Preschool Curriculum Guide I found

Raahub Yasar!

Years ago when I started teaching our eldest at home, I tried to find as many plans and guidelines from nurseries and preschools as I could so that I could make sure I was "in line" with what her age group would be doing at school. I care MUCH LESS about staying on track with what the kharadu would be doing at school now, but some things I found were helpful.

Here's a Preschool Curriculum guide I found somewhere online. I found it useful in some ways as there were some things I realized she couldn't do as I'd never shown her them. But there were also some things that I don't think are necessary at all, which I've highlighted below.

Preschool Curriculum Guide - Things children up to 5 yrs old should know:

Size

* Understands big and little.
* Understands long and short.
* Matches shapes or objects based on size.

Colors and Shapes

* Recognizes and names primary colors.
* Recognizes circles.
* Recognizes rectangles.
* Matches shapes or objects based on shape.
* Copies shapes.

Numbers

* Counts orally through 10.
* Counts objects in one-to-one correspondence.
* Understands empty and full.
* Understands more and less.

Reading Readiness

* Remembers objects from a given picture.
* Knows what a letter is.
* Has been read to frequently.
* Has been read to daily.
* Looks at books and magazines.
* Recognizes some nursery rhymes.
* Identifies parts of the body.
* Identifies objects that have a functional use.
* Knows common farm and zoo animals.
* Pronounces own first name.
* Pronounces own last name.
* Expresses self verbally.
* Identifies other children by name
* Tells the meaning of simple words.
* Repeats a sentence of 6-8 words.
* Completes incomplete sentence with proper word.
* Has own books.
* Understands that print carries a message.
* Pretends to read.
* Uses left-to-right progression.
* Answers questions about a short story.
* Tells the meaning of words heard in story.
* Looks at pictures and tells a story.
* Identifies own first name in manuscript.
* Prints own first name.

Position and Direction

* Understands up and down.
* Understands in and out.
* Understands front and back.
* Understands over (on) and under.
* Understands top, bottom, middle.
* Understands beside and next to.
* Understands hot and cold.
* Understands fast and slow.

Time

* Understands day and night.
* Knows age and birthday.

Listening and Sequencing

* Follows simple directions.
* Listens to a short story.
* Listens carefully.
* Recognizes common sounds.
* Repeats a sequence of sounds.
* Repeats a sequence of orally given numbers.
* Retells simple stories in sequence.

Motor Skills

* Is able to run.
* Is able to walk a straight line.
* Is able to jump.
* Is able to hop.
* Is able to alternate feet walking down stairs.
* Is able to march.
* Is able to stand on one foot for 5-10 seconds.
* Is able to walk backwards for five feet.
* Is able to throw a ball.
* Pastes objects.
* Claps hands.
* Matches simple objects.
* Touches fingers.
* Able to button a garment.
* Builds with blocks.
* Completes simple puzzles (5 pieces or less).
* Draws and colors beyond
* a simple scribble.
* Able to zip a zipper.
* Controls pencil and crayon well.
* Cuts simple shapes.
* Handles scissors well.
* Able to copy simple shapes.

Social-Emotional Development

* Can be away from parents or primary care givers for 2-3 hours without being upset.
* Takes care of toilet needs independently.
* Feels good about self.
* Is not afraid to go to school.
* Cares for own belongings.
* Knows full name.
* Dresses self.
* Knows how to use handkerchief or tissue.
* Knows own sex.
* Brushes teeth.
* Crosses residential street safely.
* Asks to go to school.
* Knows parents' names.
* Knows home address.
* Knows home phone number.
* Enters into casual conversation.
* Carries a plate of food.
* Maintains self-control.
* Gets along well with other children.
* Plays with other children.
* Recognizes authority.
* Shares with others.
* Talks easily.
* Likes teachers.
* Meets visitors without shyness.
* Puts away toys.
* Able to stay on task.
* Able to work independently.
* Helps family with chores.

I hope you find this useful and feel free to comment and let me know what you think of this list below. 

Hatap Yasar

Mut Bastat En Rayay

How to make your barbie doll's hair Afro-licious

Raahub yasar!!!

My wonderful hamat (husband) Shaep Afaf Rayay Sen Em Manthu, found this video for me when I told him I wanted to curl up the hair on a hair styling doll our daughters had been given for kharadu zamam (children's day) this year.

Here's the very simple instructional video, we'll be doing this to all our nuwaupian dolls that currently have cacasu hair and share pictures as we go!




Enjoy yasar and please share with others who could use it

Hatep

Mut Bastat En Rayay :-)

How to make a mini book

Raahub yasar

Here's a really quick video I found on how to make and little book that your kharadu can use to write a short story in or use to write out points on a particular topic you're learning about.

If you make lapbooks, you can easily stick this into your lapbook.

Enjoy



Hatap Yasar

Mut Bastat En Rayay

Oldie but goodie Primary Mathematics Workbook

Raahub yasar!

