Ia's day

Today I read poems to Ia and then we wrote a few lines ourselves. Can't exactly call it a poem, and Ia didn't want to copy it all out, so the photo is of the shortened version.
We also made these.

Playtime

Lots of reading today. The boys started reading to themselves at breakfast, then I read to them afterwards.
Ia completed a picture showing the appearance of a tree around the seasons. There is so much to learn just from the garden, alhamdulillah. This year Ia has planted nastursium seeds and seen them grow and flower. She has repotted seedlings, seen the snails demolish the sunflowers (not to mention various other plants) and watched the tomatoes ripen. There is one sunflower survivor which seems to be on the verge of flowering, inshAllah, and the pompom asters I grew from seed are starting to flower too. My neighbour has an old apple tree, right next to our back fence. This is a blessing too, alhamdulillah, as it illustrates so beautifully the changing tree through the seasons. Right now its branches are full of apples. So many real learning opportunities, alhamdulillh.
Later in the afternoon we had friends over to play. There was rather a lot of over excitement, U almost had a nap straight afterwards, but we ended up disturbing her! One young visitor asked me why J and R's room is so messy. A very good question, but so hard to find an answer to... He actually offered to tidy it up, which was a kind offer, and somewhat brave.
Alhamdulillah, the day has felt full, even if the HE timetable was light, and full days are what is needed to keep us all going.

Castle, garden,triop

So, as decided it was back to some sort of HE shedule. I read to the boys after breakfast and they did their daily Quran. I also got them to do some ICT and some individual reading. On our last library visit I found a new book
"Castle Challenge, Help the king's army capture a castle", by Julia Bruce.
I do recommend this book for any children interested in castles as it is written in such an interesting style. Rather than just describing the features this book places the reader in the scenario, I quote "Remember, it is not just brute force that will secure success. There are other actions you can take before you attack that are equally effective. These include....."
Maybe it is the influence of computer games,forcing the publishers to be more creative with their presentation! All the usual facts are in there, with interesting illustrations.
You may wonder what the relevance of studying the history of British castles is. We are not studying any other part of British medieval history, although the boys do tend to look into these things themselves from time to time. The link for us comes with learning about the Crusades and the computer games the boys play linked with this type of castle history. When we read the history of Salahuddin Auybbi last year the background knowledge about castles, how they were used, defended and attacked was very helpful in understanding the historical events we were reading about.
Also today Ia was learning about trees, how we use them, what they give us,the importance of looking after them and so on. This is in connection with the theme of work based around learning that Allah is Al-Khaliq, The Creator.
In the afternoon we went into the garden. I finished clipping the hedge and digging over the new rockery area. This is to replace the old rockery, which I have not liked since a friend said it reminded her of graves in Pakistan.
Finally, the triop died today. It had lived out its expected lifespan, almost!

Day out

A day out! Finally a day without sports shedules. I'm not really complaining. The sports activities are really important for many members of this household. Yesterday was a day of shuttling between one sports activity and another, and after last week's swimming...well, I was happy to have a day with nothing planned. So I was up late the night before, baking muffins and up early this morning...baking muffins, because muffins are important for a picnic. The weather was good for it too, alhamdulillah! The children had fun, running around and exploring somewhere new.

The almost total HE holiday is starting to wear thin with the boys now. They have satisfied their need for a break, have done everything they want to do and are willing to start back to something tomorrow. What that something will be remains unclear...looks like I'll be improvising in the morning.

Quote

This week has been dominated by the swimming course. Well, it's over now! I think the boys benefited from it. They spent time with their friends every day and learnt some useful water skills. The girls got some time in the park on the days when it wasn't raining. And now it is Friday, the house is a mess and the garden neglected.

On page 47 of "1001 Inventions Muslim Heritage in our World" I noticed this quote:
"If he (the teacher) is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind." (Khalil Gibran)
Much more inspiring than the prospect of a SAT test, don't you think?

Reading and swimming

Ia has begun to find books she can read, and then read them to herself. We have lots of different early reader type books at home and from these she has chosen some Read-it-Yourself Ladybird books and some very battered old Ladybird books, which no longer have their covers, and are called "The Zoo" and " The Farm". These last two are so old that the zoo animals in the pictures are contained in tiny, concrete compounds, and the farmer has a waistcoat, britches and pipe. This is what she has chosen to read, over the gaudy cartoons of modern phonic readers. And there is something reassuringly reliable about the Ladybird's large, rounded font and repetitive vocabulary.
This morning both girls arranged a large audience of soft toys on their beds and then read to them. U gives out plastic snacks to her toys, as there is nothing better than stories and food together.
This week the boys are enrolled on a swimming course. Today they learned how to help someone in difficulties in the water.

Weekend

Auntie Z helped the girls to make mini-books of their names in Arabic, in collage. Each page is one letter, with their names written properly in joined-up writing on the cover.

I've been noticing a flurry of pre-Ramadan activity on other blogs. May Allah reward those sisters for the reminders, my brain is starting to gear up too now! It is that slow, back of the mind planning process I mentioned in my planning post, together with lots of trawling around for other people's great ideas!! It is hard to think of ideas when working in isolation, but when there are sisters willing to share online it is like being in conversation, subhanAllah, it does make all the difference.

The boys had their last cricket session of the season today. The season ends early for the youngsters due to so many taking holidays. Alhamdulillah the rain held back for those couple of hours. And who says HE kids never get to taste a bit of school style socialisation? My son received a "happy slap" at cricket today, as the older boy giving it out described it. Should I note that down on a checklist of school equivlalent experiences, in case anyone asks?

No real harm done, by the way, the rest of the boys criticised the bully for his unsporting behaviour, and R didn't let himself feel humiliated. We have nothing to fear when we put our trust in Allah.