We all woke up around 3 am and sent Jdd off at the airport, and when we got back home, Z went back to sleep, not believing it was morning. He kept insisting it was night time because the sky was still dark. Hubs went to Fajr and straight to work, while the rest of us started our school day. We read Tthe Little Mouse, The Red-Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. I had been doing work and when he woke up, he did his calendar notebook and then I had promised to read a few books to him, so I read this quickly and then napped, because I had 3 classes almost back to back on Wednesdays.
He mostly did his worksheets on his own, mashaaAllah. He also added this book to his Reading List in the Calendar Notebook. I’m planning on doing some adjective-finding activity with him on this book, so we need to revisit it later inshaaAllah.
Thursday:-
He did his Calendar Notebook, and then I read There Was A Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea. This book is good for sequencing.
“What is a coyote?”
So I had to explain to him what it is and find something on youtube to show him. Then,
“What is a flea?”
And this is what I found, which is pretty nice except for the ending part, but at least now he knows what a flea is!
At the end of the book, I asked him,
“What do you think he’s going to eat when it’s morning?”
This was a good jumping board for learning about the different birds, and so we went Youtubing again :-
Ostrich versus monkey, man, and hyena:
Ostrich Vs. Cheetah
Emperor Penguins Mommy, Daddy, and Baby :
Emperor Penguins Speed Launch:
Feeding Hummingbirds:
Great Horned Owl Eating:
Bald Eagle VS Coyote
Bald Eagle hunting
Oh yes, Z claimed that Hubs taught him how to make dollars with quarters using his file folder game. He wanted to do it with me but I was about to have class at that time, so I told him to do it with hubs. I don’t know if hubs actually taught him, but that’s my next plan to work with Z inshaaAllah.
Z is still sick today. He did oil pulling and then I told H to heat up his tortilla for him, but then H came up and said Z is pretending to be weak and sleepy, and doesn’t want his tortilla. Then H pulled Z into my room and he did look sleepy, which was weird because he was fine when he did oil pulling. I gathered him up and his forehead was sweating. He was hypoglycemic, so I quickly told H to heat up the rice porridge I had made for him the day before and fed him that and his soymilk. He fell asleep and woke up a bit later and we resumed our school work. He did his calendar, a few worksheets, his Arabic copywork, to which he said,
“I want to get 3 stars.”
“Ok, try your best then,” I said.
I ended up giving him 5 stars and he exclaimed in delight,
“Five stars?!!”
“Yeah, because you did such a good job!”
Then he made iqaamah and prayed zuhr with us and he read his 3 lines of abata, recited Al feel, Al Kauthar, An Nasr, Al Quraysh, and Al kaafiroon to me and then we reviewed al Maun which he had forgotten. I focused on correcting his vowelization and explained to him that when pronouncing dhad, the tongue elongates like one of those long skinny balloons.
We had read Yucky Worms last week and I had wanted him to do this activity but we didn’t get to do it, so I had him do it today. I had him fill out the 3-2-1 worksheet about the book and had him choose 3 things I learned, 2 interesting things and 1 Question I have. He looks more engaged in this activity. I dread asking him to write because as of now, he still has trouble forming sentences and keeps saying “I don’t know,” when I ask him to come up with one even with a lot of prompting. But with this 3-2-1 worksheet, he’s writing out the sentences once we agree on what he’s going to write. He even holds out his palm telling me to stop helping him once he realizes he knows how to write a certain word. If I already spelled out the word that he knows, he will hold out his hand to my face and say,
“Aahhh!”
But it looks like his writing has improved a LOT alhamdulillah! I remember how painstakingly I had to sit there and coach him on making them all the same height and on top or between the lines. Alhamdulilah now he’s doing pretty good.
We watched some youtube videos on earthworms:-
Last week on Friday, or Thursday, we did do significant work too. We went over Ella Takes the Cake and looked for all the contractions in that book. When he found them, I’d write them on a small whiteboard and ask him what that is expanded. That was a pretty good exercise for him.
He has also been doing drilling on subtraction and addition and he loves it when we do this on that small whiteboard. It saves paper too! Just uses ink though.
Tuesday:-
Today felt like a very long day. Z woke up very late because they probably slept very late last night. I spent hours with N, doing her comprehensive assist for Sarah Bishop. I admittedly do not like this session at all, but she needs it and it’s my responsibility. Sigh, things that you still have to do even though you don’t like doing it.
I also had her do her work in my presence since she has an issue of not completing her work, though I did notice sincere and eager effort to rectify that after I gave her my all Sunday night when I realized she didn’t hand in her Home2Teach homework on Friday. That was chest-hurting and head-hurting for me. This must not be good for my health, nor her well being.
Z did his calendar, and gave me troubles with refusing to eat his oatmeal and being picky about food. If it’s one thing I truly abhor in my heart, it’s picky eaters. Especially so if they happen to be MY children.
He did his worksheets in the Calendar Notebook and some of them are the First Grade word sheets where he also has to make up a sentence with the word he’s rewriting again and again. I was still working with N on her Sarah Bishop and Z was asking me to help him form a sentence and I told him he cannot say “I don’t know,” anymore and to just try to come up with a sentence and then I ignored him and just went on working with N. A while later, I noticed on those pages of his, he had written the sentences himself! I made sure I pointed that out to him and commended him for it. Allahu Akbar! Alhamdulillah!
Later on he had a doctor’s appointment at 2 pm, which we didn’t even complete because R said he looked fine and she doesn’t want to have to bill me. While waiting though, we did some math drills on the small white board. He loves this so far. However, I noticed that he is no longer using the addition technique I had taught him; to choose the bigger number and count on from there. So he ends up using his toes to do additions, and uses my hands too. Tonight, I insisted he use my technique again. But, that was a very good idea for waiting in lounges; to do math drills on the whiteboard. So far, he loves math drills, alhamdulillah. I was even thinking,
Ya Aleemul Hakeem, please make him like his namesake, make him of the raasikhoona fil ilm, of the mukhliseen!
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