A few years ago my cousin gave me a load of old books that she used with her children when they were younger.  One of which was this text book. At the tome it was too advanced for anyone, but my 7 year old started with it s few months ago and loves many of the activities it has.

You can tell it's quite old as the pictures and prices of some food in one if the pictures reminds me of when I was little, 10p crisps and 20p coke :-)

I'm not sure if you can get them anymore, so here are a few of the pages with activities for you to use with your children.

I hope your little ones enjoy and if I find where you can get a copy I'll let you know.

Hatep yasar

Mut :-)

The Homeschool Homemaker Blogtalk Radio Show Review

Raahub Yasar!!!

Every 2 weeks or so, I end up with a mountain of dry clothes to fold (not iron!) so high that it literally blocks the door way, so after putting the children to sleep and doing a bit of work, I'll normally sleep for a few hours then get up and do it.

Tonight is one those nights, I've just finished the dishes, cleaning the kitchen, preparing some food for tomorrow (soaking nuts, beans and chickpeas and decide what green smoothie and nut milk to make to be exact) and it's 5am. 

I'll normally keep myself entertained my listening to Paa Taraq or and Outformation class on www.wu-nuwaup.com  or a blogtalkradio show. I've been feeling a bit disappointed with my homeschooling efforts recently so I decided to find a homeschooling show to give me some ideas and found the perfect one.

I've never listened to her before, but I'm so glad I found this episode.

It's on organising your homeschool, but she talks a lot of other little things that I related to soooooo much as a homeschooling parent. She also have a 7yr old, 5 yr old and a baby, just like us.

She starts with a bible quote which she relates to Usain Bolt and if my Nuwaupian family replace the Jesus bit with Paa Nazdaru, it's on point.

It's only 30 mins too, so if you're pushed for time you can still enjoy it. 

So here it is!

Listen to internet radio with The Homeschool Homemaker on Blog Talk Radio

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re
(Leah Salmon)

Where we get our books from

Raahub Yasar!!!

It's no secret that we love books!!!

Paa Naabab Yaanun instilled the importance of reading and learning in us before we had children and for many years so when we decided to teach our kharadu at home, it was a goal of mine to fill the house with books,

Even before the children came, I had always dreamed of having a room in my home which was just a study / library/ temple , which was full of books that I could go to to read uninterrupted for hours.

That dream hasn't transpired yet, but we do have a whole heap of books. This is a picture of one of the 4 book shelves in our home and we were talking about need another one soon.

Now I'm sure you already know that books can cost quite a bit, and I even heard a homeschooling mother advise AGAINST buying lots of books because of the cost.

Here are my 3 main thoughts on buying books


1)"If you think education (in the form of buying books in this case) is expensive, try ignorance"

2) 1 book, read in the right way, can teach your child about possible every subject you want to teach them and spark discussion on countless other subject too, entertaining, educating and stimulating your child for hours, which to me is priceless

3) If you see the value in books but simply don't have the finance to buy lots of brand new books, find other ways of getting them.

We have roughly 200 books ( at the last count), of them I've probably bought 30 at their full retail price.

Here are the main places  I get books for our Mir from (all books including fiction, educational, workbooks, dictionaries & encyclopedias)

1) Second hand shops - normally costing 25p - £1.99 tops for big encyclopedias, we always wipe them down before giving the children

2) Pound Shops /Dollar stores - Every few months, the pound shops or low cost stores like Poundstretcher or Wilkinson will have loads of story and educational books for £1 - £2 so we'll normally stock up on every title they have.

2) Requested as gifts - Whenever their birthday's are coming up and family ask us what they children want or need, we'll normally ask for books or clothes

3) Ebay - I discovered job lots on ebay a few years ago and bought a box of 40 books for £15. When they came, about 15 were unsuitable so we gave them away but 25 books for £15 is pretty good. I'm sure craiglist.com and gumtree.com would have these too

4) Library sales - our library has little sales where they'll sell their old books for 30-50p and we'll pick up lots of good at these

5)  Ask the ancestors - There has been the odd occasion when I've randomly asked the ancestors to help me with new ideas or resources to bulk up or add a boost to the Mir and we'll get a call from someone saying they've got a load of books etc to get rid of, so do we want to take them, or we'll go to a relative's home and they'll have a box of books and teaching stuff waiting for us. So even the ancestors can hook you up.

You can also get them in markets and car boot sales too, but I've never bought them from there personally

Our oldest will now read the Paa Taraq to us during discussion time and we'll read it to them too, so they get plenty of variety and have really grown to love books and reading.

So if you want to stock up on books but funds are tight, now you can do it for less.

I hope this helps, hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re
(Leah Salmon)

How our children learnt to read

Raahub Yasar (Greetings Family),

Today I wanted to share with you what we did with our children to teach them how to read as a sister asked us the other day.

