Summer School Work

Happy Summer!

Ramadan 2013~ a change for the better

It is only the 2nd day of Ramadan and it has already started out great. The days are long, the fast is hard, it's really hot and humid here in Maryland, but I feel wonderful. Yes physically I am suffering, but my spirit is great and isn't that what Ramadan is all about. Actually, Ramadan hasn't always uplifted my spiritual being like it should, in fact I had alot of stubborness and attitude when it came to Ramadan and Islam in general. I made a choice to become Muslim, but I wanted my Islam to fit all my preconceived notions about how things should go. I wanted to fast with water, because I thought it was backwards to fast without water, we need to be hydrated right? I wanted Ramadan on my terms: so what if I ate something 10 minutes after Suhur ended, I was fasting all the rest of the 9 hours and 26 minutes. I wanted to pick and choose what part of Islam I wanted to follow and I sure did not want to follow it as it was prescribed in the Quran and Hadith. I didn't care that people had been doing the same thing with excellent results for hundreds of years, I was ignorant, I was brain washed, and I was spoiled.

Books for Boys

I am in the process of ordering books for our 2013-2014 year, a little later than I would like, but in the process I came across a fabulous article called "The Dangerous Article for Boys"

An excerpt from the article: 

It is now well-recognized that boys are not reading. What is the problem? Most commentators want to say that boys have an aversion to books. But the problem is quite the opposite: books—modern books, that is—have an aversion to boys.

A recent edition of The New York Times Sunday Book Review featured a Robert Lipsyte article that attempts to address this problem. Here is the proffered solution:

[B]oys need to be approached individually with books about their fears, choices, possibilities and relationships — the kind of reading that will prick their dormant empathy, involve them with fictional characters and lead them into deeper engagement with their own lives. This is what turns boys into readers.

Excuse me while I dab my eyes delicately with my handkerchief, touched as I am by this tender thought.

Okay, let's get something straight here: solutions like this are part of the problem. I'm normally against shooting spit wads in class, but I am willing to make an exception in this one case. The entire educational establishment has tried for over 50 years to force boys into their effeminate mold, and in the process, they've succeeded in evacuating literature of all the things boys like in books: action, adventure, danger, bloodletting—and an iron moral code that is taught, not by smarmy sermonizing, but by immersing them in the moral universe of a story about a hero who not only believes in this code, but enforces it with a vengeance.

Great article can be read in full here: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/dangerous-article-boys

However, I wanted to post on my blog the book list for boys that Martin Cothran suggested.

• Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and anything else Wilder ever wrote)
• The Jack Tales, by Jonathan Chase
• Call it Courage, by Armstrong Sperry
• Robin Hood, by Roger Lancelyn Green
• King Arthur, by Roger Lancelyn Green
• Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
• Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi
• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Lost in the Barrens, by Farley Mowat (and anything else Mowat ever wrote)
• Goodbye Kate, by Billy C. Clark (and anything else Clark ever wrote)
• The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
• The Mask of Zorro, by Johnston McCulley (and the rest of the Zorro books)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel and El Dorado, by Baroness Orczy (and the rest of the Scarlet Pimpernel books)
• Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle (and anything else Pyle ever wrote)
• Shane, by Jack Shaeffer
• The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
• Old Squire’s Farm, by C. A. Stephens
• Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
• The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow, by Allan French
• Little Britches, by Ralph Moody
• Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
• A Texas Ranger, by N. A. Jennings
• Penrod, by Booth Tarkington
• The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling
• Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
• The Worm Ouroboros, by E. R. Edison
• The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Let's Go Fly a Kite- Spring Break 2013

Our Spring Break was spent in Delaware at the Rehoboth Beach with one of my best friends in Maryland and Big A's best friend. Beach, Family and Friends is there a better combination? We are truly blessed.

Canada Country Study

We have been delving into Canada after our Road Trip to Canada.

Arabic Letters- Montessori School

I visited a Montessori School today and I was surprised and delighted to see Noor Janan Homeschool's Arabic Letters being used. I loved the colors that they used. It really warmed my heart.

The Goodie Jar

Lil A was so excited about telling another parent about our Jummah (Friday) Goodie Jar, it reminded me that I should of shared it a long time ago.

The Goodie Jar concept came to me because of a couple reasons. I saw some really pretty painted gift jars on Pinterest and wanted to create some of my own. I wanted to create an incentive to be Good, in our culture somewhere being a Goodie-Goodie became bad. However, in the original story of Cinderella called Goodie Goodie Two Shoes,  the concept of Goodie was a joyous happy GOOD feeling. In these recent decades, "Goodie, Goodie Two Shoes" has been used to bully other children out of having good morals and character. Because being good or angelic is unpopular and the devilish child is the cool kid. This must be changed, starting with my family- lets be a Goodie Goodie family.

The concept of saving our special treat until Jummah is not only a lesson in patience. It became our way of celebrating our holiday read Holy Day of the blessed Jummah. Some Muslims are under the impression that we only have two Eids: Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha. However, there is a hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) that says:
      Oh Muslims! Allah, the most High has made Friday a day of Eid. So have a bath on this day, whoever has perfume should apply it, and use the miswaak (tooth cleaner) ~Ibn Majah

In fact, Muslims have many days of celebration and remembrance, Friday is the best of these days that happens every week! We don't have to buy into the consumer culture to make it special for our family and our communities. Simple things: like a piece of candy, a special Jummah storytime, a special Friday supper, feeding the ducks after Jummah prayer, inviting friends over for some ice cream, a community walk/hike in nature, a special Friday Halaqa and/or whatever creative thing you can come up with. The Goodie Jar was just my idea.

I used baby food jars, a masjid template and glass paint applied to the outside of the jar. I painted the lid and added a ribbon and a goodie jar tag. All the free downloads can be found under our Practical Life tab.

It is not so much competing with Secular holidays, but teaching your children to create joy in the life God has blessed them with. So this also fulfilled another part of our Homeschool curriculum called Life Skills. There is a wonderful book called Life Skills for Kids by Christine M Field. It is written from a Christian perspective, but it is very useful for anybody raising children. She talks about the art of celebrating life as a skill that must be taught. This is a beautiful lesson in appreciation and love of our Creator- the Life Giver.

So how do they earn a jelly belly, by doing Good deeds of course! Taken from the song "Who took a cookie from the cookie jar?" which again is another cultural dysfunction: encourage a child to steal and then blame someone else. Yes, this song needed a makeover. . .

"Who deserves a bean in their Goody Jar?"  "I do!" "Who you?" "Yes! me." "What you do?" This teaches accountability, taking ownership for their behavior and responsibility. They list off the Good Deeds they should have did each day and is rewarded for it. They can patiently watch their jar fill up throughout the week, then on Friday they can eat their treats. Since they have waited for soooo long, they never feel the need to eat them all in one day. They stretch out their jelly bellies out over a couple of days and share them with their siblings and friends. I write the number of beans that should be in the jar with a wet erase marker, to help my Beloveds to stay honest.

A graph is a fun and educational way to chart how many beans Lil A has earned each day. I made a graph and song chart for those who are not Muslim also. Whether Saturday or Sunday is your special day, there is a free graph for you also!

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