Why this honorary desi loves desis…

Mum-in-law: Take care of the kids.

Sister-in-law (looking up from the newspaper): Sorry, what’s that again?

Mum-in-law: I said, take care of the kids please… Their mother is having her tea.

I DON’T have a headache. I DON’T need tea. I need you to back off and STOP undermining me and making stupid jibes about my parenting methods. You don’t know everything, so get over yourself already.

Honest enough for you Umm Z? :)

I’ll go have my tea now then.

My kid LOVES Science and she was thrilled when she got hold of Mr Q’s Classic Science textbook. It is for kids aged 8 to 12, I believe, but honestly, it was GOOD FUN for me too! How can you not love a teacher that describes Science like so?

“If it stinks, it’s chemistry. If it’s slimy, it’s biology. And if it doesn’t work, it’s physics.”

You can download the entire Elementary Life Science Book for FREE! It includes a teacher’s manual (about 400 pages or so!) and student textbook with experiments, worksheets, tests and answer keys (another 400 pages or so!).

My daughter loves her book so much that she reads it for fun. She also insisted that I download the same crazy fonts Mr Q used for our notebooking papers :)

Check out The Blog of Mr Q and Mr Q’s Lab Notes.

I was looking for Geography and History resources when I came across School History. I have not looked through it all because there is simply SO MUCH on the site but it looks quite AMAZING, ma shaa Allah. There are lessons for 4-year-olds (pre-K) to 18 year-olds (A Levels, I believe). The site also has games, puzzles, downloadable materials and reviewed internet links.

And yes… of course it’s FREE. Need you ask? :)

The National Council for Geographic Education has created 3 years of curriculum for geography clubs. The curriculum was designed for clubs that meet monthly, but I think it can be adapted for homeschoolers.

It looks promising and best of all… let’s say it together now… IT’S FREE! :P

Links to Geography Club Activities: Year 1 Activities | Year 2 Activities | Year 3 Activities

Q&A: The Best Kind of Play for Kids
by Vikki Valentine
Taken from National Public Radio

Play has never seemed more like work.

Sending kids off to play used to be a break — for children and their parents. But now, with thousands of play options, from elaborate princess dresses and video games, to a cultural emphasis on structuring every minute of a child’s time, play has become stressful and expensive.

But neuroscientist Adele Diamond and psychologist Deborah Leong have good news: The best kind of play costs nothing and really only has one main requirement — imagination.

When children learn to rely on themselves for playtime — improvising props, making up games and stories — they’re actually developing critical cognitive skills, including an important one called “executive function,” they say. Essentially, executive function is the ability to regulate one’s own behavior — a key skill for controlling emotions, resisting impulses and exerting self control and discipline.

Diamond is a professor of developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia. Leong is a professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, and co-author of the book, Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education.

Below, they answer your questions on how children can get the most out of play.

Almost all people agree that video games can be a downfall for our children. Do you think that Wii gaming is going in a better direction as far as getting children moving with video games? — Carol Halliburton, Dover, Tenn.

Wii will certainly help with visual-motor skills and perhaps reducing obesity, but I do not think it will help with executive functions. A superior Wii player will react automatically. For improving executive functions, you need games that require children to stop and think, where their first impulse would often not lead to the best result. Certainly, a video game could be constructed that challenged executive function skills, but I have not seen any like that. — Adele Diamond

We are looking at preschools for our twins. What questions should we ask? If they allow free time for play, is that enough? — Lisa Payne, Los Angeles

You should ask how much time is devoted to play each day and whether it’s free play or supervised or planned play.

Free time for play is better than no or little play, but it is not enough.

For example, social pretend play is an excellent means for exercising and building up the executive functions of working memory (children must hold their own role and those of others in mind), inhibitory control (children must inhibit acting out of character), and cognitive flexibility (children must flexibly adjust to unexpected twists and turns in the evolving plot). But social pretend play doesn’t have much value if children are free to abandon a play scenario after a few moments or are not held accountable for staying within their chosen role.