Our oldest Mut Tiy En Re who's 7yrs can read pretty much fluently, our 5 yr old Sakhamtet is beginning to read much more confidently and knows many words though is not as fluent as her older sister and our 3 year old is just learning the sounds and can recognize about 10 now.

When our oldest was about 2 yrs and I was still researching stuff, a sister whose daughter was about 5 yrs old and a good reader for her age, told me that her daughter's nursery used a reading system called Jolly Phonics, so she bought the DVD that came with the system. Once a day, she'd sit her daughter in front of it for 30 mins, which along with reading to her often, resulted in her being so good at reading that she surpassed all the other children in her class. (The nursery then stopped giving her reading homework a few months before the end of the school year and told her that if she kept reading she'd be in danger of stepping on the toes of the work she'd be doing in her next school year, another reason I don't like the school system, this clearly gifted child was kept back from reading more so she'd stay at the same level as the other, less advanced children in her class)

When I went online to find the DVD, I came across the entire teaching school pack that a school would buy to teach the children with. I figured that this would be much more comprehensive than just the DVD (and she wouldn't be going to school or nursery) so we got that instead.

In my opinion, it was excellent, easily laid out and a simple system to follow that was fun for her to learn from.

The teachers set is about £150 and available from - http://www.primaryclassroomresources.co.uk/teaching-resources/Jolly-Phonics-Starter-Kit_JL938.html

I've heard of other good learning systems like Explode The Code that are available in the US that you can try too.

From a very young age, all the children have had a love of reading and we'd read them at least 7-8 books a day, many of them they want us to read twice or more. As they get older, they want to pretend read the books themselves and then when they learn the letter sounds, we encourage them to read as many words in the stories as they can until they can read them much more independently.

We have stacks of books so they don't get bored of reading the same ones all the time and there's a post coming soon showing where we get all our book from (note: only about 10% of our books are bought brand new)

Apart from following the Jolly Phonics systems, the other things that really helped them learn to read were daily repetition of their letter sounds, bright visually beautiful and fun posters and flashcards, reading and phonics workbooks that your child works through, daily reading and  lots and lots of positive encouragement.

We also used a online learning program called Time 4 Learning which has lots of reading practice and sound recognition in there also.

Here's a snipet from the Jolly Phonics dvd we have, it's very olde English, but the children like it!



I can't stress how much positive encouragement and daily reading help the learning process of learning, so if nothing else, I'd recommend this.

Hatep Yasar

Mut

Our Nuwaupuyee of the week poster

Raahub Yasar,

To make learning new nuwaupuyee (our language) easier, the kharadu (children) and I made this little poster.

It's 4 pieces of black craft/sugar paper stuck together then decorated with ankhs. The words of the week are stuck on with tape that we carefully remove and replace with new words or sentences each week.

If you are teaching your kharadu or yourself, you may find it helpful to have something like this up so that you can see it very regularly. We have ours up in our living room, which is also the dining room and mir (school) room too, so we see it all the time. I aim to practice the words with them daily, just by getting them to look at them and we'll all say them out loud in Nuwaupuyee and english.

This picture is of last week's words, this week (commencing Mon 16th Oct 2012) our words are

Yakax - take
Safaf - see
Sawaf - look
radad - give
and the sentence - Panan zamam enen eahaw aalam nahaw... - today we will learn about ... ( I can use this every day during our mir studies several times and even get them to say it to me and let them teach me something :-)

Hatep yasar and be sure to subscribe to the blog by adding your email address in the box at the top right of the page and share with anyone you think would like it.

Mut Bast.tet En Re
(Leah Salmon)

Our Children's Daily Routine :-)

Raahub Yasar,

Sounds like my children's daily routine already!!!

Hatep Yasar, have a wonderful day

Mut 

(Leah Salmon) 

My Top 5 Free Educational Websites

Raahub Yasar

If you've ever been concerned that the cost of educational materials will be too much for you to teach your child at home, then fear not, as long as you can afford a printer and some ink, or a trip to the local library to print some things off once in a while then you're set. 

Quite a few homeschooling families fuel the majority of their curriculum with free resources and I'd say at least half 1/3 of the material we use are free too. 

These are the sites I've used most to get free lapbooks, lesson plans, ideas, activities, worksheets, coloring sheets etc over the years. Some of these have a free section and paid products, but the ones below are only recommended for their free resources, if the paid section is any good, I'll be listing them in another post I do on paid websites. 


1. Homeschool Share - http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks_at_HSS.php
This site has lots of lapbook packs and book studies that make it very easy for you to teach a whole topic, they are straightforward to work out, but I'll blog about a lapbook is for those who don't soon.

2. First School - Mainly for preschoolers or those learning to read  http://www.first-school.ws/  
The layout and navigation of this site can be a little tricky, but once you find your way around, you'll find lots of printables to learn the alphabet and numbers mainly. 

3. Enchanted Learning  - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
This site is full of activities based on different themes, it's easy to use and search for different topics, which include free online puzzles.

