Eid Mubarak

Ia made a glittery Eid Mubarak poster today. Yesterday she wrote 0,1,2,3,4,5 on her drawing, all by herself! Mil has let her wear her necklace, which she was very pleased about. Ia also likes the fact that her Grandma has a packet of sweets under her pillow, which she distributes from time to time.
All 3 got digital pets today, which they have played with all day. U chose two baby bottles. She would have had several dolls as well, and anything else she could carry, but alhamdulillah she was really happy with the bottles! U likes wearing fancy clothes and bangles! Ia doesn't want the clothes, but this time she wore 6 shiny hair clips!

Funny books

Went to the new library today. Had to choose quickly as it was nearly closing time already, but "The Magnetic Banana" by Steve Barlow has had J rolling about with laughter this evening. R wants him to hurry and finish it so that he can read it himself. R has finished "The Hodgeheg" by Dick King Smith, which was also funny.
U has a bad cold, with a fever, so we left her sleeping with H while we went out. Ia complained about her legs getting tired with the walking, managing without the buggy to stand on for a rest.
Need to do some painting this evening!

Sightseeing

H wanted to show his mum some of London so he drove us to Tower Bridge. Boys had a sulk about not going to the Tower of London, but seemed interested in St Katherines' dock. The old ships look interesting, as is the lock, and we saw what I think was a pair of cormorants. This all took up much of the morning.
Boys spent lots of time on the computer this afternoon. Ia helped me bake the bread and biscuits. I have not bought bread (except pitta bread) for what must be at least a couple of weeks now. Boys easily did rounding to the nearest ten in maths and wrote the ending to a story as part of their Islamic studies lesson.
I have completed the painting in the bathroom, so now have the living room and hall ways to do. Steady progress.
Meanwhile, trying to restrict the kids bouncing about, as we have new neighbours downstairs, actually living there, after the luxury of having it unoccupied for the past few years. How close are we to the first complaint?

Best test result so far

We've finished book one of the maths course, right on time, alhamdulillah. They've done the assessment this morning, and that will be more or less it for the work today! They need to complete their weather monitoring charts, J has chosen to record the weather in Baghdad, R has chosen Islamabad.
Yesterday they had chocolates to reward them for completing their latest salaah chart. This system seems to work well. I copied the chart from an Iqra workbook. You colour the smiley face for a salaah completed and the sad face if you miss it. They don't want any sad faces coloured in so they keep all the prayers.
Yesterday was a very social day, with playgroup in the morning and then to someone's house. This is good as the next couple of weeks we may be keeping ourselves to ourselves a bit more, especially as I continue to try to bring some smartness to the flat.
Ia and U continue to be close, alhamdulillah, playing lots of silly games together.

As usual

I have repainted the kid's room so now it looks fresh and bright. I have given it a thorough tidy too, although not all the toy boxes have been completed yet. Time spent on that is time away from the other rooms of course, so the living room is now a worse tip than ever.
Been a bit of a trying home ed day. Although we got a maths lesson on pictograms, and a science investigation comparing the stretchiness of materials done, there was far too much clowning around. They wrote up the results on the computer again, J has really got the hang of drawing tables. Have not done as much with Ia as I wanted to. She and U have played a lot, but I just played with her for a while in the morning, and later we made a cake. The older three also played a castles game they like at the moment, it involves building castles out of chairs, blankets etc.

It has been a while

but we have been busy! All the usual plus more going on, alhamdulillah! H came back from his trip, bringing MIL with him for the first time! Ia was very shy, U was even more so! Due to unexpected events she quickly went off to stay with other relatives, but will soon be back, insh'Allah, then the kids will get used to her and hopefully, insh'Allah pick up some of their father's language.
U has been saying a lot more. Her first pair of words "TV on". Not sure whether to be pleased with that really, as this was said as a demand rather than an observation.
Ia has been doing more with the rods. She is very good at copying patterns, maashAllah, she can copy from a book as well as from a pattern I make. she is getting good at her counting too, but her pencil control is not good enough for her to manage writing numbers or letters yet. She can only count what is seen as well, not what could be concealed (I mean you can't say to her that you already have one so if you have another two how many would that be.) of course I wouldn't expect her to do those things at her age but it is interesting to identify the boundary of what she understands and can use and what is too complex. Her drawing is getting a lot more detailed, adding the sky at the top and grass for example. One drawing takes a lot longer now.
Ia and U play together more each day, usually dollies' picnics. U calls Ia "Dacala" and she calls for her loudly. They love to scream together too and roar at me whilst holding tiny plastic dinousaurs.
I have been baking bread regularly for about a week now in my effort to cut down on the salt and additives we unwittingly consume. It doesn't take long at all really, it is just being so used to the convenience of shop stuff it seems like something daunting. How long will I maintain it though?