And play needs to be facilitated by adults who are trained in observing children and in understanding how play contributes to children’s mastery of concepts and skills. — Adele Diamond

My son is a 4-year-old who loves to engage in imaginative play. His favorite is to pretend that we are an animal family of some kind. But he will not do this kind of play alone. He insists on having a playmate, either me or a child his age. Is this a problem? — Martha Stinson, Alexandria, Va.

It is not at all important that he play alone. It’s very good that he enjoys social imaginative play. — Adele Diamond

Is there any way to turn the process around again in the adolescent years? Is there a way through imaginative play to restore in high school students what they may have lost out on in their early childhood years? — Beverly Opalka, Waukegan, Ill.

Yes, imaginative play can be helpful at any age, as can martial arts, dance, music, many sports or storytelling. What you are looking for is a fun activity that requires sustained concentration, holding information in mind and using it (often complex information), and something that requires resisting what might be your first inclination. — Adele Diamond

I teach kindergarten and I notice that a lot of play focuses on recreating TV shows or movies. How can I encourage more creative play? — Julie Bernstein, Oak Park, Il.

Vivian Gussin Paley, a longtime kindergarten teacher and MacArthur “genius” award winner, has written wonderful books about having children make up stories and then act them out with their classmates. The children took great pride in seeing their stories become the study of a class drama. I suggest that you take a look at her books. — Adele Diamond

You suggest encouraging children to talk to themselves. How does one do this? — Cat Gould, Phoenix, Ore.

When you, as an adult, want to make sure that you remember to do something correctly, you may silently repeat the instruction to yourself. It helps you to regulate your behavior. The same is true for children, but even more so. They need more support for self-regulation, and they can’t yet do that silently, so they say it out loud.

With a 5-year-old, you can tell him that if he repeats something to himself, it will help him to remember. So if they are trying to learn to spell something, for example, tell them they will remember it better if they spell it silently to themselves.

With even younger children, have them tell a friend or say it aloud to help themselves remember. So, for example, if a child is trying to remember his phone number, we would ask the child to say the phone number, or we would ask the child to tell a friend the phone number. — Deborah Leong

I teach kindergarten in a public school. How much of a full 7.5-hour day do you recommend be given to play? How do I defend this choice to parents and administrators who want to see children learning to read at this age? — Lauren Salazar, Springfield, Va.

We believe that children in kindergarten should engage in play at least 30 to 40 minutes each day. This is not just wandering around from thing to thing, but planning the play in advance with other children — where the play is negotiated with the group, where there are roles and pretend scenarios, based on books, that develop and change with the story line.

This kind of play is about developing reading skills, and it promotes the kind of creativity and flexibility in thinking that is measured in creativity tests. When children engage in this kind of make-believe play — which is more akin to dramatizing the story— they are playing with the components of the story, and they deepen their understanding of the story line, and how they can change the story.

For instance, I saw these little girls, they were playing Cinderella, and one time they would pretend the step-sisters were nice, and one time they would pretend Cinderella was mean. They were playing around with the characters and the story line, which helps the comprehension skills they’ll need when they’re fluent readers.

The second thing is that they are really immersing themselves in the world of the author, just like when an adult reads a book and the words disappear — you’re living the story, and that’s what they’re practicing doing. It’s really important in kindergarten that the play be a take-off on stories they read or that are read to them. Preschoolers play what they know, what they’ve experienced. But in kindergarten, play should be totally imaginary. — Deborah Leong and Adele Diamond

Does supplying children with props for unstructured imaginative play, such as simple costumes and accessories, help or hinder their level of self-regulation? — Deana Porretta, Clarksville, Tenn.

The more children need to use their imagination and hold in mind what they selected a given object would stand for, or what role each person decided to play, the better. Therefore, it’s better not to use costumes or accessories that are targeted for specific scenarios, e.g. doctor or fireman, but rather for children to use available materials to come up with their own way to identify the fireman and what they want to stand for the water hose. — Adele Diamond

I am virtually a single mother to a 4-year-old healthy, smart, happy girl. In order for me to be able to get things done, I have resorted to TV and DVD movies to keep her unfocused on me. What is the acceptable max amount of TV time? — Githa Spring Hampson, Santa Monica, Calif.

