Crafts and animals

Today's still weather made it a day for painting outside on large pieces of paper.
Ia did lots of work today, maashAllah. Sometimes it is a good reminder to look through a child's old work and realise that lots of progress has been made. Things that Ia struggled with a few months ago are now much easier for her, alhamdulillah.
Today we talked a little about animals, one of her favourite topics. We discussed how Allah is Al-Khaliq, The Creator, and how animals are of different types. Some animals Allah permits us to eat, ride or use for other tasks (ploughing, guarding), and some animals are wild. Ia sorted and stuck cut-out pictures of animals into these categories. We need to respect the rights of animals and treat them properly.
Many of the ideas I will be using with Ia, inshAllah, are taken from work which the boys did at her age. At that time I was working a lot with other sisters, so many of these ideas are not my own but I know they won't mind me sharing their good ideas with you.

These are the craft pieces the girls made at their art and craft session the other day. The white base is half a pizza base wrapper. As the session teacher pointed out it keeps its shape really well when sewn on with a tapestry needle, and is easier to use than a plastic grid because the needle can go through anywhere. I almost never buy that type of pizza, but if I ever do I'll be saving the base wrapper for needlecraft!

Day to day

When I bought this fern I was thinking I'd just get something to fill this deep shade spot. I didn't realise how beautiful the coppery shades of the new growth would be, subhanAllah.

Yesterday was a busy outside day. We went on a long explore, mostly by bus, to reach an art and craft session for Ia and U. The girls enjoyed painting with glue paint, painting a mug and sewing. Ia also helped make a fruit bowl model from dough. The boys had to hang around, looking bored, as the session was not for their age. They did very well, considering. The girls really loved their session, but as the bus fares cost more than the activity itself, and as the boys have nothing to do there I doubt we shall go again. This is the difficulty of juggling the various needs of each child, even I experience it, although my children are roughly in pairs when it comes to interests. Alhamdulillah.

So, after the long bus ride back we still had a half hour walk to get home. I bought them some take away food to carry home, as an encouragement. (Another example of the carrot approach I probably use too often). This "food"may have contributed to my overall exhaustion and queasiness at the end of the day. It was that, along with the heat and our trip to the park at the end of the afternoon, meeting up with HE friends again. The fact that I was kept awake for quite some time the night before by some individuals who had taken the road outside my bedroom for a race track pit lane, keeping their extra loud sports car engines revving like aircraft, until someone came out to yell at them, may also have been a part of it. Overall, something had to give.

So, this morning I was still trying to recover while catching up with housework neglected the night before. End result of all this: slow HE day. At least it is summer, alhamdulillah.

Quietly

Today we have been sheltering from the hot sunshine! Time to keep blinds and curtains partly drawn and the loft hatch open! I'm not complaining, different weather is variety.
This week I feel like we can do a little more HE. The house looks slightly more under control housework wise. Disorganised surroundings are very energy draining. I have considerable experience of this! Implementing what you know into reality is not so easy though.
Today we started reading "1001 Inventions, Muslim heritage in our world". I had known about this book for some time, but had delayed buying it because it is quite expensive. Recently I was reminded of it by a fellow blogger on a forum, and decided that I had delayed for more than a year by now, so it was hardly an impulse buy!
We also continued with the castles topic, and began a new Islamic studies area. Ia has done various bits of workbooks and colouring. Nothing particularly new or recordable, but, just a little more than last week. We are all feeling more ready to start new things. I even ordered spring bulbs today!

The H is in yellow

THE H IS IN YELLOW, cos I do know how to spell "Allah", but, should I override Ia's choice of colours for the sake of the photo? Should I avoid posting photo? Too late. It shows up just fine in real life, lemon yellow against the mustard folder.

The solar lights work well.

