Back to School II

I have completed our schedule (except a few things and the inclusion of some novels and a couple of books to be read) and it seems to be flowing smoothly. We open the day with Suratul Fatiha and then my daughter recites whatever surah she is working on with her father from the night before. Then, she has a 10 minute speed drill for UCMAS (we're taking a break from classes until September)so that she doesn't lose her rhythm.

Up next is phonics. We're using Pathway Readers, a program that was developed for Amish schoolchildren. It is very thorough and comes with its own grammar books, chapter books and workbooks. The stories are about the happenings between the children of families living within a small farming community.

We are in the second of the three chapter books and it has mentioned that the children got ready for church twice. I changed it to mosque long before she ever got to the pages and there's been no issues since. I don't have a problem with her knowing that some people go to church because they do; However, I want her to forge her Muslim identity and make learning relevant to her world.

On Mondays, we do short spelling lessons from Spelling Grade 3

Tuesdays, we have Islamic Studies from Stories of the World by Safia Iqbal. The whole set costs about $50 with shipping to Canada and overall, I am pleased. The first few chapters cover the creation of the world, early man and The First Man (Adam,alayhi salaam). From there, we have early cultures (Indus Valley, Sumerians,Mesopotamians,etc).



Today we read about the creation of the world and tied it in to Surah ad-Dukhan (The Smoke). We burned a candle under a glass until it burned out and filled with smoke in order to simulate a nebula, AlhamduLILLAH.




Tuesdays and Thursdays are for Science. We are using the free resource that I posted a while back.




Wednesdays, we also have Islamic Studies but that is from Susan Douglass' Islamic Books series. We are currently using the grade 2 books.

Monday, Wednesday and Fridays are for Rosetta Stone's Arabic program. She's doing well with this and once she calmed down and followed the cues, she got through the program without any help.



Fridays are also for art and nature walks. I got a few ideas from That Artist Woman's blog for a couple of weeks and I'm not sure what we'll do after that. I may get a few ideas from this book - I put it on hold at the library so I don't know how good the projects are.

I still haven't added math to the schedule. We are right at the end of the first section of Singapore Math 2. Also, we are doing math copywork for math facts. I have the worksheets ready for this too but I haven't put them on the schedule. It seems like every time I make a schedule I forget about the math. What does that mean? LOL.

I also have several books that I would like her to read (Canadian history with a focus on First Nations People/50 states study)and I need to figure out how and when we will add these.

And of course, I need to add some type stories of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa salaam) and Al Khilafah ar-Rashidun. Also, I finally put the leaves on the tree so it's ready to go.





Everything is still a work in progress, but it's a start.

Next: my son's schedule, InshaALLAH.