This year was the first where I actually had two kids to officially homeschool. In addition, we started going to a private school a few days a week for their Quran class, and I started teaching social studies for the young grades at the private school.

Alright, here’s a look back on what worked, what didn’t, and what we’ll keep using!

Math

If you’ve been around here a while, you know we’ve tried lots of math curriculum from Right Start Math, CTC Math, Shiller Math, and Teaching Textbooks. For my 3rd grader, I had her using Teaching Textbooks because it felt like a lot to have both kids doing Right Start. She loved it, I loved the freedom, but she ended the year saying, “I’m not good at math.” so we’re moving back to Right Start Math. Aamina (3rd grade) is more of an art/language arts person, so I think the manipulatives with RS Math help her understand things a bit more concretely.

For next year, the plan is for all three kids we’ll be using Right Start Math. We’ll see what miracle happens to fit that in as it’s teacher intensive.

I have also added in math puzzles from Royal Fireworks Press (known for their Michael Clay Thompson language arts curriculum) because I’m a math nerd and I think the critical thinking that is used to solve the math and logic puzzles is great brain exercise.

Science

We have been chugging along with Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and still really enjoying it. It is more work than some other programs, but the fact that each lesson builds on a previous one keeps selling me on it. Technically we are about a year behind in finishing the K-2 book, but it still feels like a really solid curriculum, even for my 3rd grader. At the time of this writing (end of 3rd grade year), we just have a couple lessons left and in sha Allah we’ll get started on Volume 2 very soon.

Nature Study

As a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, nature study is a core piece of our science work. Actually, we break away from the CM advice by using BFSU as the CM advice is to do nature study as the main form of science through 3rd grade.

There are two main elements to nature study in a Charlotte Mason curriculum: nature lore and special studies. For nature lore we have used Christian Liberty Nature Readers for over two years. There is some mention of Jesus being God (audhubillah) in the very last part of the book, but for 95% of the books, the religious mentions are things like, “God designed them in such a way they would be protected from predators.” We have simply skipped the last couple chapters of the books we’ve used so there’s been no issue.

For special studies last year we did two: stars and constellations, and herbs. For stars and constellations we used A Handbook of Nature Study (more for me to study and get an idea of what to cover). The Stars by H.A. Rey (the author of Curious George!), and The Sky is Full of Stars by Franklyn Branley (a Let’s Read and Find Out Science book).

For herbs, we use Herb Fairies. The downloadable content when you buy the books directly from them works as a full curriculum for herbal medicine and plant identification.

Foreign Language – Arabic

I continue my studies of Arabic through Studio Arabiya, and I believe this is key. I wouldn’t be able to teach the kids Arabic in any meaningful way, no matter the curriculum, if I couldn’t have a basic understanding of it. This last year we started a membership at Arabic Seeds and we work on the units together, including talking about the weather and simple greetings and conversations.

For Aamina, now that she can read Arabic fluently, we started again on Madinah Arabic Reader in addition to Arabic Seeds. We tried a year or two ago when she could read, but not fluently, and it was a struggle. A friend suggested that we wait until she can read Arabic script with ease, and that has helped.

For Amatuallah (1st grade), she used Ad-Duha’s Arabic workbooks to practice her Arabic handwriting and to get more familiar with the letters. As far as I understand, Ad-Duha has taken these workbooks down from their site as they update them. If you’re looking for handwriting practice, Safar Publications would have your most traditional workbook, and Arabic Seeds has some printable options as well.

All the kids practice reading Quran at the private school, so we do not practice reading fluency at home.

Language Arts

Spelling

Your standard Charlotte Mason advice is that kids will learn spelling through copywork and reading great books. I was getting quite impatient with Aamina’s progress in spelling as it was not improving with copywork, even after repeating a word multiple times, like “have”. She didn’t jive with the CM way of learning to read, so I thought spelling might be similar where we needed something step by step. Since she started spelling as a subject in 3rd grade, I didn’t want something that started with CVC words and a friend suggested Sequential Spelling. So far we’re really liking it and I plan to continue with the program next year for Aamina, but we’ll see if it’s necessary for Amatullah (1st grade) in the future or not.

Tales

Honestly, Tales is something that gets skipped a lot when we run short on time, so we are still plugging along with King Arthur. (In my defense, we’ve read maybe half a dozen really great books in our bedtime stories throughout the year.) The book that’s suggested in CM circles is problematic in some ways, but I went into some of that in an Instagram post about why we still use it. It’s a great book to stretch their English language a bit and get them able to handle older books.

Copywork

We don’t need a curriculum for this. Amatullah practiced one letter at a time at the beginning of the year and then worked up to words, and now phrases. Aamina copies passages from her school books in her best handwriting.

We have also started cursive handwriting. I chose the Spencerian script at the suggestion of a friend since cursive is not terribly useful anymore expect for reading older hand-written documents, and as an art form. The Spencerian script will work nice as an art form, so I actually picked up two copies and I’m working through the workbooks myself as well.

Art

Art in a Charlotte Mason homeschool is drawing a scene from your tales, and drawing things from nature. Honestly, we’ve been pretty lame about getting that done. With having to leave the house at 12:30 each day, and have lunch before that, drawing gets skipped.

We also break away from the CM advice and I have the kids do a formal art program, Artistic Pursuits. Again, we haven’t done that much this last year, but we still love it and we’ll be continuing with it.

For artist study, we studied Vermeer, Turner, and Gainsborough, using the Picture Study Portfolios by Simply Charlotte Mason.

Islamic Studies

Charlotte Mason advice is to simply read from scripture and have some reflection time. I wanted something a bit more defined and structured learning, so we use a couple different curriculums, each one day a week to build a well-rounded curriculum.

We’ve used Ad-Duha for about 10 years now! We are almost done with their names of Allah series, and since Aamina is nearing 10 years old, we added in one day of their salah series. In addition, we do one day a week of Ghazali Children’s books. We love all of these and I am very much looking forward to continuing all of them. Salihah (preK) has not gone through the names of Allah with us, except in just coloring while we’re reading, so I’ll be cycling back around and doing the first book for the third time! It’s been a great reminder for me as well, mashaAllah

Geography

This is one area where I don’t feel as confident in my planning and execution of a learning plan. I purchased A Child’s Geography of the World by Virgil Hillyer, and I don’t know yet if I recommend it. It’s fun to read, but I don’t know how much the kids are retaining from it, and it’s severely outdated in some areas. It’s weird because we really look forward to reading it, but I just am not convinced of the value of it.

