Chemistry Book

We are working towards some IGCSEs. The usual questions about IGCSE centre around whether they are recognized as equal to GCSEs, or whether they are accepted by colleges and so on. Usually the answers to these questions have involved assuring others that, yes they are actually recognized as being tougher than GCSEs, they are valid, run by the same exam boards etc etc. Strangely, in the light of recent political announcements it may now become the "in" thing to be doing exams that are not the normal GCSEs, and home educators who have to take the tougher IGCSEs anyway may actually find themselves already taking exams which look more like the government's newly planned ones. Swings and roundabouts of political fashion.
Anyway, that was not what I wanted to blog about today. I just wanted to mention the Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry textbook and say what an excellent textbook it is. It is written in such a friendly way. The author has a website to go with the book with a section especially for home educated students and parents. It actually feels welcoming - and I'm NOT a scientist! Can we do chemistry? With this book, inshAllah, yes we can!

Working together

.  When I started out on the home ed journey, nine years ago,  I was home educating co-operatively for part of the time. I didn't really intend it that way originally, but that's how it worked out. I received a call from another sister who had found my number on a contact list,  we met and eventually I found myself working along with two other families. This arrangement lasted for about a year and then some other friends wanted to start working together also and a new arrangement started. 

Working co-operatively has many advantages, especially at the beginning of the home ed journey, when your children are young (and fewer in number) and it helps to share skills and ideas, and to be able to enjoy friendships. In my experience working together gets harder as the children get older. Their needs diverge more, you have more younger siblings to deal with and generally peoples lives get more complicated. When it works well it is a great benefit - however in my experience it is best not to rely on any arrangements lasting too long. As with everything in home ed, make the most of opportunities as they emerge and be ready to embrace change when you need to, inshAllah.

I was recently asked to put together some thoughts on home schooling co-operatively. The following are some points I came up with. It is certainly not a comprehensive guideline, but maybe of use to someone, inshAllah. I should also point out that the type of co-operative set up I am describing is where the parents are the educators and want to share the task of education with others. In such a set up everyone is involved, and everyone is learning to be an educator. I have seen others organise co-ops where a group of parents clubs together to "buy" a teacher or teachers for their children but I have not been involved in that type of arrangement myself. I have also known of home education support groups which grew into small schools, but again I think of that as something different from a  home education co-op.
There are many ways to homeschool, or home educate, alhamdulillah! It is all about finding what works best for you and your family!

      Meet and discuss objectives. Be honest about why you are planning to homeschool co-operatively. What do you hope to achieve long term? Reasons will include: Islamic education for my child, social group for my child, companionship, not confident on my own etc, but should ALSO include: I want to develop my own ability to home educate my children, become a better educator, learn skills from others and share my skills.  These objectives need to raised clearly so everyone understands them. Such objectives make a homeschool co-op distinct from a group attempting to establish an Islamic school

2.       Research. If you are all new to home schooling assign research tasks on behalf of the group. Each person takes on the role of researching resources and methods for one subject area eg maths. This is NOT to select a method or resources for others to use but to put forward a range of options from what is available. Sharing the research task avoids the need for each individual to research each subject area for themselves and helps each person become familiar with the tools available for seeking out answers to homeschooling questions (eg, forums, yahoo lists, blogs, reviews.)

3.       Team teaching. If co-op classes are to be held arrange for them to be team taught – pairing someone stronger in a subject area with someone weaker in order to mentor the weaker partner. Rotate these pairings regularly so everyone has the chance to be in the weaker or stronger role and to share/learn skills.

4.       Role allocation. Make sure everyone has a role. This includes all roles that allow the smooth functioning of the group, such as looking after younger children while a sister teaches, shopping for supplies, playtime supervision etc. Work must be shared equally. If the burden falls too heavily on one or two people the project will eventually fold.

5.       Discipline. Be clear on discipline of the children from the start. Telling off each others’ children can be a very sensitive issue. Make sure rules and boundaries and discipline methods are agreed upon by all adults.

6.       Keep a group diary detailing activities and classes. Record what was taught and by whom. This diary needs to be available to all participants to update and read to make sure that everyone is aware of what the children are learning. This could be done in a notebook, but a group blog, kept private to members only, would be a good tool to use.

7.       Make 70 excuses for your Muslim sister.

Home educating long term

 This is an article I was requested to write recently. These are my thoughts based on my approach to home education. Others may do things differently.

Sustainable Homeschooling

Where do you see yourself in five years time? Only Allah (swt) knows whether we will still be alive in five years time and what our condition will be then, but what are your hopes? What intentions are you building on?

