Homeschooling is a beautiful way to educate and raise your children. When you look back on your years at home with your children, you will not regret the time you spent with them. But that doesn’t mean it’s always smooth sailing! There will be times when things get tough. You might question other homeschooling options. You may even consider, “Should I continue to homeschool my children?”
In episode 62 of the Raising Mums podcast, we talk about what to do when things go wrong!
This episode deals with real problems that real women are facing! I’m sharing highlights from Group Coaching Calls inside Launch Your Homeschool. In these calls, other mums, like you, who are trying to educate their children at home, ask me for advice on problems they are facing in their homeschool.
This includes questions about:
Homeschool curriculum
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling
Parenting and discipline advice
And coaching around the emotions of a homeschool mum.
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.
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!
Many homeschool mum’s have shared with us that they struggle with consistency— and they feel guilty because of it. We all know that our children need consistency in their lives. Consistency gives them a sense of security but some days, being consistent with our homeschool routine feels impossible. If you do struggle with consistency in your days, you are not alone
In Episode 59 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share 3 Reasons Why You’re NOT Consistent in your Homeschool Routine
The 3 reasons why you’re not consistent in your homeschool routine:
It’s not a necessity
There are no deadlines
You’re doing it all alone
When we’re consistent in our homeschooling efforts, the reward for that is confidence.
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.
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!
Being a mum is amazing! Being with our children every day is such a blessing, but it can sometimes feel lonely too. This podcast is inspired by a recent email we received, and if you are on the same journey and you have ever felt lonely and isolated, this loneliness advice for mums can help you too.
“Assalamu alaikkum sis. I’m very emotional and sad and crying at the moment while typing I’m homeschooling my 3yr old and nearly 7-year-old Alhamdulillah academically they are doing well but unfortunately where I’m there is not many homeschool meet-ups but still we often go here and there. I have felt lonely and feel very sad for the kids too. Today my husband was asking shall we put them to school I don’t know what to think or say instead sitting and crying Could you please suggest me any advice sis. Jazakallah.”– Sister S
This post may contain affiliate links. For more informations, see my Disclaimer.
In Episode 58 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share some advice on how to deal with loneliness while homeschooling.
What we really need to consider is:-
Is it really loneliness, or is there something else going on?
Overcome your fear of rejection – you are enough. You are worthy of love and friendship and meaningful relationships. You don’t need anyone else’s approval when you have your own.
Do something that scares you every day
Serve others, in whatever form that may take
Connect more deeply to those who have existing relationships with
Take care of your physical and spiritual well-being
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.
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!
One of the best ways to find good educational resources for your Muslim homeschool, is by getting recommendations from friends. Well we’re friends, right?! In Episode 57 of theRaising Mums podcast, I share my favorite homeschooling resources from the past twelve months.
This Blogpost may contain affiliate links. Please see Disclaimer for more information.
Consider this podcast episode a year in review. This isn’t just another homeschool curriculum choices list. This podcast episode gives mini-reviews of the resources that really worked for our children!
I share with you the books, curriculum, and activities that we are still loving and using months later!
What do we need to teach our children? Which books should we buy? What topics must we cover? Teaching history in a Muslim Homeschool can be tricky. How do we teach the whole history of mankind in a way that makes sense to children of different ages? This blog post will show you how a Book of Centuries will completely transform your Muslim Homeschool curriculum.
What should be in a Muslim Homeschool Curriculum for History?
When following a Charlotte Mason philosophy, history allows children to build connections between historical events. Our kids must understand how events relate to each other and be able to discuss the lessons which can be learnt.
To do this, it is essential children learn the order of historical events. Understanding when things happened is just as important as what happened. In a history lesson, your children are probably reading a variety of books covering history from different periods and cultures. But how can we gather this information in a logical way for our kids?
Charlotte Mason recommended children get to know a few particular time periods very well, rather than skimming over a brief outline of everything. Children interested in a certain time period will often find themselves absorbed in a single period of history for longer. However, they need to gather information in a coherent way, while understanding how events relate to each other.
This is where the Book of Centuries comes in.
What is a Book of Centuries?
A Book of Centuries sounds incredibly important, doesn’t it?
And it is.
It is an organised way for your children to process the historical facts learnt during their readings, read alouds, and history lessons. A Book of Centuries is an essential part of any Muslim homeschool curriculum.
