ultimately our end goal is for him to be fluent in arabic. we are willing to do whatever on our part to make it happen. i plan to teach mostly in english except for his language arts which will be in both english and arabic. our religious text(Quran is in arabic as well as all the major religious books). i also have books for all other subject in arabic in case we decide to school other subjects in arabic. DH has also said he can translate the curriculum we intend to use over to arabic if i want to do lessons in both languages. reading materials or any other supplements as he gets older would not be a problem since we frequent DH home country often and plan to send little one there for 3 monthes in the summer every year once he reaches 6. right now i am comfortable reading to him in arabic. when he is kindy age which is 4(we do 2 yrs kindy) i will have a couple of years of intensive arabic as well as husband is going to start speaking to both me and son in arabic only when he is home(right now he just speaks to son). i think im more worried about his access to english language than arabic. most of our friends and family speak arabic and french(im not in touch with any of my family outside of my parents and sis due to personal reasons.) the only access he would have to english is tae kwan do lessons and maybe at the mosque for quran lessons and socializing but even there most of the kids speak urdu or arabic. most of the other families i am in contact with that homeschool teach both side by side and that was my original plan, but most of them living in countries where arabic is the main language or they just teach it as a foreign language not really for fluency. hope that helps

ok so i been freaking out and reading everything i can about teaching reading in more than one language but i am getting conflicting opinions and kinda lost. i have a 2yr old. he is not talking yet but we are doing OPOL(husband speaks arabic but is gone except a few hours a day) he watches arabic cartoons and DH reads in arabic. i speak english but can read in arabic and by the time he is 6 i will have completed 4 yrs of intensive arabic. i was planning to do arabic curriculum and english everyday but i read on here that i should start one then add the other. question though which should i start first? i was thinking maybe we start arabic first in kindy and then add english phonic/reading in 1st? or should it be the other way around? also if i do this do i not teach the alphabet or anything in english until i am ready to add it? my reason for thinking arabic first is because all of his family on DH side speak only arabic and french maybe 1 or 2 know some english. also all of our friends here are from DH country and their kids speak a mix some speak english or countrys dialect one or two speak Modern standard.they will send their kids to school though so they will get english. the only place little one will get it is tae kwan do and maybe the mosque. im kinda lost so any advice would be great.

i would join this group if it got started. i got a almost 2 yr old and we have been doing OPOL(one parent one language) here me with english and dh with arabic. he is not talking yet and im thinking he might be a late talker but we keep on going. when he hits 2yr we will switch to dh speaking arabic to both me and my son when he is at home(since he is here else hours during the day than before)and i will continue with english. im learning arabic right now myself for an islamic studies program so i can use the practice in conversational. he is using fusha arabic since its the standard and dialect he will pick up later. we may add a 3rd language later i speak spanish and dh speaks french. there really isnt any kind of group anywhere for ppl trying to do bilingual arabic/english so keep me posted

no problems if you look on youtube you can find many Quran recitations this is one of my favorites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxBbu2hfFMg this is i guess the equivalent to what you are speaking of because i get that same powerful feeling that you speak of when i listen to Quran.

no i don't mind you asking at all. before i converted to islam i did listen to all types of music. i am trained in opera and i played the violin,viola and the piano for many years( i went to performing arts school from early years to high school and i was a ballet major in university but also involved in musical theatre and opera as well just for a you a little background) now my belief is it takes you away from worshiping Allah (sometimes without our realizing it) memorizing Quran has alot of benefits with Allah even reading it etc. so i am missing out on the reward i could be getting when i am lost in classical music or a good opera. Also i believe from my study of the religious text and the major scholars who say its forbidden for that to be the truth so if its a sin im stay far away from it as possible. any other questions feel free to ask. again i dont speak for all of islam because there are many groups with in who have all kinds of beliefs

again im only speaking for myself as a muslim because like i mentioned before there are tons of sects in islam and some muslims believe different. we believe All music is haram(forbidden). now when i say music i am speaking of what you would consider music( when i was christian i used to listen to worship songs like: shout to your lord, my god is an awesome god, i get on my knees etc) this we don't consider it good there is some music though with out the instrumental which we feel is ok here is two examples which we are ok with one has a drum and is for kids the other no music at all. but ultimately we feel the quran is the best to listen too. hope that makes sense.

yes we have nasheeds which are islamic songs they even make them for kids. There are usually some that contain music and some that dont contain music at all. we don't listen to the ones that contain music because we believe from our understanding of the Quran and hadith that music is forbidden(haram). i know some muslims think its ok so i guess it depends on what muslim you talk to. We listen to the Quran mostly(even my toddler likes Quran over nasheeds.) we use the nasheeds mostly for my son when he is playing or for holidays. oh yeah there is hip hop too there is a group called native deen that make hip hop islamic songs and im sure others lol

im writing everything down. math is the only thing that freaks me out about homeschooling. i was doing alg 2 in 9th grade because i just loved math and i want my son to feel the same way too.