In the private school I taught geography at first to grades K-2. During that time I used Around the World with Picture Books by Beautiful Feet Books. I love it and it’s a really solid curriculum for young kids. As their classes grew from new enrollment, we split the classes and K-1 continued with that and I started doing CC Long’s Home Geography for Primary Grades with them. I used this book in Aamina’s 2nd grade year and it’s a great introduction to geographic land forms and directions.

Most of our map work is done within our history lesson, so that’s where we really review the land forms, directions, and the like.

US History 1700-1800

US History is a beast of a topic. For the last few years, it’s been on the top of many people’s minds about how we approach history, and what worldview we’re presenting. There’s a lot of us (myself included) that have a hard time joining either camp of European settlers are basically the crux of all evil in the world, and European settlers are the heroes of the world. Unfortunately, in my opinion, curriculum tends to fall kind of neatly into one of those two camps.

So, I use a variety of resources pulled together and talk about the differences. In grades K-2, I don’t know how much of a nuanced conversation can really be expected, so the goal is mainly to introduce them to big ideas and common names in history. I think around 2nd grade, kids are starting to be able to handle a bit more of a nuanced approached, and in 4th grade we can really start to dig a bit deeper.

With that said, you may not like some of the books we used. That’s fine. I’d love to hear any suggestions people have for fair and high quality books.

Below is a list of what we used this past year. I will note only if I found something remarkable about them. This list is in no particular order.

• America First by Lawton Evans, updated by Rachel Legowitz – this is our spine, or main book we used. Some areas are violent or still have some outdated presentations of ideas or people, so you need to pre-read.
• Benjamin Franklin by d’Aulaire
• George Washington by James Cross Giblin – this was just okay. I’d probably use d’Aulaire’s book next time as they both have faults, but the pictures and writing in d’Aulaire makes it a more enjoyable book
• Tick Tock Bannekar’s Clock by Shana Keller – loved this book about a famous African American inventor
• The Red Sash by Jean Pendziwol – loved this to get a small look of what was going on within the continent, not just on the east coast
• The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac
• The New Americans: Colonial Times by Betsy Maestro – This and the next book are written probably more for a 3rd or 4th grade level and above.
• Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars by Betsy Maestro
• A More Perfect Union by Betsy Maestro

Since I was teaching a class of kids, we were not able to get through books as fast as I can when I’m just homeschooling my own kids, but we covered the main points of the century, alhamdulilah.

And that’s it! I’d love to hear any feedback you have about any of these resources, or favorite resources you’ve used!

There’s a lot going on each day. Kids are by and large still in need of a lot of guidance, and there’s one of me and three of them. 

I have seriously considered sending my kids to school more times than I can count over the last year. Even my mother in law said I needed a break. It’s been a long road. 

So, when I was given the opportunity to try out Teaching Textbooks, I took it as a sign. This is the break I need. 

The following is a review of Teaching Textbooks 3.0. I have been compensated for my time, and as always, all views expressed are my honest opinion

I may lose a couple a few followers by saying this, but I love math, and I really like teaching my kids math. I honestly look forward to it, most days, and my kids like it too, but something had to give. There’s only so many hours in the day that I can be in full teaching mode before my patience is too thin to continue with the love and support I want to give. 

I’ve started really asking myself what my priorities are. Of course, math never leaves the “must-do” list, but I’ve started to realize it doesn’t need to be on my personal “must teach” list. I can hand this off to another capable hand and give myself more time and energy to focus on teaching my kids about our faith and the more nuanced subjects like history. 

Online Math Curriculum

So, we gave it a shot with Teaching Textbooks 3.0, their online version of the well-loved DVD program that’s been around for ages.  My daughter, Aamina, is able to complete the lecture, lesson work, quizzes and math facts review games all online, independently.

Aamina started with level 3, and so far she’s been doing 2 lessons a day as there is some overlap with the concepts she was learning in Right Start Level C. Now that we’re almost 30 lessons in, she’s hitting some new concepts and we’ll likely slow down to a normal pace again.

Independent work

Honestly, one of my biggest struggles with this age is that my kids aren’t really doing much independent work. Even though Aamina could probably do more independently, she doesn’t like to work alone, and she doesn’t generally like to work with another teacher. She’s my one kid that is attached to me at the hip. 

We’ve tried to find her a tutor for Quran or Arabic, but she makes it well known she does not want to work with anyone else.

So the fact that Teaching Textbooks 3.0 is all online and not with another teacher works out very well for us. She doesn’t feel shy and shut down, and she can just log on and do her work. 

Best part? While Aamina’s working on math, I can work one-on-one with her younger sister! 

Rather than extending my day so I can accommodate two kids that need one-on-one time, I can have one kid working independently while I work with another kid. It’s honestly been a life saver. 

Math curriculum

Teaching Textbooks has been around a LONG time and there are numerous reviews about the curriculum itself from places like Cathy Duffy Reviews and the like. I can say that much of what you’ve read about it before is true. 
The curriculum is not as rigorous as some others at this stage (Level 3), but Aamina has so far liked the pace of it and she seems to be doing quite well.

I’ve also heard from friends that their kids used Teaching Textbooks through the high school years and their kids are doing well in their college math classes. I mean, that’s basically the goal, right? To get them to the next step in their adult life?

How it works

It’s quite simple: You and your student have separate log ins for the Teaching Textbooks 3.0 interface. Your student can view their lessons and their grade book themselves. Each lesson starts with an interactive lecture and finishes up with practice problems. Each practice problem offers the student a hint, if they need (you can turn off this feature if you want), and feedback if they didn’t get the problem right. This immediate feedback has been great so they can see the logic that went awry right away. 