Sunday

Still have not cleaned up, but the kids showed a few minutes keeness and the living room is slightly better.
Today I have taken the boys to their Urdu class, (and was late picking them up as I decided to take the bus rather than walk), bought pillows, made bread, flapjacks and a banana cake, taught the boys about fifths and read U a Thomas book.

Introducing thirds

Still have not managed to clean up. Boys drew out their maths lesson, getting the hang of writing fractions seems to be a bit confusing, they mix up which number goes above which. Since then they've spent ages on the computer.
Ia made some pictures by sticking mosaic squares and adding on details with pencil. Then she did some drawings. She spent over an hour on that. U scribbled in crayon all over the table. The other three did not do things like that! She and U have had fun playing some silly games this evening. Also this evening I cut Ia's hair for the first time, it was just a little trim to stop the ends going too frizzy. She was afraid it might hurt!

Messy

As usual I am surrounded by mess, with no time to get it sorted. If I start to deal with some of it and a child wants something, then .....
Ia has had a bonus social day, playgroup in the morning and then a cousin over in the afternoon and a friend over in the evening.
Yesterday she built models from cusinaire rods for me to copy, and then I made some for her to copy.
Boys now have their own e-mail addresses, and have already exchanged messages with one of their aunts. R's tooth fell out while he was fighting with J, but he seemed quite happy as it had been very wobbly.
We've started some fractions work in maths, read about the history of Timbuktu, been to the library and got a historical story out about the plague of 1665. I'm reading it to them and they are getting quite interested in the topic, it all follows on from a comprehension text in their literacy textbooks. In geography we've continued the maps topic by looking at routes.
They've been playing together a lot too, some noisy games involving being inside a tent, and also been enjoying the new board games which arrived yesterday.
U can say again, usually for stories. She has also become keen at helping herself from the fridge. Another of her occupations is crushing items ready for recycling. She has seen me crush the milk cartons and boxes, so all cardboard boxes, whether they contain a puzzle or not now need to be stood on. Yesterday she took a milk container from the fridge, brought it to the living room and was about to stand on it. This is all done in between throwing things from shelves and sprinkling crumbs. U can also sing two songs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and now also Bob the Builder (that is Bo instead of Ba) Bo is sung when seeing a Bob the Builder umbrella, book or toy, so it is quite clear.
The older three are obviously feeling optimistic about Eid, as they are frequently scouring the Argos catalogue.

More words

U can say dark and stuck (sounds like duck, so "duck" means either I'm stuck, swimming bird, or penguin). She can also say head and cry, to say that someone else is upset. So many words coming out now, alhamdulillah.

Trying to login

I've been having trouble logging in, it won't recognise my password, so I have to reset it each time, which does deter from posting and commenting.
All the usual. I'm wondering whether Ia will get offered a place at the nursery at all. It seems to be getting late. If she doesn't I won't mind too much as she is getting more at home now, and it would be awkward having to travel so far, breaking up what have been enjoyable home days. However if they do offer her a place it would be hard to turn it down as it would do her good.
U can say stuck, and back (meaning when someone comes back).

After a weekend of visits....

U can say duck, goose, her name, look and book. She wants to be read to a lot now, especially Thomas books and Topsy and Tim. There is also a picture library book about stripes that she particularly likes.
Ia has helped me make flapjacks and oat biscuits and has spent a lot of time on the activities in her My Little Pony magazine. She did some really good flower drawings as part of the craft activity.
Yesterday we made a model town by covering the table with paper, drawing on the roads and colouring it. Then everyone joined in with making the buildings from Lego. The boys enjoyed this part, but had a rebellion when asked to draw a plan of the model. They did it in the end, although not very neatly, and they certainly regretted making the roads so complex!
Maths at the moment is 3 and 4 times tables. They have also completed their first salaah chart, and it has certainly helped them to remember to pray. Now I should make them another one!
Again they have spent a lot of time in imaginative play and less time reading.

