It’s been a while since we’ve done a round up on the blog! Truth be told, things were crazy with a new baby at home, getting Kira ready for her first year at community college, and just every day life.
So what have we been up to last month?
College
Alhamdulilah, Kira has been doing great in her first semester at community college! She’s taking digital photography, writing, chemistry, and child and adolescent psychology. Chemistry has been a challenge, but since we’ve homeschooled for six years, I felt confident I could find her some study materials to help boost her retention.
She has started watching Khan Academy videos, and that has helped. If that doesn’t give her the full boost she needs, I’ll be checking out Uzinggo.
Alhamdulilah, Kira also passed the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature exam and earned 6 college credits by doing so! She also tried the College Algebra exam and missed it by only one point! Bummer!
Totschool
Amatullah likes to stay up late, like midnight late, and that wears on me as a mom. If I’m going to get up at 6am with the baby, and have Aamina asking for breakfast at 7am, I need to have my own quiet time at some point!
So, my solution was to drop her nap. She’s only two and a half, so it’s not ideal, but I need her to go to bed earlier in a serious way.
Since she dropped her nap, she’s with Aamina and me when we do school, and so I’ve started getting school stuff for her to do. We’ve started with finger play songs, wipe-clean books, do-a-dot coloring books, and talking about colors and numbers with activities from Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.
I’m still trying to figure out how to have the girls do a similar thing so I’m not playing referee over the school stuff that they each have. I imagine as they get older it’ll be at least a little easier, but for now I’m hunting through my preschool hoard to find thing they can both take part in.
Preschool
MashaAllah, Aamina has just about memorized Surah al-Fatiha, so we have moved on to Surah al-Nas. We start out our Qur’an work with listening to recitation from my phone using the Listen Quran app, then practicing ourselves, and then working through a couple pages in the Mini Tafseer book.
As with all our preschool stuff, we are taking it slow, and just doing stuff when Aamina is interested in it. We don’t have a set schedule, but I am finding that after lunch is a good time to sit down and work together. We moved this from being right after breakfast, mainly because I want to get to the gym in the morning. Self-care is important for me, and the kids love playing at the Y!
We’ve also spent many more days at the park in October than we had over the summer. I love sweater weather far more than warm, sunny days.
Motherhood
Like I said, I’ve been going to the gym more often, around 3-5 days a week. Ever since I started going to the fitness classes at the Y, I’ve been hooked and I seek those out instead of working out on the machines. That means I have less time to listen to audio books for myself (the kids still listen to books almost exclusively in the van), but in the big scheme of things, working out is a bigger benefit.
I’ve also signed up for the Seekers Hub class, Islamic Parenting: Raising Upright Children, and Ameera from Traditional Muslimah Homemaker has started a discussion group on Facebook. Hit me up on Facebook if you want to join the group, in sha Allah. I’m excited as this will be the first class I’ve taken in a long time, and I love taking classes!
I’m happy to say October wasn’t all that busy, alhamdulilah! We are working toward having more relaxed days than fitting in tons of stuff and being stressed. So far, so good.
Assalamualaikum sis,
You inspired me, a born Muslim but haven’t done much. I am mother too, to raise good muslims, I have to be one first. Keep sharing. May Allah SWT bless you and family with His Jannah.
Walaykum assalam,
I hear ya! When I’m having a hard day, my kids are my inspiration to be a better Muslim. I want them to attain Jannah, in sha Allah, and in order to do that, they need some guidance! In sha Allah you raise those with the highest of deen!
Assalamu alaikum,
MashaAllah you are all busy. I dont homeschool mostly because it is illegal in Germany but school here is only until 1:00 anyway so we do a lot of home learning. I soooooo get you, working out and knitting are the things thst keep me sane most days:)
Loved hearing and seeing about your day
Walaykum assalam,
We’ve considered moving to other countries, and homeschooling being illegal is a deal breaker. I’m sorry to hear that Germany’s illegal because homeschooling can be a lot of fun! On the other hand, sometimes I wish for quiet days. LOL.
Now if we could knit AND workout at the same time, life would be grand!