Who is learning?

Autumn colour.

New shoots. What could they be?

Ia started a CVC wordbook today.

U wanted me to help her build a castle with blocks, she said "You can, you're a genius!". This use of vocabulary almost beats her complaining that she can't find her telescope, (its a torch).

The boys began the study of the life of Ibrahim (as), by listening to me read an "overview" version of the history to them. So that was three lots of history reading today!

And still I think it would be good for them to learn some more Arabic vocabulary! They have the means to do this because they can read it, alhamdulillah. We should all learn more. Why should I be concerned? I just want to keep doors open for them. So many people are trying to learn or improve their Arabic. If you have familiarity with the sounds and basics of the language as a child it should be that much easier should you wish to continue your studies more seriously when older. Yes? So this evening the boys went through the lesson they studied with an auntie last week (may Allah reward her), in order to teach me. I was listening, and learning. If they think they are teaching me, then they are revising. I'm a bit slow to catch on, so I think we'll need to go through that again. Maybe Ia could listen in next time too.

Monday

Heathers are so beautiful, subhanallah.
It is Monday evening already! So quickly. Alhamdulillah.
Today we returned to our history project. We looked at the decline of the Sumerians, the invaders who conquered and then were overthrown themselves, until the Old Babylonians established their own empire in Mesopotamia. Through all this the Sumerian culture with its religion and writing survived, and was adopted by the new peoples. We will be looking more at this tomorrow, inshAllah.
We also continued with French, I like the really slow, relaxed feel to it and this is also helped by the way in which the girls like watching the cartoons too, so I don't have someone distracting me in the background!
Ia has played the Phonic Pop and Letterlifter games from ictgames (link in sidebar) and has been looking at ways of making 6, using red and brown ribbon snips. (see below).


Even the boys have done maths on the computer today, using games from Topmarks (link in sidebar).

Other things

We found one, tiny woodlouse in the pitfall trap!
The boys have been playing on their new scooters.
The girls have been playing "going in the car" games with their new dolls.
U was asked by some girls a few years older than her to play the teacher. She stood in front of them, counted to 10, then initiated a game of "Simon says", with a variety of instructions. I was impressed.
Ia has been doing well with her handwriting. She also enjoys designing gardens with the Changing Blooms game.
I have been painting walls.

Mountains

This week we started compiling a project on mountains. After having a quick whizz round some mountains facts and photos we looked at some of the references to mountains made in the Quran. Another sister kindly gave me her list of mountains references to use, and the boys have been putting them onto Powerpoint slides.
There are a lot of references, subhanallah, they could not copy them all, so we categorised into sections. For example there are many references to the mountains being firm, fixed, steadying or rooted, such as "Have We not made the Earth as a bed, And the mountains as pegs?" 78:6-7.
Also, "....and has set on the Earth firm mountains lest it should shake with you..." 31:10.
There are also several examples of the mountains in obedience to Allah in worship, such as in Surah Al-Hajj:18, where the mountains are described, along with other of the creation, as prostrating to Allah.
We also looked at the historical mentions of mountains, such as the mountain which crumbled after Musa (as) requested to see Allah, the Prophet Muhammed's (saw) receiving of the first revelation whilst in the cave on Mount Hira, and so on.
Then, today it was time to go to the map to locate the major mountain ranges. I really liked the downloadable World Features Puzzle map I found here. It took a while, and the help of an atlas to correctly place all the features, especially the rivers and lakes! (Later they did the online Europe puzzle map too). I hope we will return to that map in about a week's time, to see what we can remember, inshAllah.
I'm going to try alternating between history and geography projects, from week to week, so that we can have flow throughout the week on one topic, but then have a change so it doesn't get boring. This week was geography, next week its back to Mesopotamia, inshAllah. I'll see how it goes.

Habitat links

Useful places to learn more about habitats.
1. English nature (go to the primary resources section)
2.Nature Grid
3.Environment agency, design a habitat game (Changing Blooms)

Habitats

We started the habitats topic last week by looking at different habitats within our garden and the creatures that live there. Some microhabitats included the stagnent water above, home to tiny, wriggling worm creatures. I have looked up a real name for them, but can't be sure of their id, being so tiny! There was also the usual, under a stone, under old piece of wood etc.

I read somewhere about putting a flowerpot upside down, as above, to entice small creatures in for observation. None came, so we've set up a pitfall trap, (works like a hefalump trap). There are little creatures still about. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way!

On a walk this weekend we saw the black duck above.

Yesterday felt lazy, in an offputting way. Things got off to a very slow start. Apart from the pitfall trap, the boys did some maths, looked online at some information about mountains (project pre-reading), did some recitation and we all watched another episode of the French DVD. Actually, using the DVD like that holds their interest really well. In the middle R asked me for a banana, using the French he had just learnt!

Then, at the end of the day we went off to a party we had been told about a few hours earlier. I wasn't really in the mood to go any where, but alhamdulillah it was good to make the effort because the boys met some other boys their age and had fun with them for a couple of hours.

Maths

I don't mention it often, but we do do maths! For example we made the shapes above from a book of nets. I've also been finding the stuff on Primary Resources very useful. This morning we began maths by watching some of the powerpoint slide shows on 3D shapes. Shape is both an easy and difficult topic I find. The practical side can be fun, but there is so much vocab to go with it. The visuals really help to put it all together.

The girls have been playing with Moon Sand, and Ia has been playing a sample version of a game called Nanny Mania, where you clean up mess and look after the baby super fast. I need to be able to rush about like that nanny!