Feels like home

Having a good home day really makes the home feel like a home. Seeing all the resources coming out of the cupboards and off the shelves and being used, having things you need close at hand, alhamdulillah, getting something related, even vaguely, to art done as well as the other lessons.
All this although it has not been ideal, the boys were over excited with having a friend over to join in and their general loudness meant Ia getting less of me than she should have.
What did we do? Maths was finally a change to something more interesting, multiplication basics, although this was revision, they needed it to rebuild confidence. For science we took out the leaves that we put in the flower press last week and drew round them, then adding on the veins and shading them in autumn colours. We labelled those we could identify. Then they used the computer to type out EMQ, 18:45, which we then printed out, stuck on the top of some autumn yellow paper and then stuck on the pressed leaves.
I got them to do a little more on the computer, inserting pictures into text, but then we ran into problems and I left it for next week, insh'Allah.
Ia spent lots of time on iboard, did some sticking, played tea parties and spoke to me at length about her babies, their crying and need for milk, their frienships and other qualities.
U moaned quite a bit, but then had a brilliant time standing on the school tables, singing "Baa Baa Black sheep" (it goes baaa baaa... various non word sounds) waving her arms and then jumping off into my arms.
I was also treated to a show this morning, when the suncatcher pictures they painted in the summer were attached to pencils and the boys played out a story with them. Some members of the audience were rather inattentive, but the narrators made the best of it.

Fascinating Four

U can say "baby" and "cucumber", although I think the latter one means "anything from the fridge".
The boys are getting engrossed in imaginative games these days and are generally coming up with more new ideas for themselves. This morning they put a poster on their door calling themselves and their sisters the "Fascinating Four", there is a password, represented by a series of dots, like in e-mail. They have just finished a secret meeting. I think the new routines are less draining for them and so they have more left for that type of thing.
Getting more into doing a variety of things, yesterday, after studying "tahara" we made a very glittery poster of the words "tahara is half of faith". Ia did a glittery poster of her name. Ia and R did Hama bead designs, and U had a go at the maxi size. Lots went on the floor of course. Maths at the moment is too easy, still doing odd and even numbers, the course needs to move on to something more challenging soon!
Not so much reading has been done recently, but the boys have said that they are enjoying the Moomin books. The "Fish" book is getting better! The comparisons between the lives of the boy and the fish are so detailed. It is such an extraordinary story, written as though it was just so banal, so everyday. This is the cleverness of it, hiding such dramatic events as if they were just an ordinary tale, and in so doing giving so clearly the perspective of a child who knows no other way of life. "Fish" is by L.S. Matthews.
Ia has been playing with various puzzles, drawing pictures and playing dolls with U. She has also watched too much tv, so must do something about that.
Had to go to the supermarket yesterday and the boys were very good about carrying home heavy bags, although they did find it hard, maashAllah.

Busy

Boys have had a busy long weekend playing with friends at various locations and squeezing in their regular lessons in between. Ia had more of a mixed time, with getting too tired, falling over and having little fall outs with friends. I did not help when I dozed off while playing with her. But she has also been very giggly and excited too.
U has mastered opening the fridge and getting things out. She has tried putting things back too, but that is much harder as you have something in your hand, and if you put it down it obstructs the door. She demands to feed herself her breakfast cereal, and also stands at the table demanding workbooks to scribble on.

Autumn Leaves

The day is not over yet but I have the chance to blog now, so I'll take it. L has been here today. The boys were rather excited and therefore silly and although I didn't feel so at the time I now think that they got quite a bit done. The maths lessons were easy so they did two of them (counting objects in groups of 10 and counting on and back in 10s and 100s).
Later we went to the park to look for the signs of autumn. They picked up leaves and found the empty acorn cups left by the squirrels. I took some digital photos before the batteries in the camera ran out. Insh'Allah we can use them next week. When we came back they wrote a few sentences to describe what they had seen in their books and put the leaves we had collected in the flower press. Then I got them to use Word to start writing up their experiences in Wales this year. They type so slowly they only got a couple of sentences done, but they are starting to remember how to underline, do headings and save their work.
Meanwhile Ia and U played with their soft toys. U knows which of the toys are "mine". Ia needs some more attention from me this evening, as she has been so good with keeping herself occupied today, maash'Allah.

