Work and a play day

Yesterday we enjoyed another "play day" having friends over and just enjoying each other's company, alhamdulillah. This was a very welcome break for us, as the long break from out of the house activities combined with the wintery weather means that the effects of being home too long are beginning to show!!!
We've been working away too meanwhile, boys on maths revision and some literature study on Oliver Twist, and we've all been watching the Royal Institution lecture series on Channel Four catch up. Ia has been doing some maths revision too, working on her mental maths skills.
Next week activities start again, inshAllah, and I think we are all looking forward to it!

Using a few educational games

So, we are just plodding along here at the moment. Not much else going on. The children have been seeing some of their friends, and getting on with our daily routines.
I've been using the "Silly Snail Game", which I downloaded in a Currclick give away some time ago. It is a game for teaching parts of speech. Players have to identify the part of speech of a word highlighted on a sentence card. The playing board is marked out with the names of the parts of speech, and you don't use dice to move on. The boys enjoy playing this game and it is finally getting them to bother to remember the names of the parts of speech, alhamdulillah!
Yesterday I found a shop selling the Hadith Challenge game, and we had a go at playing this today too. Although many of the questions are on topics and hadith that the boys have come across in their studies remembering all thoses details is another matter, and this may be a way of getting some revision and some retention done, inshAllah.
I also played an educational game with U today, using the CVC matching cards we have. These are very cheap and cheerful cards I bought years ago, but which have seen good use, alhamdulillah. When these come out I know a milestone has been reached and the child is starting to sound out simple words successfully. The cards consist of pairs of cards, the first with a picture and the initial letter, and the second with the last two letters, so you pair up b with ox to make box and so on.

Evaluation

Sometimes I think I sit so close up to our home education that I can't see the whole of it properly. It gets distorted and I have to remind myself of where we were, where we are now and basically understand the bigger picture.
At the beginning of autumn I was thinking of ways to get U learning the alphabet. I was gathering different approaches and trying to keep things interesting. U was not in a habit of organised learning at that time, and I knew I had to work on establishing new habits and routines with her. (Only very mild and light all the same!)
Now, about three months later, I can see that she has learnt a lot, alhamdulillah, and is now comfortable working on identifying the initial, medial and final sounds in CVC words, and can choose correct initial and final letters in longer words too. During these three months there have been times when she hasn't wanted to bother, and times when she insisted on doing things her own way. On a daily snapshot basis there have been times when I could have got quite stressed, but looking at an overview now, alhamdulillah, things have progressed just fine. I think it is important to keep that in mind, whenever new challenges emerge.
Seems like I've been doing a lot of thinking and evaluating this week! I think it must be because of the break in activities and the snow keeping us home more!

Ia's reading choices

These are some of the books Ia is choosing to borrow from the library at the moment. As you can see she goes for the "cute" covers!

Skills through subjects

Sometimes the skills learnt through studying a subject are just as important as the subject matter. The subject is like a vehicle. Take, for example, the geography study the boys are doing. I do think it is important to have a general knowledge of geography, to understand where countries are in relation to each other, their climates and so on, but this is not the only reason to do this topic. It is also a good opportunity for the boys to develop research skills and the ability to use the internet to gather information. They also need to learn to skim and scan text, to pick out relevant information, to recognise reliable and unreliable sources, to answer questions accurately etc.
The Trail Guide to World Geography study guide we are following this year has a list of drill questions at the front of very week's section. (We are absolutely not following the shedule in terms of numbers of weeks, just doing it in the prescribed sequence). Rather than doing a few questions per day I tend to pick out about 10 questions for them to do in one session. Most of the questions they will not know the answer to, and they have to look up the answers in the atlas or online. Sometimes even the online maps are more suitable than the printed atlas. It depends what you are looking for. This is helping them to learn about using search terms, what to put in the box to help get the answer fastest.
Oftentimes they'll get directed to sites which are not written specifically for kids, and the whole text will be too difficult for them to understand, but they are learning to find their way to the answer they need, because the questions themselves do not require tricky answers, so the answer is usually plainly sitting there if you can cut through the technical details.
So I'm not really concerned about whether or not they remember the elevation of Mt McKinley, but think that it is important that they know how to find this out.
Of course, they do a lot of finding out about their own interests in this way too, but doing this also through a subject means that they experience a wider variety of sources, rather than just game review sites and sports journalism!

More Snow!

More snow, subhanAllah! So, more of the same in our days too, alhamdulillah. The children go out to play in the garden, then they come in, do some educational stuff, go back into the garden again, and so on!
The school holidays have begun, so no activities for a couple of weeks. Many of them would have been cancelled due to snow anyway. We are taking a slow approach to the days. There is no need to rush, as we are home, and can carry on into the evening with learning stuff, if taking advantage of daylight to go outside.

Weather Lapbooks

Yesterday the girls finished off their weather lapbooks.

This is inside Ia's lapbook. The printouts came from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ . There were many more than those available, but I didn't want to use them all. She also made cloud pictures, to show different types of clouds, wrote a description of the type of weather we are having this month (written before the snow came) and she wrote a little about some of the weather experiments we did during the course of this project. On the back of the lapbook there is a weather words worksheet printout as well.

Other resources to go with this project include:

MET office

This homeschool lapbook blog, which is really FULL of ideas!
We have a good weather encyclopedia at home too, alhamdulillah, so I took some information out of that for them.

Snow Pics

And after that back in to have hot chocolate, listen to Oliver Twist, investigate prime numbers and review surahs before getting ready to go to Friday prayers.

Making notebook pages

There are many ready made notebooking pages available to print off online. Most of them have a box or space for an illustration. But what if your kids don't like to do illustrations?
As part of our geography studies I thought I could use occasional notebook pages with the boys. Yesterday I wanted them to find out a little about Niagara Falls. I know they won't be interested in doing a sketch of the Falls, so instead I asked them to search for an image online, paste it into a word document and then make a title before printing off. Under the image they wrote some of the information they had found out.
The boys don't need to have lined paper to write on, but if I were doing this with Ia I would put a piece of lined paper underneath and trace a few lines for her to write on. I know you can use the computer to add lines, but to me a bit of tracing would be quicker and more ink efficient when making a one off page for one child.