4. Currclick - http://www.currclick.com/index.php?keywords=+&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=0&pto=0
This is the online hub of homeschool resources, most good homeschool product companies sell their products on this site and give away free versions of their products too.


5. Donna Young - http://donnayoung.org/index.htm
I used this site alot when I very first started homeschooling, I found a lot of tracing sheets and planners that were simple and effective.


By doing a quick google search, here are some others I've found


* Homeschool Freebie Of The Day - http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com - I'm on their mailing list where they send you a message on Sunday's telling you what free resources will be given out each day of the following week. I've used a few in our Mir. 

* Dads Worksheets - http://www.dadsworksheets.com - A very impressive site with over 7,000 free maths worksheets 

* Free Homeschool Resources - http://freehomeschoolresources.webs.com/ - This site also lists many other free resources


If you can recommend any other good free resources, please let me know by adding them to the comments section below

Remember to put your email address in the box in the top right of the page to get updated of new posts on the blog

Hatep yasar

Mut

Our Homeschool Day Plan For This Week

Raahub Yasar!!!

As I move towards a slightly more relaxed way of teaching, I tried out a new day scheduled that worked quite well last week, so I thought I'd share it with you this week.

Like most of my plan, they'll probably change after following it for  a few days but if it works as well as it did last week, it could be a keeper!



8:30 - Zamam (morning) warm drink, house work, snack (normally fruit, a smoothie or nut/seed milk or nuts and dates) and prayer & Chant

9:30 - Reading hour - We all sit down together, I read them a story each, then each of them read a story out loud to all of us, then they each read a book on their own, with plenty of discussion time sprinkled in.

11:00 - Water, Prepare and eat breakfast and then clean up

12:00 - Mir - maths, reading, writing, reasoning workbook and worksheets of their choice and as much or as little as they feel like doing (with plenty of encouragement, praise and support they'll always do more than enough, but still feel in control)

1:30 - Water and smoothie break

2:00 - Mir continued - more workbooks, works sheets, discussion time, special projects, lapbooks etc

2:45 -Water, Prayer & Chant, light lunch or snack and clear up

3:30 - Nuwaupic, art, craft, dance or music

4:30 -Water break then 1-2-1 time - I'll do an activity with just one of the kharadu while the others go off and play of work on the computer, this can be anything from making a salad, to and art project, to read a book together, sewing, playing hide and seek and something else they want to do)

5pm - Mir's finished for the day,

Learning will often continue with more reading before bed which could be stories, Paa Taraq or the Actual facts which will all involve some level of discussion, some more lengthy than others. We'll also play scrabble, cards games, Mind Bender or other educational games around bed time too.

If some things take longer than others on some days or some things even get missed out, it's no big deal, we just go with the flow, at the children's pace and do what we can see makes them happy, interested and stimulated.

If either of us need to take 5, that's ok too as there are typically plenty of things to get them to do while I have a breather and if one of them look bored, agitated and in need of a break, it gives me time to focus more on the others,

I hope you find this helpful and feel free to share your day plan if you have one too

Hatep yasar

Our Homeschool Supplies Lists & Cost

Raahub Yasar!

Even though the cost of homeschooling can be high, you can absolutely get by very well on a tight shoe string  budget. 

Today I wanted to share my homeschool supply list so you can work out what it will cost in terms of resources and costs to get started or to restock if you're already started. It's broken up into 

1) Learning materials 

2) Basic materials for everyday use

3) Equipment that's really useful 

4) fancy extra stuff.

These list are by no means exhaustive, just what comes to mind right now:

1) Learning Materials (some free, some paid for that I find useful, but just opitional)

A few work books on the subjects you want your children to learn (you can start with maths, spelling, reading, writing, phonics and a language or science

A good supply of reading books for the child's age and a few years above and preferably a library card to go and read different books ever so often

Links to a few free websites with learning activities

A subscription to an online learning system or a computer learning program to make learning a bit more interesting (and to get them familiar with using computers at the same time)

2) Basic materials for everyday use

Plain white paper 

Lined white paper 

Pencils

Colouring pens or pencils

Crayons

Sharpeners

Rubbers/Erasers

Rulers - 6inch, 12inch and 

Sticky tape

Glue sticks

Scissors

Coloured paper

Folders

3) Really Useful Equipment (some of which you may have in your home anyway)
Colour or black and white printer

Black  and Coloured printer ink

Laminator and pouches

Digital camera 

4) Fancy Extra Stuff

Glitter

Fancy art bits and bobs - Spangles, those shiny sparkly decoration that come in different colours, googly eyes, feathers, craft sticks etc

Paints and brushes

Tissue paper

Crepe paper

Playdough, plastercine (or ingredients to make your own)

Playdough cutters and tools (you can get set of playdough shape cutters, little rolling pins, rolling blades for cutting etc) 

String

Elastic bands

Cd player and cd's 

Musical instruments (preferably mainly wooden and cultural i.e. drums)

As far as costs are concerned, you can get started with 3 children for as little as £30 a month or spend up to £100 a month on 1 child if you include educational magazine subscriptions, private tutors and drama, dance and music classes. 

