Garden pics

Ending a damp week

In this mild, damp weather everything looks grubby to me. Shoes get muddy, mud gets on the carpets, the muddy patches in the garden lawn stand out more, with their bobbles of worm casts. And it's not only the mud, the dampness in the air means that nothing dries, like a grey film of dull on every surface. A few hours of glimmering sunlight yesterday made me want to open the doors to the garden wide, to let the light dry up all the corners it could touch.
It has been a relaxing HE week. The children have had friends over to play, which is a treat for us all, and in between we've been finishing up bits of work. The boys have finished another half term of the maths scheme and completed the assessment. We finished off looking at the life of Ayyub (as). This means that I am ready to move onto new projects in history and geography. Science for the year has been completed, as has English really, but I let that just tick along as we've already blurred the year group boundaries in that subject too much to see them any more.
So, I'm thinking of summer projects now. I don't know why I have these boundaries and timetables in my head, but I just need to organise I suppose.
Ia has been doing more and more arty stuff. Today she wanted to paint and then she made tiny gifts wrapped up in chocolate wrappers. U joins her in this now, they have become quite a team, maashAllah. Other than that she has done bits and bobs of workbooks and continued her before bed reading. Now she is using the Peter and Jane Ladybird books and has moved to 2a.

Rain, rain, rain

Ia has spent much time at her "graphics table" (term carried over from her nursery days). She's been making cards, decorated boxes, drawing and tracing pictures and even doing a little copy writing. I don't tidy it away at the end of each day, as she returns to her projects the next morning.

What else can we do when the days are so wet? I've done lots of baking and I sorted out the old exercise books from the shelves and sent them into the loft. Can't quite throw them away yet!

Yesterday it was dry enough to have a fun day with friends, alhamdulillah, but all the excitement meant a slow start to today! Once again it was raining this morning, so just a routine day was in order. As an extension of work last week when we looked into an increase in the number of earthquakes being a Sign of the Last Hour I got the boys to do some further research into earthquakes. It is amazing, subhanAllah that there are recorded movements everyday, just most of them are not serious enough to get noticed.

I found useful information at these links:

BBC

Weather Wiz Kids

Earthquakes for Kids

Unplanned

Yesterday the sun shone and R tried to teach Ia how to ride a bike in the garden. She progressed from completely crashing to falling off carefully.
This morning, however brought disappointment as heavy rain cancelled R and J's first proper cricket match of the year. This afternoon we went to the library and picked up some books to go with my wider reading plans. This has paid off as this evening J has read "Friend or Foe" by Michael Morpurgo and "The Danger Zone Avoid being a Second World War Evacuee". R is working his way through it now.
Ia chose a crayoning skills book and drew some colourful pictures when we got home. She has also been doing some more junk modelling with cardboard boxes.
Ia has also learned all the new words in her Talha and Asma book, so she can read the whole thing now. It happened just like that, subhanAllah.
Allah plans everything and is the best of planners.

Friday

It's the end to another week. The evening is sunny and the girls are playing in the garden. My neighbour let me borrow his hedge clippers, so my side of the hedge is no longer a shaggy mess. He wanted a neat job made of it actually and needed bits from my side trimmed to get the effect. I'm working on a shady patch of the garden, by the shed, with foxgloves, primula, hydranga and hardy geranium to go with the clump of something, mahonia and wizened old rosemary.
We've had a sociable couple of days. U did her first long walk without her pushchair. When I say long I mean about 30 minutes, so, long for her! I had to carry her a bit here and there, but over all she did well, maashAllah. It is strange to be without the pushchair. I had that feeling where you think you've forgotten something but can't remember what it is. Then all the children did well when we had to wait 40 minutes for a bus. I was finding it hard to control my impatience by then, so they did well not to lose it I think!

When and how?

