Perhaps you’re just thinking about how to start homeschooling. Maybe you’re in your first year or so and are still figuring out the ropes. It’s really easy these days to get overwhelmed with everything you have to know about homeschooling successfully.
In Episode 83 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share 3 essential truths on how to start your homeschool year strong!
Three Homeschooling Truths
You don’t need to do it all. You don’t need to do all the subjects, all the curriculum, all the things!
There is no rush. Instead of racing ahead, focus on making consistent progress with your child.
You will not regret this time that you spend with your children. The only thing you might regret is all the time and energy you wasted worrying. You are enough. You were made for this moment.
Launch Your Homeschool is an online course that will hold your hand and walk you through the beginning stages of homeschooling, built upon the framework of the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
I teach you how to choose the right subjects for your homeschool, how to choose the right resources, and plan out your year to create a homeschool experience that aligns with the values and beliefs of your family. Whether you are homeschooling in the UK, or elsewhere in the world, this programme will help you give your children an incredible education at home.
I show you the essential teaching techniques that you’ll need to know to get started. There’s even an entire module on how to manage your time so you can still cook, keep the house tidy and take care of yourself, all whilst homeschooling your children!
Setting yourself up for success when you start homeschooling can be a challenge. As parents, we struggle with confidence when starting this journey. The key is to realise that homeschooling is a lifestyle. It changes the way you live and yet you need to design it around your family.
In Episode 46 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share ways to reframe the way you look at starting your homeschool journey.
Launch Your Homeschool is an online course that will you hold your hand and walk you through the beginning stages of homeschooling, built upon the framework of the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
I teach you how to choose the right subjects for your homeschool, how to chose the right resources and plan out your year to create a homeschool experience that aligns with the values and beliefs of your family.
I show you the essential teaching techniques that you’ll need to now to get started. There’s even an entire module on how to manage your time so you can still cook, keep the house tidy and take care of yourself, all whilst homeschooling your children!
?? Why poetry should be a part of every child’s education! ?? Easy ways to make poetry a part of your homeschool. ?? Why you shouldn’t be intimidated by it!
The fact that I am asked these questions regularly reflects the way the modern world thinks today. Our utilitarian view of life believes that if something is valuable it must first be useful or practical, rather than beautiful. Basically, if something is beautiful… well, that’s nice, but its not important!
It supposes that if poetry doesn’t have a practical purpose, its not worthwhile. How wrong that is!
Will poetry increase you children’s vocabulary? Yes.
Will it help them with grammar and spelling? Probably.
Will it give them a greater mastery of the English language? Most certainly.
But that is not why we do it!
Poetry moves the heart. Words have the power to affect us deeply. That is the way we have been created.
When the Quran was sent down, and the Quraysh heard it, what did they accuse the Prophet (saw) of? Of being a poet!
That is because the Quran has the sound and feel of poetry.
That is how Allah (swt) chose to communicate with us; through poetry-like words.
Why? Because beautiful words touch our hearts. Because they can penetrate deep into our souls and have the ability to change the listener.
It is through these words that we remember God.
Poetry, has a similar effect. It can help you and your children remember God. In the same way that looking upon a flower blooming or spectactular sunset can remind us of our creator; so too can hearing beautiful words.
Poetry can also teach us great morals.
“Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our teachers…Poetry supplies us with tools for the modelling of our lives, and the use of these we must get at ourselves.”
Charlotte Mason (Vol. 4, p. 71)
Interested in our Homeschooling Courses?
Signup to our Newsletter!
You’ll be the first to get all the details; including course content, enrolment dates and the Early-bird prices!
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
If, like me, your experience of poetry at school was next to none, starting poetry readings in your homeschool can be intimidating.
Here are a 4 Easy Ways you can Begin including poetry into your child’s education.
For further explanation, please watch the video or listen to the podcast above.
4 Ways to Begin with Poetry in Your Homeschool
❤ Start Collecting Poetry Books (see Book Recommendations below)
❤ Read a poem every day
❤ Give children a choice
❤ Encourage delight before ever beginning to analyse a poem (Remember the Cake analogy from the Video!)
So this week, dust off those old poetry books and start reading from them to your children. Just read one poem each day to begin with. There is no need to analyse or discuss them poems in any depth; rather allow the poem itself to be the teacher.