djuuuz

I gave the bigger three juice this evening and U threw her milk to one side and said "djuuuuz".
Ia had her teeth counted for the first time at the dentist's this morning. Boys each needed a tiny sealing filling, but not in the same teeth as eachother! Ia was all clear, alhamdulillah, and was very pleased that the dentist liked her trousers!
Had a group day, marred by J having a huge tantrum and having to be taken out of the building to calm down. From everyone else I was happy with the work done. I started to read "Fish" to them, and although there were some protests I think that they are actually intrigued by the story, they were certainly asking lots of questions. The book begins by describing the life of a boy living with aid worker parents in a poor, war torn country.
For geography we drew plans of the room, trying to emphasise the relative size and positions of the items of furniture, hoping that they will grasp the way in which maps and plans must be accurate to be useful.
Ia showed that she can still recognise the words red, blue and green. She also enjoyed colouring and playing some imaginary games. U showed that she can occupy herself with scribbling for quite some time.

Jealousy

If I read a book to Ia U wants a different book read to her at the same time, even if she likes Ia's book and asks for that as soon as Ia has finished with it. U has also tried out biting today, to express her anger, Ia's trousers were thick enough for her not to get hurt. We got some new books from the Book People today so they spent some time on those. Ia and U got a Dora book, so now it is clear that U can say "backpack".
Boys did the first maths assessment, which they enjoyed doing as usual. They started out confident of scoring 100% (although this has never happened yet in a maths assessment), but were not too disappointed with not achieving this as at least they scored within two percent of each other, which is what really counts. The spelling work was far less popular but we got through that, along with a couple of other topics.
It is becoming difficult to blog in the evening as U is now refusing to go to sleep before me, which is something Ia did too. This is regardless of how short a nap she may have had in the day. Maybe I'll just have to get up earlier!

English, Arabic, Quran and History

U can say "mine". She has requested her favourite board books and wants J to read them to her.
First group day went well. Boys finished their stories off too early and so were left with not much to do, which I wasn't prepared for. Ia played games and coloured with the other younger ones. A bit more variety would help her so I need to plan her "work" out too. Boys have used reciter.org this evening, and, as everyone is appreciating my cooking more than usual, I have made a salmon quiche and a carrot cake.

Almost Monday

...and I can't believe its got here so fast. The new routines and approach should start from tomorrow. Up to now we've been easing into the plan, getting adjusted.
A busy few days, visiting friends, being visited, fitting in the planned for number of maths lessons.
S has given the boys new pencil cases with compartments that pop out all over. They love them!
U climbed a tall slide's ladder in the park, saying "up, up", and slid down saying "down, down".

Getting at Home with Home Days

There is a new timetable emerging with our new routines. I wrote some sort of timetable up and stuck it inside a kitchen cupboard. Once a couple of outstanding things have been cleared we can start trying to keep to it, insh'Allah.
This morning the boys began by watching Crocodile Hunter and then they went to their room and spent most of the rest of the morning playing something with toys. Ia spent some time on the computer then we did a few pages of workbook, (she could still recognise the words "red" and "blue" from Sunday.) Later I read to her and we played a game. U did some scribbling.
When it was time for the boys to do English the girls looked at books quietly(!). J had a huge tantrum, which spoiled things a bit. Got a maths lesson done too (right angles). Otherwise they read and watched TV and I cleaned and planned. I just need to get a bit more into the day before I get really happy with it.

Nature Reserve Trip

Today, maash'Allah was a beautiful, crisp autumn day, just right for spending a lot of time walking and for visiting the nature reserve. Today's topic was "Autumn Fruits, Seeds and Leaves". The ranger who led the session began by talking about the signs of autumn, they then went on to think about what a seed needs to grow, and the parts of a small plant. They also learnt about different ways that seeds disperse and looked at some examples of seeds. Then we all went outside (20 children in the group) to play a suvival game, hide acorns like squirrels, collect fallen leaves and hunt for hidden acorns, (and fail to find most of them). Then we all went back inside to do leaf rubbings and plant chikpea seeds. It was an excellent session and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
While the boys and I wew doing that Ia and U were at H's house. U has learnt how to go downstairs there. Ia enjoyed playing and colouring.
On the way this morning we also called in at the library. R has already finished his first book, so probably they will be out of reading material again in a couple of days. U chose a book with shiny stars in it, and I think she said "star" to it. It is time to read Ia her books now!