Parent account

On the parent’s side of things, I can change whether my student is offered a hint or a second chance at a problem, and one feature I’ve found really cool is the pause feature. Since I’ll be traveling for over two weeks, I can just pause our 12 month subscription and come back to it when we’re ready. 

Within my portal I can also check the grades of any of the students that I have using the program and see a detailed breakdown of their progress, including printing out a grade report to keep for my own records.

Here a detailed break down of just one lesson and the work she completed

Overall impression     

I can say that Aamina looks forward to her math lessons and I feel good about the work she is completing. The interface is fun, the content comes in short bits and is interactive, and there is a lot of hand holding available if the student needs it. Also, there is a review game every five lessons to practice math facts for memorization. 

Sometimes I worry about the price of a curriculum that I need to buy for each child, but Teaching Textbooks has lowered the price of 3.0 in comparison from their DVD version to accommodate. At $43.08 for Math 3 (higher grades are have a slightly higher price), it still comes in at less than half the price we were paying per year before, plus we won’t be paying the cost of printing an eBook three times over.

I do wish there was some way I could have her be independent and still use manipulatives, but I have decided that my time and attention is better served on subjects that are not taught well online, and allow her to learn math online. At this point it is a tried and true way to learn math concepts and work through a solid curriculum independently.

About Teaching Textbooks 3.0

A couple things to note about the online version of Teaching Textbooks

• You can print a physical copy of the book if you so choose
• You can use a placement test to determine which level is right (and a FREE trial to boot!)
• Large families are given a discount for 4 or more students
• Teaching Textbooks 3.0 can be used on mobile devices, and you can read a little bit more about how it works.
• Your subscription is for 12 months (plus any time paused) and for one level. When your child needs to move to the next level, it will need to be purchased separately, just like the buying patterns of print materials.

Teaching Textbooks FREE Trial

I highly recommend giving Teaching Textbooks a try and taking one thing off your plate. It’s been such a breath of fresh air for our homeschool!

In the free trial you can try any of the levels, up to lesson 15 for FREE, without any time limit, and no credit card number required!

Plus, right now is the perfect time to give it a shot before you start the next school year and make final decisions about curriculum!

I’ve wanted to throw all this homeschooling out the window and have my days to myself. I wanted to stop having to fight children to do what is assigned each. and. every. day.

We are wrapping up our 10th year homeschooling, and we’ve been in this place a number of times.

Why we want to quit

Most times I want to throw in the towel because of the micromanagement that it takes to create and maintain healthy habits. I have trouble enough on my own maintaining my own positive habits. Working to help someone else build their own, and fight me on it, is more than I can bear at times.

And there’s my patience. It’s always in limited supply and it’s rarely enough to get through each week without me getting irritated about something. You see, the kids are at an age where they bicker, a lot, and they forget to do their chores without constant reminders, and they don’t want to start lessons for the day and act like it’s some new routine I cooked up overnight and sprung on them.

It’s a lot.

Why we haven’t quit yet

So here’s the thing: I just can’t see sending my kids to school and losing all these hours with them.

When I do get them to complete their chores, and get them to the table (either with our without whining in the process), learning is a beautiful thing.

I love watching them learn new things and seeing it click.

I love seeing their eyes light up when we open a book they love, or to see them sit back with their handicrafts project while I’m reading one of their literature tales aloud.

I love taking them to the park with friends and spending hours there.

I love taking them to numerous plays throughout the year.

I love planning museum trips nearly every six weeks.

I love all the things I don’t hate, which maybe sounds obvious, but the love and joy when added up is greater than the frustration.

Not always. I have contacted a local private school to ask for their tuition fees. I’ve been desperate this year.

But after we get out of the winter and we can get outside more often, I always come back to looking forward to picking our books for the following year.

The hard work is where the gold is

Like I said, the hardest things for me are the micromanaging of daily tasks. “Did you finish your chores?” “Did you finish your project?” “Did you clean your room?” “There’s still a toy on the floor, this room isn’t clean.”

Honestly, it’s these repetitive questions and reminders that really get under my skin, but I know that’s the biggest rewards I’m going to reap later.

Since I’m putting in all the effort to make sure they can do their chores well, in a few years I won’t need to direct them so much.

Since I’m making sure they finish one thing before they start another, I can hope for children who have a good work ethic and check their own work without me having to ask.

It’s hard work. It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done and it stretches me in ways that are uncomfortable and messy, but while they are growing, I’m growing as a human being as well.

And even though they see the messiest side of me, big emotional meltdowns of my own and all, I hope and pray that they love me even more for the effort I’ve put in to be their teacher, guide, and mentor through their most formative years.

After all, I could be working and getting told how wonderful I am and handed money every week.

I don’t homeschool for the glory of it. I homeschool because I want them to be their best selves, and that takes a sacrifice on my part. I hope and pray my kids see that, hopefully before I die.

That’s why I don’t quit.

Yet.

But women can also be the pillow with which you lay your head down and the firm mattress with which you rest your tired body after a struggle that is beyond what others imagine.

We have kids, we face financial and health struggles, or we witness death in the family, and when we have a sisterhood with other women, they surround us with their love and support in the form of casseroles, soup, flowers, and blankets.

There’s a beauty in the support women give to other women, and in my experience, in particular between women who stay home with their kids.

You see, some of us are utterly dependent on our husbands for the financial maintenance of the home. It is a trust in Allah that we have placed so much trust in one income earner in the home so we can focus on raising the family. When we are out of commission, or our husband is, you see a beautiful thing – the rallying of other women to pick up the pieces when possible. To give relief in times of need. To give anything they have to gift a sliver of normalcy.

I have been so utterly fortunate to have multiple circles of women I know that jump at the opportunity to help another in their community. They hear a whisper of a call for help and come running. They are the glue that holds community together. They are the village we all hope so desperately for when we are plagued with long days and short nights.

I don’t know how I’ve been so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing women. Such women that care and take care of those around them. Such women that will bake you a casserole and stop by to talk about classic literature, toxic masculinity, or the meaning of life. Such women are the oxygen in the lives of so many, without whom we suffocate in a small world of our own, surrounded only by the needs of those in our home who may not see our needs in return.