Making it up as we go along

For the last couple of mornings we were out after breakfast to take advantage of free swimming lessons being offered at the local pool, (trainee instructors needed kids to practise on). R had to miss out unfortunately, having recently suffered a perforated eardrum, so while Ia and J swam R, U and I went to the nearby park. R found it boring, even today when we took his scooter, but that was the way it had to be. Ia especially enjoyed her lessons, telling me that over the two days she had been to the zoo, space, the rainforest and safari. She had also been an excellent hippo. Not like swimming in the old days is it!

Back at home the boys set up some solar lights H recently bought. H intends to take the lights back home to his mum's, as there they get loads of sunshine and loads of power cuts. We just want to see if they actually work at all first. So, practical science.

Ia has been working on her latest lapbook. It is very nearly finished, it just needs a few decorative touches. With the overall HE shedule being so relaxed this week it has been hard to get Ia into doing anything other than her lapbook, although she did listen in as I read to the boys about castles in the garden today. All four of them have been doing lots of reading. Yesterday afternoon they sat under the sheets on the washing line (for shade), reading. This looked quite funny really, especially as we have two trees providing plenty of shady spots in the garden. It reminded me of how we used to sit and read in the garden of the flat we used to live in. There we would usually be under the washing, but this was because once the washing line was open and loaded it took up most of the garden space anyway.

I don't think Ia could read all of the books she had with her, I think she was picking out the words she knew. As usual U was retelling the stories in her own words.

This evening R made a pizza. I showed him how to make the bread dough for it, but he did all the mixing and kneading. He then did all the topping. He was very pleased with the results, alhamdulillah.

The pace of summer

This morning it was haircut time for the boys. After they had showered I noticed a drip from the hall ceiling. Turns out there is a leak from the waste pipe under the bath. Nice warm weather for drying it out though.
Ia and U have been getting lots of sets of books out, and spreading them around. They have been reading them too, each in their own ways. Ia has been doing more work on her current lapbook, and she drew an excellent picture of a motte and bailey castle. The boys have an on and off interest in castles, so I thought we could give a little time to that in this summer period. They have been on the computer lots too, but the positive in that is that the one not playing reads while he waits.
Then, towards the end of the afternoon we met up with HE friends in the park and once again the boys were joined by other boys in the park to play with a football. This seems to be an advantage that boys have, the ability to approach each other and join in the game, with almost no talk needed. I can't think of a situation where girls of that age would do this, I haven't noticed groups of girls spontaneously forming in the park. Maybe I'm missing something obvious!

Early on a summer morning

It was a sunny morning so I decided to take the children out to the cycle path near our home. It is a wide path, adjacent to but well away from the road. It is a busy road, so we were not exactly getting fresh air, but it was refreshing to be out in the morning sunshine. There is also a small public garden by the path and while the boys cycled up and down the girls discovered the flowers, the apple trees, the rabbit droppings and the nibbled windfalls. They also went up and down a bit on their scooters. We only stayed out for about 45 minutes, but it made all the difference to the morning.
We don't usually go out first thing, maybe we should do it more often!