We probably spent £30 to get started (mainly on printer ink to print of lots of free worksheets, tracing sheets and coloring sheets, then paints, craft materials, pencils, colours etc), then maybe £40 a month thereafter, made up of £10 a week picking things up as we went along. 

Now I use an online learning program for the older 2 children now called Time 4 Learning which is about £25 a month and covers a lot of maths, science, language arts and language art extension which I like so in total we spend an average of £40 a month on all 4 children, not include the occassional trips and restocking workbooks 2-3 times a year. 

There are some months when we actually don't spend anything but the £25 online program fee and other months when I might go crazy and spend £60 or really fancy art supplies, brand new books gadgets and more. 

I'd love to hear what other homeschooling families are using and spending on their homeschool supplies, so please comment below. 

Remember to subscribe to the blog by adding your email address in the box above and share this with anyone you think would find it useful

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re

When I look in the mirror

Raahub yasar

I will admit that there are days when not a lot of 'teaching' or 'structured lessons' goes on in our mir,  but I've always made a point of filling our home with books. 

This one of the books that I've had since Mut Tiy En Re was small and it's just about got all it's pages :-) 

The front image is stunning in my humble opinion and so are many other illustrations in it, though a few of them aren't that great (i.e a little girl in an extremely short skirt, a grown mane in a belly top and a reference to thank God blah blah blah). 

Apart from those few things, it's a good book with a very positive message for our children. 

You can get it here in the UK - http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9781881316282?cm_mmc=sws-_-sws-_-bd-_-serp&afn_sr=para&para_l=90 

Or here in the US - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-i-look-in-the-mirror-sopoeia-greywolf/1001738600 

Or try Ebay to get a cheaper second hand copy or a nubian or children's book shop. 

Hatep Yasar and remember to enter your email address above to subscribe to the blog. 

Mut Bast.tet En Re

45 Inspiring and Interesting Learning & Education Quotes

Raahub yasar,

Ok, I blatently ripped this from the Lesson Planet facebook fan page the other day!!! 

They asked people what their favorite educational quotes were and when I saw the post, 131 people had already commented,  so I wanted to share my favorite ones from among them, thanks to all the lovely people whose comments I'm sharing here.

Let me know what you think of them and feel free to share this post with any parent or anyone you think would appreciate them:

1 - I am not a teacher for the income but for the outcome. (I love this one)

2 - Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm - Joe Clark

3 - No one can be good at everything, but everyone is good at something.

4 - My education was interrupted only by my schooling- Winston Churchill

5 - The only dumb question is the one not asked. (I love this one)

6 - If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (I love this one)

7 - Do or do not, there is no try - Yoda (I love this one)

8  - When I was 5 my mum told me that happiness was the key to life, When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down 'happy', They told me I didn't understand the assignment, I told them they didn't understand life. (I really love this one)

9 - Those who can, teach.

10 - Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will spend it's whole life believing that it is stupid - Einstein

11 - It's easier to build strong children than it is to fix broken men - Frederick Douglass (I absolutely love this one)

12 - Students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care - John C Maxwell (I love this one)

13 - Teaching is not a profession, it's a passion

14 - When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece - John Ruskin

15 - If you can't explain it well enough, you don't understand it well enough - Einstein

16 - Do one thing better today than you did it yesterday

17 - What we learn with pleasure we never forget

18 - The children that deserve our love the least are probably the ones who need it the most

19 -  Art leaves no child behind

20 - Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

21 - In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.

22 - Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go

23 - Intelligence plus character, That is the goal of true education - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

24 - Minds are like parachute, they only work when they're open.

25 - You only need to be one day smarter than what you are teaching (Advice from one homeschooling mother to another mother considering homeschooling)

26 - Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn - Ben Franklin

27 - What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing - Aristotle

28 - Education is the most powerful tool used to change the world - Nelson Mandela (I've always been very weary of Nelson Mandela, I feel this powerful change can be for the better or worse, the education system can indoctrinate our children so well that they literally build a docile army of drones, ready to do what they say and even defend their corrupt decisions)

29 - Be the change you hope to see (not exactly focused on education but a good quote all the same)

30 - Good, better best, never let it rest, until your good is your better and your better is your best (I love this one)

31 - Doing what is right is not always popular, doing what is popular is not always right

32 - Aspire to inspire (I love this one)

33 - It takes a village to raise a child  - (I love this one)

34 - Every child can learn, just not the same way or on the same day

35 - If you think reading is boring, your doing it wrong (I'd say that this is true of most things, you can always find a way to enjoy what you are doing and make it enjoyable for children)

36 - Don't be upset by the results you didn't get from the work you didn't do

37 - A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after a success (I love this one)

38 - Fair and equal are not the same - I will always be fair and that won't look equal.