There is no set amount of time, but the less time the better. Getting your child interested in drawing something, stacking blocks, building (or dismantling) something, or telling a story to a stuffed animal would be far better for her development if you can get her engaged in that. — Adele Diamond

I have a 13-month-old son. What kind of activities could you suggest for that age group to encourage imagination? — Connie Clifford, Freeport, Maine

You can play hiding games with him, where you hide something and he needs to find it. You can turn those into a problem-solving task by putting a barrier in the shortest path to the hidden treat so that your son needs to detour around to retrieve what you’ve hidden.

You can also play simple versions of the game Concentration. You have a set of cards that are put in rows and columns, and you get to turn over two cards on your turn. If those cards match, you get to keep the cards.

Say you turn over a panda bear as your first card — you have to remember where the other panda is.

You don’t need cards — you can use cups with little toys underneath, like little animals or little balls. But they only get to keep the toys when they have two of a kind.

Or try multiple-step imitation games, such as putting a tiny animal on one end of a stick from an ice cream pop (using the stick as a lever), and then showing the child that if you press down on the other end of the stick, the tiny animal goes flying. Such imitation games tax working memory and could be great fun for your son for long extended periods at a time. — Adele Diamond

My daughter will be 3 next month. She loves imaginative play, but when we play together, she is extremely bossy toward me. She constantly tells me I am doing things “wrong.” Do I indulge her and let her make all the rules? — Sheri Hyman, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Your daughter sounds very normal for her age. She is engaging in “other regulation,” that is, regulating other people. “Other regulation” is the first step in learning to regulate oneself. It is easier to see what others should do, and when others make mistakes, than to see what you yourself should do and when you yourself make a mistake.

It is fine to talk about taking turns, but she may not be able to do that quite yet. You could suggest what to do, such as, “We could do this or this,” and then, importantly, let your daughter choose.

You could also perhaps turn the pretend situation into your child telling a “dolly” what to do. Sometimes giving an inanimate object the duty of doing what your daughter wants can help a lot.

Note, it is one thing when you are playing with your child, and another when you are telling her to go to bed. It’s not good to give into her whims when you are telling her to do something she needs to do. — Deborah Leong

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills
by Alix Spiegel
February 21, 2008
Taken from National Public Radio

On October 3, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted on television. As we all now know, the show quickly became a cultural icon, one of those phenomena that helped define an era.

What is less remembered but equally, if not more, important, is that another transformative cultural event happened that day: The Mattel toy company began advertising a gun called the “Thunder Burp.”

I know — who’s ever heard of the Thunder Burp?

Well, no one.

The reason the advertisement is significant is because it marked the first time that any toy company had attempted to peddle merchandise on television outside of the Christmas season. Until 1955, ad budgets at toy companies were minuscule, so the only time they could afford to hawk their wares on TV was during Christmas. But then came Mattel and the Thunder Burp, which, according to Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University, was a kind of historical watershed. Almost overnight, children’s play became focused, as never before, on things — the toys themselves.

“It’s interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys,” says Chudacoff. “Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object.”

Chudacoff’s recently published history of child’s play argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engage in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all.

“They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors… or whether it was on a street corner or somebody’s back yard,” Chudacoff says. “They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules.”

But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child’s play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children’s imaginative space.

But commercialization isn’t the only reason imagination comes under siege. In the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff says, parents became increasingly concerned about safety, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world. Karate classes, gymnastics, summer camps — these create safe environments for children, Chudacoff says. And they also do something more: for middle-class parents increasingly worried about achievement, they offer to enrich a child’s mind.

Change in Play, Change in Kids

Clearly the way that children spend their time has changed. Here’s the issue: A growing number of psychologists believe that these changes in what children do has also changed kids’ cognitive and emotional development.

It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

We know that children’s capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn’t stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different.

“Today’s 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today’s 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago,” Bodrova explains. “So the results were very sad.”

Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child’s IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, “Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.”

