So, where was I?

After only only week away from routine I need to think hard to remember where we were! Good thing I left notes for myself in various folders telling me what to do next. For example: Plant lapbook folder, parts of plant info on flowers and fruit. Vocab cards for (lists vocab) and activity two. Alhamdulillah.
The girls threw themselves into a very long imaginative game which involved lots of paper cutting, drawing and sticking.

Tiny things were cut up and put into boxes (below), then these toys were played with for most of the day, on and off.

Next we have a picture of a jam jar with some cloudy stuff at the bottom. This is the result of the crystal growing experiment. In real life they are much more easily seen, you can really observe their shape. This experiment is so easy, here is how to do it:

You need Epsom salts (from the pharmacy) and a jam jar.

We did this experiment directly in the jam jar to avoid using any food preparation utensils in direct contact with the epsom salts.

Mix 60g of epsom salts with 60ml water in the jar. Place the jam jar in a saucepan with about 10cm depth of water in the pan. Heat gently on the stove, stirring until the epsom salts have dissloved. Put the jam jar in a safe, warm place and leave it for a few days until the crystals form. We put ours on top of the bookshelf.

The boys were rather underwhelmed actually. They must have been imagining something really spectacular!

I started a zakat project with Ia today. We have not finished the five pillars lapbook yet, but I decided to take a diversion and instead of just sticking a sentence or two in the lapbook and moving on I thought we should work on the topic of zakat, because Ia doesn't know about it at all. I shall be following the project outline the boys did at a similar age, inshAllah.

Finally, I found the clay work picture! I'm glad about that because since then some of these items have broken.

Is it nearly spring?

Home education is not complicated really. It is just what many other educationally oriented families do in between school, turned into a lifestyle.
Take for example this Sunday evening. Ia has taken a book from the shelf and has been reading it to herself. I observe this and see that she is taking steps towards independence in her reading. I mentally note this as a record of her progress, and consider it as part of the always learning pattern of home education. My school-going neice, who is the same age as Ia, may well have taken a similar book from the shelf this evening too, and read it to herself. Maybe my sister would take this as evidence of progress made at school.
My niece also enjoys arts and craft, just like Ia. Maybe today she also made a model from a cardboard tube, based on a picture in a library book, or something similar. For me that is evidence of learning, maybe for my sister it is a leisure activity.
Also this evening U decided to copy down some numbers displayed on the screen during a computer game she was playing. She hasn't tried to do that before, I was surprised at how well they came out! If she had been going to nursery I might have assumed that she had been writing them there, but I know that this isn't the case. I praised her for her efforts, and made a mental note that next time a suitable opportunity for trying out writing comes up I will remind her of how well she wrote those numbers, and encourage her through that. U is still not yet four, so I have not yet formally organised anything for her. She just learns informally, in her own way, as many other three year olds surely do.
The boys have been very busy this weekend with various sports activities.
And the feeling of spring is creeping into the day! Yesterday I was out in the garden for the first time in months. I also got the feeling for doing some spring cleaning, but then I came down with a cold and felt too tired to bother. Maybe next time the sun comes out!

Ending our activity week

I think they are finally tired! U certainly is.
Thursday saw us at our third museum in three days! The girls took part in an art activity while the boys went around with clipboards searching the museum for crossword clues.
For the last two days the boys have attended football activities, the girls have been to the park, had a friend over to play and, of course, Ia has done lots of clay work. I took a photo of all the clay things, but I cannot locate it on the camera, strangely.
It has been a different, busy week, alhamdulillah. Variety is refreshing.
And this morning the news reported that children in schools are not getting the breadth of curriculum they need.

Activities!