39 - Develop a passion for learning, if you do you will never cease to grow - Anthony D'Angelo

40 - The more you read the better you read, the better you read the more you read.

41 - The difference between try and triumph is a little "umph" - (I love this one)

42- Adults often underestimate the wisdom of children

43 - Those who teach must never cease to learn - (I love this one)

44 - The child's progress does not depend only on his age, but also on being free to look around him - Maria Montessori

45 - The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality - Maria Montessori.


Here are a few from Sayings Of Malachi Z York - Paa Nabab Yaanun

It is a wise man that learns his studies before the class commences

Teach your children they are the best and they will fit it. 

One does not learn by thinking out loud, but by listening. Now class. 

Let the children have their fun, you were once one. 

Hard work is good exercise.

The best exercise for your body is to work your mind.



Let me know which ones you like or add your own below and make sure you add your email address to the box at the top right of the page to be updated of new posts added to the blog. 

Hatep yasar (peace family) 

Mut Bast.tet En Re

Seed Dropper Home School Network Radioshow

Raahub Yasar

This show was just recommended by another inspirational homeschooling sister Khepera Ma'at on facebook who you can find at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHomeschoolingIya . The show is almost 3hrs, but the first hours was most focused on homeschooling. It says it was a A-Z on how to start a homeschool, I think it was a bit general, but did share some good viewpoints and definitely made you realized that it is possible and important to teach our own children.

Click here to listen now on Blogtalk Radio - Seed Dropper Home School Network 09/15 by UHURU NATION X REAL TALK RADIO | Blog Talk Radio

Here are the points that struck me most from this recording:
 * Firstly, at 2hours 2mins - the brother James mentions our master teacher Paa Nabab Yaanun and how our Nuwaupian nation successfully separated ourselves from a system that didn't serve us so we could build our community together.

During the first hour in the homeschooling section they spoke about:
*  Many of us use school as daycare to get rid of our children for 8hrs a day
* The schools are really just preparing our children to enter the prison system, schools are decorated the same as prisons
* Our children are locked in the school, they can't get out and parents can't get in unless they unlock the door for us.
* One parent was told by her childs school that she had to make an appointment 24hrs before they want to visit their child at school
* Our children would be better off at home pretty much doing nothing rather than send them to school to be indoctrinated
* Black women have to lose the fear of not being able to do it because we already have everything we need to teach our children
* Black mothers need to come together so we can look after our children together
* The sisters shared what they did in their homes with their children and how to get started.
* To get started you should find out what your state requirements are (US based show by the way) to start  homeschooling.
* If the state laws don't suit your needs or they are too strict for you, get up and move to another state - we are not trees, we can move, we own the whole earth!!! (I loved this)
* The only reason they make children sit SATs is to see how indoctrinated they are, the higher the grade, the more successful the system has been at indoctrinated you.
* Teaching our children a trade is very important so that our children can come back and help build and rebuild our society - it's a shame that we can't build our own homes.
* Growing our own food and making sure our diet is right is very important to our community too.

So check it our now at - Seed Dropper Home School Network 09/15 by UHURU NATION X REAL TALK RADIO | Blog Talk Radio

Remember to subscribe to the blog in the box up on the right, take care, stay healthy and hatep yasar

Mut Bast,tet En Re

My visit to the 7th annual Homeschooling Fair in London

Raahub yasar,

A lovely sister invited me to a Homeschool fair the other day and Shaep (ayi nafurmul hamat - my beautiful husband) and I decided to go and check it out.

It was very short notice, we were running late on the day, but I'm so glad we made it there, even if it was for just over an hour!

Mawas (baby) Nafurtat and I outside the fair in Notting Hill Gate, London

It was held in Westbourne Grove Church near Notting Hill Gate in London, which was a great venue. As I we walked into the reception area, I look up and saw a material posters (or whatever you call those things!!!) saying "school is not compulsory", that instantly put a smile on my face :-) 

Shaep and I walked through to the market room, which just had a few people milling around the stalls by that  time. We had a look at all the tables, which were all stalls of other homeschooling parents and I saw this great quote that resonated with what Paa Naabab Yaanun has been teaching us for years and is another reason we didn't want our kharadu exposed to their system of edited dictation  (education)

There were a few book stalls that had some free handouts and leaflets and books for sale, at one of the tables we saw the only sister in the room and she quickly indentified herself as the one who'd invited me to the fair and I gave her a big hug!!! Here she is at the stall:

Here are some of the leaflets that I picked up with a directory of different homeschooling groups, the laws around homeschooling, useful websites and frequently asked questions on homeschooling. The book I picked up called "Early Years" which is published by Education Otherwise (at http://www.educationotherwise.net/ a long standing resource for homeschooling advice and guidance) has a lot of good ideas around what to do in your homeschool, but most of the contact details in the resource section were out of date which was a shame. 