Planning

As requested, I am posting a little about planning. I’m always planning! It is kind of an on going state of mind for me. However my planning is flexible and evolving, and is based on only the loosest timeframes. Some people plan by setting out a timetable and then slotting things in, maybe jotting down which pages of a book should be studied on which day and so on, weeks in advance. I admire this organised approach but I cannot implement it myself. It would cause me stress! I’d feel obliged to keep up, and the prospect of falling behind would make me feel like a hamster on a wheel. The other thing is that I cannot stop tinkering with plans, and writing them down too far in advance would make them look boring and in need of change.
To start with I need a clear idea of what I think the children should be learning, or want to be learning, in terms of subjects or topics. For some subjects I have a clear structure ahead of me, for example the history of the Prophets, from Adam (as) to Prophet Muhammad (saw), in chronological order. The boys began with Adam (as) in what would be school year 1, and have reached Yunus (as), whose life we need to study next, inshAllah. I have no set timetable to say how much further through the list I will have reached by this time next year. It is more important to me that I cover the life of each Prophet as thoroughly as possible before moving on to the next, than it is to get it learnt by a set time.
As I set about preparing to study each Prophet I need to give myself enough thinking time. While I’m studying one Prophet I am not ready to begin thinking about the next. I need to think about resources, how we will approach the topic, what different angles and lessons there are for this particular piece of history. I like to try to use a different style for the study of each Prophet as I hope this will help to mark out each story, and make it all more memorable. This kind of thinking planning will go on in the back of my head for as long as necessary, until the ideas emerge. This is why deadlines and timetables do not work for me. They would badly hinder the thinking process!
This may all sound a bit vague, but for me it works and is the way I plan Islamic subjects, geography, history and “wider reading” aspects of English. I would like my children to absorb and retain knowledge and for the knowledge to have a meaningful impact on their thought processes. This is more important to me than covering a set quantity of information in a set quantity of time. I find it hard to accept fixed boundaries around information. What is contained in one book, or one unit is never enough, I’m always looking for what may lie just over the horizon. This is why I find it hard to stick to resources devised by someone else. What else is there they haven’t mentioned, I’ll be thinking. Alhamdulillah, Allah has placed limits on our questions over some things, such as the Unseen. This is really a mercy. It is sometimes a relief to be able to know that the road ends here.
Anyway, I’m digressing.
Once I know what is on the topic menu, I need to arrange it into the week. For the boys each full HE day contains six elements. Quran, listening to me read a book aloud, maths, English and two other subjects. The two other subjects are chosen from the range currently being studied and may vary from week to week. Sometimes I will develop habits, such as doing an ICT worksheet every Monday. Some weeks we may be working on a project and do the same subject more than once in the week. Some weeks we may have just finished a topic, and may leave that subject for a week or two. As I think about what to cover for each topic I break it down into session sized portions. I usually plan for Monday and Tuesday at the weekend, and sort out the rest of the week as it emerges. By the night before I will usually know what is on the list for tomorrow.
Ia’s reception year has been based mainly around English, maths and surahs. I use a similar system for her, breaking the daily list down into different types of maths or English activities. Recently I have added Islamic studies to her list, and as we move into her Year 1, inshAllah, I’ll gradually expand her list further to include more subject areas. I’ll do this slowly, so that it is acceptable to her, allowing her to adjust happily. I kept records of work done with the boys and I will be drawing on that, (with the inevitable tweaking of course), inshAllah.
So, faced with a list to get through every HE morning we get started as soon as possible and carry on throughout the day until it is done, ticking the list off as we go. Who does what when is not fixed and does vary a lot. Sometimes we don’t complete everything on the list, but that means I just move it to tomorrow. Over time enough gets done, Alhamdulillah.
Keeping this openness in the planning allows me to easily move in new directions and follow new ideas and interests as they come up. Sometimes I’ll suddenly be struck by the thought that we should be leaning about such and such, and I like to feel that I can follow that idea without sacrificing a plan I slaved over months ago. When I find a new resource or a great idea on someone’s blog I want to be able to go for it right away. In this way the learning is always fresh and new, for me and for the children.

Moving from one phase, to another

Still sleepy! U has been asking to use the computer again, this time she has been trying out i-board reception activities, well the easy ones anyway.
The boys finished the Traders in Wooden Ships project today. They had to write a letter imagining themselves as a sailor on a ship of exploration, describing life on board. Then they finished off the quiz section, and made a front cover for their section of the file I've put the project in.
I haven't had enough energy to do much more than reading aloud and supervising Quran practice, but everyone has found plenty to keep themselves busy with. Our on-going projects have all been finished off now, so from next week I hope to have a "summer plan" to go with inshAllah. We all need a period of lighter, more flexible activities. The summer period will run up to Ramadan, inshAllah, and for that month we will have a different focus again. It is time to start thinking of Ramadan work in more detail now. I have a couple of areas in mind to focus on. Planning, planning! But I won't write down much more on it that this. Once I write plans down I start having to change them again. Best keep it in my head then.

