by Eaman Elhadri
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Watch the FB LIVE video below or read the blog post where Eaman Elhadri reviews 2019-2020 secular studies curriculum for older and younger children!
Our Curriculum Review is broken up into two parts: early childhood and older children.
Grade levels are arbitrary in our home. A child may use a certain book or curriculum for two years straight, or fly through two books in the same year.
Also, keep in mind what works for our family may not work for yours. Our families are unique.
As always, do you x2 boo!
Early Childhood
Disclaimer – your young child does not NEED school. Yes, you read that correctly.
And by school, I mean formal lessons. Formal lessons are structured, and the child is typically sitting and writing.
Any child under the age of eight shouldn’t feel pressured and overwhelmed with formal lessons.
Young Children’s Needs
So what do you do instead? Continue to give your child exactly what they need – an Islamic environment, fresh air, and your lap.
Continue focusing on habit training, developing a love for learning, reading aloud, and providing hands-on experiences. Have fun and don’t sweat the early years!
That doesn’t mean you can’t “do anything” all day with your young child. We certainly did!
Would you like to understand how your young child learns? Take this free course!
So you’re probably wondering why I’m sharing resources for young children. Simple.
Because they ask for it! 🙂 My youngest begs for “work”, worksheets, math. It’s crazy actually. 😉
So if your young child is the same, read on!
English Language Arts
Reading aloud
Reading aloud is a key componentto Language Arts in our home. We try to choose classic children’s literature whenever possible because they’re well written and don’t typically have shirk and haraam concepts.
Children’s Literature
What is children’s literature?
Children’s literature is a dynamic entity in its own right that offers its readers many avenues for pleasure, reflection, and emotional engagement.
Kerry Mallan
Oxford Reads
Kerry Mallan goes on to explain –
The irony of children’s literature is that, while it is ostensibly for children, it relies on adults for its existence. This reciprocal relationship between adult and child is, however, at the heart of education.
Kindergartners, and all children for that matter, thrive on read-alouds. Kindergartners aren’t typically reading on their own and, even if they were, still need to hear an adult read to them.
Reserve around ten minutes every other day to read to your child. If you’d like to read aloud more often than that, try out twenty minutes daily.
Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.
Emilie Buchwald
This awesome book contains all you need to know about the immense benefits of reading aloud!
Purchase The Read-Aloud Hanbook by Jim Trelease here, or click on the image below.
Kindergarten reading curriculum
I’m pretty sure you’ll guess what I’m about to say: “You don’t need a reading curriculum!” 🙂 Many children learn to read just by being read to!
Does your child love to read?
Has anyone ever asked you what age you started reading? I doubt that. And if they did, perhaps hang out with some other folks. 🙂
Here is a question you should ask yourself – Does my child LOVE to read?
InshAllah the answer is yes. If your answer is no, inshAllah they will develop a love for reading when you read-aloud to them.
This love will be what motivates your child to value reading for a lifetime, inshAllah!
When your child demonstrates readiness and a desire for reading
How I determined that my kindergartner was developmentally ready for reading
My kindergartner shows signs of readiness and a desire for reading because she ‘fake’-reads everything around the house.
She writes notes (mainly the same often used letters) and hands them to everyone. She asks when she can start her own lessons.
Therefore, I ‘allowed’ her to start formal reading lessons this year. My kindergartner doesn’t perceive it as work, but views it more as, “fun with Ziggy the puppet”.
All About Reading by Marie Rippel
I had a feeling that my kindergartner would love the gentle reading curriculum that my eldest and I used in the past: All About Reading by Marie Rippel. I also knew that we still needed to try it out to make sure it was a right fit for her.
Alhemdulilah, it seems to be working for her so far, so we’ll stick with it, inshAllah.
All About Reading is my favorite reading curriculum because it’s gentle and scripted – a complete open and go curriculum!
My daughter was so excited to learn with ‘Ziggy’, the puppet included in the Pre-Reading package.
The readers (books) are beautifully written and illustrated. And get this! – The readers use real stories vs. nonsense stories! Alhemdulilah for that!
All About Learning Press provides a key to determine your child’s level, however keep in mind that Level 1 is pretty advanced. Most kindergartners start off at the Pre-Reading level.
Once my daughter completes the Pre-Reading Level, we will take a short break and then I will re-test her to see if she’s ready for All About Reading Level 1, inshAllah. If she isn’t ready, I’ll read aloud more often and play various hands-on phonics games with her, inshAllah.
I recommend purchasing the deluxe package. We’ve used every aspect of it (for years!) and it still holds up! Worth every penny! InshAllah.
If I were to assign a grade to All About Reading, I would give it a big fat A+. 🙂
Literature based curriculum
Literature based curriculum uses stories (classic and new) combined with developmentally appropriate activities that foster a love of literature and reading in young children.
A Year of Tales by Lisa Wilkinson
Description from Wilkinson’s Nest website:
A Year of Talesis a gentle curriculum for young learners, from Kindergarten through 3rd grade, focusing on literature and nature as a base, blending together the rich and imaginative tales from Beatrix Potter, and encouraging character and exploration.
