Let’s talk about educating children under five at home. In this podcastand Youtube video I discuss a simple framework that you can use to create preschool activities for your youngest children.
In this LIVE episode of Raising Mums, I give guidance on how & what to teach your young children at home! We talk about what homeschooling looks like for children under two, and for kids ages three to five, doing preschool or kindergarten at home.
I teach you two easy-to-follow frameworks. The first, helps you to support your baby’s development. The second framework, for children ages 3-5, allows you to create preschool activities and learning at home, simply and easily.
If you want to learn more about how to educate your youngest children, and don’t know where to begin, then you’re in the right place!
Using a morning basket can simplify your homeschool, whilst at the same time adding an abundance of riches to your children’s education.
Morning baskets, filled with living books, add depth and meaning to your homeschool days in a way that is easy for you to implement. There are no faddish curriculum or clever gimmicks here! Just a basket filled with beautiful books to nourish your children.
This blog-post includes affiliate links. Please see the Disclaimer for more information.
One of the most common questions I am asked online, and in my real-life, is why we chose to homeschool. Why do we do home educate our children?
In the latest episode of Raising Mums I share the TWO reasons my family homeschool.
Raising Mums is a weekly broadcast that streams LIVE from our Facebook an Instagram pages. This week hundreds of you watched and joined in the conversation, discussing why we homeschool our children!
If you want to find out the TWO reasons why we homeschool…
It enables us to provide our children with a true education. Education is the ordering of a child’s affection – meaning that they love that with is good, and hate that which is bad. Educating our children at homes helps us to ensure that this will be the focus of their education.
I Love it! A successful homeschool depends upon the happiness and contentment of the mother (assuming she is the primary educator). Make sure you do what you need to do to find joy in your homeschool day, and your children will reap the benefits.
If you want to know more, make sure you go back and WATCH THE VIDEO!
So tell me, why do YOU homeschool? What reasons drove you to make the big decision to educate your children or home? Why are consdering homeschooling for your children?
Let’s chat in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this episode of Raising Mums, I think you’ll love “Sustainable Homeschooling | Securing your homeschool for the future,”- CLICK HERE
Thank you for stopping by. I’m so grateful to have you here.
If you have any questions, pop them for me in the comments below.
Are you thinking homeschooling your family? Here are a list of books that you’ll want to read to help you make that big decision.
If you’re thinking about homeschooling your children, the first place you’ll want to go, for reliable and complete information, are books.
From my experience, families who are considering home education for their children, often feel overwhelmed with books that are heavy on detail or educational philosophy.
Instead, what I’d recommend is that you read books that paint a picture of what homeschooling could look like for you. Rather than bogging you down in details, the books I recommend allow you to draw inspiration and take ideas that suit your family dynamic and belief system.
Primarily the books I’ve included in this list of books to read when you’re considering homeschooling, are memoirs of homeschooling families (real and fictitious) and a few others with a similar approach.
This blog-post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read the Disclaimer.
Books to Read when you’re Considering Homeschooling
Ross Mountney is an ex-teacher from the U.K., who many years ago left the mainstream educational system to home educate her two daughters. In this memoir of their homeschool experience together, Ross Mountney shows the reader what homeschooling really looks like! It’s moving, hilarious and forces the reader to question what education can look like.
A Funny Kind of Education is one of the first books I ever read about home-education and is the one that inspired me to truly consider beginning our homeschooling journey.
Over the years, there is one book that I come back to again and again. That book is“Mere Motherhood”by Cindy Rollins
Cindy Rollins began her homeschooling journey in U.S.A. in the 1980’s, and 9 children later (yes…that’s 8 boys!) she tells us all about her family’s experience home-educating.
The book is written so honestly, and with such a heart-felt message, that you can’t help but fall in love with their story. The author, after decades of homeschooling and facing the ups-and-downs of life, gives the reader perspective and consider what homeschooling could mean to them in the long-run.
If you’re looking for a book to show you what a true education is meant to be, then you’ll want to read For the Children’s Sakeby Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.
After years of research and personal experience, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay wrote this beautiful book. Based around principles set out by Charlotte Mason, the author forces the reader to consider what is education, and how can we provide that in our home.
Some sections of this book contain Christian rhetoric, and readers of other faiths may choose to skip over those parts.
This is the book that inspired me to begin learning more about the Charlotte Mason philosophy, and is the book I always recommend to families who want to know more about the CM method without being inundated with the finer details.
The Colfax family didn’t begin homeschooling their family to get them into Havard, but somewhere down the road that is exactly what happened!