I pray that those who do not have such a tribe in their communities find it as it is such a life giving force that it benefits not just you, but your kids, your family, and your homeschool. I don’t know how to find it, but I have to wonder if first being that person, exhibiting that you are one to rally to the call of one in need, is the first step.

I have not always been that person. I am not always that person. I’m utterly ashamed at how I have not been there for people that I care about in their time of need. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s seeing tragedy upon tragedy strike the mothers in our community; I can’t say, but over time I’ve had to come to the hard realization that not stepping on toes or being worried that I’m going to help wrong is worse than not helping at all.

The first step in this beautiful sisterhood that crosses boundaries is being a sister to those around you. I pray that I can be that sister.

This is in part why I wrote about how to prep your teens for adulthood. The fact that it’s the most popular post on the site shows me that I’m not the only one who prioritizes how to help my young adult children take their first steps of independence – with as little bumps in the road as possible.

As homeschool parents it can feel like a lot of pressure to have to teach our kids academics AND life skills.

Who wold have thought kids could learn some of the most core life skills through online classes?

I’ve heard of Mr D. many times. A friend of mine has a daughter who uses a math class with him, and I’ve heard other homeschoolers rave about the classes offered by him.

So when I came across the opportunity to review the Life Skills class by the well-renowned Mr. D of Mr. D Math, and of course I jumped on the chance. 

The following is a review Mr. D’s online homeschool class, life skills. I was allowed to attend classes for free, was compensated for my time, and as always, all opinions are my own. 

Even after hearing so much praise about him, I was pleasantly surprised to see just what a gem he is when I joined a live class recently. He is upbeat, energetic, and engaging. 

The class I joined used Zoom, an easy to use video conferencing tool, and some of the students chose to keep their webcams on. At the start of the class, most of them had flat expressions and your stereotypical teenager demeanor. Within 10 minutes he had them warming up with smiles and laughter. 

Life skills online class

Okay, so Mr D is awesome, but what is the life skills class about? 
The course starts with arguably the most important skill: goal setting. Then the course drills down into very practical tools like:

• Time management
• Financial literacy
• How the stock market works
• Check writing, credit cards, and having a bank account
• Stock market strategies
• Financing a car or project
• Learning styles and career assessments
• Career virtual field trip
• Specialized knowledge and having a burning desire
• Resume writing
• Researching a company or university
• College campus virtual field trip
• Managing life like a business

Through each of these topics, the students are engaged and given relevant homework, like making their own personal goals and reporting back on their progress, or taking part on a stock market game to see who can get the most profit from buying and selling stocks using the real stock market, but pseudo money.

I thought my parents did a pretty good job getting me ready for life with financial literacy, but this is a whole new level with kids understanding how credit cards work, and how you can get stuck in the credit card debt trap, and real functional tools to make sure you don’t. 

When high school is over

There are so many things we can teach our kids to help them be ready for independent life outside of our home, and it’s hard to know what to teach them. In my two posts about skills to teach your teens, I focused a lot on household things like how to wash dishes by hand, cook a meal, or meal plan.

What Mr. D teaches are the things that could really get someone in trouble if they didn’t have a decent understanding of it right away. People can throw away money on the stock market like it’s the casino, or use credit cards not knowing the impact of compounding interest, or have no skill at writing a resume and lose out on job opportunities. 

These skills are core. 

Sign up for online middle and high school classes

If you’d like to learn more, you can check out the entire line up of Mr D’s online homeschool classes ranging anything from life skills to the entire line up of middle school and high school math.

Or find out more about Mr D. and his company on Mr D Math website.

Mr D. online

You can also find Mr D. on social media via Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

It could be worse – a lot worse, but nonetheless, it shook me to my core.

I think one thing homeschool moms have in common in they go through life with great purpose. We do not meander through life and let it take us where it will. We are not passive with what comes to us, and we see ourselves as part of a bigger picture – a teacher in the community, raising young minds and young hearts to enter into the world to do their best and be the best they can.

That comes with a lot of pressure, and self doubt.

The self doubt this year has been real, and deep, and painful.

I’m 10 years into this homeschooling gig. You’d think I’d be a bit more confident by now. Sure, I’m confident that this is what I want to do. I’m confident in choosing curriculum and making a schedule, but the question in one’s head on whether you’re doing well… I don’t think that ever goes away. We always question whether we are doing enough… whether we are enough.

I looked at a picture of myself recently, and started to wonder: who am I anyway? Am I just a homeschool mom? A wife? A student? Am I community member and volunteer? Am I a 4H leader? Am I a student? Am I a landlord?

And it’s striking to think that certain people think of me only as being in one of these categories, but inside, I am them all. And because I am them all, I’m always distracted by another side of me, another responsibility, that I don’t get to simmer in any one side for long.

So, for 2019, I want to do LESS, and focus MORE.

I want to sign up for less, I want to expect from myself less, I want to simplify and be able to simmer in thoughts to come to my own conclusions before moving on to the next thing.

We’ve had this last week off from lessons, and my husband has also had off from work. In part that made us busier, but in my down time I’ve tried to think about how to accomplish the simplification I’m aiming for. Here are a couple things I have in mind:

• Do not sign up for a CSA this year. Yes, it’s a great experience for the whole family, but I would rather take the kids on trips, at least for this year. We might sign up for the CSA every other year. We’ll see.
• Make 10 freezer meals a month. I’m great about meal planning, so the hard part is just finding an afternoon to put together the meals. Still, that should make other days of the month easier, in sha Allah.
• Finish Lyme treatment. I started getting treated for Lyme with a naturopath a couple years ago, but stopped because it was cost prohibitive, but the sluggish feeling and body aches is kicking back in and it needs to be addressed.
• Establish bedtime routine where kids do not wander around the house after 9pm.

I’ve learned this year that I actually could cut out homeschooling, or stop working toward my degree with Mishkah and I’d still be plenty busy, but both of these are so important to me, that I just need to soldier on.

Homeschool goals

For the most part, my two youngest play in a different room from where I’m doing lessons with Aamina (8). I don’t do well with lots of random noises that I have to talk over, so it keeps the peace, but I know my two youngest actually would like to have some lessons with me as it’s one-on-one time, and they want to be like their bigger sister. With Amatullah turning 6 this spring, it’ll be time for her to get started with formal lessons.