Socks

Has this got anything to do with home education? No, not really, but if you have boys I ask you this.....How fast do your boys' socks disintegrate into holes?
In this house it happens very fast, subhanAllah. How often do I hear the complaint,"All my socks have holes in!"? Often.
How do boys do this?
Today H shopped for yet more socks. Temporary relief, inshAllah.

Weekend maths

I like this activity! Today I did this with U.
Take a handful of cubes in each of three colours and put them in a bag. Then get the child to draw out 5 cubes and record the colour combinations that come out. Each time remembering to total the number of cubes to 5. This will show different ways of making 5 from three numbers.
Of course you can choose a different total number, or a different number of colours to suit your purpose.
I didn't try making a point out of saying "See, we are making 5 in different ways", instead I just let her experience it in her own way.

Story Writing

U chose this library book last week. I read it aloud a couple of times, and Ia has read it to herself too. The cat in the story reminds us of our own cat! Especially the bit where it says that Mog saw that it was raining in the garden so she went to the street as she thougt it would not be raining there.
As I read it again last night I had the idea that this would be a good story for Ia to base her own story on. So, this morning Ia wrote a little story about our forgetful cat. Ia needs a little help with coming up with ideas for writing, so using storybooks she enjoys as a base seems to help.

Can TV be useful?

Today the boys wrote a description of an elephant. The assigment in their English textbook asked them to write a detailed description, as if they were describing an elephant to someone who had never seen one themselves. They were asked to consider sights, sounds, the way the animals move and even smell!
Well, they have seen live elephants once at a zoo, when they were two and a half. I remember the occasion well. At the time of seeing the elephants it was near the end of the day and R was more concerned about getting H to carry him than with looking at elephants. If R, aged 2.5 was fussing to be carried, you can be sure that J was too.
Since then we have visited a different zoo, but they don't have elephants there. So how could the boys describe an elephant in detail? A photo wouldn't be enough, as you can't get a sense of movement or sound from that. So for their piece of descriptive writing they must have relied on what they have seen on TV. J in particular wrote a very descriptive piece, maashAllah.
Without seeing elephants on TV I don't see how he could have written it.
So, when it comes to TV I think it can have its uses, in opening our eyes to sights and sounds of the creation we couldn't otherwise experience. It is all about using it sensibly I think. Of course we can just as well watch this stuff on the internet as well these days, so when i say TV I'm including that too!

Learning about people around the world

I've always been fascinated by learning about people around the world.
This morning I came across some great links on Imaan's blog, Making Memories. The links are to videos showing Muslims from diffeent parts of the world preparing for Hajj. The boys and I watched the first part of the China video, which was very interesting, maashAllah. Hoping to get to look through the rest later this week, inshAllah.
Finding that also reminds me to post about some great little Islamic books from Goodword.
The Islamic Village series
These are lovely books full of interesting details about life in different parts of the Muslim world. You can read them aloud to younger children and older ones (from about 8) can read them themselves, inshAllah. What a simple way to include some geography in your family learning, maashAllah.
Best of all in the bookshop I bought my copies from they are sold for 75p!!! Almost nothing is ever sold for as little as 75p!!!!

Copy Cats!

We tried out the salty painting I saw on UmmTafari's blog!

Weather activities

Today we did some of the weather experiements from the MET office kids page.
I'm not too impressed with their suggestions, anyway....
Above we tried the cloud in a glass experiment. It did work, but the flash ruined the photo!

We made our own puddles of water and drew round them. Then we gathered evidence to suggest that puddles diminish in size because cats drink them.
It goes into the air through evaporation I say,
No, no Mummy, Nala is drinking it.....


Finally, the windmill. Put a small bead on the paper fastener between the paper and the card they suggest. What kind of bead is big enough to have a fastener threaded through it , but small enough not to take up most of the length of the fastener? No wonder we are not shown a finished example on the website. Still it looks nice, even if it doesn't turn that well.

As for the weather fronts idea. Sounds great, but as I don't have an empty large aquarium tank lying around somewhere I guess I'll have to put that on hold.

Any alternative suggestions, anyone?

Little one maths

Yes, we are "on holiday", but I thought I'd give U a little attention by herself today and do some of the practical maths she doesn't feel like doing on our busy days.
This is what we did:
arranging in order and matching number cards
identifying plastic shapes by handling them whilst blindfolded
identifying the colour of a rod by handling it whilst blindfolded
arranging rods in size order
counting forward and back
finding a number less or greater than a given number, or between two given numbers

Limitless toys

Oh no! Not more toys! Well, I'm just being silly with the title, but if children make their own toys they can have lots more!
This afternoon the girls set up an art workshop for their soft toys. The toys gathered around tables made of books and and made calendars out of papers.
Later on the girls made doctors' bags filled with equipment. The bags were old cardboard boxes, with coloured paper handles, and the equipment was just cut out drawings. Still lots of fun though, maashAllah.

Off Shedule

So, after a busy Eid of receiving and being guests we are having a week off shedule. The weather is not suitable for doing much outside, so I'm having a clearout day. I've been rearranging the boys room, trying again to maximise their space, again!
Their wardrobe is falling to bits...really should get them a replacement.
That's about as interesting as it gets at the moment!

Finishing off for the holidays

We've been busy wrapping up our sheduled home ed week. We'll now take a break for the rest of this week and next week, inshAllah.
The girls have both been using Education City, Ia has continued with her Quran reading lessons, and with reading Little Animal Ark books. Ia has also started a Nelson Thornes handwriting book, learning some writing joins. In maths she has begun multiplication and division (in the form of doubles and halves) and both girls have made a small start on a weather project. I should get them started on a weather journal, but I can just backfill the last couple of weeks with "wet and windy" in case they tire of keeping it too quickly. They have also both been doing lots of drawing and colouring in their doodle books, maashAllah.
The boys have begun long multiplication, which is not hard but you need to be careful not to make a small slip somewhere which goes on to mess up the whole answer. Can cause some frustration. They've also continued their ecology study, completing a quiz on food chains and food webs today. In Islamic studies we followed learning about the days of Duhl Hijjr with TJ's excellent Duas unit, maashAllah.
Other daily bits and bobs, reading, Quran etc and evening sports activities have also continued, alhamdulillah

Decopatch

Over the weekend I took the girls to a decopatch workshop. I wasn't expecting much, but it was more interesting than I expected. I knew nothing about this craft before, basically sticking torn patches of paper onto an object to decorate it. The workshop used animals, but they were ready made, we did not have to sculpt them, we just had to cover them with paper. At bit like 3D colouring in. Covering little boxes would be even better! I like making this type of thing, but I don't like decorative clutter. What to do with stuff you make?? Of course these animals can't go on display, so into the cupboard with them.