As we got there later in the day, we missed the talk I really wanted to hear which was the panel of young adults who had been homeschooled, who were there to answer questions on their experiences.

The funniest moments in the last 2 talks we did manage to hear part of were 

- One of the speakers said that she didn't think grammar, reading and spelling work books were completely necessary and that children can learn words from things around them in real life. She said her son learnt from the words around him while travelling on the trains so the first words he learnt to read were "Danger, High Voltage"!

 -  The other speak said that when she was pregnant she's say to herself "As soon as this baby is 3mths old, I'm going back to work" but when her child was born she said "I didn't want to let her go or give her to anyone, why would I have you just to give you away!"

- The first speaker also showed this slide during their talk that was a bit of a laugh too - Sorry the picture's not great, but it says "I expect you all to be independant, innovative, critical thinkers, who will do exactly as I say!"

It was a good day, if we go again next year, I'd like to get there earlier to take in more of the talks and more specifically, see how we can reproduce this event for our Nuwaupian yasar.

Here's the website to the event so you can keep up to date with the event for next year https://sites.google.com/site/homeeducationfair/

Hatap yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re

What style of homeschooling do we use?

Raahub yasar,

Homeschooling families typically get asked  'What do you do with your children all day?' In many ways, that depends on the style of homeschooling or home education you choose for your children.

The 2 ends of the home education spectrum to my knowledge are:

The strictest form is 'A School At Home' - This is where you pretty much aim to create a school structure and environment in your home, so in this home, you'd expect to see set hours for studies and teaching times, a set curriculum, text books, lesson plans etc. Some people will even get uniforms that their children wear during their school time, a black board, desk and chairs.

The most relaxed form is 'Unschooling' (aka free range learning, child centred learning, de schooling etc) - This type of home education in based on the concept that a child learns from any and everything, without the need for structure, text books, computers, curriculum or anything else you'd typically find in a conventional school environment. So in this home, you probably find ample books, instruments, art supplies, educational toys, games and activities, but not many 'lessons times'

You also have different more specific schools of thought that families use to with their children like

Montessouri (child centred learning) - http://www.montessori.org.uk/what_is_montessori
Steiner Schooling -Click here to learn about Steiner Homeschooling
Waldorf Schooling - Click here to learn more about Waldorf homeschooling 

Now, what do we do in our Nuwaupian homeschool?

I like the concept of our children learning from life itself and becoming self reliant, able to make their own decisions about what they learn and when in the unschooling kind of way, but I'm also pretty sure that our educationally advanced ancestors, the ancient tamareans would have had a learning structure of some sort. There was always order in our culture, so that's what I aim to create in our home.

I have images of little tamamrean children carrying their books into a big granite pyramid in ancient tamare discussing molecular science and the electromagnetic lay lines of the earth as they rushed to get to their desks or hall of learning in time to hear their mustalameed begin class. Super smart little 7yr olds asking questions that a 15yr old in this society would be baffled by - this is what our children should be able to achieve and will achieve in the right environment.

There are loads of educational and stimulating things around our home, from computer programs, to books, art activities, toys and gadgets and so on, so even away from a structure lesson time, there are opportunities for them to learn.

So I'd describe our homeschooling style as a relaxed, child centred school at home. In any given day, you can expect to find us enjoying meals as a family, teaching a few structured lessons from nuwaupic language to science, biology or nature, the kharadu working through their workbooks and online learning systems, reading reading and more reading, either independently or me reading to them and lots of play play and more play.

Hatep yasar

Mut

How we started homeschooling

Raahub yasar!

Today I wanted to share with you how I got started homeschooling our kharadu,

This isn't the only way, the best way or even the Nuwaupian way, it's just how we happened to get started. But if I was to start again, I'd probably do the same thing.

In a previous post on why we decided to homeschool, I mentioned that I looked into sending our children to a Montessori school instead of a regular one, but there were none nearby and they were costly to send our children to.

Very briefly, Montessori is a method of child education which is 'child centered' which means that instead of you deciding exactly what your child is going to learn and when, you offer special learning tools and activities to your child and they will work through them at their own pace, until they have mastered them. This means a 4 year old is free to master something that a school would only have shown 7year old or they could be at a 3year old's reading level, but a 5 year old's level of maths . They also pay great attention to ensuring a child has what they call 'practical life skills' (washing dishes, tying their laces, dressing themselves, etc) which they say are very important for a child to learn even before their academic studies.

While researching Montessouri teaching styles, I found a book called "Teaching Montessouri in the home - Preschool Years" which you can get at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Montessori-Home-Pre-school-School/dp/0452279097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347539789&sr=8-1

When I read through it, the exercises they showed were so simple, straightforward and seemingly effective, it gave me the confidence to make a start on teaching her until we decided what we would do with her.

After getting into the swing of thing with Mut Tiy En Re, doing more research into teaching her myself and stocking up on learning materials, the thought of sending her somewhere else to be taught became further and further from my mind.