thanks everyone!! this was just what i was looking for :)

if i have a 3yr old who is just learning about counting and numbers would miquon the orange book and the cuisenaire rods be too confusing? i plan to use singapore math in k.what books go with the orange book? also are there any other books that are good besides the orange book? i been lurking a long time so i know spy car is the expert on this but please anyone with info or opinions on this chime in i need all the help i can get

actually here is the link to the main site http://www.abcmouse.com/ it has a video explaining the different areas of the site and if you scroll down you can see even more information. the yearly rate is for a full curriculum reading ,phonics,math, science they even have a zoo and a farm that explains about the different animals. for each area they have books, games, printable,art, and puzzles. you can set what your kid learns. so in the math section you would have math books,games, puzzles, coloring sheets etc is it worth the money well i think there is definetly enough content to make it worth the month plus they have membership for 8 dollars a month so you could test it with your kids and see if they like it and if its woth the money if not you can cancel it. for me personally its worth it. kumon workbooks are about 10 a piece here in canada and i dont have regular access to libraries other things and i dont have time to search the internet for free stuff to put together.

i know i mention this site before but i just got an email from them with a link to free content area of the site. it has alphabet and phonics, word families and numbers and has games,puzzles, books and printables its waaaay better than starfall in my opinion as it has quite a bit of free content when i compared the 2. here is the link http://www.abcmouse.com/home#home/homepage

i am getting a whole foods too!! its opening up in the summer time here and i am wondering the same thing lol. never been too one but always wanted to

is anyone familiar with the Little labs science kits by Thames and Kosmos?http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/products/ll/ll.html i am looking at maybe getting a couple for kindergarten just for simple projects until we start science full time in first. if anyone has experience with these kits or this company i would appreciate it.

omg i was looking for this to show one of my friends! i saw it last year and i thought it was hilarious. thanks for posting

make sure you have a letter from your spouse giving permisssion for you to travel with the kids because i didnt and there is some law in some places where you have to have it

Hello all well i am about a year out of officially homeschooling and i am planning to homeschool in both arabic and english. basically i would like to do language arts(reading, writing and grammer) and math in both arabic and english.we may do science in arabic as well depending on husbands schedule. i would only do math up until the 6th grade in both languages (because i plan to switch to a different curriculum for middle school) i was wondering if anyone else has done this and how it worked out for them(scheduling and outcome wise) i have arabic textbooks and arabic readers at level as well as an arabic math book but i am just trying to figure out how to schedule it. any help would be great.

my mom was a nurse when my sister and i was born she stopped working we are both 25 years old( were 10 monthes apart) and she just went back to work as a nurse this past year and she is making amazing money and all she had to do was a quick training course and cpr. she loves working but loved she stayed home all those yrs with us. she says there is a season for everything ya know?

im still about a yr out before i offically start homeschooling but hybby pretty much didnt give me a budget. he told me whatever it will cost to get what i need to teach is fine. we plan to teach reading,writing, and math in both english and arabic and all other subjects in english so it is a bit much for reading materials in arabic. i did get math books in arabic for free so i am looking at about 1300 before shipping/ handling and customs fees for 2 years of kindergarten and that is minus paper, crayons etc. but its still cheaper than the best islamic school in the area i am in which cost 600 a year for uniforms and books and 4000 a year for tuition for kindergarten. so i am doing maybe 2000 at most for both years of k instead of 9,200 for private school so for DH it was a steal

my lil one is almost 2 and he hates sippy cups and binky (pacifier) we brought many of both and he wont even bother with either of them

i am a leo i like pomegranate and raspberry sherbet i love chick peas(hummus) but am highly allergic to them im also allergic to xmas trees(real and fake they make me break out in hives so imagine how that felt when you are a little kid and can not decorate the tree lol) im a muslim convert and i believe God created and controls everything i am a future homeschooler for religious purposes/ educational purposes but mostly religious i dont like chocolate or candy my favorite scent is good food lol

yes this right here is me my beliefs never changed just the name

this was me exactly i went to private catholic high school and everything even in university i was active i converted after freshman yr of college at 21. i felt the same way i always believed in the basic just didnt know what it was when i read more it clicked i was like yep this is it. that was almost 5yrs ago best decision i ever made

i live in ontario in mississauga which is not far from toronto. i dont home school yet mine is a little young but i plan to and the law here is if your kid has never been in the school system you dont have to tell them anything. just go about your buisness. if your kid did attend school and you pull them out then you have to let them know you will be homeschooling but there is no testing or reporting or anything to worry about. as far as the other questions. there are plenty of farmers markets, we also have delivery services that deliver organics, we have whole food and im sure other things that will fit your needs toronto and the GTA area has pretty much something for everyone so i wouldnt worry about it too much

hi i think this is cool. there is another site i use called http://www.africam.com/wildlife/index.php they have all kinds of african animals shown out in the wild