Finishing off a couple of projects

Today Ia has finished off a couple of projects she has been working on for a while, maashAllah.
The one in the picture is the simple "Where I live" project that I mentioned I would do some time back. It is just done on A4 in a very simple plastic binder.
It consists of:
- our address written out neatly with the parts of it labelled (door number, street name etc)
- a map of the UK with the different countries labelled and shaded in different colours and our town and London marked on
- a drawing of our street and a short description of what it looks like
- photocopies of street maps of our area with our home, friends homes and places we go to (eg swimming pool) marked on it

Ia also finished off her lapbook on dinosaurs today. It was a printed out lapbook I got as a Currclick freebie. U still needs to stick hers together, inshAllah.

The last few days

Tuesday was the best weather day for a while, and alhamdulillah we took a trip out into the contryside that day. The colours were shining, golds and blues. Really beautiful, subhanAllah. I certainly felt better for having a walk in the fresh air.

On Wednesday everyone worked hard on the usual things. Ia is enjoying the Little Animal Ark stories more and more, and now wants to read several chapters to me in a day, maashAllah. I've suggested she could just read them to herself, as she does with other books, but she likes to read them to me in case she does not know a word. She really does not want to miss a thing in those stories!

Today Ia's friend came over and together they worked on the poster above, on a treasure boxof kind words. This is an Islamic studies connected piece of work, linked to the hadith that says "a kind word is charity". The treasure box is filled with kind words we can say to one another, as kind words are precious.

I took the activity from here, where it is activity 5. We have been working on the other activities too, and aim to complete the project, inshAllah.

We've also been learning about the virtues of the first 10 days of Duhl Hijr, and I've started to read the "Tell Me About Hajj" book to the girls. We also watched part of a DVD showing us the Eid ul Adhar celebrations in Mali. The girls did not previously understand the concept of sacrificing a sheep for Eid. The film showed nothing graphic, but sheep before, and cooked meat after, so the message got through, alhamdulillah!

Monday

Another Monday. All pretty much the usual today alhamdulillah. Not finishing off any projects at the moment and I haven't taken any photos in ages!!!
I am currently reading aloud "Oliver Twist" to the boys, so that is going to take a while! Yes, it is that Victorian social history again. And how about use of entertainment media (remember it was initially serialised) in expressing social or political messages? Victorian social history, always relevant. As I frequently point out.
In science the current theme is ecology, as it seems to have been since before the summer....
I'm using the Galore Park textbook, "So You Really Want to Learn Science book 1" as a backbone text, guiding the topic area, but we have gone off in so many further explorations along the way that after a full year we are only just a third of the way through it, maashAllah! InshAllah we'll be moving onto the second third soon after Eid.
Geography this year is another very slow moving topic, using the Trail Guide at a very gradual pace. We couldn't possibly do all of what she suggests in a week in a week, unless we were hardly doing anything else.
Slow and steady is how we are doing at the moment, alhamdulillah.

Enjoying the weather?

Today the girls and I set out in the wind and rain, off to an art workshop in the town, and of course to visit the library. It was a day for being fully kitted out in waterproofs, and we were, alhamdulillah. Even the library book bag got a waterproof jacket made out of a large carrier bag.
The workshop was OK. It was about puppet making. The actual tasks were very simple, and nothing more than what we have done at home before (sock puppets, finger puppets). While I was there I was trying to weigh up whether or not it was worth attending, especially considering the weather and the fact that H had to pick us up afterwards in order that I could get home in time for Asr.
Ia certainly enjoyed the session, she can't get enough of that type of thing, wherever the location, maashAllah. U enjoyed it for the first hour, but then she got fed up again, as she usually does. She is not as interested in art/craft as Ia.
The main advantage is that they are in a group environment and taking instructions from someone else. The leader of this session was very well organised and clear in her presentation. Of course they get something like this every week in swimming and gym classes, and whenever we are able to attend other one off workshops or events, but today's workshop forms part of that picture, and for that reason is probably worth it. Alhamdulillah.

Story Writing

Story writing. Never mind the kids, this is MY favourite activity for them to be doing!!!
Why? Because they are quietly engaged with an activity for a long time without my involvement!!!
And I think that they learn a lot more from this activity than they do from certain other English language learning. Also, when I see them writing (or typing as it was today) I can see that the best way for them to learn how to write well is simply to read well written books. I can see the direct relationship between the books they are reading and the writing they produce, maashAllah. Sentence structure, characters, plot structure are all learnt about through reading, I've found. The only thing it doesn't seem to work for is punctuation, probably because the punctuation marks are so small that a reader ceases to consciously register them, although you certainly do notice when they've been left out!! (Enough said.)
So, lots of typing done today! Even Ia typed up a story she had handwritten, maashAllah.

Paint

Do you know what programmes are on your computer? I must confess that I don't know all the features that are on mine. For example, I only recently came to know of the Microsoft Paint programme, which is really old. In fact I think it is so old that I remember using it (or something very similar)in the handful of computer lessons I had at school. (I went to school before the ICT age!!!)
Anyway, I know it is there now, buried somewhere because I have to use the search box to find it, and when I open it it takes long enough for me to go make a cup of tea before it comes up. But maybe that is just my computer!
So, today everyone had a go at using Paint, and for the girls that can go down as ICT. Probably considered a bit "keystage 1" for the boys, but they still enjoyed it. For their ICT I could probably jot down that they worked out how to send each other messages with Bluetooth using the old phones H has let them have, and that they enjoy taking photos and turning them into the background on my phone.

Workbook Fun (!)