Delight in those carefully crafted words and enjoy these precious moments together.
Thank you to our Sponsor
A huge thank you to WordUnited for sponsoring today’s episode of Raising Mums!
Make sure you check out their Early Years learning resources, including sensory toys, wooden toys and eco toys that promote learning through play! Children from birth to 5 can develop skills including communication, pre-writing and fine motor skills, numeracy, imaginative play, sensory and messy play, construction and more!
As a Muslim homeschooling family, I wanted to create a curriculum that aligns with our values, and helps us to live a life together that we love and that I am passionate about..
Using the Charlotte Mason philosophy to guide my decisions, I have designed a homeschool curriculum that nurtures my children’s love for learning, ignites their innate curiosity, and empowers me as their teacher and mother to teach with confidence and joy.
Inspired by Charlotte Mason, I have tried to bring God to the heart of every subject, and connect everything with our creator.
This blog-post contains affiliate links. See Disclaimer for more information.
I needed a curriculum that made me excited to wake up in the morning! I needed a curriculum that would touch the hearts of my children! I needed a curriculum that I couldn’t wait to learn from myself!
But I couldn’t find one out there! So, with the help and inspiration of many other Charlotte Mason resources, I put a curriculum together myself.
And here it friends, for you all to enjoy and, I hope, benefit from! insha’Allah
My eldest son is 8 years-old, and my youngest son is 6 years-old. Please assume that the resources outlined below are used by both boys, unless indicated by a (8) or (6) in brackets. However, as the boys use most of the materials together, please consider this curriculum suitable for children in 1st-3rd grade, year 2-4 in the UK.
And I’ve made a little video to go along with this blogpost too. ENJOY!
If you’d like to see the curriculum we used last year, when the boys were 7 and 5,CLICK HERE!
Language Arts / English
Our study of English is based around reading, copying and narrating back high-quality literature and poetry. We have chosen, as recommended by Charlotte Mason, to delay the study of grammar and spelling until our children are at least 9 years-old.
Handwriting
We make out own handwriting sheets on Worksheet Works using excerpts from books we are reading, poetry or ahadith. It’s a wonderful free resource!
Literature
These are books that I plan to read-aloud to the children, in addition to other subjects. We may use Audible to listen to some of them in audiobook form.
Little House Seriesby Laura Ingalls Wilder (8) – Note, there are some unacceptable racial terms used in these books. We use this as an opportunity for conversation and growth insha’Allah.
We use Audible A LOT! If you would like to try it out, they have a FREE TRIAL on at the moment, where you get your First Book Free, you can cancel anytime, and you’ll still have access to that book!
We do not follow a specific reading curriculum. The children are not forced to read any particular book, but rather are given a choice and then are required to read aloud to me 2-3 times a week. They also have 20 minutes free-reading in the afternoon, where they can read whatever they want…even car magazines! I hope that this relaxed approach will encourage them to develop a love of reading, rather than it becoming a chore and only a “school subject”.
We will be looking at one play each term. I feel more comfortable presenting plays that have less romance in, as so we will be beginning with The Tempest.
For Maths, we are using the wonderful Life of Fred Math Series. My 8 year-old are currently working on Kidneys and my 6 year-old on Butterflies.
If any concepts requires further reinforcement I will use other online resources. A favourite of mine is Math Mammoth.
Islam
My boys attend Arabic, Quran and Seerah classes outside of the home. However, we also do incorporate many Islamic sciences into out homeschool schedule, as well as trying to refer back to our creator or deeper lessons whenever they arise in our school day.
We also look at Seerah, the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which I have included in our History curriculum. For seerah, we use Muhammad by Martin Lings
Nature Study
Nature study forms the foundation of our scientific learning. Through the study of nature I hope the children will learn to observe, records and question what they see around them. More formal science lessons will start when they are older insha’Allah.
Our focus this coming year will be Trees, and Star and Planets, although we will learn about other things things that interest them along the way too!
In addition to this, the boys often refer back to the atlas when a new place in mentioned in their history or literature books.
History
Our focus for history this coming year wil be the late medieval period, the Tudors and Stewarts. We will also focussing on Seerah, and studying the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
We are taking a very relaxed stance on artwork this year, allowing the children more freedom to draw and create in ways that excite them. For this, we will use Pinterest or Youtube for ideas or tutorials.
