a couple of days earlier, the girls had told her the bag is too grown up.

In that second, my heart sank. And I knew in this moment, this event, although pales such insignificance, would actualy have lasting effects for the rest of her life if not dealt with properly.

I told her,
My dear, I will share something with you which has taken me 35 years to learn myself. And if I knew this lesson when I was your age, things may have been very different now.

The parents effect on their children

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you place a load of fleas into a glass jar, leaving them for a few days undisturbed with the lid on?
I'm pretty confident to assume you haven't, or at least most of you haven't anyway ....I certainly never had.

When the lid is removed, those fleas for the rest of their lives will never jump higher than the level of the lid. And what is truly amazing, is the offspring of those fleas will never jump higher either subhanAllah.
You can see the experiment for yourself in this short one minute video [click here].

When I saw this, I immediately thought about the conditioning of my own upbringing; how my parents have influenced my behaviour and then I thought about how I influence my children in theirs.

Testing for Acids and Alkali with cabbage water indicator

When I think to my chemistry lessons back in school, I don't have too many fond memories. Chemistry was probably my least favourite subject back then. The only thing I can really remember is something about Bunsen burners and waiting for the bell to ring at the end of class!

20 years later, here I am teaching my own children; I now look at chemistry with a whole new vision, and I think it is pretty cool.

This is one of the perks to home education Alhamdulillah, I am getting a brand new learning experience myself. I sometimes think how ignorant would I be if I wasn't home schooling?

Anyway, here is an easy chemistry experiment we did as part of our home school science club. You can do this at the kitchen table inshaAllah....no Bunsen burner required! 

Brave Writer introduction and a Gracious Space Giveaway!

I have a little secret I've been sitting on, and its time I split the beans. If you know me, or  if you pay any attention to the FaceBook page, you might actually already know.