My Most Important Work (& My Confession)

Raahubaat Yasar!!!

I saw this on Large Families On Purpose's facebook page and couldn't agree more!  Thanks for sharing. 

Just in case you can't see the picture above, the quote reads: 

"Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the MOST IMPORTANT WORK"

I realized this a few months ago and it literally changed my life. I remember an old song where Paa Nabab Yaanun was talking with a sister and he was saying basically that it's our job as goddesses to raise the children. Not without the help and support of our husbands, partners or their fathers of course. 

I must admit that I've always been quite career minded and put my career goals and making money above my role as a homeschooling mother too many times than I care to mention, but I've now realized that I can, in fact, fulfill my career ambitions while being a dedicated homeschooling muldudtet. 

I have also been blessed with a very supportive and successful businessmen as a husband and a supportive family, who allow me to pursue homeschooling without fear of going without anything. 

It's not easy, quick or without pitfalls and you do need support, advice and guidance. But it is very rewarding to be able to groom and teach your own children, while watching them grow and flourish in Wu Nuwaup. 

This quote is a useful meditation of us all I feel, whether you're a homeschooling Nuwaupian yasar or not. 

Hatap Yasar

Mut Bastat En Rayay

Our Nuwaupuyee for the week - Jan 2013

Raahub yasar!!!

Thanks to recommendations from the Nuwaupian family, I've upgraded our nuwaupuyee poster so it only has the words we're learning in our script.

It's an exciting and slightly nerve wracking step as I'm not great with languages, but the Paa Taraq have given me sufficient motivation to commit to speaking and studying it daily with the children.

4 days a week, we begin Mir with dance and stretching then Nuwaupuyee which has been working well for us..

I want to say a big TAWUHAAT to the teachers of the classes on http://nuwaupic.com/ , you're all doing a really good job and I appreciate you all very much.

Also tawuhaat to the family helping out on the facebook Nuwaupic study group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/nuwaupic/ 

The words we're studying this week are from the Zaman wu Garah (Day and Night) video on Nuwaup.com found here, which are

Today - Panan Zaman
Tomorrow - Ghadad
Yesterday - Barah
Before - Baa'ad
After - Qabal
Next - Tayal
Later - Fwatur
We can - Enen Qadur
Good night - Wawad Garah  


Hatap yasar
Mut Bastat En Rayay


Paa Munzal Nathur Amun Nabab Rayay Akh Ptah Djedtwy - Hu Kawan Harar!!!

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

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