The Importance of Self-Regulation

According to Berk, one reason make-believe is such a powerful tool for building self-discipline is because during make-believe, children engage in what’s called private speech: They talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it.

“In fact, if we compare preschoolers’ activities and the amount of private speech that occurs across them, we find that this self-regulating language is highest during make-believe play,” Berk says. “And this type of self-regulating language… has been shown in many studies to be predictive of executive functions.”

And it’s not just children who use private speech to control themselves. If we look at adult use of private speech, Berk says, “we’re often using it to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social skills, and to manage our emotions.”

Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children’s private speech declines. Essentially, because children’s play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because kids’ toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren’t getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, says Berk, the results are clear: Self-regulation improves.

“One index that researchers, including myself, have used… is the extent to which a child, for example, cleans up independently after a free-choice period in preschool,” Berk says. “We find that children who are most effective at complex make-believe play take on that responsibility with… greater willingness, and even will assist others in doing so without teacher prompting.”

Despite the evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, however, even in the context of preschool young children’s play is in decline. According to Yale psychological researcher Dorothy Singer, teachers and school administrators just don’t see the value.

“Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time,” Singer says. “I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills.”

It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all.

First and foremost, we are parents and now, in some cases, grandparents. Most of us have at least one child who had serious problems at school - difficulty learning to read; lack of challenging material; bullying, etc. All of us did whatever we could to help our children overcome their difficulties - massive home support, paid tutors, private schools - whatever it took. But once we had saved our own children, we started to worry about the other kids - the ones whose parents can’t rescue them because they just don’t know how.

Some of us are or were teachers ourselves, and so we have a perspective on education problems from the other side as well. Like so many teachers, some of us have actually been hampered in our attempts to do a good job. We know there is a better way, and that is why we became involved with the Society for Quality Education …

… SQE favours the approach supported by the most extensive and credible research: a strong focus on direct instruction, including phonics, drill, and rote learning, in the early years to establish a solid base of literacy and numeracy on which to build students’ education in the higher grades. Once students have this base, the judicious use of less traditional methods, such as discovery and computer-assisted learning and a focus on higher-order skills, can be very effective ways to engage students and improve learning outcomes.

Society for Quality Education provides free remedial programme materials for Reading and Math. Stairway to Reading, although designed for children who have already had some instruction, can be used with preschoolers with the minor adaptations. Stairway to Math materials are designed to help children who are struggling with mathematics in school. They do not constitute a complete math program, but if they are used selectively and appropriately they will improve your child’s math skills.

I think both these sites may be useful for my kids - my elder is often frustrated with Math while my younger is still learning to read.

Transcript of a report on National Public Radio. You can listen to the story here.

February 22, 2008
NPR reporter Alix Spiegel reports on how play has shifted focus from “activity” to “things.”

MATT MARTINEZ: Great, great, great. I’m very excited. The number-one-most-e-mailed story at npr.org is headlined: Old-fashioned play builds serious skills, with an S not a Z, unfortunately. It’s by NPR science reporter Alix Spiegel, and it basically traces how childhood has been changing, and she starts with an episode of “The Mickey Mouse Club.” She says that’s a turning-point of sorts.

In 1955, it basically changed the way that children would be spending their time, and some experts say the shift has altered children’s imaginations, the way that the minds develop. So here she is explaining what happened that day.

ALIX SPIEGEL, reporting:

It was during the first episode of “The Mickey Mouse Club” that the Mattel Toy Company introduced a new product, a toy gun that the company claimed had almost magical properties.

(Soundbite of television advertisement)

(Soundbite of Thunder Burp toy gun)

Unidentified Announcer: It’s broken the sound barrier. It’s the Mattel Thunder Burp with a real, vibro-sonic sound chamber that’s loaded forever and ever. No batteries, no caps. That Thunder Burp looks like real, sounds like real.

(Soundbite of Thunder Burp toy gun)

SPIEGEL: Historian Howard Chudacoff says that until that October afternoon, no toy company had ever tried to sell merchandise on television year-round. The only time toy manufacturers advertised on TV was during Christmas.

