How to get "Outside my Box" !!

image from www.web2teachingtools.com

I am admitting that I can't seem to "be" creative !! I'd love to be more of an exciting teacher but I am somehow still stuck in this annoying "pencil in hand an sitting on the chair" method of doing school and right now it's very frustrating!! and so I'm once again brainstorming of how to make teaching more exciting and less school'ish and still be satisfied with myself at the end of the day that, yes we've learned and accomplished something!! Writing this comes over as very stupid to myself because I love Arts/ Crafts, being creative etc. and I do tons of stuff for myself but when it comes to educational creativity for my boys my brain somehow freezes.. I'm thinking maybe I should go cold turkey and ban all books for a week except maybe handwriting and learn to have fun with my boys, educational fun, well understood.. I feel as if something has to unlock in my brain for me to be able to loosen up and I'm still waiting for that event to take place. I can't possibly be the only one having had that issue.. anyone? 

Just a thought on a friday night.. 

Myriam

Our new fancy Pets

Since about a month now we have fresh eggs on an daily basis, yesss we have chicken :-) which if you'd asked me a few years back I would've never thought of it as possible.. but it seems like today it's not such a far fetched thing anymore, you know, to have back yard chickens. They are such interesting animals !! We literally sit outside, all five of us and watch "the chickflick" !! 

Here a few pictures of the Chicken Coop in the Make:

May I introduce to you:

• Olive
• Roxy
• Reds
• Goldy (better pictures will follow, I know this is not the best but it's all I have right now)

From the beginning we've had 1 egg a day which increased to 2-3 eggs a day :-) The boys are thrilled and love watching them. They've been raised by children and are very used to people which is again perfect for us. I needn't say that following to us having chicken is a Lapbook about Chickens which is in the make as you're reading this post so.. stay tuned :-)

Myriam

The Past 3 Months

It's been such a long time since I last sat down and worked on my blog. I've thought so many times that: I should write about this and that but.. never actually got to type it up. What we've been doing? Night Fury (4) is very eager to learn on a daily basis. He picks things up very quickly and gets bored easily so he's challenging but that's ok, I'll get there, I am trying to have lessons prepared that keep him challenged and hands on, so he gets to enjoy our learing time together... He is doing excellent with reading (we're on lesson 86 in how to teaching your child how to read in 100 easy lessons) and he simultaneously reads #1 library books. His handwriting is also going great, we will be finishing the Zaner Bloser Working book this week. Oh and yes handwriting is one of his favorite subjects !!

Patriotism vs. Loyality

Yesterday while taking my boys on a field trip to the Museum of Art, a woman passed me saying: You're in the wrong country, go back to where you came from.. Immediately I turned around saying: And my husband is in the Military I have EVERY right to be here just as much as you do !!
She was the kind of person that would mumble stuff and just keep walking, so I leave it up to you to decide on what kind of person she was. 

I did not see this coming and was so angry, hurt and couldn't really get rid of my frustration right then and there, since I didn't want to cause a scene, especially with my boys there.. WOMAN, WE'RE ON A FIELD TRIP HERE !!!

I am the kind of person that can't just "forget" so I think it over and over (very unhealthy I know)... and tried to analyze why, what the woman said hurt me so much. Yes I'm fully covered and I know some don't like us muslims so much.. being in the states I kind of expect this (even though it happens very seldom) and am okay with it, honestly I can relate to a certain extend. One of the reasons I like living here though is because the people are so easy going, at least the ones I come in contact with. Anyway what made me furious is that I am in this country because my husband is serving HER country and I get the feeling that she LOVES her military.. well guess what we're part of it !! and just because I cover my face and don't walk around half naked doesn't make me feel less lonely and stressed out when my husband is deployed for 7 month in a row. It is a HUGE sacrifice and I'm sure every military wife/kids can relate to that and having someone tell me that I don't belong here or that I should go back .. dang..

A man passed by when I swung back around and said, don't worry about it there are some people they are ignorant. I met him later in the same museum and approached him, to thank him for his uplifting words and he continued saying that some people that haven't travelled about just don't know better. That I was a strong woman and have to stand up for myself.. may Allah bless him and YES I AM !!

Myriam

Some Thoughts about Homeschooling

ISTUDYING

Yesterday I read this blogpost from Renee over at Fimby.tougas.net and it struck me. One reason why I'm having a hard time figuring out which way I'd like to go with the boy's homeschool is because I never thought about what I want them to gain from it. Yes I want them to learn "stuff" favorably "LOTS of stuff, no EVERYTHING !! Also being Muslims we strive to do everyday things in life the islamic way, but which direction would I like to pull all of us through the process? After reflecting for quiet some time I came up with

• right now at this point I want them to love studying/ learning
• to learn how to study/ research etc. on their own and loving it !
• of course I want them to use their knowledge in life to become open minded, positive God fearing people that use their knowledge in a way that pleases Allah/ God (which is not really "simply" a 3rd point since pleasing Allah/ God is our ultimate goal in life.)
• I could probably add that I want them to be aware and care for the world we're living in and so I came up with our next science theme, which will be another post.

Weird actually that after finally finding out what might have stopped me from feeling more comfortable in my skin as a homeschooling mom and mentor all I come up with are three things.. ( my boys are only 7, 5 and 3 years old)

But somehow I feel better just having found a missing puzzle piece for myself. Maybe later the 3 pointers will become 4 or 5.. and still I think, the most important that will make them thrive the most might still just be because they love to learn !!! I'm in my early 30ties and I love the fact that I still love to study.

Myriam

The Whale Lapbook

For our Whale Lapbook I got everyone involved this time, L-Drago 7, Night Fury 4 and Dyno 3. Everyone did a fantastic job and as always we all, including me learnt a bunch *smile*


Our Resources were:

• our local Library 
• homeschoolshare.com for all the Lapbook pockets
• education.com for the pre K. Twin Whale activity and coloring pages.

also from education.com is the Whale Coin Toss Game


Books we read:
The Life Cycle of a Whale
Gray Whales
Blue Whales 
Whales (I believe the green Whale Quiz is from that book as well)
Winter Whale
The Whale Scientists
Baby Whales Drink Milk
Humphrey The Lost Whale

Our Weekly Wrap Up June #3, one day at a time..

My first week of summer holidays was all about "what if Leap Creature forgets what he learned" and I was hardly able to calm down and enjoy the holidays.. the second week was much better and well, I've been doing a bit more of what I want to or was looking forward to doing. I've had some orders for islamic men's shirts which I was able to finish. I got a thobe (traditional Arab clothing for men) done for Leap Creature. I made new pillow cases, Pajama Outfits, all with left over material which I'm so desperately trying to finish up and even found an old scarf to make little sleeping bags for beanie babies "little howler, lizzy and tiger". I have so much material and so many plans on what to do with all of it, all that was missing was the time to just sit and do it.

The boys started swimming classes this week and other than that we try to take them out several times of the week. There isn't much structure in our days these days but honestly I'm taking one day at a time and no structure and no planning is exactly what I need right now. 

Myriam