Friday

Spent the whole morning cleaning for a 5 minute viewing. Kids had to entertain themselves. Tried to make up for it this afternoon by doing lots of reading with Ia and U, helping them with a bit of workbook and playing games. The boys don’t want to do any work, but they have read, played indoor cricket and football and are now playing with their cars.
Ia wanted lots of attention this afternoon. She ended up doing bits on the computer, doing puzzles and threading buttons with U. U did only unthreading. Later Ia helped me with the baking.
U went to sleep very early, which led to a quiet, relaxed evening. What a difference the demands of one small person make! R read, Ia did drawings and J finished his project on Spain. We’ve put it in a plastic folder and it looks very presentable, with a mixture of word processing, handwriting, print outs and his own illustrations.

Museum Visit

On Monday we went to the Natural History museum. I prepared a quiz sheet based on the fossils from the Marine Fossil Reptiles and Fossils from Britain sections. They answered the questions quickly! R and J were interested to see some of the finds labelled "Mantell", and it was even better to be able to see Mantell's original iguanodon finds in the dinosaur section.
It became very busy after the first hour or so as it was still half term for many schools. Although we went together with the rest of the boys, we split up into pairs to make things easier. After meeting up for lunch we dispersed again at then came back together for a half hour slot in the investigate centre. R took out a tray of fossils to examine, and later he chose some rocks. J ended up weighing some animal skulls, and he memorised the weights of three of them. Insh'Allah we will return to that section on a less busy day, as I did not know about it before.
Tuesday was back to the nursery for Ia. Took the electronics kit back to I's, but unfortunately we couldn't get the experiment to work and as the kit does not offer any explanation of why the different connections do what they do, we can't troubleshoot it, so we may leave it at that for now.
Managed to get to the library again. Boys have been busy reading cricket story books, and another one of the "mad boy scientist" books they find so hilarious. Ia copies them by trying to read her choices of book herself.
Ia has been on the computer lots again. I'm bringing out the rest of the CDs that we have suitable for her age and I have subscribed to iboard for her.
U likes to try on hats and wear different clothes. She puts them on and says "bootibool".
I've not been well, so everywhere is back to messy again. Thats another 5 or six hour job to look forward to then

Lots

We've been having a productive few days, alhamdulillah. On Wednesday we met with the others and everyone showed the geography project they've been working on. J has been learning about Spain, R chose Turkey. Now they've collected lots of information they need to present it.
We also finished reading "Fish", so now I'll start preparing some work on it. The boys were all really enjoying the story by the end.
We were home on Tuesday. It was good to have a day like that again, nursery does mess things up, but its benefits are enough to keep it on. I started Ia with the preschool Learning Ladder CD, and she whizzed through lots of it, alhamdulillah. Today I got her to read a library book with me. It is meant to be an early reader, but of course she just chose it for the story. She was joining in well, lots of memorisation of course, but getting the idea of what reading is anyway.
The boys started on the Y3 Learning Ladder and got lots of that done too.
Thursday was also a full day! L came over and we did another lesson on weight, followed by the assessment. For the maths extension they used the internet to find out the weights of various animals.
In science we started the topic on magnets. They did lots of exploring with the magnets and iron filings. J went a bit far with the exploring and the computer monitor suffered a temporary green spot, from which it then recovered, alhamdulillah.
After L went home the boys added a bit to their on going dinosaur project, and we read through some newspaper cuttings about fossils currently on display in Tring. We looked at the Natural History Museum website, to view more pictures of fossils, in preparation for our planned trip.
Meanwhile U had been building towers from blocks and doing the dress a teddy puzzles. She has begun a phase of dressing and undressing herself. She can remove pyjamas and cardigans and she can put on pyjama bottoms and a coat (if it is acceptable to wear a coat over your head and back to front). Ia had drawn a long picture of a family at the beach. The girl's hair was streaming in the wind and there was a donkey with a saddle and stirrups. Memories of Wales are still vivid!
Last evening they decided to get the Water Wonders kit out, which after a couple of experiments decended into a water squirting session, so we decided to make a cake and everyone helped. The boys were weighing ingredients and grating carrot, while Ia and U squabbled over the mixing. It was a bit fraught, but once it was in the oven they all sat in front of the oven door and watched for the whole time so that they could see it "transform".
Today everyone enjoyed playgroup, the boys seeing a couple of old friends and Ia getting on with the girls. On the way home we went to the toyshop and got a "I dig Dinosaurs" kit, so once home the boys put on goggles and chipped away at the crumbly "stone" block (a bit like small pebbledash) until they found pieces of buried "bone". It took about 3 hours for them to get the whole skeleton out, then they assembled and painted it. Now they want two more kits! Keep hoping.