But then came Mattel and the burp gun, and according to Chudacoff, a professor at Brown University who recently wrote a history of child’s play, almost overnight, children’s play became focused as never before on the toy itself.

Professor HOWARD CHUDACOFF (Cultural Historian, Brown University): It’s interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys, whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object.

SPIEGEL: You see for most of human history, what children did when children played was engage in free-wheeling, imaginative play, elaborate narratives of pirates and princesses. Basically, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all.

Prof. CHUDACOFF: They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors, the fields and the forests, or whether it was on a street-corner or somebody’s backyard. They improvised their own play. They regulated their play. They made up their own rules.

SPIEGEL: But Chudacoff argues once TV and toys began to supply children with ever-more-specific scripts and special props for their stories, the size of children’s imaginative space begins to shrink, and that’s not the only way that imagination comes under siege, according to Chudacoff.

In the second half of the 20th century, he says, parents were increasingly concerned about safety, which again affected play.

Prof. CHUDACOFF: Because then adults wanted to structure it more, to create environments that are safe, that are secure, that cannot be penetrated from the threats from the outside world.

SPIEGEL: To protect their children, parents began to place their kids in adult-moderated activities, which says Chudacoff, has another benefit, especially to middle-class parents worried about achievement. They promise enrichment.

Prof. CHUDACOFF: You know, karate classes and gymnastics, summer camps not only create safe environments for children but also give them enriched lives and ways to create self-esteem.

SPIEGEL: So clearly, the way that most children spent their time has changed, and of course there have been other changes in the lives of kids, but a growing number of psychologists believe that these changes in how children play have led to changes in their cognitive and emotional development. Here’s some of the evidence.

Back in the late 1940s, some psychological researchers did a series of tests on children. In one of the tests, they asked kids ages three, five and seven to stand perfectly still without moving. The three-year-olds couldn’t do this exercise at all, the five-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the seven-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked.

In 2001, some researchers actually repeated this experiment. But as psychologist Elena Bodrova explains, the results were very different.

Ms. ELENA BODROVA (National Institute for Early Education Research): Today’s five-year-olds were acting at the level of three-year-olds 60 years ago, and today’s seven-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a five-year-olds 60 years ago, so the results were very sad.

SPIEGEL: Sad because the children were less able to do something called self-regulation. Self-regulation is the ability to control emotions and behavior. It’s a key component of a broader set of skills called executive function. Kids with good self-regulation aren’t impulsive, they have self-control, discipline, and this self-regulation is incredibly important. In fact, good self-regulation is a better predictor of success in school than a child’s IQ.

Ms. LAURA BERK (Executive Function Researcher, Illinois State University): Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.

SPIEGEL: This is executive function researcher Laura Berk of Illinois State University. She says make-believe is a powerful tool for building self-regulation. That’s because during make-believe, children engage in what’s called private speech: they talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it, laying out the rules of play for themselves.

Ms. BERK: We find that this self-regulating language is highest during make-believe play, and this type of self-regulating language, which we call private speech, has been shown in many studies to be predictive of executive functions.

SPIEGEL: Basically, it’s through this private speech that children control and regulate themselves. In fact, private speech is how adults control and regulate themselves, too.

Ms. BERK: If we look our own use of private speech, what we find is that we’re often using it to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social skills, and to manage our emotions.

SPIEGEL: Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children’s private speech declines. Essentially what’s happening is that because children’s play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because kids’ toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren’t getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, the results are clear: Self-regulation improves.

Ms. BERK: One index that researchers, including myself, have used to look at that is the extent to which a child, for example, cleans up independently after a free-choice period in preschool. We find that children who are most effective at complex make-believe play take on that responsibility with greater willingness and even will assist others in doing so without teacher prompting.

SPIEGEL: Despite the evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, a number of child-development experts say free-choice play is in decline even in preschool. Here’s psychological researcher Dorothy Singer of Yale.

Dr. DOROTHY SINGER (Psychological Researcher, Yale University): Because of the testing and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals, so that play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time. I mean, I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills.