You know the rule, workbooks are dull and boring, practical activities are much better for younger learners.
When I started out on home ed with the boys I was especially keen on the practical activity approach, especially for maths. I'd read a lot about it. The written work they did in the reception year was mostly about learning to write the numbers. I worked hard on making lists of practical maths activities and games to cover areas of counting, pre-addition and shape. The next year these activities were further worked on with some other children and eventually I typed up the lists into a set of activities sufficient to occupy the whole reception year. I worked through these activities with Ia when she was aged 4-5. Now it is U's turn.
Today I had ready a pre-addition activity involving sticking pieces of ribbon of two colours into sets to show different ways of making 5. Yesterday I had ready an activity to show the distribution of 5 spots over a butterfly's wings, using a cut out and cubes. Does U want to do these activities? No. She wants to do a workbook. She wants a workbook for maths.
As for letter forms and alphabet, this morning, maashAllah, as she came downstairs still half asleep she was saying something about "that workbook with the snake on...". The Fun With Letter Forms book, which she wants to do everyday. How about all those activities for learning the alphabet and letters, the cutting out and sticking, the lap n note. Thankfully I didn't go and buy aCD rom for this as well, because U does not want to do jigsaws, colouring, cutting or sticking to learn about letters. She wants to do a workbook. Oh, yes, Education City is acceptable too.
Alhamdulillah, I am not complaining, because it doesn't matter which way she learns as long as she enjoys it. It is just so surprising though!

General Knowledge

There are so many decisions to be taken over what to learn, how and when. There are so many different ways of going about learning. Now that the boys are 10 they are learning about topics in more depth than they were at say, 7, so it takes a lot longer to go through a topic. This is a good thing as I certainly don't have the worry that their learning is superficial, but on the other hand spending longer on one topic leaves less time for something else and this leads to the wondering about when we will do "something else"?
That home educator doubt...the "Could we be doing better.?".....I don't think it ever goes away. There are really no good solutions for this except for just giving up on the wondering, worrying and indecision, and I'm not likely to do that! The reality is that noone can cover everything, and why would anyone want to?
To compensate for all this, and to offer some comfort is General Knowledge. Because if you are sampling some general knowledge here and there you are surely learning all sorts of everything, and that has to help.
At the moment General Knowledge is coming from www.brainpop.co.uk which the boys are using regularly, and to which the girls listen in. Sometimes J has decided to explain something to me and I find myself asking, "Did you learn that on Brain Pop?" Even when the answer is "no" I'm sure some credit has to go there for the manner of explaining something, which J seems to have picked up, alhamdulillah.

Quiet

The last couple of days have been pretty quiet in learning terms, due to some of us taking turns to come down with a bad cold.

The girls were feeling creative again on Thursay, maashAllah, when they decided to make their own library by copying out books. They made a small start with a few pages. Ia has also been using Hama beads again.

The picture is of a few books the girls enjoy having from the library. Ia has reread Baker Cat so many times, yet she still borows it again. The story is about an abused, overworked cat helped by mice to drive out its owners. We can at least still read whilst feeling unwell, alhamdulillah!

Work and play

So, continuing on from the last post. Ia's typical day is very similar to U's but with a few more "work sessions" inserted here and there. Both girls very much drift between structured activities and their own play. Their days are still very fluid because I allow them to make time for their own activities. This is because their play is still very meaningful and needs space to happen. This seems contradictory to the fact that I also use a task list to cover structured activities for Ia, but somehow the two do seem to work together, alhamdulillah.
Today they were playing at "school work"!!!! U wrote several lines of squiggles about her family. Ia wrote out a series of additions for herself, then worked them out. They wrote on paper attached to clipboards. Ia also used a ruler to draw some shapes. They did this in the living room, which they had set up with tables and various other specially designed corners which, to the untrained eye, would appear to be a lot of junk heaped on the floor. MaashAllah.

U's typical day

Today has been a typical at home day for U, aged 4 and a half.
This morning she began playing with toys, but when Ia got ready to do her spelling work U asked for her letter forms workbook. She did two pages and coloured a picture. Ia then wanted to do some colouring, so U joined in with that too.
Later they both decided to do some junk modelling. U covered the base of a chocolate box with torn off bits of patterned paper. She made several layers. Later in the day she and Ia turned this into a mini dolls house, furnished with bits of toys and other junk. Right now they are playing with that.
She has also spent plenty of today in her room reading library books. She can't read, but she talks to herself about the story, if she knows it, or the pictures if she doesn't know the story or if it is a non-fiction book. She has also spent lots of time playing with Ia.
U has also used Education City today, and listened along to Ia's Quran practice.
Again when it was time for Ia to do maths U did a couple of pages of a workbook that required counting numbers of objects. When Ia did another section of their dinosaur lapbook U prefered to build with interlocking cubes, so she did that instead.
We have not done art and craft today, but the junk modelling and colouring fills that slot.
Later, inshAllah I will read aloud to them both a story book and an Islamic story book.
And that is about it. Very typical day for her at the moment.

Creative Afternoon

With the boys out playing football the girls spent the afternoon doing arty things. Ia made this picture from tissue paper. (Idea from Deep Space Sparkle again).

They both coloured in sheets that we had picked up from the museum some time ago. Ia decided to trace and reproduce the flower sheet, and all that tracing took her ages, maashallah!

U wanted to do some writing around hers. She then decided that she wanted to copy out some writing from one of Ia's old lapbooks. She works on this in her own way. She has also started to spell out printed words to me, maashAllah.

World Map

A couple of weeks ago, while I was waiting for the girls at their gym class, one of the other mums offered me some large pieces of card which she had received for free but had no use for. I was happy to take the card, of course, as it had been offered. I felt that I somehow needed to show that I would be putting it to good use, so I just said the first thing that came into my head,
" We could trace a world map poster onto that!".
And so the world map tracing project began.
We have a simple world map poster on the wall at home. I took it down and we used tracing paper, attached with blu-tak, to trace it all out. Ia andthe boys all had a turn.
Then we transfered it onto the large sheet of white card.
This fits in with our Geography Trail Guide theme, and is a really useful way to properly study the shape of the continents and countries. It is easy to overlook the many islands at the far north of North America, or the many islands of the Pacific, but once you have traced them, gone over the tracing, transfered the tracing and gone round the whole outline again to make it show up - it is much, much harder to forget all those places!!!
We decided to shade the oceans, to make the distinction between the land and the water, but not to colour the countries because this would obscure the labels, and I didn't feel it would add much to the learning objective. It would just get the boys fed up with colouring!
So, here is the finished map project!

I used some of the other card for lapbook covers, and still have more left for other projects, alhamdulillah!

Days out

These are the souvenirs we brought back from yesterday's trip. U also insisted on bringing back a number of sticks, as she was planning to build a stick castle. I think she was imagining a version of Eyore's house, from the way she was trying to prop them up.
From today's trip to a nature reserve we mostly brought back mud, but the girls had done a couple more apple pictures too.
I think we can really say that we are seeing Autumn this year, with its mists, its drizzles, its mud, its sunshine, its autumn colours and its apples. Alhamdulillah, Al-Khaliq.