Too many phone calls!

Had to make way too many organising phone calls today, but still managed to make most of my (reduced) targets for the day. Boys had an English lesson (vocab from comprehension passage) and a maths lesson, (quadrilaterals and the semi-circle). Ia played with pattern blocks and fuzzy felts and did a little counting work. U fed her dollies and did some scribbling in a colouring book. There was a little time spent on the computer too, before it had a problem and had to be scanned. As usual I will intend to get more done tomorrow!

Catching Up

Had a busy few days, trying to get as much out of the time as I can. I've made plans for each day, they haven't been kept to, but enough has been done. We went to a wedding, which Ia really enjoyed, she seemed to just love the atmosphere. Then on Sunday I took the boys to a Sunday school where they had their first Urdu lesson. They really enjoyed it, alhamdulillah, and are keen to go back. They said they learnt eight sentences, but only seem able to produce two, and those rather reluctantly. While they were there I took Ia and U to the park. U slept but Ia did a couple of pages of a workbook she was keen to start at a picnic table. She was able to use letter recognition to "read" the words red and blue on several labels, once I had pointed out the "r" and "b"to start with. She has spent a lot of time on the computer again today, playing with iboard and Cbeebies, it seems to be helping her to be quickly familiar with the functions of letters and other symbols.
U was still asleep while Ia played in the park and then we went back for the boys and then rushed home in time for their Quran lesson. Despite these arrangements I'm still finding that they are spending time on reading and playing games and not just asking for the television now that we are home a bit more.
Today they had the treat of friends over, while H and I heaved the filing cabinets upstairs. She kindly stayed and helped me find a suitable place for them, but then much of the rest of the afternoon was spent clearing up the things that had had to be taken out as furniture was moved about. Boys read, Ia was online and U slept. Nice to see boys helping Ia with some of the computer stuff.
U can now say "no", (with something of a northern accent!). This is "no" to nappy changing, "no" to sharing a chair with my brother and definately"no" to my sister being picked up. This evening I found a magnetic letter "p" trapped inside her nappy, it had left a clear imprint of itself. So had she put it in her vest? She actually bothered to do a puzzle for the first time this evening, trying to force the pieces in any way, but still better than just scattering them.

Party Day

Everyone enjoyed another successful Eid party, thanks to the efforts of the organisers, maashAllah. They played various party games such as pass the parcel and "musical chairs". Both boys got into trouble at some point, but Ia played well and won a prize. They all ate too many sweets. Only Ia was willing to do anything useful this afternoon, despite the inevitable interuptions.

Nice not to hurry

Bismillah
Still in holiday mode there was no plan for the day. Ia made chocolate cornflake cakes for tomorrow's party. As I was interrupted by a phone call she did most of the mixing and spooning out all by herself. U clearly said "pu-ta" this morning in the hope that I might turn it on for her. From time to time she seems to be saying words, but I almost miss them in the midst of all her own sounds. J and R mostly had their own plans but I also read a biography of one of the Sahabah to them, they joined their sister in painting Winnie the Pooh posters and we managed a game of Kerplunk. J also decided to be a teacher and taught R and I about commas, after which we both had to do a piece of writing about going to the supermarket. He then set a few subtractions, but I was the only one actually working out the answers. U did a scribble, which she was very proud of.

Back To The Beginning

As I couldn't recover the old password I thought I should start again, especially as things have changed so much since the old blog. Having completed 3 years of home education now in some ways I know more and in others I know less. Now I know that the academic education is the easy part, planning the work, finding resources, even the actual teaching. Finding the time to develop the right mental attitudes is the hard part. Developing the whole person is what we are learning to do all the time. It is easy to find out the results of our academic studies, just take an exam and get the certificate, but the "exam" of the personality is something else.