Reading Update

I've been a bit dazed during the last few days. I'm still waiting to get my energy back, inshAllah. The children have found plenty to occupy themselves, although I have kept a skeleton version of our HE going. At last the maths is finished, alhamdulillah! The boys can now have a maths break until September, inshAllah. I have been using Collins Primary Maths with them and they have completed all the Year 4 books. Ia's maths will still continue here and there, as is more appropriate to her level.
How about Ia's reading? Ia is coming to the end of her reception year. Throughout the year I've been using various phonics books with her. Just the common ones found in any bookshop. She has used online resources such as Education City, Create a Reader and others from the masses available. I tried flashcards, but she hated them. The boys did not like flashcards either. My packs of flashcards are still in excellent condition.
Next I tried some phonic readers, but, despite being familiar with the sounds, Ia was unwilling to try to put sounds together. Also I think, like the boys, she disliked the meaninglessness of some of those phonic readers. So, a little while later, I tried the old Ladybird "look and say" method. My old Peter and Jane books came back out for another round, and so she started to read them. Every evening at bed time, in the bedroom, she reads two pages. One new page and yesterday's new page. As we work through the book in this way each page will be read twice. This approach allowed me to focus on problems, such as her confusion between "this" and "they". We made glitter posters for both words.
So there is a slow and steady progress, alhamdulillah. I do not use any one method, nor do I buy into a big structured scheme. I use mix and match with whatever seems to be working at the time. I remember how laborious it seemed working through this with the boys. Each of them reading through their two pages a night at a snails pace. But then, one day, they just seemed to get it, and they became proper readers, almost overnight. Alhamdulillah. I think a child really teaches himself to read, as long as the tools have been provided. So, now I'm just going to keep plodding along with Ia, her phonics books and her two pages a night, until one day inshAllah she will become a reader.
I wrote this reading update in response to a question I was asked on Monday. While I have been doing this the boys have been making a funny powerpoint presentation on the other computer, featuring themselves in a silly story, with sound effects. I really shouldn't worry about ICT!

Slow Tuesday

Having had a few tiring days, today we got off to a very slow start. Having got everyone through breakfast and showers it was already nearly 11am. Then I read to the boys for quite a long time and they did their Quran reading. We are still on a mission to finish the maths, and that was our HE focus for today.
Later we were back out in a park (not the same as yesterday's), with two other HE families. The boys got together with some other boys who happened to be in the park and had a good hour playing football. Ia was invited to play at racing toy cars, she is an obliging girl, maashAllah, and did her best to join in, but she really found it rather boring! She soon raced off to the play equipment. And that was our slow Tuesday.

Picnic Day

After a weekend of surprise guests, followed by illness, today we had a day out in the park meeting up with other HE families. Alhamdulillah, it was a day to put faces to names of blogging sisters, and to be surrounded by children! The boys were playing with friends, old and new, and there was lots of tree climbing too. Ia nearly went up a tree, but it was just too high!
Conversations with sisters have given me some interesting thoughts, which I hope to expand upon in days to come, inshAllah. Just now I'm almost too tired to think!
Anyway, I thank Allah for the day we've had.

...and so on

Looks like another list of HE stuff about to be written. We've been home this week, just getting on with work really. I know some people who are really organised and get all their HE done in the morning, but we don't manage that here. I just start from when they get up and just carry on.

The boys did a marathon session on Venn diagrams today, a little written work for the trraders project, Quran and I read to them. They also discovered their library books today (we borrowed them on Saturday!), so spent lots of time reading, as well as playing on the computer.

I started another lapbook with Ia. This time the theme is "Allah made everything". U is doing one too, not that I expect her to really take in much, but she'll be satisfied with having made something. Ia has been asking to do lapbooks, and suddenly I feel able to move forward with that. Funny how with HE things just seem to have their "right" time. Ia also did her other daily maths and phonics, we read books on the patio and did jigsaws in the lounge. Then, whilst Ia was at her swimming class, U jumbled up all the pieces of lots of puzzles and left them in a heap.