The last few months we’ve been working on the kids’ morning routine of getting themselves breakfast and cleaning up a few key places before getting started with lessons. Along these lines, a couple goals I have for our homeschool:

• Get started earlier with morning routine. Have everything done by 9:30am, ready for lessons.
• Start lessons in earnest with Amatullah in spring
• Consistently do art lessons each Friday (the kids’ favorite lesson, that normally gets skipped for lack of time)

Of course I want to exercise more, read more, and all the rest. I’ve cancelled Hulu and Netflix and started a subscription with The Great Courses to try to steer myself into more beneficial TV time after the kids go to bed.

And hey, if I even remember to keep working on these goals come June, that’s a win, right?

What goals do you have for this year?

I didn’t have to actually type any words. I have no idea if typing games even existed back then. My first experience with learning to type correctly was in middle school in our boring typing class. The only thing that made it better is the excitement to get our hands on the computers and to sit in the coveted computer lab.

But our kids can’t wait that long any more before potentially picking up bad habits. The games today are far more sophisticated, and prevalent in many kids’ every day life. Typing is a lot of muscle memory, and bad habits stick worst when you don’t even know you’re doing it. Honestly, it hadn’t dawned on me until recently that I should get ahead of the curve and get my kids introduced to real typing lessons, and at this age it’s most appropriate for that to come in the form of typing games.

The following is a review of KidzType. I have been compensated for my time, and all opinions are my own. 

My kids have absolutely no prior knowledge of any typing skills. They didn’t even know that there’s a proper way to hold your hands on the keyboard. So, we’re starting from a fresh slate here, and I jumped at the chance to get them started on the right foot with a fun and free typing game.

Right away my 7 year old was drawn in to the simple and colorful graphics and the self-explanatory instructions on KidzType. After playing the first round, she turns to me and asks, “Can I do another?!”

Right now she’s in the stages of learning all the letters, so when she needs more practice, I can have her use the typing exercises to help her solidify her knowledge and build more speed. When she’s done with all the lessons, she can then go on to the typing games to tie it all in in a fun way.

How KidzType works

KidzType has four levels, each with three stages. Each stage takes the child through a few new keys and has lots of practice on using the new keys both in random patterns, and words that can be created using the letters they’ve worked on.

Within each level there are many visuals to show where to correctly place your fingers. The illustrated hands have color coded fingernails to match the colored keyboard keys, plus a symbol radiates from the finger that should be used for the key that is to be pressed next. Both of these help train the child to look at the screen, not at their fingers, which may be one of the biggest hurdles when learning how to type.

When they hit a wrong key, the error sound is a simple squeak. One of my kids is very sensitive to negative feedback and I’m thankful that such a sound makes her react with “Oops!” instead of discouragement.

Why teach touch typing

Touch typing is pretty straight forward – you type without looking at your fingers. I figured before this review that I was a pretty proficient at touch typing. Whenever I do any typing tests, I get somewhere in the range of 55-65 words per minute. Not amazing, but not bad. But what I noticed when I started playing these games on KidzType.com is that if the keystrokes weren’t in the form of words I already knew and was familiar with typing already, my speed was far slower. My typing apparently is similar to only using sight words when learning how to read – I couldn’t easily type out things that weren’t already familiar to me.

So, this review is about my kids using the program, but frankly, I’ve gotten some great practice as well, and I’ve been having fun with it. It feels like it brings me back to the old school computer games I used to play as a kid with the sound effects, and I’ve definitely improved my touch typing in this short time.

How to bring typing games into your routine

With young kids, it’s key to put websites into their bookmarks toolbar. For now, we have not taught the kids about surfing the Internet, and we generally just whitelist addresses and everything else is blacklisted. By putting the website on the bookmarks toolbar, or even a shortcut on the desktop, it’s within easy reach for kids to use it at their leisure, or for mom to tell them to do some typing games while she’s in the shower.

While we limit screen time, I do recognize the peace it brings to my home to have my kids occupied and not making a mess. Making educational stuff easy to use for them adds to my comfort level, big time.

For us, I like to have my kids practice typing while their sibling is doing a one-on-one lesson. It’s hard to micromanage that they are properly using the computer, so I like using TypeDojo, the sister site to KidzType, to give them something to work toward. 4H has pins, scouts have badges… in general, we like to show we have completed something. TypeDojo.com is a free typing test for all ages, and at the completion of the test, you can print out a certificate to show your progress. There are a variety of tests so even the earliest learner can see their progress and can print out a certificate, if they choose!

After I showed my husband TypeDojo, we may or may not have competed for best typing speed and accuracy. Good thing we are both good sports. LOL!

Get started playing and learning to type right away! And follow KidzType on Facebook to stay updated!

I finally succumbed to using a bedroom as our homeschool space, and I couldn’t be happier, mashaAllah! And alhamdulilah, last year I was able to totally outfit the room so we had storage and seating space for all of us.

I’d like to quickly mention that this room never actually looks this clean. Ever. We use it every day, and while I try to make sure it is kept generally tidy, it looks lived in. Don’t be fooled by staged pictures.

Unless otherwise mentioned and/or linked, all the furniture is from IKEA.

Our homeschool room tour

Right when you walk in, you’ll find our library box, and the space for each of my kids to present their work that they are currently most proud of. The clips are courtesy of 3M command clips.

For our seating area, I bought myself an office chair, and for the kids I bought two junior chairs and one stool. I got one stool because for one, the junior chairs are a little pricey, but I also figured once all three of them are doing school at the table, at least one of them would probably be outgrowing the junior chair. When that time comes, I probably will get something a little more comfortable than the stool, but for now the stool works great.

A big focal point in the room are the two maps, purchased from Costco, and mounted on the wall with 3M command strips (the ones used for mounting picture frames). I’ve been amazed at how aware we are of geography just by sitting and staring at the map when we’re bored, and how often we reference it in our lessons.