I've started getting Ia to read from a "Talha and Asma" book every evening before she goes to bed. The Talha and Asma books are a copy of Ladybird's Peter and Jane, except that I think they only made the first three books. I started the boys with Peter and Jane, as I had started myself as a child, I actually still have the old copies I learnt to read from. Just as I did with the boys I get her to read one new page, plus the previous pages every evening. I think that the time is good. U sits and reads her own books to herself at this time, before she lies down to sleep, so she does not disturb Ia and also Ia herself is not thinking about doing anything else at that time. Then when she has read I read something else of her choice to her, then they recite a surah, say their dua and sleep. (Usually).
Yesterday I continued work connected to Surah Al-Zalzalah with the boys. As the surah speaks about the events around the coming of the Last Hour I thought this would be an opportunity to go through the major and minor signs of the Hour, listing them down briefly. One of the minor signs is that there will be an increase in earthquakes, so we looked up news pictures of the recent Chinese earthquake, and thought about other earthquakes which have occured in the past few years. By using a cross curricular approach like this I hope, inshAllah, that what we study from the Quran will stick in our minds for longer! Accessing information is not a problem in this era of the web, but retaining information remains as challenging as ever, if not more challenging I think!

Neat flowerbed (it is the only neat bit just now)

I'm in one of those stages again where there just seems to be so much that I want to do and yet I can't organise my time. The neighbour cut his side of the hedge today, so now my side looks like a big shaggy mess. Things seem like that generally!

The boys' work seems to be under control, alhamdulillah. I heard about a Saturday Quran class, but they don't want to go. I would like them to do more, but I can't force them to attend a setting they don't think they like. I continued reading to them today, including reading the history of Ayyub (as). Then they got their other usual work done too, leaving lots of time to play. Alhamdulillah we got a surprise call to meet friends in the park in the late afternoon, so they got some football fun too.

Ia's work is still not really that well organised. She does various activities most days, but it is just not organised. I could do more with her, things I know she would enjoy and which she has even been asking for, like her own lapbook. But I don't like to disturb her when she is in the middle of a good game with U, or when she is doing educational activities on the computer, so then the days pass. She is only five, I don't think it harms her in the least, in fact I think it is better this way. But sometimes I think she wonders why I have not done this or that with her yet!

These are the days of home ed!

Monday gone already!

Alhamdulillah, another Monday finished already. I spent almost the whole of Saturday cleaning, not that you can tell, as the mess was hurriedly put back by the rest of the family.

We are getting through my HE plans most days, alhamdulillah, but somehow I don't find time for those extras I feel I should be doing, such as organising the resources, tidying up my record keeping and storage of completed work. One day, inshAllah.

Ia spent lots of her time using Education City today. I switched to the new version, and changed her levels for science and maths, as she had completed all the reception work. This made her curious to explore the new games, and she had fun with it.

The boys began using the new English textbook today. The first chapter refers to child evacuees in the Second World War, so we spent a little time reading online to set the scene, as this is not a topic we have mentioned before. This is how I mean to go on with English, inshAllah, lots of context, lots of "wider reading". Studying for study skills, inshAllah, not for "learning outcomes".

Also today we began a project based around the tafsir for Surah Zalzalah. I've got to remind myself to go slowly, dwell on matters and think. Help it all sink in, inshAllah. I began by reading the tafsir from Ibn Kathir today, then we went a little more into the changes to the Earth and Universe on the Last Day.

Sometimes it is nice to be reminded that something has been learnt. At the end of last week I tried out a new route. The boys thought it was longer than our usual way. I started to explain that when we got home I would show them how to check this using the map and a bit of thread, only to be met with groans of how I'd taught them that before. when was that, I'm still wondering.

The boys also did some cut and copy ICT practise today, although I wonder why I bothered, this evening I found thay had discovered for themselves how to draw silly beards and glasses onto photos stored on their computer. Great, isn't it?

A bit of exercise

U proudly earned herself a Storyland minigym badge and certificate today. She is so pleased. She rolled like a gingerbread man, chased the giant, caught and threw the ball, walked like a spider and other things. The other three all have some sort of PE badge or certificate, so she can feel a bit grown up too. Her next PE challenge is to walk more, as her buggy broke today. I suspect difficult journeys ahead.