Busy

We've been out a lot for the last few days. Lots of the usual football, library,visiting friends, and today off to a local museum and park, with a couple of extra kids in tow, off for the half term.
This morning was a little stressful, trying to get everything organised, receiving a supermarket delivery, and U deciding that this was an ideal time to practise handwriting skills, just as her brothers attempted a new geometry chapter, with lots of new work in it.

In the autumn sunshine

This is what the girls did with the leaf print idea I saw on Deep Space Sparkle
There has been warm autumnal sunshine for the last couple of days. Yesterday we were out all day enjoying the company of friends and fellow home edders, alhamdulillah. I always feel satisfied to see the children playing for hours outside!
Today we were out walking again and the girls collected lots of different fallen leaves. U said she'd be making an autumn picture with them. In the end they are still on the table, as she has so many other ideas she wants to get on with first, maashAllah!

Plans, and adjusting plans

Although I do make plans before the beginning of a school year, listing topics to cover and textbooks or resources to use, these plans are never fixed. I'm always finding reasons to adjust my plans. Maybe the child has developed and moved on in their learning quicker than I expected, maybe their interests have changed, and anyway, I'm always finding something new!
Due to U's enthusiasm for lapbooks we are now going to have a running lapbook project for both girls to enjoy. it can be on any toipc, whatever they like. U enjoys this work but she just likes to do a little at a time. Ia would gladly do more, but she is kept at U's pace for this session.
So, Ia will also have a topic running at the same time, aimed just at her level (currently it is the "Where I live" geography project). This means Ia may do a little on two projects in a day. This will allow me to introduce topics in science and Islamic studies which would be too much for U at the moment. But this is not what I planned, I thought that U would tag along with bits of Ia's projects, as she did last year, but instead she needs something specific to her as well.
Other things crop up too. A dear friend recently used my Education City tell a friend code when she subscribed for her children. I was surprised to find that this reactivated my son's account, which hadn't been used for several years, alhamdulillah! I had not bothered to subscribe to Education City for the boys as they do not enjoy the style of it too much (the girls like it though), but now we have it for free we may as well make use of bits of it!
Things like this happen constantly. Just because I have made a plan it does not mean that I sit back and stop investigating other options, and neither does it mean that I believe in following that plan to the letter. Change and growth, that's what it's all about!

At last a lapbook!

Ia finished working on the frontcover for this quick-dash lapbook yesterday. Having made all the fuss about doing a lapbook U, of course, has not yet got round to her cover! Some of the bits inside are free from www.homeschoolshare.com and the other bits we did ourselves. It is very basic, just the names of months, days and seasons and the number of each. The photos are of Ia's work. U decided she wanted to include pictures of an octopus and a jellyfish in hers. I know it is off-theme, but I didn't stop her.

I took this photo on Friday, as they stuck it together. Lapbooks are very enjoyable for them, alhamdulillah. Ia wanted to get started on another one at 9pm last night, but it was bedtime, so I had to make her wait.

No plan today

Home education is much more a state of mind than a stated timetable. I am just as happy to observe informal learning as the more organised stuff.
Today the boys have been out playing football. They had a match and some training with H. A friend of theirs has come over and in between all that they listened to a radio play version of "Emil and the Detectives" on Radio 4.
I had thought of taking the girls out somewhere, but the weather was grey and suddenly colder than of late, and so in the end we didn't go. Instead, the Blue Planet DVDs I had ordered arrived and we watched a couple of episodes. I bought these mainly for U. Although I realise that most of the commentary will go over her head she will love just watching the fish and other creatures. I don't quite understand why she is so fascinated with ocean life, but I know that it all began from "Finding Nemo", which goes to show that there can be a hidden value in watching a Disney cartoon. (Not that I'd recommend wasting time on other Disney titles!!) And, no, she is not disappointed that the real fish in Blue Planet don't talk.
Ia has been doing some private writing, working on her lapbook cover and tracing a map.
All informal, unplanned and happy!

Currently reading...

I thought I'd mention a few books my sons have been enjoying this week. First I must state that I've NOT read the books myself, so I cannot guarantee anything about their contents.

My sons generally like funny books and they've enjoyed reading "The Amazing Adventures of Charlie Small" these are quick, easy, fun reads.

R found "Cosmic" by Frank Cotrell Boyce hilarious. Basically it is about a very tall boy who can fool people into thinking he is an adult, and who somehow ends up in space. It is written in a very informal, conversational style.

"Toby Alone" is a totally different book, but it seems to have an interesting, complex plot centering around motives for conflicts, as far as I can gather.

They also read Allan Ahlberg's "The Boyhood of Burglar Bill" which is about boys getting together a football team, in a tough area in the 1950s. This is not their usual type of read.

I'm trying to encourage the boys to read books outside of their usual "comfort zone", of silly hilarity, or boys adventure detectives. I put it to them that unless they read books that step outside of their favourite genres they won't be able to develop skills of criticism. How can they expect to make judgements concerning what makes a good plot, strong characters etc, if they haven't experienced a wider range? I read to them outside of these limits, of course, but they need to be able to do this themselves too. (Why do they "need" to do this? Well, they like reading anyway, and if they don't broaden their range they'll just have to reread books all the time.)

As for Ia, she is currently reading the Little Animal Ark seies by Lucy Daniels, a simpler version of the popular Animal Ark series. She is also reading the Thomas the Tank Engine My Story Library series.

Midweek busy

Another busy day, alhamdulillah! It is that time again when the days seem to flash by in a blur.

What did we do?

We had a late start as H's colleague came over for breakfast before they travelled off for some out of town business. The boys were doing some word problems, and then they went onto the Mathletics site they are now subscribed to. This site really is useful, alhamdulillah. Regular readers may recall that my sons are not keen on maths, but they are happily going onto this site everyday, alhamdullilah, which means that the time we spend on maths has increased, without complaint! The site is cleverly designed with a system of earning credits which can be used for buying accessories for your character image. It also allows you to compete in mental arithmetic races with other children online. My sons like this competitive element. The online races are the bit they like best.
As well as maths today they have read Quran, done a reading comprehension, found out about how birds navigate during migration, spent time on BrainPop , and practised their Pashto. They also followed up some internet links from a library book called "How did your locality change in Victorian times?", which led them to the BBC History trails, which offer an interesting interactive approach to a few history topics.
For the girls I hastily downloaded a months of the year lapbook from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and they started work on it. They seem happy with the subject matter - right now any lapbook will do! Ia also made an autumn vegetables collage using the textured papers painted at the weekend. I copied the idea from this excellent art lesson blog I've recently come across.
Ia also had a Quran lesson today.
And there was more..... but I think that's enough for one post and the washing up, laundry, ironing, kids to bed routine awaits.