SPIEGEL: Singer and others argue that it’s not actually helpful to leave imaginative play behind. They say that all that wasted time is really not such waste after all.

STEWART: That’s NPR’s Alix Spiegel with the most e-mailed story right now on npr.org. You can see a list of all of the most e-mailed stories you heard on today’s show npr.org/bryantpark.

Taken from: NPR - The Evolution of Play

Find lots of fun activities for kids, with video instructions and printables. There’s a selection of craft ideas including gifts, games and easy kid-friendly cooking recipes. Check out the simple, safe and fun science experiments or very cool paper airplanes. Other categories inlcude cartooning, cheerleading, juggling, origami, jewlery, puppets, and more. Just follow along with the setp-by-step videos.

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization founded by Salman Khan with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. It is currently a library of 1400+ videos on YouTube (and mirrored elsewhere) covering everything from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus, chemistry, economics and biology. The videos are supplemented by software that dynamically generates exercises and captures data on student usage and progress.

Salman Khan received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He also holds a Masters in electrical engineering and computer science, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The entire video library (it will blow you away!) can be accessed at The Khan’s Academy site.

To keep abreast of new videos, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.

Not just FREE (woo hoo!) but really excellent material, ma shaa Allah.

I like using sites like Super Teacher Worksheets every once in a while. They are a big help when I am unprepared and also help keep Mars occupied when I have to spend more time on her sister.

Super Teacher Worksheets provides lots of free (woo! hoo!) materials. There are Math, reading and writing, spelling, reading comprehension, grammar and phonics and also social studies printable worksheets.

We are all being slowly but surely roasted alive here in Islamabad… if you don’t hear from us for a while, you know why :P

Inquiry In Action is a a 470-page resource of guided, inquiry-based activities that covers basic chemistry concepts along with the process of scientific investigation. It was developed and written by James Kessler and Patti Galvan from the office of K-8 Science at the American Chemical Society. Experienced educators both, Patti worked as an elementary school teacher with a keen interest in science education before coming to ACS. James has been developing resources for K-8 teachers for 20 years.

Why am I going on about this book, you ask? It is FREE! I kid you not… all 470 pages (phew!) are available for download here.

Cool, right?

It’s a funny name, but this isn’t a site to be taken lightly :) English Banana provides loads of free English resources. Those of you who are looking for a free grammar programme for elementary students can use English Banana’s Big Grammar Book.

It’s jam-packed from cover to cover with a great selection of photocopiable worksheets taken from the popular English Banana.com website. We wanted to provide teachers with a really useful book of no-nonsense grammar worksheets that they can dip into and use in class with students at ESOL Core Curriculum Entry Levels 1 & 2 [Elementary Level]. It is also ideal for students to work with at home since the answers are all printed at the back.

The book is divided into four parts and is graded in difficulty, so that it begins with some basic stuff and builds up to more challenging grammar activities. It features a selection of Essential English worksheets which provide practice for crucial basic areas of knowledge for learners at Entry Level, like using numbers, writing the alphabet, spelling days and months correctly, and so on.

Did I mention it is FREE? :P

Download the Big Grammar Book here or here.

OK, I am finally feeling dead on my feet… I guess the Panadol Extra’s worn off. I’m off to catch some sleep before the kids wake up.

A mum once asked on a homeschooling bulletin board if it is possible to homeschool without a library in town. I said it is because *I* homeschool without a library in town :) I told the sister that when I am in Singapore, I am the crazy lady with equally crazy kids dragging suitcases of books from the neighbourhood library. In Islamabad though, I make do and alhamdulillah, it really has not been a hardship. We are blessed with second-hand bookstores which have allowed us to build our own library of award-winning literature and reference books.

There are also lots of free online resources. I’ve been busy surfing (can’t sleep - must be all that paracetamol in my system) so I’ll be sharing links over the next few days in shaa Allah. (Aren’t you guys glad I’ve sworn off Facebook and Farmville?? :P)

So, to kick off my Freebie Frenzy, here is a site that I’ve found useful.