This and That

Well, it rained a lot today, so I did a teensy bit of housework. Not that you can really tell.

Actually, today was nice and varied. The boys got their work done in good time this morning, as they had things they wanted to get on with in the afternoon.

I read to them about Aisha (ra), they read Quran, used the French cdrom and did some maths. After that we finished off our study of Yusuf (as) , by reviewing his history in the light of the duties of the Prophets, making notes. Lastly we did some geography, looking through a chapter on farming around the world in a geography textbook I have and then using the internet to make lists of crops produced in various countries around the world.

Ia did some French and some letter work on the computer too. She did a little workbook stuff, listened to me read quite a few books,some stories, some about animals and she did colouring and collage. Both girls helped me collect snails in the garden and put them on the compost heap, where snails can feast all they like. To understand the effectiveness of this solution imagine the way in which a crawling baby is deterred from touching buttons on a TV/DVD player/video slot by moving him to the other side of the room and showing him a toy designed for his age.

We also spent a few minutes practising to roll like gingerbread men, which is an exercise U learns in minigym.

The Wheel On The School (by Meindert Dejong) Lapbook

We made sections on the following:

The adult characters

The child characters (their names and roles in the story)

A picture of the type of landscape in which the story is set

A Themes pocket, in which I put the mini essay booklets the boys had written

Descriptions of the clothing worn by the characters

Descriptions of the houses

Map of the region in which the story is set

Stork information (The brown scribble is meant to be a picture of a nest. Yes, I know. I did not want them to draw a living creature, and with no printer I can't print out a picture of one)

While the sun shines

When the sun shines I get more lenient with the study schedule. Playing outside is such a memorable part of childhood, I just want to let them enjoy it. This being the UK it could be dull and rainy for most of the next few months! So, making the most of now!
I've also been doing laundry while the sun shines. Fitting those odd loads in on top of the normal ones, like, cricket whites, red stuff (not together of course).
But still some HE has to go on. There is only so much garden stuff to be played in a day, and brains have to be kept occupied. The boys have done some work on capacity today, listened to a chapter about the life of Abu Ubaidah (ra), read Quran and done an ICT exercise on adjusting fonts, text sizes and inserting pictures. We also finished up the year 4 science programme, with looking through the last couple of textbook pages and doing an assessment sheet on the electricity unit.

Ia had a friend over to play and learn with. They play together at tea parties and pets. In between times friend's mum and I prepare bits and pieces for them to do, which we give to them after food breaks!
Today we did a little introduction of place value. The girls used interlocking cubes to make representations of 11, 12, 13 and 14, using a stick of 10 cubes and then the number of extra unit cubes. They copied these representations onto 1cm squared paper. Large sized squared paper seems relatively hard to get hold of, I don't know why, it is SO useful.
Friend's mum had a good idea of getting them to collage their names written in Arabic, one letter at a time, so we began that too, using old wrapping paper as collage material.
I have managed to weed the back border today, which is the worst for weeds, with ground elder, herb robert and bindweed entrenched and spreading from neglected plots on the other side of the fence. I'm turning the corner into looking at the garden and seeing the beauty, rather than just seeing the mess. There are lots of highlights, as the photos show, maashAllah. I know the photos often don't add any meaning to the text, they are just there to brighten the page.

Balancing garden, home.......

Although, as I mentioned in my last post, I don't tend to mention much about non-HE matters in this blog, I have read a little from other people in the last few days about how they manage their household tasks, and their words do give me a boost! Somehow the idea of other people buzzing about their homes changing sheets, doing laundry and whatever makes me more inclined to get on with things myself. This is especially helpful on days when the workload seems overwhelming. The growing season in the garden means lots of weeds popping up everywhere, it can feel like a race to quell them before they take over. Similar to the sprouting of dirty dishes in the kitchen and toys from the carpets.
So, in a break from the norm, over the weekend I have......

...actually, no, I can't remember it that clearly, but it did involve taking shears to some overgrown grass, using the handpush mower on the shorter stuff, planting marigolds and other bedding and...