The Book of Centuries is set up like a diary and contains blank pages waiting for your child to fill them in. To guide them, dates are written across the top of each page. These dates usually span from around 4000BC (the time of first recorded history) and the present day.
A Book of Centuries becomes a household treasure. You can have one shared between your children or they can have one each for their own personal collection. Over their years of homeschooling, children will continue to add to their Book of Centuries, their book growing and evolving alongside their historical knowledge.
Their Book of Centuries will become a cherished possession which they return to years later and recall the incredible stories. Having a place to record their historical findings encourages children to engage with what they are learning. They practice how to critically decide which pieces of information are important enough to include. Their creativity is sparked as they choose how to display the information in their books. They can choose to either write, draw, or even glue pictures and diagrams!
How to use a Book of Centuries in a Muslim Homeschool Curriculum
Now for the interesting part.
You know how to approach history, you know how important a Book Centuries is for your child’s Muslim homeschool curriculum, but how do you use a Book of Centuries alongside your history readings?
Charlotte Mason, recommends your children spend at least one lesson per week working on their Book of Centuries and timeline. This means they spend about 20 minutes gathering what they have learnt throughout the week and adding to their book.
To add an entry into their Book of Centuries, children locate the page with the correct year. Then, they add content to those pages to represent what they are learning. This could be done in different ways:
Writing the date of birth and death of famous people throughout history
Small sketches of important relics, events, or locations, such as pyramids or castles
Pictures printed from the internet of famous people or events
Parts of leaflets cut out from history field trips
Is a Book of Centuries just for History?
The Book of Centuries is a versatile resource that can be used in more than just History lessons.
For example, if your child reads about Salahuddin, they will come across dates of important battles and crusades. These dates would be added to their Book of Centuries, along will a small description of what happened. Your child might sketch the armour and weapons used at the time. Some children might include a map of Jerusalem and the grounds of Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock.
This little project may spark an interest in the crusades and the ongoing fight for authority in the Holy Lands. Your child will see how long this fight has been going on. Your child will understand how many time periods have influenced a fight that is still raging today.
As we’re taught by Charlotte Mason herself:
“…it is necessary to know something of what has gone before in order to think justly of what is occurring today.” (A Philosophy of Education, Charlotte Mason)
In these ways, children are building their own unique record of history in a way that not only makes sense to them but also demonstrates how events and time periods relate to each other. Children develop an intelligent sense of time and the evolution of mankind.
Where to buy your own Book of Centuries
Now, I’ve been where you are before. I completely adored the idea of using a Book of Centuries in my homeschool. I grabbed a blank notebook and started adding dates to the top of each page, each double spread representing 100 years.
However, this is time-consuming, and it was incredibly confusing trying to manage the time span of 6000 years! Plus, as a Muslim homeschool, it was important to me to make acknowledge the Islamic calendar and its place in the history of our world.
Because I know how tricky designing your own Book of Centuries can be, I have developed a book for you with the dates and setup already done.
Islamic dates alongside Gregorian dates at the top of each page
Lists of key Islamic dates
Further reading suggestions
A page of profile cut-outs for you to get started
A page for your chid to record their own family history
This Book of Centuries will help your child engage with their Muslim Homeschool curriculum and enjoy History lessons in an exciting way. No matter the age of your children, having a book they can add to themselves, without the work being done for them, will provide a satisfying sense of achievement, inshaAllah.
When my eldest son turned eleven, I had the alarming realisation, “What are we going to do about maths?!” Up to now, homeschooling had been very relaxed, but as we stepped into homeschooling in secondary school, the thought of one day getting him ready for Maths GCSE was terrifying! So I started to look around for online maths GCSE courses.
Thankfully, Numerisereached out and offered my son a free trial.
And we loved it so much, that we purchased the programme ourselves when the free trial expired!
With a house full of younger kids, my attention and energy is always divided! Despite that, I wanted to be sure that my eldest son was getting all the help he needed with his secondary education. Online maths courses allow your child to keep learning independently, even when you can’t sit down one-on-one with them as much as you’d like!
In fact, teens and tweens love the feeling of responsibility that working independently online gives them.
If you’re short on time or if you lack confidence in teaching secondary school maths yourself, an online GCSE course is a great investment.