Lapbooks?

We haven't done lapbooks for a while, except for the one on the Prophet Isa (as) the boys did in Ramadan.
We had a break for the summer, then from Ramadan and until now Ia's work has had a focus on practical Islam and getting her properly started on learning to read Quran. Also last year many of Ia's lapbooks were done in sessions with a friend of hers. For this year those sessions are taking an independent writing approach, to encourage the girls to develop their skills at putting their own words into writing, inshAllah. Ia and her friend associate lapbooking with brief writing of words or phrases, so we are doing this year's work in exercise books for now. There is no reason why lapbooks can't contain paragraphs of writing, but for now they seem happier writing paragraphs in an exercise book!!!
I'm missing lapbooking though! There is something very satisfying about turning out a lapbook! And I'm not the only one feeling this way. Today, out of the blue, U demanded to do a lapbook. She didn't specify a subject, just that a lapbook should be done right away. It was not a good time for me, I was finishing off the morning work, and getting lunch ready as we were having guests this afternoon. Seeing that I was not providing anything U resorted to making her own lapbook. She took some papers and folded them in to a book shape. Then she drew some pictures, cut them out and stuck them into her booklet. The theme? Well, it has to be dinosaurs or fish with U, today it was fish. Specifically sharks.
I really need to get back to lapbooking, inshAllah.

Apples and Art

Apple day craft activities. I'm not sure how much the girls learnt about the many varieties of English apple, but they certainly enjoyed themselves. I wouldn't let them print with apples at home as I'm not sure about using food in that way. The twigs were already on the page, they printed on the colour. I like the effect.

The coloured pieces are being stuck onto clear sticky film, the type used to cover books. Clever idea! To finish it off another piece of film was used to cover the other side, sandwiching the outline and coloured papers between the sheets of film.

But art at home is also good! These textured papers are for use later, inshAllah. We also did some experiments with colour mixing.

And lastly! One of the many uses for Cusinaire rods.

Just because.

Library Finds/ History

For me history is just a part of everyday life. It is just THERE. A few books I found on our last library trip are helping me share my sense of the presence of history in read aloud time with the boys.
Victorian social history is especially relevant to us, as so many aspects of what we consider to be part of normal life got started in that era, (libraries, museums, rail transport, seaside holidays, reading material for the masses and, of course, compulsory education!!!).
Not only that, people living in British cities and large towns are surrounded by Victorian buildings, and this is what these books point out so well. I think it is wonderful to read a book that shows you a tiled front path and Victorian front door that looks just like the home of a friend; that shows you pictures of buildings such as the old board schools, that are so much a familiar part of our daily landscape. History from buildings.
In the same way that I'd like my children to recognise an oak or a beech tree when in the woods, or to know the names of the birds I'd like them to be able to recognise the features of their built environment, and be able to name and explain them. Just as there is bird spotting, there is Victorian architecture spotting.
The book on the top of the pile is a real little gem. History through poetry. What a brilliant concept! The contents page reads like a treasure trove, society, sport, education, science, housing and more all addressed through a poem from the time, with contextual explanation.
Victorian social history is not a closed chapter, it reaches deep into the here and now around us. Fascinating.

Ummmm....

I hardly seem to know where the last couple of days have gone!
It has been busy, but the kind of busy that seems to leave my memory blank!
The boys have done this Islamic studies activity.
Ia has produced a couple of short pieces of writing. She seems to be inhibited by not knowing how to spell everything she wants to write. I'm trying to encourage her not to worry about the spelling right now, but to think about the sentences she wants to write down.
A friend was here today and she commented on U's letters. She noticed that U can form some letters correctly and asked if we've been working on that. (Sigh of relief), it is good to know that the scatty bits and pieces of writing U has been doing are amounting to something noticeable. U is gradually doing a little more regularly, although she is not yet doing both maths and English activities everyday with me. And whatever I do with her is kept short. However, when you consider her computer use, her reading habits, games, crafts and so on she is developing her skills all the time, maashAllah. I think of this year as a crossover year, a transition from the total free play of younger years, to the more organised learning style we use. The transition is for me and for her!

A little art

I resolved to do more art with the girls, because they enjoy it. I don't have ideas for it myself, so I do my usual copying. This evening we did these Matisse-inspired collages I learnt about at TeachkidsArt.
Yes, I did one too! I think the girls much prefer it when I join in with these kinds of activities. As you can see, I'm not very good, so they find the sight of mine encouraging, when compared with their own!
We don't usually do activities in the evening but we are moving at the pace of life, subhanAllah. A couple of the children have been ill this week, so we've needed to adapt! Having said that, it actually seemed a nice time for some fun art work!

Games

Today I made a big, long numberline for U to learn with. I have some of that old computer printer paper, the one with strips of punched holes down the side and joined with perforations. I took 10 sheets and wrote the numbers 1 to 10. I put it on the floor and U responded to questions such as "What number comes between 5 and 7?" by jumping onto the number.
Of course Ia wanted to join in, so I gave her simple additions and subtractions. A number line to twenty would have been better for her.
After that I played a couple of maths games with them, ones which mainly involve counting on and back. To avoid using dice we select from numbercards. This usually means that the games end sooner than the designers intended, but that is a good thing I think. Later still we played phonic lotto. U is still at the stage of getting cross when she doesn't win, but phonic lotto seemed to generate less tension, maashAllah! I remember using the phonic lotto set with Ia at the same age and what a struggle she had with initial sounds. It is a good reminder when I see how easy it is for her now that she is a reader, Alhamdulillah! Sometimes I may feel that learning is not going well, or going too slowly, but it is good to be reminded that we get there in the end! Alhamdulillah.

It's working....