Lesson Pathways is a FREE online educational resource for grades K-5. It contains high-quality, pre-screened online units (Pathways) that are designed to serve as either a full curriculum or as a supplement to your existing lesson plans.

You can choose how to use their resources:

A Guided Journey is a 36-week learning plan in one of the core subject areas, for a specific year or grade level (ie. Year 1 Science). A Guided Journey is made of individual Pathways. You may follow our recommended Guided Journeys or mix and match Pathways to create your own 36 week course.

A Pathway is a single unit on a given topic (e.g. Animal Life Cycles). Each Pathway contains content for one week of instruction, depending on how often you teach a given subject. Each Pathway is made of multiple Stepping Stones.

A Stepping Stone is a single resource. This may be a lesson, video, worksheet, hands-on project, ebook, online game, or other activity (e.g. Create a Spider Life Cycle Poster). Multiple Stepping Stones make up a Pathway.

The site has a planner that allows you to assign, customise and track pathways for each child. If you already have a curriculum, then Lesson Pathways can supplement it by providing you with free online links and materials.

Thanks to Alice, I realised that I’d forgotten to include a few more English resources I use. :)

Grammarland - yet another piece of yesterday’s classics. We love things with a vintage flavour and we love them even more when they are free :P This is a fun and funny read… perfect for Charlotte Mason home-edders. There are exercises from the book that you can do and Jessica Cain of We Don’t Need No Education (oh that blog name brings back memories!) has made some very nice worksheets to save you the trouble. You can access her worksheets here. There are 17 in all.

Another resource I’ve used is First Language Lessons (Well Trained Mind). The lessons were short and easy to implement and even my younger one who wasn’t reading yet found the lessons fun. I have Writing With Ease also by the Well Trained Mind but I really did not like some of the content as it referred to magic, myths and other things that are unIslamic. So I made my own copywork book. (In shaa Allah, once I improve it, I’ll upload it.) We have also begun to do dictation more frequently and for this, I choose a short paragraphs from chapter books she likes. We read the paragraph together and analyze the punctuation and grammar. Then Mars is left to prepare on her own. She is dictated to the next day.

Mars has written a couple of short stories on her own and even one for Science where she imagines what life would be like as a creature living in the trees. She enjoys it but often worries that her works are not good enough. (*sigh*) I found The Creative Journal for Children by Lucia Capacchione at Borders when I was in Singapore and I think it will help her ease up a little and just enjoy the creative process. The activities are suitable for kids from preschool through junior high so in shaa Allah I will do them with her younger sister as well. What I like about the book is that it encourages kids not only to record their thoughts and dreams through writing but also through illustrations. No grading, no criticism… just self-exploration and expression.

I purchased English From The Roots Up by Joegil Lundquist a year ago! These are Latin and Greek root cards and I had big plans for the programme, but *ahem* have not started on it in earnest, I am ashamed to say. We have only been reading the cards for fun. Mars does enjoy learning languages and is keen to start on Roots, but I will have to wait till after the summer (her Math needs work!).

Like I mentioned earlier, we are also reading more poetry these days. I got Mars hooked when I read her Michael Rosen’s (don’t you love him?) Who’s Been At The Toothpaste?. We’ve got a few anthologies and have been working through them. Robert Frost and Robert Louis Stevenson are some of her favourites.

I think I’ve got enough to keep us busy for a while. I now need to curb my curriculum junkie impulses :P

Good times, alhamdulillah.

My kids and I are at the F9 park almost everyday of the week. They have their karate lessons and I tag along. I love going going there because I get two hours to unwind after a day of homeschooling and chores. I catch up on some reading or use the time to plan the coming days’ homeschooling material. What makes my evenings there so enjoyable is of course watching the kids as they train. I’ve had the pleasure of watching the younger ones blossom and been treated to impressive shows of the older students’ skills.

Once in a while though, I don’t have a good time. It is usually when I am forced to make polite conversation with … well, the sort of people I really wouldn’t have for lunch. You see, there are some folks, who, upon finding out that we homeschool, cannot seem to get off the subject and keep quizzing me on the whys and wherefores. Every time we meet, I get the same old set of questions or the same sense of incredulity. Last week, a mum saw me jotting down a few notes and proceeded to question me (again).