Lisa Wilkinson
Important Note – A.Y.OT. contains Bible pages. I’ve created our own Quran/Hadith copy-work pages to use instead. It’s also important to note that while reading Beatrix Potter’s Tales, I ‘edit’ by skipping anything with shirk and/or haraam. For older children, you will need to point out anything haraam because they’ll be able to read the books on their own.
Purchase A Year of Tales by Lisa Wilkinson here.
Purchase the Beatrix Potter book-set here. Or click on the image below.
Preschool Math at Home by Kate Snow
This book gives you creative ideas on how to introduce math to your littles. The activities are only 5 minutes each and only require items from around your house.
Purchase Preschool Math at Home by clicking on the image below.
Nature Study Curriculum
You guessed it! You don’t need a curriculum to study nature!
As I’ve stated above, going outside and observing nature around you is more than enough! Read on to find out about why we decided to use a nature study curriculum.
Exploring Nature with Children by Lynn Seddon
Exploring Nature with Children by Lynn Seddon is a year-long curriculum that allows you to study nature in your own backyard. Many activities easily adjust for different age levels, and you can select from among others, those most suitable for each child, all of which make it easy to keep the entire family involved.
Most importantly E.N.W.C. frees up my mind from the question of, “What should we study next?”
I use the Guided Journal with older children, not young children.
Purchase Exploring Nature with Children here.
The Sky Guide by The Peaceful Press
The Peaceful Press: The Sky Guide is an awesome literature and project based four week guide for 3-5 year old children. We enjoyed all of the activities in this guide, Alhemdulilah!
Purchase the The Sky Guide here.
The Happy Hajj Guide™
Although this blog post focuses on secular studies, I’m mentioning The Happy Hajj Guide™ here because it contains secular studies topics. The Happy Hajj Guide™ is an Islamic literature and project based four week guide for early childhood {3-7 years}. The Happy Hajj Guide™ is designed to prepare young Muslim children for understanding Hajj and Dhul Hijjah, as well as gaining academic success through strengthening processing skills.
This special guide was also created to promote happy memory making among Muslim families, bi-ithnilahi Ta8la.
Your young child will learn about Hajj and Dhul Hijjah, develop motor skills, phonics and counting skills, and their love for literature through the stories and projects included in The Happy Hajj Guide™. This guide also includes weekly supply lists, recommended literature, and Ayaat/Hadith to make savoring Dhul Hijjah a multi sensory, and developmentally appropriate unit for your young Muslim learners, bi-ithnilahi Ta8la.
Visit our FAQ Page and watch this video for more information about The Happy Hajj Guide™!
Click here to purchase The Happy Hajj Guide™ !
Older Children
English Language Arts
The definition of English language arts is as follows –
…the study and improvement of the art of the English language. … Language arts instruction typically consists of a combination of reading, writing (composition), speaking, and listening.
Wikipedia
Reading aloud is a key component to Language Arts in our home which will, inshAllah, set them on the road to become lifelong readers.
Reading Aloud
After Islamic Studies, reading aloud is the BEST thing you can do for your homeschool. Reading aloud builds important skills, introduces vocabulary, provides a model of fluent, expressive reading, and helps children recognize what reading for pleasure is all about.
You may read aloud various materials to your child, however let’s talk specifically about children’s literature.
Children’s literature is defined as
Children’s literature is a dynamic entity in its own right that offers its readers many avenues for pleasure, reflection, and emotional engagement.
Kerry Mallan
Oxford Reads
Kerry Mallan continues on to explain:
The irony of children’s literature is that, while it is ostensibly for children, it relies on adults for its existence. This reciprocal relationship between adult and child is, however, at the heart of education .
Even if your older child is reading on his own, continue reading aloud frequently.
In the Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease explains the immense benefit of reading aloud to your child, even when they’re older. Make it a goal to read aloud every other day for at least ten minutes.
You can purchase The Read Aloud Handbook here or by clicking on the image below.
Silent Reading
Silent Reading is a reading skill which allows one to read without voicing the words. Be aware that this isn’t the only form of reading that should happen in your home.
Reading Aloud to your child is still necessary for children of all ages.
I allow older children to choose their silent reading books (after I’ve flipped through to make sure the book isn’t about shirk and haraam concepts). I try to guide older children to constantly explore a greater range of books and longer texts, so that they can become more fluent readers and learn to read, define, and pronounce complex words, inshAllah and Biithnilahi Ta8la.
Handwriting
It’s only necessary for older children to practice handwriting if their handwriting isn’t legible.
Handwriting Without Tears
We use Handwriting Without Tears. I have a left handed child and I’ve found that Handwriting Without Tears booklets are better for lefties.
Older children may not need the multi-sensory components, just some basic solid practice daily for about 5 minutes. Because I’m mean :), I sometimes make older children re-write letters or words that are sloppy.
Older children can now learn cursive, if you didn’t start out with it. Handwriting Without Tears provides cursive practice resources as well.
Purchase Handwriting Without Tears books on Amazon, or click on the image below.
