After Maghrib

After maghrib prayer J, R and Ia decided to do this.

It kind of began last week when our old Paddington Bear (which my grandparents gave me when I was a child) was found to have a large hole in the foot from which stuffing was dropping all over the place. I could have struggled a repair job I suppose, but none of the kids liked the bear, because it was too hard. So, I suggested cutting the old bear open to retrieve the stuffing, so that one day we could make something with it. Much fun was had destuffing the bear. Then, today, of course, they wanted to make something with it.

Those of a nervous disposition should look away now.

Which do you think is Ia's?

The one on the right.

They are all very pleased with their efforts.

It took almost two hours.

In progress

We got the work completed before lunch time today, so that everyone could enjoy having friends over to play in the afternoon.
Although the boys are now working on Pashto regularly I don't want to totally give up on the French, and have them forget what they have learnt so far. So, we did some French today, and I noticed that their pronunciation was better as they read through dialogues in the textbook. I think this must be the result of the Rosetta Stone trial that they used, alhamdulillah. I will try to stick to doing some French on Fridays, using traditional methods, although if I could afford to do so I would probably be tempted to get French Rosetta Stone too!
Ia and U have been doing some work on an early childhood lapbook I purchased from Hands of a Child. It is on rainforests. This is the first time that U has really been joining in with a project mainly aimed at Ia. She is not absorbing facts in the same way as Ia but she is, inshAllah, learning something.
Although I've been making our own lapbooks I became curious to try a ready prepared kit, hoping, as usual, to pick up more ideas from it. We do seem to have churned out quite a few of these projects recently, alhamdulillah! The children have 3 projects currently in progress. I timetable them to be worked on in small chunks. Sometimes a project will run for weeks. On one day only 15 or 20 minutes may be spent contributing to a project. And we don't work on a single project everyday. Sometimes, if a project seems to be dragging on I might try and concentrate more on it for a day, to get it finished off. This way of working seems to suit us.
And so another week has sped by, alhamdulillah! Time to change gear for the weekend.

On a bright morning

Sometimes you need a bit of a change, especially during the cold, dark months, when the garden is muddy and the park equipment never gets dry!
Yesterday morning we went out to get J a small prize for having memorised Surah Teen. This may seem like a modest achievement for a boy of his age, but we didn't really start working on memorisation until about a year ago. As far as I'm concerned memorisation of Quran is the work of a lifetime, so the best I can do with the children is establish the habit of constantly being in the process of working on it, inshAllah.
Anyway, when they have achieved a goal I get everyone a small prize, just something cheap from the newsagent. So we went to buy that, then we went on for a morning walk. The sun was low, and the frost was still evident on the long grass, but everyone ran about and got some fresh air, and it was good to have a change, alhamdulillah.

Pleasing Allah Lapbook

Today Ia completed another lapbook. This time it is an Islamic one. If you would like to see a full description please visit Always Learning Resources.

From the weekend

My parents visited over the weekend and brought with them various educational type gifts, which were put into use straight away.

Testing PH.

Ia, of course, had something to make.

Then today we were back to our home ed routines.

Recently we have aquired some non fiction books, on various topics. Usually the boys are not that interested in just reading these books in their own time. There are so many story books they would rather read before getting round to the non fiction. So, for this week, in the reading slot, I'm asking them to spend some time reading non fiction by themselves. I usually read aloud to them at that time, but these kinds of books have too many illustrations and diagrams to make that interesting. By doing it this way they will quite happily read the books.

Tag response

I was tagged by Muslimah Trying to Home Educate.
The rules are to list 3 ahadith you'd like to pin up in your masjid and why.
Then you must tag to other bloggers..
I'm not very good at tags.
Let's say, here are three ahadith that we all need to be reminded of, as no one is immune from falling into bad habits.

1.Bukhari Vol 8 Book 73 No 67
narrated by Anas bin Malik
The Prophet (saw) said "None will have the sweetness (delight) of faith till he loves a person and loves him only for Allah's sake and till it becomes dearer to him to be thrown in the fire than revert to disbelief after Allah has brought him out of it and till Allah and His Apostle become dearer to him than anything else."

2. Bukhari vol8 bk 73 no 84
Narrated by Abu Huraira
The Prophet (saw) said " The worst people in the sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection will be the double faced people who appear to some people with one face and to other people with another face."

3. Bukhari vol 8 bk 73 no 90
Narrated by Abu Huraira
The Prophet (saw) said "Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales; and do not look for the other's faults and do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another and do not desert (cut your relations) with one another, and do not hate one another, and O Allah's worshippers! Be brothers (as Allah has ordered you!).

I think this tag has gone out all over the place, but I don't think it has reached Our Journey yet, so I'll tag there!

Still here!

The car has been in and out of the repair garage, had lots done, except getting the fault fixed. So our rescheduled plans for Eid visiting have fallen through again. Clearly it is not meant to be, alhamdulillah.
So we've been home! H, unable to get to work, has been taking the boys out and about. I've been cleaning and sewing on U's new gym badge.

There is still plenty to do, even if we are having a week off the structure!

Last week's Rosetta Stone trial opened up a new area of study for us. They do a Pashto course. I've never come across materials for learning Pashto before. I decided to go for it and buy the software. The boys and I will try to use it a little most days. I think a little, frequent repetition works best, inshAllah. Ia is too young for it yet. Hopefully, inshAllah, we'll fit it in somehow!

I notice I've been tagged! OK, I'll try, inshAllah. Rather guiltily I remember that I never got round to doing the last tag I was given!