The table is one of my favorite pieces in the room. I was able to choose the size and color of the table top, and pick the supports separately. I chose one side to be a black, A-frame support, and the other to be a set of drawers.

The set of drawers are organized as follows:

Top: Includes a drawer organizer found in the kitchen section and houses pencils, pens, the “school crayons” (that do not leave the school room and are only used for school work. The kids have a box of play crayons that I don’t keep tabs on, but this way we always have crayons for school), erasers, scissors, and other small everyday items.
Second: Charlotte Mason plannerand my paper planner are kept here, along with my Kindle Fire that I have loaded with various school books, and we use it from time to time to watch a YouTube video for school.
Third: All our math books are kept here. They are large and with the spiral binding, plus cardstock cover, they don’t keep well in a bookshelf unless it’s fully supported.
Fourth: We keep all our partially used paper in this drawer for later use. This is very useful for art projects, or scratch paper. I also typically have a knitting or crochet project in this drawer that I work on while a child is reading or doing their math work.
Fifth: All my notebooks for my own classes are kept in the bottom drawer. Similar to the math books, notebooks typically don’t stand well in a bookshelf, so they are kept here.

On to the shelves!

I bought a 3×3 cube organizer from Target as IKEA didn’t have 3×3, and anything else just didn’t fit the space as neatly as this does.

Here’s how this is organized:

First row, from left to right: The books we use each week are kept here, within easy reach from where I sit at the table; games; pencil sharpener, tape, colored pencils, markers
Second row, from left to right: Preschool books like plastic organizer, activity books, plastic organizer, and other things that my younger two kids can grab and use quietly while we do our lessons; plastic organizer for math cards, and bag that includes loose math materials like tally sticks, centimeter cubes, tiles, geometric solids, etc.; Zoobooks and High Five magazines
Bottom row, from left to right: Pattern sheets for blocks and tangrams, blocks; drawer has do-a-dot markers and books, shelf has magnets to create letters (or anything else they dream up) and a cookie sheet to use the magnets on; Arabic alphabet puzzle by Thinkernation.

From here the organization gets a little more loose

I’ve organized the two main bookshelves loosely into free-reads and reference/curriculum books. Of course, there are many books that fall a bit into both categories, and sometimes I fudged the category for sake of space, but that’s the general idea.

In the free-read bookshelf, it is organized from youngest to oldest, from bottom to top, following the advice given from what I learned about Thomas Jefferson Education. As the kids get older, we’ll move stuff down a shelf and make more space for the oldest group. In the free-read shelf is a mix of fiction and non-fiction, including Thomas Jefferson Education, Magic School Bus, and lots of Lets Read and Find Out science books.

In the reference/curriculum shelf, it is ordered by subject, with phonics and readers at the bottom, and my personal free reads at the top (my personal books are swapped in these shelves basically because of space constraints).

The middle narrow shelf has oversized books, undersized books like field guides, poetry, and all our construction paper.

On the wall next to this I have an old whiteboard leaning against the wall. When my husband’s workplace moved to a new building, they had whiteboards they were giving away. It doesn’t erase as nicely as it once did, but I have it there for the kids to use as they wish, using whiteboard crayons. Originally, the kids had their own whiteboard markers, but too often the caps were not put back on and they would dry out, so now we use whiteboard crayons and the problem is no more!

On top of all of this, we purchased the Billy bookcase extender to keep things looking tidy, and I have cubes I ordered from Thirty One Gifts with the different subjects embroidered on the front. In the cubes I have loose items like magnetic letters, magnifying glass, magnets, and more math manipulatives that we don’t yet use, or use rarely. In the middle I have a file organizer from Thirty One Gifts that I use to keep samples of the kids’ artwork that I want to keep for them when they are older.

Last, but not least is the corner that includes a small desk that was actually my husband’s desk when he started homeschooling (how cute is that?!) that our youngest child now uses. It has coloring books, the play crayons (mentioned above, they are distinct from the school crayons), and play colored pencils. Above this is our magnetic whiteboard we found at Costco, and alphabet sheets the kids use for reference as they are learning printing.

Okay, last-last thing – since this is a bedroom, there is a full size closet as well. It’s not picture-worthy, but it does include a child-size dresser, with the printer on top. The dresser houses supplies like paint, oil and chalk pastels, brushes, printer ink, laminating pouches, extra pencils, and binding coils. The closet houses anything else that is hard to neatly fit into the room, or things that we don’t use that often. And since the closet has wire shelves, it actually comes in handy to dry painted art projects. At some point I might totally outfit the closet to make it as efficient and organized as possible, but for now it’s a bit of a catch-all.

Want to see other homeschool spaces? Check out iHomeschool Network’s Back to Homeschool Blog Hop! This week is all about homeschool rooms!

Grade 1 Charlotte Mason curriculum

Math

We went back and forth with math this year and came back to Right Start Math, Level B. I can see us using this indefinitely. After trying out a few different curriculums, which were also fantastic, I just love the abacus and think it’s an incredible teaching tool for math. So, with confidence, I can tell you we are planning to use Right Start Math Level C for second grade.

Science

I’ve been singing the praises of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding for a little while now. The downside is it requires a little bit of prep work, a lot if you want to get fancy with activities, but we generally just do a journal entry with each lesson. Each lesson includes open ended questions to get the child to reason to the conclusion on their own, so instead of a lecture or required reading, much of the knowledge is gained via an inquiry-based approach and solidified with experiments. I love that all the science fields are covered, interconnected, and lessons build directly on each other so there is consistent review of concepts. As Charlotte Mason says:

“…you must not only fix his attention upon each new lesson, but each must be so linked into the last that it is impossible for him to recall one without the other following in its train.” – Volume 1 pg 158

There are suggested titles within BFSU to read up on the various topics via picture books, but I’ve found my Usborne Encyclopedias have most of what I need, and when a subject is still unclear, I use our Usborne science activity books to build on the topic.

There’s definitely a learning curve with the book, but there’s a Facebook group that is super helpful to get the most out of the book and get support from other parents who are using it.