Homeschooling for Excellence is a memoir of a home educating family from U.S.A. who took their children out of school and gave them the freedom to learn whatever is was they wanted to learn!
The book is written in a conversational style, where the parents talk honestly about their approach to education, the lessons they learnt and lists some resources they used.
It’s a truly inspiring story. In fact, I feel like finding my copy now and re-reading again!
Pocketful of Pinecones is a fictitious account of a homeschooling family, which was written to inspire mothers through hard times. Karen Andreola, the author, is an experienced homeschooler herself, and pours into this story the lessons she learnt along the way.
It’s written as the diary of one mother’s year of teaching her children at home, with a focus on nature study.
It’s a deligthful book to read, and will help readers to better understand their role as a homeschooling mother, as well as give some insight into what a Charlotte Mason homeschool day might look like.
This list would not be complete without something from the legend that was John Taylor Gatto.
If you have ever struggled to justify home education to yourself, or others, this book will help. From years of working in education, and his extensive research, Dumbing Us Down outlines many deeply rooted problems in mainstream education.
This book is eye-opening and will soften the heart even the biggest cynic to homeschooling!
I hope this has helped those of you who were unsure where to begin with their homeschooling research. Memoirs and personal accounts provide insight and inspiration, as well as information on “how-to” do it!
If you have any questions, pop them in the comments below.
Peace and Love,
P.s. Did you know I have a PODCAST, where I answer a lot of your questions about homeschooling? Make sure you check it out!
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As we move into the New Year, I always recommend that during this time of transition, homeschooling families should take some time to reflect on the successes and failures of the previous year, the lessons learnt, and set some new intentions before pushing ahead into the New Year.
During this time, before beginning your next homeschool term, seek clarity and direction for your family by getting quiet,turning inward, making dua, and asking yourself some very important questions.
WATCH THIS VIDEO
Watch this YouTube video, when I went LIVE on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, and chatted with you about preparing your homeschool for the New Year, and talked you through the questions listed below.
Seek Clarity for your Homeschool
1) What was my favourite homeschool memory of last year?
2) What was my most painful homeschool memory of last year?
3) If you were to summarise the last year homeschooling in one word what would it be?
4) What areas were really successful?
5) What areas/people/topics/activities drained me? What drained the kids?
6) Where can I get help?
7)What can I cut out?
8) Where can we grow, further develop in our homeschool?
9)What areas don’t allign with my homeschool/family vision?
10) What positive change(s) can I implement going forward into the next year?
There are far better things ahead than we ever left behind.
C.S. Lewis
I hope that this video and the questions I’ve posed will help you find the clarity you need moving forward, and help you to live a life with your family that aligns with your values.
If you would like to share the answers to any, or all of the questions above, I would love to hear them! Please leave them for me in the comments below.
Peace and Love,
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Watch this video and spend the day with us! See what home education in the UK really looks like for Our Muslim homeschool!
Home education simply means to educate your children outside of the mainstream school system. What that looks like for each family is different but for us, as it does for many others, it involves plenty of time outside, sports and activities with friends and formal studies at home.
Watch how we teach Quran, our swimming classes, outdoor time and a heart-to-heart chat about “What homeschooling is REALLY like!”
This video and blog-post was sponsored by WordUnited, who kindly sent me their Arabic and Phonics programs, and compensated me for my time. This blog-post also contains affiliate links. See Disclaimer for more information.
WordUnited
WordUnited is an incredible website that stocks hundreds of high-quality educational resources for children aged 0-13. They have everything you can imagine on that site, from beautiful baby toys, resources for literacy, numeracy, science, special needs and even multicultural toys section! With hundreds of new products being added every week, WordUnited is set to become the next big thing!
WordUnitedkindly sent me two sets of books to review; the “Let’s Read” program, which teaching children the foundations of phonics, and the “Let’s Read Arabic” program which teaches children how to read Arabic words.
Each set consists of eight books. As your child progresses through the program, they gradually increase in complexity and build upon lessons learnt in previous books.
I love visual cues under each word to highlight the different sounds!
The books are small and easy for young hands to hold, as well as colourful and engaging to to children. They illustrations feature realistic high-quality images of objects that children will be familiar with in their lives. I really appreciate how the creators of these books have used visual cues to highlight the individual sounds that make up each word.
These books are ideal for home educators are they include parent guidance at the beginning of each book. This is really important to read as it clearly explains what is being covered and how to use that particular book effectively. I love it when a curriculum make it simple for parents!
The books can be purchased individually, or as a complete set.
If you are interested in seeing what homeschool curricula we are using with our children CLICK HERE!
Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to watch our YouTube video. I hope it’s left you feeling inspired and given you something to think about.
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