Sandpaper Letters II

Assalaamu 'alaikum.

When I first posted about the sandpaper letters I was full of enthusiam and excitement because the project would be my first arty-crafty project where I get to do everything. I actually didn't really know what I was in for and to be honest, I think my instructions made it seem a little airy-fairy [please excuse my funky terms - they pop up from nowhere].

Anyhow, I decided to embark on the journey – what a journey it is!

Here is what I did [I'll insert pictures where I can inshaa`Allaah] – please bear in mind that I did not do all of this in one day, rather over a two-week period (major procrastinator!).

1. First, I printed off the letters from here – actually, what I did was save each image onto my desktop, inserted them into a word document and edited them so that there was an outline of the letters rather than a filled background – gotta save ink!

2. Then I cut out each letter; there're no shortcuts for this one, you've gotta cut each individual letter.

3. Trace around each letter on the back of a sheet of fine (FINE) sandpaper. Remember: the letters must be traced back-to-front so that when you cut them, they'll appear the right way around.

 

4. Again, cut out each individual sandpaper letter – yes, it can be tedious, but stick with it. For letters with holes – i.e. a, e, o etc. – I used a stanley-knife blade to get an accurate cut.

 

 

5. I got an A4 sheet of card (blue for vowels and red for constanants) and cut them in half by hand; a paper cutter would have been useful here, but we use that which we have.

 

6. I glued a letter in the middle of the card to ensure that it was relatively even all round. For this I used PVA glue to stick the letter down, I'm not sure what else would work.

 

 

Let it be known that I've only actually done two letters because I realised that I don't have enough card to do all the letters of the alphabet. This will probably mean that the letters won't be finished anytime soon. Inshaa`Allaah, I plan to back each card with cardboard to make it less flimsy… this will probably lengthen the time it takes to finish these, but inshaa`Allaah they will be.

I hope this has been of some help. Feel free to ask any questions if I haven't been clear with any of the above.

Was-salaamu 'alaikum
~ Umm Junayd.

TIP: Learn anywhere!

Some hold the opinion that children can only be learning if they are sat down either with a teacher providing instructions or working through some kind of workbook. This could be further from the truth. Infact, sometimes children seem to learn more in a setting which is not so rigid or at times which they see as simply being play.

This finally occured to me this morning while I was washing the morning dishes. Junayd was posed infront of the fridge with his number magnets, shouting out the numbers. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t saying the correct name of the number to the one he was pointing to, but he seemed to be having fun while counting to ten.

A way in which I could effectively use my morning cleaning time is to have him infront of the fridge and say the name of the numbers while he puts them in order… or something to that effect. This way, I get two things done: the dishes and his morning numeracy session.

Mashaa`Allaah, the beauty of homeschooling – such flexibility! Walhamdulillaah.

~ Umm Junayd.

PS. For those who missed a counting post on my main blog, here is is: Count Everything!

Which Method?

Assalaamu ‘alaikum.

Many homeschoolers have adopted a particular teaching/ schooling method as it helps them to remain focused on the way they want to take things. I previously thought I was one of these people until I took a good look at what methods are out there. For your information, I’ve added a page listing the different schooling methods and there are links for further information.

Due to my own ‘organisation freak‘ background having studied Law for a year being a Law student, I feel the need to have a schedule so I know what I should be doing and when I should be doing it. However, I also like flexibility because weird events always pop up which forces you to change your plans.

So, at the moment I’m a bit of a traditionalist who’s dabbling in the shallow waters of the Montessori method – so I guess that would generally make me an Eclectic Homeschooler.

Confused? Don’t be – here’s a the page I mentioned earlier: Homeschooling Methods

What type of schooler are you?

Was-salaamu ‘alaikum

~ Umm Junayd.

Sandpaper Letters

[QUICK NOTE: I've edited this post to actually reflect the Montessori objective]

Assalaamu ‘alaikum.

After reading an inspiring post at Educating the Muslim Child, I began a mini hunt on how I could easily (yes I’m feeling a little lazy) implement this with the English alphabet.

I looked at a few Montessori sites where you can buy equipment and the prices were hair-raising to say the least. However, Allaah is the Most-Merciful and I stumbled – yes stumbled – upon a site which gives you all the lowercase letters of the English alphabet in red and blue (blue for vowels and red for constanants). You can right-click each letter and save onto your computer and then print them out. Cut-out each letter, trace onto the back of a sheet of fine sandpaper (or a similar material), then mount onto equal sized squares – vowels on a blue background and constanants on a red background.

Here’s the link:

Montessori Sandpaper Cursive Letters

For those who wish to have ‘print’ letters, they can be found here.

Objective:

To learn the sound and shape of the letters of the alphabet. To gain a muscular memory of the shape of the letters as a prelude to writing.

Useage:

The point of this is to first introduce the phonetic sounds to your child(ren) before the names of the letters – it is best to focus on one thing at a time and it may be a little hard for children to remember both names and sounds. Therefore, the phonetic sound of each letter is taught first, and the names of the letters are taught later.

Why on Sandpaper?

Through this method, the teaching of the sounds and letters is through a multi-sensory approach whereby the child hears the sound, sees its representation in the form of a letter, and feels the way it is written as the child feels the letter with his fingers.

What about capital letters?

These are introduced later – one should try not to introduce too much at the same time.

Was-salaamu ‘alaikum
~ Umm Junayd.