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Homeschool Journaling

My Midori Mornings

December 13, 2016 by Imaan 6 Comments

My first traveler’s notebook, a Raydori… love it to pieces!

Those of you who know me in person would know that I have a penchant for pen and paper. OK, HUGE understatement!! I am a full-fledged, card carrying, unapologetic stationery addict. You know, a dream of mine is to sell stationery? I think my business would be in the red though, because I would probably want to keep everything for myself. ;)

Initially, I tried going the whole hog with scrapbooking and smashbooking and what have you… it was fun at first – I’d once considered a publishing job and still love looking at good layouts and presentations. The problem was that this hobby consumed my every being to the extent that I was close to making the Dad Man and the kids forage for their meals. It didn’t help that my latent OCD tendencies slowly but surely kicked in – I kept wanting to rip out pages because they didn’t look right. I kept analyzing the handwriting, the alignments, the colours… it all became very very overwhelming, self-defeating and a complete waste of time. That foolishness clearly had to go and alhamdulillah I kicked it to the kerb.

Me and my insane attempts at scrapbooking… the dreaded blank page when no inspiration kicks in!

I have since taken a step back from scrapbooking and gone into journaling – I write about my days and whatever inspires me and I try a bit of craftiness without getting obsessive about it. Since the words take centre stage, I no longer worry about embellishment and decoration… once I focused more on the process than the end product, I found planner peace and my family, thankfully, stay nourished ;)

I use a leather notebook. For the uninitiated (and you folks simply MUST join us on the dark side!), this is a leather cover with 2 to 4 (or more if you are crazy that way!) elastic bands inside it to hold notebooks. The original/most popular was made by the Midori Company and simply referred to as the “Midori”. It now has its own brand name and is called the “Traveler’s Notebook”. (I think “Midori” is a much prettier name, don’t you? The kids and I still call our notebooks “dories”.) The TNs gave birth to numerous DIY versions by other leather craftsmen – these are affectionately called “fauxdoris” or are named by their makers. My first dori, purchased a few years ago, was made by Ray Blake and it is called a “Raydori”.

The TN can hold several notebooks, so each insert can be used for different purposes. I have one insert for a weekly planner, one for a diary/journal, one for my Islamic learning, one for a commonplace book and one for my homeschooling ideas/notes. Once a notebook is full, I can store it and put another in its place. It’s all wonderfully portable so I can use it anytime and anywhere – I love looking through my journals when I am out and about. The best bit about these babies though? The leather. There is something simply intoxicating about well made leather goods… they are just WICKED!

My blue Traveler’s Notebook… ain’t he a beauty?

I’ve grown to depend on my notebooks for my homeschooling days – Marz is now preparing for her IGCSEs, so a few notebooks have gone into English Literature notes and lesson plans. I am also moving into Islamic Journaling – I have been copying words of remembrance/adhkaar and trying to memorise them. (I really must work harder on this!) I am also going into Quran journaling, for the simple reason that it is high time – I need to organize all my notes and random scribbles into something more ‘coherent’ and systematic!

Studying and journaling at the park while Peep has football practice.

Mornings are special times with my dori – I get ready a nice mug of chai, settle down with my pens and my books and journal away. This daily fix keeps me cheerfully sane :)

In shaa Allah, I’ll share more about my dori days and resources I have found. Is anyone out there into this analogue culture? Give me a shout out because Midori loves company. :)

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Homeschool

Early Math

June 3, 2016 by Imaan 3 Comments

Years ago, when I started homeschooling, I fretted over how expensive everything was and felt wretched when I could not afford this or that programme. Now that I’m starting over with Peep, I see that I was being completely ridiculous. Ah… hindsight! ;)

There are lots of free Math resources online and some may lack the bells and whistles that we may often look for or be used to. Still, now that I’m in a back-to-basics mode, I see how these are good, solid materials that have stood the test of time.

Here are some Mathy links you might enjoy checking out:

  • First Lessons in Arithmetic
  • Samuel L. Blumenfeld’s Arithmetic Program
  • First Lessons in Numbers
  • SW Baird’s Graded Work in Arithmetic:
    • Year 1
    • Year 2
    • Year 3
    • Year 4
    • Year 5
    • Year 6
    • Year 7
    • Year 8
  • CIMT’s Mathematics Enhancement Programme (Reception to Secondary level)
  • Comprehensive School Mathematics Program Preservation Project (K to 6)
  • Dad’s Worksheets
  • Khan Academy
  • Eureka Math by Great Minds
  • Ray’s Arithmetic – AN ABSOLUTE GEM!!
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Homeschool

Early Reading Resources

May 31, 2016 by Imaan No Comments

I am a curriculum junkie. There’s no shame to my game ;)

I wrote a post about homeschooling for free a long while ago. Some links are now outdated so I’ll be revisiting and reposting these resources over the next few days.

Today, early reading… because my youngest, Peep, has turned 4 and has officially joined the student body.

EARLY READING

  • Starfall – the first level of this programme was good for letter recognition and sounds, but oh my goodness… the crazy and corny songs! Peep sang “Va-va-va-va-VAN… Va-va-va-va- VAN…” for DAYS. You best be warned.
  • Progressive Phonics – very simple, straight forward programme… and very effective too! There are also free writing worksheets.
  • Word Mastery – a course in phonics for the first three grades
  • Reading Bear
  • Blend Phonics:
    • Alphabet Flash Cards
    • Blend Phonics Pre-Primer
    • Reading Made Easy With Blend Phonics
    • Blend Phonics Reader – to be used after a unit is taught in Reading Made Easy With Blend Phonics
    • Blend Phonics Decodable Storybooks
  • Stairway to Reading
  • Teach the World to Read – Not free now but at $49 for some 60 booklets + guides, it’s a steal. The site offers the programme for free to children in under-privileged communities.
  • Reading A to Z – They had an open house and made their books free once upon a time. I don’t think I will be welcome at any other open houses they will have in future.
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Homeschool Charlotte Mason

About Geography

August 31, 2012 by Imaan No Comments
The peculiar value of geography lies in its fitness to nourish the mind with ideas, and to furnish the imagination with pictures… The child gets his rudimentary notions of geography.. in those long hours out of door… He gets his first notions of a map from a rude sketch.. or with a stick in the sand or gravel.

…Let him be at home in any single region; let him see, with the mind’s eye, the people at their work and at their play, the flowers and fruits in their seasons, the beasts, each in its habitat; and let him see all sympathetically, that is, let him follow the adventures of a traveler; and he knows more, is better furnished with ideas, than if he had learnt all the names on all the maps. The ‘way’ of this kind of teaching is very simple and obvious; read to him… bit by bit… any interesting, well-written book of travel.

…Here as elsewhere, the question is, not how many things does he know, but how much does he know about each thing.
– Charlotte Mason, Home Education

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Taking stock…. . . . . . . . #pakistan #islam Taking stock…. 
 
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There is a rider there… somewhere. . . . . . There is a rider there… somewhere. 
 
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Cheerful… not salty! . . . . . . . . . . . #pak Cheerful… not salty!

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Little man at work . . . . . . . . . . #pakistan Little man at work 

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