If you have currently chosen homeschooling (more commonly known as Home Education in the UK) for your family do you picture yourself, in five years time, learning around the table, making lapbooks? How about sitting together in a family halaqa or listening to your child recite Quran? Maybe your eldest boy will be mature and able to lead the prayers in your home. Do you imagine attending home school trips with like minded families, seeing your children enjoy and develop friendships which bolster and encourage their Islamic identity? Will you be setting up home chemistry experiments, tending a family vegetable garden or raising butterflies? It is a little different from dropping the kids off on a hectic, congested school run then keeping an eye on the clock until they return, but when you are a home educating family the possibilities are many.

How does that picture seem to you? How do you feel at the prospect of guiding your eldest through their GCSEs whilst setting out the playdoh for your preschooler and meeting the educational needs of everyone else in between? Do you feel excited by the challenge and ready to embrace the ever changing home schooling journey? It is certainly a prospect that grabs my attention!

But, you may be asking yourself, how do I get from where I am now to a point where I would feel confident and capable enough to be guiding my family through all the stages of their education. The answer is that you probably will never reach such a comfortable state, but you will be always trying, always striving to improve and trusting in Allah to get you through.

At the beginning of the home education journey the way forward can seem very unclear and the commitment daunting. After nine years of home educating I can say that the way forward does not necessarily get any clearer, you just learn to trust that you will get there, inshAllah. Until I actually embark on a new stage of home education and start experiencing it and working through it with my children I am never sure how it will play out. However much prior research I have done, I am always learning along the way. When it comes to homeschooling there is no substitute for hands on learning through experience, both for the kids and mum!

When I first became interested in home education I spent a lot of time reading up about it online and in books. I did my research. I wanted to know about different approaches to learning, how to teach a child to read, how to ensure a good understanding of maths and so on. I also wanted to know more about how other people have home educated. What is it really like? Nowadays with the proliferation of blogs, including those written by Muslim home educators it is much easier to find all this out than when I was looking some ten years ago. The research was good preparation and gave me lots of ideas to work with, but nothing could compare to when I actually got started with teaching my own children. Some methods I liked the theory of just seemed a waste of time when applied to my children. It was trial and error. I was learning as much as they were. There were ups and downs but over all we made progress, alhamdulillah. At the same time I was working with two other home educating families. Together we were learning how to home educate.

And we had time to do this. All of our children were still young. We were starting from the beginning.  We didn’t need to be perfect. At that young age children don’t have many academic goals to achieve, the important part of learning still revolves around play and developing an Islamic personality and manners.

Starting off with homeschooling can be likened to starting off with motherhood. At first the duties of caring for the newborn can be overwhelming. You don’t know what you are doing and small problems with the baby can cause a lot of stress. Few of us would look back, I’d guess, at how we managed our first baby and think of ourselves as ideal mothers. I certainly feel that I’ve learned from experience and although I’m still far from an ideal parent it is much easier with my fifth child than it was with my first, alhamdulillah. Experience is a good teacher. However, are my eldest markedly worse off as a result of my early parenting bloopers? I don’t think so. We have muddled through, alhamdulillah. Homeschooling is a skill like any other parenting skill. It takes time to learn, you make mistakes along the way but with determination you can achieve your goals, with the help of Allah.

With each new stage of the homeschooling journey, early years, primary, secondary, GCSEs I embark with a plan to hand, an outline of where I am going, but with an open mind. I ask Allah to help me find a way to make a success of this venture and, alhamdulillah, things become clearer and we find our way. Isn’t it like this for the stages of parenting too? From terrible twos to the teens, we learn along the way.

But is there another way you may be asking? Do I really have to do this alone? The answer to that is no – and yes.

In this country, legally speaking, home education is the responsibility of the parent. If anyone from the local authority enquires about your child’s education if he isn’t registered with a school the duty rests with you. Bearing this in mind however, children do not benefit from being brought up in isolation and making friends and learning with others are important parts of individual development. Getting together with other home educators, pooling skills and making friendships is a great way of helping each other learn homeschooling together.

This is how what I am going to refer to as “sustainable homeschooling” is achieved, inshAllah. When you take the decision not to enrol your child in school you are taking the decision to place the responsibility for their whole education on yourself. That responsibility was actually always yours in the first place, but a school can be used to delegate that responsibility to if required.

A school is usually an established institution. When you enrol your child in the Reception class you can reasonably expect that school to still be there to provide your child’s education all the way through until Year 6 (in most cases), should you choose to remain with that school. With home education the only factor you can realistically hope to remain constant (by the Will of Allah) for that long is yourself.

