I admit it, I can’t draw. Really, I simply don’t know how to draw anything other than maybe a doodled flower while I’m supposed to be taking notes. So, when Yusuf and I sit around to draw together, I’m far from an inspiration for him. Our drawings tend to consist of geometric houses (you know, a triangle roof on top of a square house), stick people, grass and sky. We make great messes with paint and construct all sorts of cool 3D projects, but drawing has eluded us both. It was time for an intervention.

We finally purchased Draw, Write, Now last week, and this lovely book entered our school room yesterday. Today we have masterpieces! Behold Yusuf’s Mama Hen and Chicks:

Notice the big brother chick and the little brother chick

Yusuf decided that this one will go to our dear friend Zahirah as she is currently raising chickens. Tomorrow we will try to create another drawing, I’m hoping for (my) Grandma. This breakthrough is making the idea of making cards for relatives and pen-pals much more exciting!

I’ve taken a rather gradual, low-key approach to Yusuf’s schooling since he finished preschool last spring. Even though Al-Huda was going to put him in kindergarten, according to Prince George’s County and the state of Maryland, Yusuf won’t be a kindergartener until this upcoming fall. It’s hard to imagine that in a public school setting Yusuf would be in preschool, but the cut-off date is September 1, and his birthday is significantly after that. Thus, I don’t have to register him as a homeschooler for quite some time. I’ve been spending past months “de-schooling” Yusuf, providing extended time for imaginative play, materials for art and projects, and encouraging independence, curiosity, obedience, and good character.

In the kitchen, in the kitchen

Experimenting with clay

Mansoor likes to play, too

All that said, Yusuf has been asking for more serious school work and showing all the signs of readiness. He’s such an avid listener of stories, he’s just itching to read. So, we’ve started the journey. After much research and trial and error, we’ve come up with a few language resources that are working really well for us: All About Spelling, Explode the Code, Handwriting without Tears, and miscellaneous readers. Insha’Allah tomorrow I’ll give a snapshot of how each program works and the work Yusuf has done in each.

Every Monday, the boys and I drive to Alexandria to the house of three other little boys: Murad (7.5), Luqman (4.5), and Sinan (2.5). We spend three hours doing science, read-alounds, and art. The first chapter book we’ve read aloud is Mr. Popper’s Penguins. For the uninitiated, the book is about Mr. Popper, a house painter with a passion for the Antarctic. One day, a mysterious package arrives containing what else but a penguin! It’s a great story, engaging and funny. As an art extension, the boys made their own penguins. They traced their shoe for the body, their hands for the wings, and made the feet and beak free-form. Here’s Yusuf modeling with his in our orange kitchen…