History

I’ve covered much of our history when I talked about decolonizing history, but this is the summary of what we’ve used:

• The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling (find a vintage book. The reprint is useless.)
• America First by Lawton B. Evans
• Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
• Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (this book needs serious editing if used)
• Jamestown, New World Adventures by James Knight
• Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey (edition reprinted by Beautiful Feet Books. We are currently reading this, so I can not vouch for the entire book yet.)

Islamic Studies

I think it’s nine years now that we’ve used Ad-Duha as our core Islamic Studies curriculum. Their Mini Tafseer books are one of a kind, and the Perfecting the Pillars books are incredibly valuable at building a love of Allah through understanding tawheed and His 99 names. In addition, we read stories of the prophets one day a week, using The Prophets of Allah series published by IQNA and Stories from the Quran published by Timas.

Art

In our Charlotte Mason homeschool, artist study is done once a week. We have used the picture study portfolios you can get from Simply Charlotte Mason, adding one picture from the artist we are studying each week to our collection on the wall of our school room. When we change artists, we remove all from the current artist and start over. This year we covered Van Gogh, Monet, and Turner because they are all landscape painters and we do not put up images of animate objects in our home.

As the years go on, continuing to stay within the realm of landscape painters will be challenging. I have not decided if the study of art is reason enough to make an accommodation to our beliefs, as there is room for an accommodation for educational purposes.

Breaking from the Charlotte Mason method, I do have one lesson a week on art technique, using Artistic Pursuits, Book 1. Aamina is, mashaAllah, a very creative person and I wanted to get more tools in her hands from an early age, but with some sort of direction in how to use them. So far she’s loved these lessons and she’s gained a lot of experience with different art mediums.

Geography

Geography has been quite straightforward this year. We do it two times a week – once using C.C. Long’s Home Geography for Primary Grades, and once using Minn of the Mississippi. If I were to do things over again, I’d get the maps and possibly the curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books to go along with it, or just wait on the Holling book for a later year. A lot of the Minn book went over her head, but I do think she has a good picture in her mind of how the landscape around the Mississippi River changes from its start in Minnesota (which we visited this year, mashaAllah!) to its end in Louisiana.

Natural History

I have to admit I’ve felt a little bit lost in trying to do natural history according to Charlotte Mason’s teachings, but I’ve tried to keep a couple nature lore books, and a special studies rotation each term. It’s also worth mentioning that I have substituted Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding for one of the natural history time slots in our week. Here’s what we’ve used, and the breakdown:

• Eyes and No Eyes by Arabella Buckley – Great book! Since it is written from England, some portions aren’t entirely useful, especially the one about trees. Use about once a week.
• Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1 – Fantastic book, and the religious mentions are quite doctrine-neutral, except when you get to the end. There are a few sections that are all about Christian doctrine and use animals to illustrate concepts, but 90% of the book is about the animal kingdom, with a comment such as, “And only God could make something so perfect.”
• Nature Writings and Musings by Kathy Heidel – this is actually a book printed by our local park district, written by a naturalist that worked there for many years. She has sections for each month that talk about the typical patterns in that time of year in Minnesota, and other journal entries about interesting things she’s come across while exploring the outdoors. If you live in or near Minnesota, I 100% recommend this book. She is a gem.
  • To buy, contact Three Rivers Park District and see what options are available, or stop in one of their locations to see if it is available for purchase off the shelf.
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children – I wish I would have paid the extra to get the book with full color illustrations. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book because I think the storyline crowds out the information given, but Aamina likes it, so we continue.
• A Kids Herb Book by Lesley Tierra – A good primer to herbs for kids, especially if you’re going to make the recipes. Next year I plan to use the Herb Fairies books for our special studies rotation in the summer. We’ve read a few chapters so far and enjoy them quite a bit, along with the activities that go with them.

Reading

We started with the Charlotte Mason style reading lessons, but I found these weren’t as effective as I was hoping they would be. We took a break from that and used Phonics Pathways after it being suggested by a couple friends. It seemed to do the trick in having step-by-step lessons with lots of practice (so much we actually skipped some of the practice in the lessons).

Now that Aamina has a stronger footing with reading, we use the Treadwell Readers for reading practice. She loves these books and always wants to read more.

Amatullah, my 5 year old, is currently working on Jolly Phonics, like her big sister did. Since she’s only 5, I don’t require her to do any lessons yet, but she loves the one-on-one time with me, and she is a passionate lover of books already, so we’ve started with these easy and fun activity books. When she’s done, I plan to get the Primer of the Treadwell Readers and give the Charlotte Mason method of teaching reading another shot.

Tales

We’ve been reading from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang this year.  Honestly, this is a subject that gets skipped often, but these tales are timeless and portray right and wrong in very clear light. Some are a bit dark and twisted (I’m told not to read Blue Beard at all), but a friend mentioned a good way to understand the purpose of fairy tales in that kids can grapple with these more challenging and dark areas of the world and their own lives by first grappling with them in stories.

Many of today’s well known stories are actually found in Brothers Grimm, and we read from this earlier in the school year. You’ll want to pre-read these stories before reading aloud, but there are some good stories in there… and some really dark and twisty ones that may not be good for young children to hear.

Foreign Language

We are learning Arabic as our foreign language, and since it uses a different character set than English, I have introduced some writing elements to our instruction, contrary to the Charlotte Mason way, which is totally oral at this point.

For writing instruction and letter familiarity, we use Ad-Duha’s arabic curriculum. There is a lot of Qur’anic vocabulary introduced in these books, and we mention it, but I do not expect my children to remember all of it. There are also Qur’anic vocabulary introduced within the Mini Tafseer series, and we do review and actually try to memorize those words.

For conversation and vocabulary, we use the Madinah Arabic Reader series. There are writing activities in this book that we do orally, until Aamina has completed Ad-Duha’s arabic curriculum, level B.

We also own Arabic readers that I find highly valuable, but Aamina said that it felt like too many new words being introduced at a time, so we’ve paused on those for the time being. I’m working on finding more ways to create immersion for the kids as my vocabulary is limited, likely through videos the kids can watch on their own.

