Sightseeing

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

Best test result so far

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

As usual

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

It has been a while

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

Sunday

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

Introducing thirds

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

Messy

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