From rainforest to frozen garden

Today Ia has finished this lapbook on rainforests. It is very colourful, maashAllah, the purpose being to widen Ia's understanding of the vast diversity of Allah's creation, rather than to absorb many scientific facts. This project is made up of ready made materials, not my own work at all. I used the Jena the Jaguar project from Hands of a Child and materials designed by homeschooler Jimmie, and displayed here at Squidoo. The map came from Enchanted Learning.
I also made use of lots of the interactive links from Jimmie's Squidoo page, so some of the learning was online. We also have an excellent book on rainforests, which we used a lot.
Finally, for atmosphere, I put these rainforest sounds on in the background on one of the project days.

Having seen the finished article, U wants me to finish making one for her....that really is not the point is it!

Meanwhile I seem to remember last week that I mentioned something about timetable changes. This was for the boys, to freshen the routine. The main difference is cutting English studies from 5 days a week to 3. This allows me to lengthen the time spent on other topics on each day. Also I have moved daily use of short pieces of audio to a longer time on a Friday, to allow wider options in that slot. Other than that is was just a case of moving some lessons from one day to another.

Isn't is amazing, subhanAllah, how tiny things survive in freezing temperatures.

I've noticed that a flock of different birds has been visiting my neighbour's garden to eat the windfall fruits that are still lying on the ground. I think they are fieldfare. According to my birdbook they visit gardens in harsh winter weather, in flocks.

And these last photos are from last weekend, when Ia finished off another sewing project with Auntie Z.

Actually Auntie Z and I both helped our daughters by finishing off the blanket stitch, as the girls had moved on to sticker arrangements by then.

Quick learning update

U has been speding a lot of time on the computer recently, making use of our collection of CD roms for younger children. She really likes Jump Ahead French, although I wouldn't recommend it really because some parts have too much unnecessary music, unfortunately. U is very much a person who does her own thing, I ask her to join in with creative work Ia is doing, and sometimes she will, but often she has her own things to do.
Ia is currently working on a rainforest project, soon to be completed, inshAllah. Today she enjoyed watching animal clips here. It is the nice easy side of home education when you can sit with your child at the computer and just watch and discuss! Followed by some colouring in, copying out and so on.
Ia has now reached book 6A in the Peter and Jane series. I don't think the boys ever bothered to read as far as that, they wanted to read more interesting books, to explore more. Ia is reading with much more ease now, alhamdulillah, but I suspect she still believes that she cannot really read, and that she must stick to the reader. Also the whole scenario of going for walks up a hill, having tea with a friend and looking at farm animals appeals to her much more than it did to the boys.
Which reminds me of another thought that I've been having for a while now. What is learning/education? There really is no one answer to that, is there? It all depends.

Learning About Musa (as)

After Ramadan I began studying the history of Musa (as) with the boys. I decided to use a notebook style. Usually we would study this on a Thursday, progressing with the story little by little, I would read the next section to them, then they would write it up.
Last Thursday we studied the section about the magicians who believed in Musa (as), after witnessing the miracles Allah (swt) allowed him to perform.
Reaching this point meant that I had only one section; the part about the punishments sent to Firawn and his people when they persisted in disbelief; before the part about how Musa (as) led his people out of Egypt, and Allah (swt) destroyed Firawn by drowning him in the Red Sea.
It was only after last Thursday's lesson that I realised that if I used the Islamic studies lesson times from this week to study this topic I could manage to be studying the destruction of Firawn on the 10th Muharram, the date on which this event occured. There is no way I could have planned things to turn out so neatly. Alhamdulillah. I was just ambling along with the project at my own pace.
Ibn Abbas has narrated that the Prophet (saw) arrived at Medina and found that the Jews fasted on the Aashura (10th Muharram). He asked, "What is the significance of your fasting on this day?" They said, "This is the day when Musa triumphed over Firawn." The Prophet (saw) said to his companions, "You have more right with Musa than they have so observe fast (on this day)." (Bukhari 4680)
Firawn, of course, was a tyrant and oppressor. He enslaved the Bani Israel and kept them as captives in the land. Seeking to control their numbers, he sent his men to slaughter the male infants.

It snowed

I let them play out in the snow for much of the morning. Playing in snow is a part of childhood, isn't it? And we don't get much snow here, alhamdulillah.

Today was also a good day to teach the boys about Dua Qunoot, the dua that is especially good to recite in times of emergency.

Have you noticed?

This time is different. People have stopped blogging just their own lives.
This time, really, enough is enough.
Seeking Taqwa
Sewq
Independent Learners
Motherhood in Saudi
Ummobaidah
Homeschool Blogger

When it is cold

On this freezing cold morning the boys went out to kick a ball around a frozen playing field with a bunch of other boys, to return a couple of hours later covered with mud. Sport never did appeal to me much.
The girls stayed home playing and doing sticker books.
I mostly cleaned up, then I updated Always Learning Resources, with a tiger project.

Quick post

Yesterday I began a post, then deleted it after a few lines. I wasn't unhappy with the subject matter, but I had just spent about an hour struggling with graphs on Excel and this had caused me to temporarily lose the will to blog.
Anyway, I seem to remember that most of yesterday went fairly well. H was home, and took the boys out to the park for an hour, but otherwise we worked as usual - it being too cold to do much else.
I am really feeling the need for some timetable changes. Every so often a refresh is needed, to stop things going flat, to keep the learning new. Everyday should not feel the same. I usually print out my new weekly task list over the weekend, but this week I did it on Wednesday, although I have not actually got round to filling it in yet! But this is me telling myself to do some tweaking.
Today the boys watched the first half of this environmental documentary. (Unfortunately there is lots of background music - just warning you) The content is very thought provoking, and can also generate discussion on bias/balance in the editing. Does the film seek to promote the point of view of the film maker, or does it present both sides? And how can you tell?