Lady: So… what are you doing?

Me: I’m just jotting down some notes for tomorrow’s Science lessons.

Lady: Oh… YOU teach your daughter? I thought she went to Roots because your exercise book says so. (I’d already told her we homeschool.)

Me: No, it’s just a book I bought from the store.

Lady: But… why do your kids not go to school?

Me: Mars has a compulsory exam to sit for in Singapore in 2013, so it’s just easier this way. (I can no longer be bothered to give an honest answer as to why we homeschool. Let them believe in the long arm of Singapore law *S*)

Lady: Oh… can they sit for an exam if they don’t go to school?

Me: They study and prepare for the exam at home.

Lady: (looking quite unconvinced) Oh… I’ve always thought children would not study at home.

Me: (smile becoming a tad forced by now) No, they do just fine.

Lady: (still with the disbelieving smile) I mean, you know, if they don’t go to school, then it can be hard to control or encourage them.

Me: No, not really.

The conversation went on a little longer and by the end of it, I was really at the end of my patience (even though I did not show it). It was not just the interrogation. It was the fact that she really was not interested in my answers because she kept fixing me with a doubtful stare. It was all I could do not to retort sharply, but I realised not a little too soon that I should not have harboured any resentment towards her. Homeschooling is practically unheard of in Islamabad. Many women here live with their in-laws and have a great deal of responsibilities. They would not have the luxury of being able to home-educate even if it was something they had heard about. (Yes, I say it is a luxury because I think it is a blessing that I am able to learn with my children.)

Perhaps my irritation stems from my own feelings of anxiety. While I believe that homeschooling is the best for my family, it has its stressful episodes. We have good days and bad days just like any other family. My kids have trouble with their lessons and sometimes act up too. I find myself having to fight the impulse to make them perfect to legitimise our homeschooling. It is really silly of me - I don’t homeschool my kids because they are geniuses and I certainly don’t need to prove anything to anyone. My kids don’t need that kind of pressure. I should just take criticisms in a positive way by using them to improve myself and my methods.

At the end of the day, what helps to make things bearable is - and it is strange coming from me, a loner who seems to prefer her books and computer to people - good company. I thank Allah for always putting inspiring people in my path whenever I start to slacken or to doubt myself. I got to know the one other (yes… ONE!) mother who homeschools her 3 daughters in Islamabad. I was initially nervous about meeting her - social events intimidate me! - but I gleaned so much about her family from just a couple of visits that put me at ease. She had friends who would help out and hang out at her home - I thought it was lovely how hospitable she was ma shaa Allah. It is also such an ego-booster that her kids practically pounce on my kids like they have been waiting for them forever the moment we enter the gate! Meetings with her revive me considerably - it isn’t just the good food she serves us :) It is also her strong belief and determined effort in home-educating her kids.

Another friend I met homeschools her 7 kids in Karachi. We crossed paths in person at a time when I really needed the encouragement. She was visiting Islamabad and I spent several hours just nattering with her. What struck me most about her was her strong sense of tawakkul - full trust in Allah. She embraced the many changes in her life - the arrival of a new baby, reconstruction to her home and pulling her kids out of public school - with perspective. She pushed on and seemed undaunted, believing in her children’s abilities and in her duty to home-educate.

Maybe the next time someone asks me about homeschooling, I won’t have to fake patience in the face of incredulity. Maybe I can just smile and tell them, “You know, I am not alone in this…”

Mars has been enjoying poetry. (I’m quite sorry I gave away some of my Literature textbooks now!) Here’s a poem that I rather like by Rudyard Kipling. (FYI, I’m a bit of an ambivalent admirer of his… his politics was just rubbish, no?)

If—

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

~ Rudyard Kipling

Me: Well, if you want to make a strong case for something and you want me to seriously consider your point of view, then you know what you need to say, right?

Ms M: “O Captain! My Captain!”?

Me: Well, I was going to teach you about effective persuasion but THAT would work too!

:P