Ia's geography studies must be sinking in, maashAllah. It hasn't been much, just shading and labelling some continent maps. I don't get her to label everywhere, just key countries she has already heard of. For Africa, for example, this includes Algeria, Egypt, Somalia and South Africa because she knows people who have either visited or lived there or come from there.

Anyway, this evening she decided to draw her own map, refering to the map in the book for feature ideas. While she drew she talked with U, using lots of geographical terms as she did so, showing that she has understood and remembered them, maashAllah. She was also able to point places out on the map and talk about their climate. U also drew a map of her own.

Alhamdulillah, it is so heart warming when things like this happen!

Drawing

The boys found out that drawing is harder than it looks, so they opted for tracing. Perseverance and practice, inshAllah.

Some of today

The geography studies are going well, maashAllah. Using the Trail Guide is really working for us. It is not one of those resources which looks great on the outside but which turns out to be very fiddly and preparation intensive when you start it. I don't like resources which tell me exactly what I "have to" do, I like those that offer space to explore and the Guide does that. We are still at the beginning, of course, studying the composition of the earth, continents, oceans etc. Today the boys went onto Wikipedia to look up the Pacific Ring of Fire, then they went to BBC news to read about the current earthquakes in Sumatra. From that they wrote up a paragraph on this latest earthquake.
Ia has also been writing today. This morning both girls wrote a letter to their grandmother. U's letter was mostly a showcase of letters she can form.
Later in the day we did an Islamic studies writing activity, based on an activity a friend had done with the boys years earlier.
We started by revising the meaning of the following Names of Allah:
As-Sami, The All Hearing,
Al-Basir, The All Seeing,
Al-Alim, The All Knowing.
Next I read to them the story that J had written in 2005. It was about a boy who was about to do several bad deeds but who stopped himself when he realised that Allah could see and hear him and know what he was doing or about to do. In the original lesson the children had listened to a story like this and then had been asked to write their own similar story including each of the Names of Allah somewhere in their story. (Actually the original activity included two more names as well, but I simplified it to three.)
So, this time Ia listened to J's story, then wrote her own version.
U did not want to be left out so she traced over the Names of Allah written out for her in a book. Then she made up a story (not at all related to the activity) by drawing a series of pictures and explaining the story at great length. Of course it did involve thunderbolts and Tana-roar-u-ses (spelt as said).

Conker Time

We are still enjoying days of warm, autumn sunshine, maashAllah, and now it is conker time! Those conkers look so shiny and beautiful and they are thick on the ground too. So today we were out for a walk, playing with friends and collecting conkers.

Geography

We spent most of the weekend out of the house enjoying the company of friends and the autumn sunshine, maashAllah. I seem to go through cycles of being indoors a lot and then out a lot. The state of the housework is a good indicator of what cycle I'm in.
Anyway, today was a busy learning at home day, so I hardly saw any part of the house that is not the kitchen and dining room.
Geography. Last year we didn't do much geography related work. I seem to remember some good documentaries being watched, and of course some library books with geography themes, online puzzles and games but no more than that. For this year I thought we'd try the Trail Guide to World Geography by Cindy Wiggers. I first heard about this on a blog somewhere I think, and then I read more about it on a forum where it was given a good review by a very experienced home educator, so I thought I'd give it a go. it basically provides a structure for a touring study of different parts of the world, along with the learning of geographical terms and facts. I like the fact that it is not too prescriptive. There are lots of ideas to investigate, but you can use the structure to investigate the countries further in any way you want to, looking at the aspects most interesting to your own children. Some will want to know more about the animals, others about the culture, the landscapes or even the foods. In a way these things may seem obvious, but when you work mostly on your own you lack that other person to bounce about ideas with, and this book can act like the other half of the dialogue. It suggests something, from which you think of something else, and so on. I imagine it will take a long time to use this book fully, as we'll be constantly digressing...
There are also lots of accessories to go with the book if you like, but I'll be improvising as usual!
The boys will be working on this in topic blocks, a couple of weeks at a time inshAllah, then a break for something else and so on.
Ia is also getting her own spin off version. When the boys were her age they did a "Where I live" project, which I am planning to do with Ia this year too, inshAllah. However, hers has been extended to cover looking at the continents and oceans first too. We'll have a look round the continents coming to Europe last, then we'll zoom into the UK, then into our town and the local streets, rather in the way you can zoom in and in on Google Earth, until you can almost see your house. There you go, that's my plan, a project version of zooming in on Google Earth. Let's see if it works, inshAllah!

Friday

This morning the boys stayed awake after praying Fajr and so they were able to get almost everything done before 11am. Just their Quran reading remained, which they did after Zuhr. It would be good if they could manage this regularly, as then they had the rest of the day free to play in the garden, play with their Wii and read.
What did they do before 11am? Maths word problems, revision of the rules of wudu, spent time on www.brainpop.co.uk, listened to me read aloud, shaded a map of continents and made a list of Earth facts and stats.
The girls began the day looking at animal facts and pictures on Sheppard.
Later in the day my Book People order arrived. U received the Usborne alphabet sticker book, which she got started with right away after lunch. With any alphabet things she insists on working through in order. This is because she can confidently recite the alphabet and if she does this carefully she correctly identifies the letters. She is still not sure of them randomly. At this rate she will, inshAllah, have a good grasp of alphabetical order, so it is not a problem!
I also bought a set of drawing books, (some of which we will have to discard as they are about drawing living beings), and Ia was keen to start tracing a car sketch, and shading it in. Many of the books are for drawing planes, cars, robots, which appeals to J. I think these may be useful for him in the coming winter months when outdoor play gets limited.

Beginning again

Autumn has arrived. Ramadan has passed, Eid has been celebrated. Now it is really time to remember what it is we do with our days of home ed!!
I think it is going to work like this...the boys will get most of their work done in the morning, and the girls will do more in the afternoons. I'm not sure that this is a good idea, but whatever I intend it seems to end up that way. Hmmm.
Another small change is that the boys will do their maths and English tasks first thing and then I'll do the read aloud. Although it is nice to start with read aloud, this way will probably break things up more suitably. The boys usually like to zip through tasks as fast as they can, and it will be nice to have those daily ones out of the way early.

Here Ia addresses the problem of "How many less than 22 is 16?"

U has many of her own ideas about learning. She did not want to do a task today, so I said we'd leave it, to which she responded "So, then how will I know how to teach my own children if I don't learn it?"

