It can be disappointing, maybe even heart-breaking, when your child won’t read. Many families have at least one reluctant reader who just doesn’t enjoy reading. But don’t worry, there are many ways you can encourage your child to read at home, and enjoy it!
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Children who read do better at school , opens up world of opportunities There are many little ways to enlarge your world. Love of books is the best of all.”
– Jacqueline Kennedy
In Episode fourteen of the Raising Mums podcast, I discuss a variety of different ways you can encourage your reluctant reader to start reading!
“If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”
– Roald Dahl
You don’t need to try all of these ideas or buy all of these books! Just pick one of two that you think might work for your children and give it a go!
Next week’s episode of Raising Mums, on 12th January 2020, I’ll be sharing My Favourite Homeschool Finds of 2019.
As we’re going on a family holiday, that episode will be pre-recorded and published on my Youtube channel and as Podcast. There will be no LIVE broadcast that week.
But I’ll be back LIVE again the following week, Sunday 19th January 2020 at 10am GMT, with another episode of Raising Mums on my Facebook and Instagram accounts insha’Allah.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Peace and Love,
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The next broadcast will be on Sunday 30th December 10am GMT, insha’Allah. The title of that discussion will be, “I’m just a mum, is that enough?”🤔💝 I hope I’ll see you there!
Peace and Love,
Never Miss a Video…
Signup to our mailing list and these LIVE broadcasts will be sent straight to your inbox!
To keep you motivated, I’ve made you a FREE PRINTABLE! It is the famous quote from C.S.Lewis,
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?” – C. S. Lewis
We spoke about this quote, and it’s relevance to us, in the video above. Now you can download this cute printable, set it as your screen-saver, pin to your fridge or keep in your planner to motivate, inspire and serve you.
This week on the Our Muslim Homeschool Facebook andInstagram accounts, I was LIVE chatting about, How Super Mums do it ALL! – Part 2 | Productivity & Time Management.
This week on Raising Mums, a Live broadcast on the Our Muslim Homeschool Facebook and Instagram accounts, we were discussing “Preschool Learning at Home“.
I’ve also created a Preschool Learning Guide for you to use at home with your children. It has been adapted from the Early Years Statutory Framework, the curriculum used in the UK nurseries and schools for children under 5 years old.
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But before you jump into the Preschool Curriculum, watch the video, or listen to the podcast above.
This Early Years Learning Guide has been adapted from the Early Years Statutory Framework, that is used across the UK in nurseries and with reception aged children. I have tried to simplify it and make it more relevant to a typical homelife.
In this FREE guide, I set out learning objectives that you can work on with your children aged 3-5 years old.
Print it out, display it on your fridge or calendar, or just upload it onto your phone. Every morning, take a look at it, and try to work on one “box” or learning category that day.
You do not need to hit every category each day. Just try to work towards one of the learning objectives each day, and cover all the boxes at least once every week.
I hope it gives you some confidence and a sense of purpose as you begin to take charge of your children’s education.
I show more details on how to use it in the video above, so you’ll want to watch it!
To help you create your own dream team, or support network, I’ve created this hand-out for you. It’s completely FREE! I don’t even want your email address!
This week on the Our Muslim Homeschool Facebook and Instagram accounts, I was LIVE chatting with you all on the topic of “How to find confidence in homeschooling.”
We talked about:
What confidence TRULY is,
Why have a sense of self-worth, separate from the children lives, is so important to a mother and her family,
Practical steps you can take to gain more confidence in your homeschool life,
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.
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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.
History is one of my favourite subjects to teach in our homeschool, especially Islamic history! I am very excited to share with you our Living History curriculum choices for the coming homeschool year!
Download our FREE Homeschool History Reading Plan, and you can read these beautiful books along with our family! (More information is at the end of this blog-post.)
Further research of the Charlotte Mason method of education has led me to many delightful discoveries; one of which is her method of teaching history through living books and biographies. This coming school year, I will be using this methodology to teach my two young boys, ages 6 and 8, more about later Medieval times in Britain and the Islamic world. Towards the middle of the year, we hope to start learning about the Tudors.
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If you’re interested in learning more about Charlotte Mason’s method of teaching History: CLICK HERE
I have collected together an assortment of beautiful books that we will use this year; some we will read together as a family, and others are independent reading for my eight year-old. This curriculum also incorporates Islamic History.
If you would like to use this curriculum in your homeschool as well, please scroll down to the bottom of this blog post, and you can download our Homeschool History Reading Plan for FREE!
You can alsoWATCH THIS VIDEO, to get a closer look at all these lovely books!
These are the selection of Living History Books we hope to use this coming year:
The topic of Columbus, an how to teach it, is a difficult dillema for many parents, as the horrific atrocities committed upon the native people of America are ignored by most historical accounts in children’s books. This is an excellent article to help you navigate this issue with your children.
Independent Reading/ Biographies (Ages 8+)
We hope that my son will read as many of these books as he can over the whole year, reading for only 10 minutes interdependently from them each school day.
Please note: I have not yet pre-read all of these books, but I plan too insha’Allah. I would always advise you to pre-read anything that your child will be reading independently.
So this is our plan for the coming year for History, insha’Allah.
History Curriculum: Islamic and European History
If you would like to read along with us, I have planned out the first term (12 weeks) of family reading, which you can DOWNLOAD HERE: Homeschool History Reading Plan.
As I mentioned above, this is a continuation of last year’s study of the medieval times, and so the British history component begins with Henry V (1413).
I do not plan out my son’s independent reading, but instead allow him to select a book from the list above, and read from it for 10 minutes daily. This approach could also work for your family.
To use the reading schedule, simply reading down the list the in order; beginning from the top and working your way down to the bottom. Each square correlates with the number of readings/sittings it will take to complete the chapter; e.g. 2 squares indicates that it will probably take 2 sittings to read through that particular chapter. You can even use this as a checklist if you like, and tick off each reading as you complete it.
The chapter names are written in the left-hand column, and the colour of the box indicates the which book it is from. There is a “key” to help make this clearer. If you need any further help with this reading schedule, please leave me a comment below and I’ll do my best to help insha’Allah.
If you do decide to read along with us, please take a photo and share it with the hashtag #OMHHistory. I would love to see how your family are using this curriculum.
What history books have your family enjoyed reading? Do you have any favourites?