It has been a tiring couple of days, in a good way, alhamdulillah. Yesterday we met up with friends at the science museum. Of course it was really, really busy and the Launchpad was just too busy to visit, but we went to some of the other galleries we had not been to before, the boys found plenty to do in the energy gallery. Ia was more interested in the toddler of the family we visited with than she was with the museum. She loves making a fuss of babies, maashAllah.
I do find that museum really stuffy and hot. Everytime I visit I come out with a headache. I wonder why they don't keep it at a more comfortable temperature.
Today we were off again to a theme day at a local museum. The kids made clay pots. We arrived for the beginning of the activity and I could see that the boys were not feeling comfortable because most of the other children were younger girls. Thankfully another bigger boy then turned up too. It seems a shame that more boys, of any age, were not brought along. As well as the clay pots we could look at and handle various archeological finds, so not just a "girlie" activity.
After that we looked round the rest of the museum and the play area before heading home. On our way we passed by some charity shops where the boys found a football board game they wanted. We also went to ELC for some air dry clay for the girls, Ia having been inspired by the clay pot activity.
Once home the boys got the football game out, worked out the rules and played. (That is real life reading comprehension!) Ia got busy with the clay. U apparently made something with the clay too, but I thought they were just discarded blobs of clay so I put them back in the storage pot! She didn't seem too bothered though!

Change of Pace

This week is a school half term holiday and there are various activities for children going on locally. So, I decided to make this week an activity week for us, and take a break from "lessons".
This morning we began with me reading aloud some more of our current history book.
Then we went out for a walk to the library. It was really busy but the boys found more books of interest than usual, alhamdulillah. I also found a few interesting non-fiction books, to go on our reading list.
Back home they set about reading the books. Ia had chosen a few more early readers, which she wanted to read to me immediately, maashAllah. I've noticed her reading more of the words around her now, wherever they appear, so she is making the transition between learning to read and being a reader, alhamdulillah.
Later in the afternoon we started a crystal growing experiment from the chemistry set. The boys dissolved Epsom salts in water, which we heated using a pot-boiler method. Now to wait and see what happens!
A nice, calm start to our week of activities, inshAllah.

Catching Up

Ia finished her aquarium. She thought that decorating the insides of the box would take too long.

We continued working on Thursday. I finished the Musa (as) notebook project with the boys. The whole topic is not yet finished with, just the notebook section. Or, more accurately, it will be when they've typed up what they wrote on Thursday, inshAllah. They'll do that as a typing practice.

On Friday we got some French done in the morning, amongst one or two other short tasks. Then, for the afternoon we went out to visit friends. I decided not to bother with the bus, as they come so infrequently and cost a fortune, so we walked. It took 1hr 15mins, and U walked most of it, showing that she can when she wants to, alhamdulillah. I did think of using the bus for some of the return journey, but once we were outside walking again I thought "What's the point?", so we walked home as well. U did have to be carried quite a bit, but the others were fine, and it feels very satisfying to be able to get places under our own steam, alhamdulillah. A couple of years ago we were walking these distances regularly, but we became more lazy recently. Time to fix that, inshAllah.

Today's football fun was cancelled again due to snow still lying on the ground. Parts of our garden are still very icy too. To make up for this H took the boys out to buy cricket jumpers.

Wednesday is Chemistry day (for now)

I do like it when bloggers share the details of the HE resources they use. I think reading other blogs is my number one source of resources information! If I notice something interesting I'll immediately go check it out. This is how I came across the Gravitas Science books. I read about them on this blog.
I bought a Chemistry text and workbook set (available from Amazon), and the boys used it today. Last week I read the first chapter from the textbook to them, and I found that they had retained the information well this week. Better than me I have to say! I needed to go and check back in the text for info on atomic number and weight! Although the subject matter may be complex it is expressed in easy language. Excellent revision for me I have to add! What I especially like about it is how it explains what is going on in some of the experiments in our chemistry set, and also the classic "volcano" of vinegar and baking powder. It is so much more interesting to understand what is going on, what those bubbles are in the "erruption". So, inshAllah I hope to be using the book and set together for a while.
Also today maths was practical for the boys, building shapes with cubes, and they did some creative writing for English.
Ia worked quickly through her tasks today, getting everything on her list done before 12:30. Alhamdulillah.