What's my 6 to 7 year old been up to?

My daughter had just turned six when we relocated to another city from Saudi's capital to the eastern province. My DD typically doesn't mind change, in fact she looks forward to the unknown and adapts anywhere as long as she has the security of her family by her side.

Restarting our home school education after a long 3 month summer/autumn break was easier than I thought, DD initiated her own independent studies and left me to do the unpacking for our new home, I'll really appreciated that. 

Her progress between 6 to 7 years old has been easy going for her, since this year was about revision.

English

(*Big sigh*) her handwriting, what can I say, it stills needs a lot of work and improvement. We started copy work using 30 short ahadith, and other forms of writing, but her handwriting and grammar hasn’t improved much from last year. She would also complain a lot from her hand aching from writing, but her writing work in all her subjects per day wouldn’t amount to more than half an A5 page. So, we diverted into mastering her strengths instead which was her love for reading and comprehension. She loves to read an array of books her favourite are chapter books meant for older grades, like The Famous Five by Enid Blyton she read the whole 22 book collection within a week and has re-read them many times throughout the year, other genres she enjoys are non-fiction books science, math, history and geography also meant for older grades. Usually she would read no less than ten books per day, two chapter books and several smaller books, I often see books lying on the coffee table, dining table, sofa, and many in her bed, she would fall asleep with a pile of books next to her soft toys. Although she is a bookworm, she still enjoys us reading to her and I listen to her read to correct her pronunciation of some uncommon words. Her understanding and comprehension skills are also very good, from the beginning of the year to the end, I have seen a noticeable development in her language skills, her vocabulary as expanded and her explanation skills of summarizing stories with some prompting has also gotten tons better.

I also started a girl’s book club for her, for pure enjoyment of reading and listening to a good book, then talking about it. 

Math

Continuing from last year we repeated a lot of the curriculum of grade 2 especially concentrating on the essential Math basics of addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and geometry, I wanted her to build a strong foundation in these main concepts that everything else is built on. By the end of the year she could perform long 3 digit addition, subtraction and 2 digit multiplication and division with remainders. She seems to be comfortable with these types of number problems. She is able to easily tell the time which I haven’t had to improve upon. We started with other concepts like area and perimeter, simplifying fractions and money.

Science

We studied Mystery Science online this year as well as learning about electricity and the human body with her little brother. They compiled all their work in a DIY science book which I may post up sooner or later. She enjoyed her lessons are it was like a relaxing arts and craft lesson.

Quran

This year we had managed to review over what she had memorised of the last three juz of the Quran, nearing the end of the year she started on the 27^th juz memorising of surah Hadid, Waqi’ah and Rahman. She attended a tahfeed class once a week which she really enjoyed and helped her love for the Quran and working hard to memorise, she also attended two classes during the week for review at the local masjid. Most of her memorising took place at home where she would spend 2 hours on reviewing. DD would spend about 5 to 15 minutes independently on revising what she had memorised of that surah and come to me to review it, if she made mistakes, she would have to go back to revise from the beginning again. Then together we would start five new lines by her following me out loud bit by bit, after doing it three time like this she would repeat the ayah or half the ayah it was long by her herself twice until I was satisfied, otherwise we would repeat this step again and again until there were no mistakes. After the five lines weren’t learnt with me, which could take from 20 to 40 minutes she would go into her bedroom which was a place without distractions and listen to her portion of the surah on the tablet or MP3 player, then once she feels she is ready she would come to me and recite by reading from the mushaf 3 times, if she made a mistake she would have to start again. After completing this step she would take a break, and resume her memorisation of the five lines by reading and listening, more often than not she preferred reading from the mushaf to memorise at her own pace, some surahs took longer than others so the time spent on each portion varied, if it took long she would have many breaks of playing outside, reading a book or starting another lesson. But usually by the end of the home school day she would recite from memory. During the summer her father helped her substantially in her Quran memorisation which in turn helped me have some free time.

Islamic Studies

At 6 years old, we continued reading from books and learning just by listening and prompting questions, no workbooks, lapbooks or projects. This worked well for us as she loves stories and is always intrigued with how the prophet (peace be upon him) lived and the interesting stories of the companions. We read through The Sealed Nectar, Belief in Allah, parts of the Quranic translation and tafseer. We listened on YouTube to many lectures that were story based, namely about the prophets and companions. Whenever I would listen to one of my lectures whilst I was in the kitchen or eating my lunch on the dining table, she would gravitate towards me and listen intently with me. She would ask a lot of questions, which I felt gave me an insight to her interest and depth of understanding in the religion. She is inspired by the scholars and the students of knowledge and prayers that when she grows up, she would like to be a caller to Islam, may Allah grant her tawfeeq on her journey to achieve it ameen.

About her

I’m not sure but since our dynamics have changed from this move to Dhahran, she has changed, or maybe it could be because she’s getting older and exploring her own identity. This year she has gotten to play outside unsupervised with her friends, unlike the previous years where we lived in Riyadh in an apartment and the outside meant risking an injury to cross roads with dangerous, careless drivers and friends weren’t a knock away but were a drive away or many blocks away and a safe place to play was either in the masjid courtyard or its carpark or in a park. So, they stayed at home and that made me become a helicopter parent, but now that she can play out and for a portion of time during the day she can do things without me, grow without me guiding her every step and implement what she knows at her own accord must be very freeing for her. She spends less time with me, whereas before she used to enjoy being the helping hand in the kitchen with me, peeling the potatoes or grating the carrots, now she can play outside for hours at a time with her friends. Although there are also times, she would rather stay in the house for many days at a time to read through a newly brought collection of books. I have noticed that her sensibility has been misplaced and she is more carefree daydreamer and has become more playful than ever before, experiencing childhood is a more child like way. She, her brother and her friends would make perfume from the flowers and herbs collected in our neighbourhood and mix them in bottles filled with the outside tap with sticks snapped off from shrubs and them make a shop to sell them off. Or she would gather her friends to our front porch then patiently together DIY bracelets, necklaces and rings from her bead collection. She would bike ride, race, dig up stones, play with the neighbourhood street cats and befriend them, find insects and fly kites or just sit down on the step with her friends and have a good chat. She has grown to become very sociable and enjoys company of others. She, was once a person who was very cautious always assessing the dangers but now, she has developed a way to overcome her fears, becoming brave to do things that she would have never considered before, first it was learning to bike ride without training wheels, then overcoming her fear of putting her head under water, then learning how to swim underwater, hopefully this is the beginning of the empowerment she feels when she has accomplished something difficult. She loves to learn new things on her own, and would tell me what she had read in a book or heard from a video or her father. She would also love to tell me a lot of jokes throughout the day mostly riddles and knock knock jokes.

Her relationship with her siblings is different, now that her younger brother is older in age, she is less forgiving and doesn’t find things as cute as when he was a toddler, so they fight a lot more, but then in the same breath the get along quite well, its an odd relationship. She sometimes helps her brother in things he doesn’t understand, but she also leaves him alone in his own suffering without showing any kind of sympathy, maybe it could be because he cries a lot for any small or big thing, so she has gotten accustomed to it. But it’s a totally different story with her little sister, who is 1 – 2 years old, she would defend her baby sister to the ends of the Earth, and make sure she is well looked after and her well-being is always taken care of. It could be because her baby sister is still small and cute and can get away with all sorts or it could be because DD feels as though she is looking after a mini-me, since they look the same and her baby sister is wearing her hand me downs giving more of a striking similarity. Whatever the reason may be, I really like how she is responsible for her little sister, it shows her more sensitive, mature and caring side which I like to see now and again.