Poetry

Poetry is pretty straight forward with reading a bit each day, with a focus overall on a particular poet. This year we covered:

• Robert Frost
• Maya Angelou
• A.A. Milne

Aamina loved Maya Angelou and was sad when we started a new term and we were going to move on, but A.A. Milne has also won her heart. Both of us were happy to move on from Robert Frost after 12 weeks. He’s great, but just didn’t win our hearts like the other two did.

Handicrafts

Admittedly, handicrafts has been something we’ve skipped more often than we’ve completed, but even with doing that, we’ve completed a few projects that have been very useful and fun.

• Knitting – I’m a knitter, so I just taught what I know and Aamina has made two dishclothes so far.
• Paper folding – Using The Art of Chinese Paper Folding as a primer, it has opened the door to using Paper Sloyd and doing origami in her spare time.
• Sewing – Aamina has learned how to sew a button, do the whip stitch, and straight stitch, using Sewing School as a guide for instructions and projects. She has made a bad and a needle “book”.

I’m not the only one sharing my curriculum choices! Stop by the iHomeschool Network Back to School Blog Hop to read what other bloggers have chosen for their homeschool curriculum!

History has been such a struggle.

There seems to be two camps when teaching history:

1) Teaching the way we were taught in American schools growing up. We learn that Columbus encountered the Americas, sparking a period of exploration and discovery. There is little talk of what happened to the native communities, and the few native Americans that are named are done so in the context of how they helped colonists.

2) We teach the atrocities and mass slaughter that were done at the hands of the explorers, naming specific people and the evil that they spread.

I realize I’m in the minority here with trying to bridge between the two. I want to explain why.

One belief I have that has kept me rooted from falling into camp #2 is that I want my children to grow up with a worldview of hope. I want them to start their learning years hearing about great men and women that shaped the world we are in today. I want them to look up to people that invented, that created, that nurtured others. I want them to see the good things they can do in this world and I want our study of history to help form that worldview.

Secondly, when you are starting out with pre-colonial Americas with form 1B (grade 1), there are widely conflicting accounts. How we choose to handle those accounts largely speaks to our personal biases, which I believe our personal biases need to be removed from teaching history, other than possibly amplifying voices that are otherwise muted in our mainstream teaching of history.

Unfortunately there are little to no books that offer this middle perspective, but I have found some that make this conversation a bit easier.

Living book suggestions for decolonizing US history

In sha Allah (God willing) I’ll be updating this list over the years. So far we have covered history up to Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower 

A Little History of the United States

I personally really love this book, but to be honest, my 1st grader doesn’t find it as interesting as I do. I think it’s a bit dense for her still, but I could see us using this as a spine in the future. There’s a lot of context given in this book for various historic events, such as the reformation in England being a contributing factor to exploration and people moving overseas. When we get to historic figures that are highly contested, he skims over it offering some perspective from both sides but not diving into the details. At age 7, I’m perfectly okay with this. We literally have 11 more years to talk about it, and that’s not even including college and continued learning as an adult. At this age, I’d rather give less details about a contested account than the wrong details. 

The Book of Indians

The only reason I gave this book a chance is because it is written by the same author as Paddle to the Sea and Minn of the Mississippi (which we are currently using for Geography). Given it is written in the mid-20th century, I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I got a copy for somewhere around $4 and I heard good things about it, so I figured what’s the harm?

In the introduction he says that he and his wife went to live with the various native communities across the United States, taking in their stories and making his book from that information. The book is divided into the different communities and he chronicles what life was like within these communities, generally focusing on a child as the main character in each story.

This book teaches more about culture and lifestyle and less than about specific events, but does dispel the myth that native nations were all hunter gatherer societies that had not developed into anything significant.

One more note on this book – get the vintage book. The reprint of this is unusable.

The American Story Series

This series is a bit new to me, but by reading through The New Americans: Colonial Times, and a recommendation from a friend, it looks like a good fit. There is a lot of information in these small books, so it would be good to stop and read about some of the people mentioned, but the illustrations and writing style are engaging. Another option would be to read it as a summary when you finish reading other books for that time period.

Squanto’s Journey

A good picture book about the first Thanksgiving, and written by a well regarded author, Joseph Bruchac. He has chapter books that detail Sacajawea and Pocahontas as well that are suitable for middle school age.

Biographies

Linked above is an ultimate guide to homeschooling with biographies. Again, look for a non-biased perspective when possible. Teaching the stories of people is a powerful way to understand history and all the sides that go into the story we tell.

Books that can be useful, if filtered or adapted

America First

There are some stories in here that really help paint a picture of life in the pre-colonial era and the people that were influential. I do like that more people are mentioned in this spine than other books I’ve encountered, which helps me then dig into finding biographies or piecing together information as the stories are told. I do not recommend the story of John Smith from this book as it sounds downright like a fairy tale with his “heroic” ways.

Still, for less than $3 for the Kindle version, it’s worth having on hand. No other book talks about the lost colony of Roanoke and other events that are usually skipped over.

d’Aulaire books

What I’ve read so far from the d’Aulaire books are Leif the Lucky, Columbus and Pocahontas, and of these three the one I do not recommend Pocahontas. (Basically the only Pocahontas story I’m comfortable with is from A Little History of the United States.) Columbus for sure needs some editing as you’re reading aloud, and discussion after you read it, but it is engaging and is not hard to adapt.

The value in adapting books

If a book is not what you need from it, why use it? I find it valuable for kids to see that not all books tell the truth, or they may skim over the truth.

One perfect example is in the Columbus book where it says that Columbus put the Spanish flag on the beach where they landed. No other mention was made to this action, but we stopped and discussed what the native Americans would think about that, and why Columbus felt he had the freedom to claim this island for Spain.

Books are written on nearly every subject imaginable, and each one has an author that has their own biases and their own limited knowledge on the subject. We should take each book with the understanding that it is inherently flawed in some way. Each resource must be approached with a questioning mind, with a curious heart, and with logic to find the inaccuracies.

Using a flawed book, and talking about what flaws we see and discussing them helps our children build critical thinking for when they are reading books on their own. Show them how to question, and what to do with those question.

Even with valuing a flawed book, I suggest obviously flawed books are in the minority, by far.

Please share any book suggestions in the comments below! I’m always looking for new resources!