The Sun

I am beginning to think I am what criticisms of the education system is; a person who can pass tests but not put into action what I've learned. I see this especially in lesson plans that I can come up with but not execute and struggling with implementing theories that I have learned in actual lessons. The funny thing is, I find myself most capable of carrying out my thoughts when I am most relaxed and open to my children's reactions and feedback without thinking too much of theories. I really need to work on this 'people' aspect. Maybe I am the one with Asperger's: )

Ihsan was out today with an upset stomach; the illness of too much of a good thing. He still managed to work on his madrasah homework after coming back from the clinic and I let him watch DK's Eyewitness on ' Rocks and Minerals' dvd; something we touched on recently.

My little James Dean without a cause was an angel in his brother's absence. He sat through my presentation looking interested and even labelled the Australia map he traced without my asking and coloured it.

Sofiyya meanwhile was presented with the first Geography lesson of 'Land, Water and Air'. It sounds grand but I basically had three receptacles filled with soil, water and an empty one that is supposed to represent air. I then do the three part lesson with it, with some stories thrown in here and there. If the air presentation is a bit abstract; you can blow up a balloon to show that something i.e. air is inside.

Today's presentations was kicked off by an aboriginal story from Australia of ' The Sun Mother' which basically talked about their beliefs on how the earth came to life. I stressed to the children that these are the beliefs of non-Muslims and that we are reading it to learn more about what they think of life and filled in our version where needed.

Umayr got interested in the story when I told of Australia's not very glamorous past during the reign of the British Empire. There is something inside that little boy that finds anything rebellious interesting. It also helped that the illustrations in ' The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales' are beautiful. We plan to do art extensions from the story.

From today's work there are a few areas that can be extended. Ihsan can do more research on rocks and minerals based on the video that he has watched today. As he missed our reading on the Sun Mother, he can catch up on the repeat story that I will do with the juniors tomorrow. A connection that can be explored is the effect of the weather on rocks and minerals, where I can also bring in my Sun theme.

I intend to tell the story of the Sun Mother again tomorrow albeit with an emphasis on the sun's effects on plants. We will explore leaf shapes using the leaf cabinet and making leaf printing. Having said that, the leaf shapes in the neighbourhood's surroundings are limited. We'll have to work with what we have, I can't fly to Botanic Gardens all the time.

From this , I will also start on Ihsan's work on leaves for Botany and restart the topic on roots at another time. This will be extended to photosynthesis by next week I hope as we explore the sun and its relations to life on earth more.

The artwork from the book is also an inspiration for my alphabet story this week. Sofiyya however already knows 's', I think I can do the arabic letter 'syin' instead to go with the sun illustration for syamsun.