I have a confession to make. I started to write this blog post over a year ago but at that point I was still figuring out how to actually homeschool with a baby around. I waited and waited because I was waiting for it to get easier. I mean, babies aren't difficult forever are they? But the thing is, it started off way easier than it is now.
Muslimori has been teaching Arabic to students of all ages since she moved to the UK from Egypt after completing a degree in linguistics and translation. Her university dissertation looked at the problems foreign learners encounter while attempting to learn Arabic. After witnessing the struggles language learners had with learning the Arabic language, she thought there must be an easier way for them to learn.
I love nature. I live it and I breathe it. It calms me, inspires me and reaches deep into my soul. Outdoors is my happy place. With the grass under my feet and the sky overhead. With the sounds of my children's laughter and shrieks of delight when they stumble upon a minibeast they haven't seen before. 'Mum, come and look at this', they cry. Their excitement is catching and soon I am enthralled by a tiny moving creature and wonder at the beauty of nature.
It seems ironic that I am writing an article about getting outdoors in bad weather in the middle of June. We are on the brink of summer but the weather is far from summery. In fact, it has rained everyday for over a week now where I am. Not only is it wet, it is also cold and I occasionally have to put the heating on! This is something I never do in June, but I guess we never can predict the great British weather!
In order to speak clearly and make themselves understood, a child must be able to say each speech sound accurately and be able to string these sounds together to make words and phrases. If a child cannot do this, it may be hard to understand them. Children may not acquire the full repertoire of speech sounds until they are 5-8 years old. There are developmental milestones for speech sound acquisition, therefore, different sounds are acquired at different ages. The sounds p, b, t, d, m and w are among the first sounds to be learnt and r and th may be among the last.
Children learn to say sounds by listening to people talking to them and around them. Some children have difficulties acquiring one or more speech sounds and this makes their speech unclear to other people. It is important to remember that young children are not able to produce every sound. This is because speech is a complicated process and over 100 sets of muscles are used in the production of the vowels and consonants of English. It takes a lot of practise at coordinating these muscles before a child is able to produce intelligible speech. Furthermore, there is a process of speech sound acquisition which all children go through and each sound is acquired at a specific stage of development. Therefore, it is normal for children of certain ages to make errors in their speech.
Ramadan is the month of fasting in the Islamic calendar. It is the time when Muslims around the world abstain from food and drink during daylight hours. Ramadan can be a difficult concept for children to grasp. That is why I put together some printables to help your child understand the reasons for fasting.