Homeschooling is all about making the most of opportunities as they appear and being active in creating those opportunities too. In my experience home education is a journey of constant change. This has its advantages. My children have had the privilege of growing up with a variety of educational experiences from art workshops to horse riding, swimming, trips and the caring input from a variety of other adults. I have always tried my best to taking advantage of such opportunities knowing that they will not last indefinitely. Usually change occurs because someone moves on in life. Families relocate, bringing an end to a set of co-operative classes, or social meet-ups; a new baby arrives and the sister can no longer teach a class. Also people change jobs or a venue is lost leading to the cancellation of a sports class or series of workshops. I have seen this happen again and again over the years. If a school loses a member of staff they simply recruit a replacement. It is not as straightforward with homeschooling. A home educator needs to be flexible and resourceful and able to come up with solutions.

However, although variety is stimulating and interesting, consistency and stability are also crucial in the child’s education.  As a home educator I feel I need to maintain the role of primary educator for my children, especially in the core academic subjects.  While I am eager to benefit from the skills of others in my community I know that my involvement is the most significant factor in my children’s education. Incidentally it is often stated that parental involvement is also very important for the successful education of children who attend school.

There are some subjects for which I know I need outside help, most notably Quran and Arabic and at higher levels some aspects of maths and science. My solution is to seek tuition help when I need it and to supplement everything else as often as I can with as wide a range of educational opportunities as I can afford.

Personally I chose home education for my children as I believed it offered the best form of education for my children when compared to school. Many others choose home education in order to avoid the state system or because they cannot afford a private Islamic school for their child. The dilemmas of choosing the best educational method continue to apply throughout the child’s educational years. If state school is not a desired option at age 5 the same will probably remain true at age 11 or 14. In my view it makes sense to develop options that will be sustainable throughout the whole period of compulsory education. If home education is to be one of those sustainable options then it needs to be at the centre of the family home life. That may sound like a challenging commitment, but all it means is getting involved and being willing to join your child on a learning journey. Whilst being hard work this can truly be a joyful experience.

 May Allah make easy what we sincerely do for His sake.

Ramadhan Mubarak

Once again the blessed month of Ramadhan has arrived. May Allah accept our duas, increase our emaan and allow us to benefit from all the barakah of this special month. Ameen.
Ramadhan mubarak!

What has happened to this blog?

In case there is anyone wondering I am still here, still home educating. No one has gone into school, we are continuing as usual, alhamdulillah.
I stopped updating this blog because I felt that as my kids grow older it becomes harder to blog authentically without somehow compromising their privacy. To write publicly about young children is something I felt comfortable with, but as little children mature into teens it doesn't seem quite right any more and I don't want to write a "half blog" only about my still primary age girls.
I'm not going to remove the blog, and maybe one day I'll return to it, but for now, thanks for dropping by to read this, and if you are a home educator, enjoy these moments with your children. They really do grow up so fast!

Electronics

 This year the boys are doing physics topics in science. I bought them an electronics set which arrived this morning. I'm really pleased with it, it is easy to use with very clear, sensible instructions and there are lots of experiments to do!  They spent a couple of hours on it this morning. Here is the link : Secondary 2

Makkah Lapbook

 Last week the girls completed lapbooks on Makkah. We based this project on the first chapter of  "Muslim Cities Then and Now" by Susan Douglas, from the Islamic School book series. The textbook chapter is called Makkah During the Hajj. The book contains helpful teachers notes and I used these and the workbook pages as part of the project. I just added my own ideas to make lapbook mini books to go alongside.
Our lapbooks contained mini books on the following:
How Makkah Began: A recount of the story of Hajar and Ismael (as) in the desert, Zam Zam and the building of the Ka'bah.
What is Makkah like at Hajj time?: A description based on materials in the book. We had recently watched a documentary on Hajj, which was also helpful to the girls in being able to picture the scenes.
Travelling to Hajj: This mini book listed the conditions for travelling in the past and in modern times. The two lists were side by side, so a comparison could be made.
Makkah and the Kab'ah: This was another comparison mini book, this time comparing how Makkah and the Kab'ah used to look in the past with the modern day scene. The girls did some illustrations. There are lots of pictures online to look at to help with this. This mini book also gave the opportunity to use descriptive language.
The Hajj Journey: This was a worksheet from the book, showing the actions of Hajj.
Where is Makkah?: a map
What is the Arabian desert like? We did this first, as a scene setting exercise, so that the girls could understand a little of the geographic and climatic conditions of the region.
Makkah at the time of the Prophet (saw): This mini book listed a few facts, for example that the Prophet (saw) was born in Makkah and that he later conquered the town and the inhabitants embraced Islam.

The blue lapbook is Ia's and the yellow is U's.