Homeschool Ballers: We Learn. We Play. We Homeschool.

This year I wanted to use The Magic Tree House Book Series to teach my younger two history and geography. We really enjoy Jack and Annie's adventures and I figured it would give us a great variety of topics. We found learning history chronologically a little boring, so following the Tree House series would allow us to learn about different time periods and places every few weeks, while keeping learning exciting.  Along with the Magic Tree House books, we check out other books relevant to the topic and time period from the library. I also pick up an interesting book that relates to the subject being covered, to read out loud to the kids before bed every night. To enhance our lessons, I created notebook pages for the kids to record their learning, which can be downloaded below, along with doing some exciting activities. We just completed Book 2 of the series, The Knight at Dawn.

Getting started on homeschooling can be nerve wracking and confusing. Hopefully the following post will be helpful in getting you organized and provide tips on managing your homeschool.

Cow and Lamb Cakes Hajj Lapbook One of the things I love most about homeschooling is being able to customize our learning. We can pick and choose any topic and turn it into a unit study. Every year, ever since my oldest was in KG, we have dedicated 2 weeks to learning about Hajj.  During this period we read and discuss the story of Ibrahim (pbuh), Prophet Ibraheem's journey from Babylon to Makkah, the geographical location of the Holy cities: climate, habitats, etc., and scientific facts surrounding those areas. This turns into quite an exciting unit study. Lapbook Cover

Instant Pot- The Busy Mom's Helper Have you ever been so occupied with schooling the kids, chauffeuring them to and from extra curricular activities, doing the laundry, cleaning the house twice, and finally getting to sip your cup of coffee, when you realize you completely forgot to cook dinner? Story of my life, until I bought the Instant Pot! This is a gadget every busy mom needs to have in her kitchen, not only because it cuts down cooking time, but because you can throw in all your ingredients and not worry about watching over the stove. My kids are in sports and religious studies afternoon/evening classes all year long. Sometimes we leave the house in the morning (for HS field trips/classes/etc.) and don't return until 6 or 7 pm. Before we leave I throw all my ingredients into the Instant Pot and say "Yo home, smell ya later!" And when we get home at the end of the day, voila! a delicious and warm home-cooked meal awaits us! By the grace of Allah, this h...

Memon Akhni in Instant Pot

Instant Pot Chicken Salan (Tomato-based Curry)

Bismillah ((I start) In the name of God) My Ballers A couple friends and I decided it would be great to jot down our home-school journey, simply for ourselves. May be one day we will look back at these times and think, "Alhamdulillah, I didn't do a terrible job after all!" So here I go... Praise Allah alone, I have been homeschooling for almost 5 years now. It hasn't been an entirely easy journey, but surely it has been exciting and encouraging. I think every homeschooling mother hits a point (every few months) and thinks, "This is awful. What was I thinking? I can't handle this!" But when you regroup, gather thoughts and lessons, and really analyze everything your child has learned with you, you're re-motivated and excited to continue. After I prayed Asr yesterday evening, I sat looking around our classroom. Then in deep thought my eyes focused on the carpet. I started thinking about my own education, religious and academic, and how...