The Ship

It rained continuously today, from when we got up, and it is still raining now. I can't remember if I checked at Fajr, maybe it was already raining then. So, a day to stay in! The model ship got finished! I was working on a second model with Ia, but that one got turned into a Viking style ship so I only had to do one square mast. The shape was better suited to it too, as a different size milk container had been used.
Ia did various bits of phonics work, experimented with the puzzle pieces below, drew and coloured.

Gradually, at the back of my mind, I have been working on a way to include more variety in what Ia does. I do still have the bank of activities which were used with the boys, but it has been hard working out how to timetable things in most effectively. It takes me ages to figure these things out to my satisfaction!

Use of a long evening

The model boats didn't get done today, alhamdulillah! J and R got the maths and ICT work done in their room, in between whatever else they were doing. It was all practice work really, and they got it all done with only one or two minor errors, alhamdulillah.

Ia was engrossed in other arts and crafts projects today, although I did get a little maths and Education City out of her. For maths today we used a game I had drawn up the pieces for when the boys were younger. It is a kind of bingo subtraction, although I don't do the bingo part! There is just a board with various subtraction problems using numbers up to 10. There are all the number cards too and I just got her to cover each problem with its solution. It makes a change from the workbooks.

The sun came out again this evening, alhamdulillah. Time to tie the climbing rose, deadhead and look at all the colours, subhanAllah. H took the boys out to play cricket for a few hours. And really it was because of the surprisingly beautiful evening weather that we didn't get the models done!

"Lost"

The morning got off to a good start, alhamdulillah. The boys listened to me read, did their Quran and double maths..... then R realised he had lost his Tamagotchi toy, and things went downhill. He went off to look for it. Later I got both boys back to do some short pieces of writing they needed to get done on Word. Still it was not found, so after lunch I went up to help them look in their room. Well, I had been thinking it needed a good clean out in there, and as it was pouring with rain outside it wasn't such a bad day for this to happen. After a considerable amount of cleaning out under the bed, through the sock drawers, and other likely places the boys went off to play on the computer, having given up. The girls crawled around under the bed, U seemed quite excited about being given free reign to rummage.
Meanwhile,in the morning, Ia had begun following a Hama bead pattern. She spent the day coming back to it, leaving it half done this evening. It involves lots of counting, and accurate copying, so I think that counts as education. In between she looked at books, drew, played with U.
By now it was almost four o'clock and we still had not begun the model boat project, (from traders in Wooden Ships). I had cut up the plastic milk bottles ready to start, and Ia was hovering around, waiting. Then the Tamagotchi was found - under the duvet. Had I not said the bed should be the first place to look? I had been assured all beds had been thoroughly searched.
Ah well.
So then we got the models half done. Finish them off tomorrow, inshAllah.

Weekend

All of us: went to library
Boys: Cricket
Girls: visit friend
Me: Housework

Mini Book

We've made mini-books for the study of Surah Al-Adiyat. The cover is card, and one page of A4 is folded inside for the pages. Inside there is a translation of the meaning of the surah, a list of ways in which people are ungrateful to Allah, (always complaining, saying life is unfair, why does it always happen to me, etc) and a list of some of the favours Allah grants (food, water, health, security etc). There is also a piece of creative writing for which I asked the boys to imagine themselves looking at the horses described at the beginning of the surah, and describe what is happening, what they can see and hear and so on.

Apart from this we mostly did maths today. As we are nearing the end of the school year, we have nearly completed the maths course. The last few weeks seem to be dragging by and all of us are looking forward to a break from the daily maths lessons. So I decided to suggest doubling up the maths for a week or so in order to get through it faster, and then get a longer summer break. This means we will do less other work in the mean time, but we can afford to relax on that, having got so much done, alhamdulillah. The boys agreed to this plan, so, it will be double maths for a bit now, if we can manage it, inshAllah.

Ia's first lapbook

With lots of help from Auntie Z, Ia completed her first lapbook today, on Allah's Names, alhamdulillah.

Under each of the five names chosen for this book is written its translation and brief meaning. On the right Ia copied out "Allah created everything. Allah has 99 names."