So this is from my memory of 4yrs ago (!!!), the steps we went through when we got started (this was when we just had our oldest daughter to teach), even if they were in this exact order:

1. We started buying loads and loads of books and kept some in each room - I'd heard that daily reading was the cornerstone of a good education, which also helped a child learn to read, write, spell and broaden their vocabulary, so we made sure we read to them several books daily.

2. We stocked up on the essential learning materials, which for us were: pencils, crayons, coloring pens, rubbers, rulers, sharpeners, plain white printer paper, colored sugar paper (craft paper), 7 colours of paint (red, yellow, green, blue, brown, black and white), glue sticks, sticking tape and a set of drawers to keep them all in. We also started collecting things to do craft activities with instead of throwing them away ( old cardboard boxes, egg boxes, washing up liquid bottles etc).

3. I joined or subscribed to the newsletter of as many homeschooling websites and forums as I could find ( I'll share my favorite sites in another post)

4. I started buying educational workbooks for her age and others that were too old for her but were on sale.

5. I created the learning space in the house, which for us was (and still is) the front room table.

6. I decide how many days and how many hours a day I wanted to homeschool her.

7. I decide the different topics I wanted her to learn over the next 6 months (i.e. butterflies, number from 1-20, colors, shapes etc)

8. I compiled all the worksheets, workbooks and activities that I'd found for the first topic of study for the next 1-2 weeks and decided which ones she'd do each day.

9. I got started on it as best I could and as the days went by, I'd change the plan as I needed to to make it work.

I'll go into more details on these stages and share the plans I use etc in the future posts.

Please let me know what you think and share this with anyone you think needs it.

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re

Why we decided to homeschool

Raahub yasar,

Before I get into the details of how we homeschool and sharing pictures and links and any more words of inspiration or my views of parenting and homeschooling a Nuwaupian family, I thought it'd be a good idea to answer a few of the questions that I always get asked when people find out we homeschool.

People will typically ask us

Why did you decide to homeschool?
What style of homeschooling do you use?
How did you get started homeschooling?

As I remember other frequently asked questions, I'll write my responses to them, but the next 3 posts will be to answer these questions, starting with "Why did you decide to homeschool?"

I've been a Nuwaupian for close to 17yrs. In that time I've heard Paa Nabab Yaanun mention several times that we need to do our utmost to protect our children from the trash that they get exposed to in the world, including mis-information taught to them in schools, on TV and in the media in general.

When our first daughter Mut Tiy En Re was about 2yrs, we started talking about her education and the possibility of sending her to school.

The one thing I was certain on was that I didn't want her to go to a regular school, from horror stories of what other Nuwaupian and other parents had experienced with their children in school.

A few downsides I saw to regular schools were
* Racial discrimination
* Inadequate education
* Poor food (from school lunches, to school parties, to what other children might share among themselves, to what they teach about food and health)
* Being exposed to foul language (from pupils, teachers and other parents)
* Children be held back so they stay on the same level as all other children in the class
* And being exposed to religious concepts and principles that are far from what we know to be true

A few of these fear wouldn't have been the case if we sent her to a Montessouri school (a private school based on child centred learning, a concept that I feel work very well when teaching young children), but after checking out their fees and the location of the nearest school, it wasn't going to work out for us financially or practically. so homeschooling became our best bet.

For our family, this decision was made easier by the fact that we were already living in a way that easily accommodated homeschooling: Shaep (my gorgeous husband) and I were both self employed and working from home, my work was done remotely and could be done out of office hours, so I could teach during the day then work when she went to sleep and on weekends. Another important factor was that Shaep supported and encouraged the decision and would help with the teaching when he could.

As well as the above points mentioned, the other thoughts that did, and still do put me off the idea of sending them into school are

1. I am really particular about who looks after our children. The only people who have even babysat them are their aunties, my mum and a girl who baby sat my sister's children for months that we all knew and trusted very well. The way I see it is, if my children are at school, they are being looked after all day by a group of people that I really don't know much about and who I don't really personally know, whose intentions towards my children are unknown and who will be in a position to seriously influence my young impressionable children ALL DAY. I'm really uncomfortable with that.

2. I also had visions of picking her up from school, asking what she'd learnt that day and either feeling the need to go and complain to the teachers about mis-informing my child or having to spend the whole evening teaching her the truth about what she'd been taught. I've heard Nuwaupian parents say things like they don't mind their children learning from their system then retraining them at home, As long as I am able to, I want to give my children the real deal straight off and not have to undo a poor education.

3. As a Nuwaupian family, it only seem right to send my children to nothing other than a Nuwaupian school, sending them to a church school would mean I am voluntarily handing them over to a religious institution to which I don't belong, where they will be exposed to energies, beings and ideals that could quite easily take them off Paa Taraq.

So as long as I am practically able to, my aim is to do my utmost to teach them at home, in our Mir!

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re
(Leah Salmon)