Or you can purchase Handwriting Without Tears and multi-sensory extras on their site.
Writing Instruction
My experience is that writing instruction is best when a child is in fourth or fifth grade. I’m not interested in spending a few years going over what could be taught to my child in a few months when they are around the age of eleven or twelve, inshAllah.
Once it is time for writing instruction, IEW‘s Teaching Writing: Structure and Style is a great option. Do keep in mind that you’ll need to study if a bit prior to using it.
You can check out Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, by clicking on the image below.
Notebooking
So if you’re not doing writing instruction yet, what should you do until then? Many things!
However, right now, let’s talk about notebooking.
I wanted to simplify the working elements of language arts and didn’t know how to, until I started notebooking. This isn’t something taught in traditional school as it would require too much time (something that us teachers didn’t have!) to work individually with each child.
But at home it saves time in the long run because you can cover spelling, grammar, punctuation, penmanship, writing, and art through narrating the information covered in literature.
If you’d like a step-by-step process as to how to implement notebooking in your Muslim homeschool, place your email in the box below and we’ll send you something in the near future, inshAllah!
Spelling Curriculum – All About Spelling by Marie Rippel
No, you don’t need a curriculum to teach spelling, unless, your older child struggles with spelling.
The ‘memorize and test’ spelling approach has never worked for my children. No need to fret! All About Spelling, by Marie Rippel to save the day!
All about Spelling is a multi-sensory program with step-by-step lesson plans which are customizable for every student. The best thing about All About Spelling – it’s fully scripted! Woo-hoo, easy for us, mama!
And my favorite thing about it – All About Spelling helps children understand the rules of spelling, instead of trying to memorize how every single word is spelled! Makes sense to me!
You can purchase All About Spelling here or by clicking on the image below.
First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise
We don’t really feel that it’s necessary, but it’s an option for those who wish to introduce grammar to their child (under age 11) without diving deep into it.
Purchase it by clicking on the image below.
Math
Math. My palms are sweating. Are yours? 😉
I must admit, it isn’t my favorite topic. Bismillah ya Rabb! 🙂
Singapore Math
Your third grader needs daily, formal lessons in math. When they were young, it was OK for math to be completely hands-on. Not anymore!
How much time you work on math depends on your child and circumstance. I recommend giving them a mental math sheet every morning for them to work on independently, and then conducting a formal math lesson with you later on in the day, followed up by independ work.
Don’t forget that you will need to check his work when he’s done. 😉
Our favorite math curriculum is Singapore Mathematics. The mental math worksheets we use are in the back of the ‘Home Instructor’ book, which is why you shouldn’t skip purchasing it.
You can purchase all of the books separately, here on Amazon if you’d like, or click on the image below.
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat
Description from Amazon
Penrose, a cat with a knack for math, takes children on an adventurous tour of mathematical concepts from fractals to infinity.
Purchase The Adventures of Penrose by clicking on the image below.
Literature Based Nature Study
If you’ve been following along, it’s obvious that we’re huge fans of learning through literature as much as possible. It’s only natural that we use literature for nature study as well.
Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman
Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman is beautifully illustrated. I love how she combines art and science. I also appreciate the author’s candid explanations and observations.
The entire series of Anatomy books by Julia Rothman is wonderful!
You can Purchase the Anatomy books from Amazon here or by clicking on the image below.
Curiositree – Natural World by Amanda Wood and Mike Jolley
Curiositree – Natural World: A Visual Compendium of Wonders by Amanda Wood and Mike Jolley is packed with short, informative paragraphs and gorgeous illustrations. It is absolutely stunning and a total must-have for my wild children.
You can Purchase Curiositree – Natural World here or by clicking on the image below.
Botanicum by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis
Botanicum by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis is a wonderful feast of botanical knowledge complete with superb cross sections of how plants work.
This book is huge! Keep in mind that it won’t fit on an average shelf!
You can Purchase Botanicum here or by clicking on the image below.
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
The description, from the back of the book –
A matchless handbook for decades, this classic has been the natural history bible for countless teachers and others who seek information about their natural environment. …
Older children can use this book independently to look up information about the natural environment. I don’t prefer to read this book aloud because it can be total information overload for his age.
You may purchase the Handbook of Nature Study here, or by clicking on the image below.
Social Studies
For the most part, we cover social studies through literature. You can choose any book with social studies concepts that you can read aloud and/or your child can read silently.
You can purchase 50 Cities of the United States here or by clicking below.
Letters from Afar
With a subscription to Letters from Afar, you’ll receive a beautiful hand-illustrated letter and awesome vintage stamps from a far-away land each month!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the curriculum and resources that you’ve mentioned for all grade levels?
Most of the resources mentioned offer a placement test that will allow you to determine which book/level to purchase. All of the literature based curriculum and guides can be used for most children of all ages.
Helpful Links
Your homeschooling questions, answered! Read the post and/or watch the LIVE VIDEO!
New to homeschooling? Read our Beginner’s Guide to Homeschooling for Muslim families!
Get all of the best tips to homeschooling from seasoned Muslim homeschooling mamas!