Well, learning it later is OK too! But, interesting viewpoint!

In the photo she is doing something she enjoyed, threading the buttons and then counting how many were on the string.

Over the past month...

Yesterday was Eid, alhamdulillah. We had a quiet time, but I wanted to get some refreshing air after last week's germs, so we went out for a walk in the afternoon. Today R is unwell!
Here is a pick'n'mix round up of what was done in Ramadan, (not all of it Ramadan related).

* Ia checked off each day on her Ramadan calendar without reminders, and was aware of how many days had passed, how many to go.

* Ia learnt how to make wudu.

* Boys made good effort over fasting and helped to prepare iftaar.

* U asked to learn how to read, and complained that learning the letters was not helping her to read AT ALL.

* Ia chose books from the main children's paperbacks section of the library for the first time.

* Boys kept their reading logs, showing that they read a book per day (while stocks last!).

* Ia started new swimming classes and met another HE girl there.

* Boys received trophies for their performance in the past cricket season. (R best all rounder, J highest scoring batsman).

* Girls were patient and considerate of other people fasting.

Captain

Critics of home education would like to point out how a home educated child misses out on opportunities to work in a team, develop leadership skills, and how, unsocialised as they are, they will always find themselves maginalised and dominated by their school going peers.
*rolls eyes*
This season R is captain of his football (soccer) team. The only other home ed boy in the team is (of course) J.

An off day

Alhamdulillah. We are in the last few days of Ramadan. I wanted to keep working all the way through, as much as possible, but I've come down with a bad cold and had no energy for anything today. The boys did some of their daily work, mostly the bits involving the computer and Quran review, but I couldn't even read aloud to them today.
But days like these do have their blessings. This evening R made pizzas for iftar, and J washed up. As for the girls, maashAllah, they played their imaginative games all day long, I just needed to feed them and help them in the bathroom.
Yes, their imaginative games are a little messy. They build little worlds for their soft toys. The toys need furnitue and all manner of household goods and these must be arranged and organised all over the house. On the windowsills, under and on side tables, on shelves etc etc. Everywhere there are little piles and collections of small objects, but it is all there for a purpose, part of the fabric of the game, and to tidy it away too soon would be to disrespect the intense imaginative creativity that has been invested there. Not that I could have tidied it today anyway!

In the library again

We have self service machines in the library. When we arrive I return all the books, while the kids go off to choose more. It takes a while because we have a lot of books to return and because the machine does not recognise all books at the first attempt. A small queue of children stands right behind me, each child clutching their one or two books, while I apparently return half the library.
Later I have to check out the other half of the library. J does his own pile of books, then I get to work with the girls' cards. Behind me two little boys stand, with their two Horrible History books, one says "Look at all those books, how is anyone going to read all that?"
What is wrong with the children of this town? How do they not go into a library and want to help themselves to everything, or at least their full quota of 15 books per ticket? Even if they don't want to read, they could look at the amazing pictures of the natural world, or anything else.
What has happened to them to make them think that two books is enough at one time and that 30 books looks like a lot???? And those are the kids who are actually in the library.

Project on Prophet Isa (as) and others

This is the boy's project on the Prophets Isa (as) Zakariyyah (as) and Yahyah (as).
I wanted to make clear the relationships and links between these Prophets, and also the mother of Isa (as) in addition to learning about the events of their lives. For this reason I wanted a family tree style way of displaying their biographies.
We began by reading through books on stories of the Prophets and the relevant portions of tafsir, making notes under the following headings:
Imran and his wife Hannah; Maryam, mother of Isa (as); Isa (as); Zakkariyah (as) and his wife and Yahyah (as).
Once the information had been collected the boys wrote up mini biographies for each person inside mini booklets. Next we stuck them inside a square cut folder and drew lines to show their relationships to each other. The tafsir was unclear on the exact family connection between Hannah the mother of Maryam and the wife of Zakarriyah (as), but they were related. In this way, and from a hadith we know that Isa (as) and Yahyah (as) were cousins.
The boys are still not interested in presentation, so this is not good example of how a lapbook should look, but I think it works on a practical level, alhamdulillah.

Old books, and more on those letters!

Before sleeping Ia has been reading these little books to herself in bed. Each story takes her a little over 5 minutes to read, maashAllah. These are old, old books, but the storylines are really sweet and I like the values of thrift, simplicity and hard work they express. In the book shown with the open page Hazel squirrel needs a new dress because her old one is too tight, but her mother is too busy to make one right away, so a friend helps her find a seamstress. In another story Hazel works hard all morning to earn enough for a small treat from the shop.
Apparently some children find reading classics (childrens' classics) hard because of the cultural differences and older style of language often found in those books; so I think it is helpful to encourage my children to read older works from a young age, to make sure they are used to various styles of writing.

U has been doing more non-colouring alphabet work today. In her Letterland handwriting book she had to trace and write the letters "C" and "O". After that I asked her to find all the Cs and Os from a tub of magnetic letters. Finally she sorted through a set of word/picture flashcards finding all words containing a C. There were 12 (she counted).

Alphabet for the Non-Colouring In Child

The thing with the alphabet is that it is so long. U can do a cut out lap'n'note style activity for one letter, two letters, or even three letters, but after that she gets fed up with it. (And I did not mean do them all on the same day). Writing or colouring books have the same problem; the novelty is fleeting.
But she does enjoy listening to me read this Letterland alphabet book. I bought this years ago in a charity shop. There is a short description of each Letterland character per letter. It is an old series, this book is a 1985 edition,but we have some of the story and handwriting workbooks too.
Recently a school teaching assistant told me that in her school they are not allowed to call "k" Kicking K, because of the kicking. So presumably the character below is off limits.

They are also not allowed to refer to the "Magic E" spelling rule in those terms. (Magic E rule: the e at the end makes the earlier vowel say its name, as in pin/pine, or can/cane.) I asked why they couldn't say that, it used to be the common, usual way to refer to this rule. She didn't know. Do they think it has some drug connotations????
Another way to learn alphabet is to use the computer, at Education City, Starfall or Create a Reader, or with a CDrom.
Or the cut out and stick method I blogged about before.
Anyway, I hope she gets it soon, so we can move on, inshAllah! Although, having said that, knowing letters is not an essential for reading. Ia now reads small chapter books, like Lucy Daniel's "Little Dolphin" series, but she still forgets the names of some letters from time to time.