Carrying On

The boys began yesterday drawing a very long picture of castles on the old computer print out paper. Ia watched them. The picture is so long and so detailed that they continued with it after the group meet up.
Today they continued with the Names of Allah colour wheel, did some recitation and learnt some more vocab. In history we looked at the characteristics of the Ad people. In relation to learning about how they were the tallest, strongest and most powerful people of their time we looked at how modern peoples vary so much in their physiques, for example comparing the Masai and Pygmy peoples of Africa.
English was a grammar exercise on adjectival phrases, spellings and a continuing of "Fish". We have reached the last chapter. As the book has gone on the boys have become more involved in the story. I hope they will be able to enjoy looking back on the themes.

Friday is play day

A playdoh table was a new feature at playgroup today. There was still enough snow on the grass outside for the kids to throw it at eachother. Someone put a handful down Ia's neck, which made her cry. J repaid him likewise. This evening Ia has done a page of Arabic letter matching, made the alphabet puzzle and counted out cubes.
I have spent too much time on the computer writing up parts of the old class diary!
The boys have been writing something secret in their room, and have played a lot of indoor cricket. U has thrown the coloured pencils on the floor again.

Snowy

Woke to heavy snowfall, so H decided to stay home. This meant L could come over for the day. When he arrived the boys revised the circuits we've looked at in previous weeks. They managed to build most of them without help, all except the two way switch. After that we did a telling the time lesson.
After this it was time for Ia to go to nursery. I took her on the bus. Yesterday she made a paper fish to give to one of the teachers, so that had to be taken in. Ia wanted to go out in the snow. This evening she helped me make a crumble, and compared the mixture to snow! Today they made snowballs at nursery and had a visit from a lollipop man. Ia said he mentioned something about zebras! U certainly missed Ia today, she really cheered up once she got back!
U hates me brushing her teeth. Someone said I should try giving her a miswaak to chew. I thought this was a good idea, but when I offered her one she refused saying "dirty". And this from a person who licks furniture and bus windows!
For the hour I was home between the nursery run the boys did a maths lesson on mass. Weighing items to the nearest half kilo. They finished off an investigation sheet on this this evening, finding groceries of various weights from the kitchen. Now they are playing indoor cricket.

This is HE!

Ia wants to learn Arabic! She says the best bits about nursery are the beginning and the end. She likes the beginning because they do Arabic, and she likes the end because they have a snack.
I will try to do a few minutes on each of Arabic letters, English letters and numbers most days, insh'Allah.
Boys learnt about irrigation systems in relation to the history topic yesterday. In English they moved on to the next comprehension unit. Today we have done some maths (direction mapped on a grid) and while Ia was at nursery we went to I's house and started assembling the electronics kit, which was very fiddly so we didn't actually get to the stage of getting anything to work!
Boys have both been reading the "History of The Prophets" book. J says he knows a lot more now. We are still reading the "Conquest of Syria" every night (it is a very long book) and they are really enjoying it.
For geography we are doing a local weather survey, recording the temperature and general conditions. Today I asked them, while we were out, what temperature they though it was and they made a good guess. They also gave good answers when I asked them what they thought it would be like on a day when it was 17C, or20c. So I think they are getting the hang of what the figures mean, insh'Allah.