Enough of that. Last night the snails munched the best sunflower. There one minute, gone the next. There is one survivor of the giant sunflowers, will it be there tomorrow, or will the massacre continue? I planted some more seeds in large pots today. They won't get so big in there as they should, but at least they'll get a better chance of survival. By the way, I don't want to use chemicals on the snails, I'm not protecting food crops I need for my survival.

Back to some HE today. The boys studied the tafsir of Surah Al-Qariah, and made a poster of the meaning, with some illustrations of fire. They also did maths, wrote a mini essay on the treatment of the character Janus in the Wheel on the School, read Quran, listened to me read to them about Abu Bakr (ra) and went cycling.

The girls did painting, played with ink stamps, played role play games and messed about in the garden.

Finally, they all went to bed by nine, in the hope that they might get up earlier tomorrow and we might not have such a slow start to the mornings. InshAllah.

Having written all this, don't we live in such a bubble? May Allah save us from the tests of earthquakes, cyclones, intertribal violence, civil war. Alhamdulillah, I am grateful for a messy house.

Ticking Along

I have not posted much this week, because we have not been doing much recordable home ed. The only things I kept ticking over were Quran and maths.
We've been out and about a bit too, visiting friends, running errands and keeping up with the weekly sports activities.
I have done some planting out in the garden, but remain cautious because of the nightly feasts held by the garden snails. I didn't spend time and effort on the seedlings just to feed snails with them. They have munched through J's contender for the Tallest Sunflower competition. He hasn't noticed yet.
InshAllah I'll be back next week with more home ed, as I really don't have the knack of recording the daily this and that of life in an interesting way. Where others can write about mowing the lawn and trimming the edges in a readable manner, I just do the chores, and leave it at that.

Being lazy!

Why have we made autumn leaves in spring? Well, the green food colouring just wasn't strong enough! The leaf shapes came ready cut on absorbent paper. They dried fast on the washing line.

Due to yesterday's public holiday and the sunny, warm weather a holiday mood is continuing here, so only a little work done today. The boys designed three types of switches, such as the one shown below. They did get it to work, although it was a bit flimsy. Aluminium modelling wire is good for these types of projects.

One day last week I got Ia to do some junk modelling in the morning while I did some work with the boys. This was a good way to occupy both girls, as after the toy house was made they played with it for ages. And did puzzles.

A sunny weekend means I've been in the garden. MaashAllah.

Lapbook on Yusuf (as)

We prepared for this Project by reading Ibn Kathir’s tafsir of Surah Yusuf and “Tell Me about the Prophet Yusuf”, by Saniyasnain Khan. Then we made lapbook sections as described below.
1. We traced a map of the region in which Yusuf (as) lived. We traced this from “the Atlas of the Quran” (Darusalaam).
2. We used a Layered Look Book to list the best known members of Yusuf (as)’s family, with some information about each. (Ishaq (as), Ibrahim (as), Yaqub (as), Binyamin and the ten half brothers).
3. We used little cloud shaped cut outs to summarise the lessons to be learned from the story of Yusuf (as), under the headings, Always Obey Allah, Patience, Forgiveness, Ease follows hardship for the Believers.
4. We used a fold cut out in the shape of a golden cup to tell the part of the story concerning Binyamin and the golden cup.
5. We used a fold with a picture of a garment to write about the garments of Yusuf (as). The blood stained garment that his brothers showed Yaqub (as)when they said that Yusuf (as) had been killed by a wolf; and the garment that Yusuf (as) sent to his father and which Yaqub (as) placed on his face, restoring his eyesight by the will of Allah.
6. We used a fold to write about Yusuf (as)’s time in the well.
7. We used an Envelope Fold to write about the four dreams. The dream of Yusuf (as) when he saw the sun, moon and stars prostrate to him, the two dreams of the men with whom Yusuf (as) was imprisoned and which he interpreted, and the dream of the King of Egypt.
8. We used a small booklet fold to write about the sequence of incidents which happened to Yusuf (as) in Egypt.