Numerise is an online maths platform to help learners ages 10-16 years old. Whether you homeschool or not, Numerise will help your child work towards getting top marks in a Maths GCSE.
For Year 6 to Year 11, Numerise’s online courses align with the National Curriculumin the U.K. and cover the maths requirements of every exam board in England. Incredible!
With more than 40,000 questions, and 10,000 explainer videos, your older children can easily work through the lessons independently.
They also offer a free Confidence Lab filled with Information and inspiration to help build maths confidence for your child AND for you!
Why we love it!
It’s not often that your child happily goes to their maths lessons. When we started using Numerise, my eldest son would log on in his free time to continue his lessons. He loves it!
By offering XP (experience points), Achievements, Competitions, Goals and Leaderboards, teens and tweens feel motivated to keep learning.
I asked him, “Why do you like this Online Maths programme more than others?”
He told me, “The videos are clear, the questions are not too hard, and not too easy. And it’s really easy to work with.”
Numerise also offer a 2 week FREE TRIAL, so you can sign up, and let you kids try it out before you subscribe. But if you do go ahead and join, don’t forget to use the Discount code OMH15!
Numerise is part of Sparx Learning which is already supporting 1.8 million learners, and my family will be joining this community of learners who use Numerise. If you’re looking for online Maths GCSE courses, I hope your family will consider Numerise too.
Peace and love,
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Committing what is beautiful and true to memory, whether it is Quran, art or poetry; is a valuable part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Covering memorisation in your homeschool can be daunting at first; not knowing what to choose to memorise, when to slot it into your homeschooling day and essentially, how to memorise!
In Episode 54 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share how we address memorisation in our homeschool.
MEMORISATION IN OUR HOMESCHOOL | MORNING BASKET FOLDERS
Children have this most the most incredible ability when they’re young to memorise things and part of our homeschooling and a part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy is that we make the most of that while they’re young to have them memorise things that are important what we would consider valuable like Quran and duas.
Memorisation can be split between individual and group learning and you can use Morning time folders so everyone can see the material.
Summer is the perfect chance to have more time outdoors. It’s also the perfect time to enjoy a good book!
You can help your children stay consistent with their reading habits and fall in love with reading with Our Summer Reading Challenge! It’ll get even the most reluctant readers excited to read and join in the fun!
Many believe that Charlotte Mason Homeschooling is not REALISTIC. That it is IDEALISTIC.
Maybe they’re right! But you started homeschooling because you were not happy with the status quo. You wanted something better for your children-something that many might feel is unrealistic.
When you consider Charlotte Mason Homeschooling first begin by realising we can not do it all from day one. Start with having lofty intentions, beginning small and doing something even if you can’t do it all.
In Episode 53 of the Raising Mums podcast, I share how we can all realistically implement the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
If implementing the Charlotte Mason philosophy feels idealistic, you’re probably doing something right! 🙌
You shouldn’t have to compromise your ideals when educating your children. In fact, use them as a vision of what is possible. Raise your goals, and elevate your intentions!
Summer is the perfect chance to have more time outdoors. It’s also the perfect time to enjoy a good book!
You can help your children stay consistent with their reading habits and fall in love with reading with Our Summer Reading Challenge! It’ll get even the most reluctant readers excited to read and join in the fun!
All education philosophies have the child as the focus but why has Charlotte Mason Homeschooling gained so much popularity, and what is it? Many muslim homeschoolers are also adopting Charlotte Mason for their Muslim Homeschool, so how can it positively impact your children and your family?
In Episode 44 of the Raising Mums podcast, I discuss Charlotte Mason for Muslim Homeschoolers.
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!
Choosing books for children has never been so hard! With the huge numbers of ever increasing children’s books available, deciding which one you’re actually going to get is an indomitable task.
Consider this. When you go to the library, how do you choose from the thousands of books that are there, which ones you’ll actually take home? When you stumble across a book online, how do you know if it’s a “We’ve got to have this,” or if it’s a “Nope. Pass!”?
Is it just a matter of making an informed decisions by reading the back cover? Should we put our trust in the publisher’s social media marketing and influencer reviews? Or do we literally judge a book by its cover?
In this episode of the Raising Mums podcast, I share three things to look for when choosing books for children.
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