DK 24 hours Series

I really like this series of books from DK. 24 Hours tells you about what goes on in a certain habitat, what the creatures that live there are doing on a typical day. We are borrowing the two books above from the library at the moment, and we already own the desert and rainforest ones. The rainforest book was an essential resource for us with the rainforest lapbook Ia made a while ago. Ia found the Arctic one of these at the library on our last visit, and she is keen to make a lapbook based around it. InshAllah I hope to start work on that next week. Ia is very interested in animals, maashAllah.

Today every one worked hard to get their work done in the morning once again

Ia has finished reading Peter and Jane book 7a. She and U are working on learning Surah Masad. Inexplicably Ia knows it, except for one word, which she misses out every time. Every time I remind her, then straight away she misses it out again. Sometimes Ia's learning is baffling. Very different from the boys.

J has memorised Surah Duha, and is due for a treat from the shop this afternoon, inshAllah.

The house has got really messy again. Spring sunshine is beautiful, maashAllah, but it also shows up all the dust and dirt! So, tackling that looks to be my mission for the rest of the afternoon.

Wednesday

We did some kitchen chemistry this evening, following the work set out in the chemistry workbook we are using. The idea was to record the reactions observed. Of course the baking powder and vinegar featured again! J filmed the experiments, in a style which he seemed to have picked up from the Periodic Table of Videos they've looked at recently.
Today was sunny and warm, alhamdulillah, so we spent the afternoon in the garden, getting the rest of the work done in the morning. The boys and Ia played with a football, then read. U helped me dig out the enormous root of a dead plant.
U is not really feeling too good at the moment as her turn for the chicken pox has come.
With the change of weather I think I'll need to make some adjustments to the way we structure the day, so that we can make the most of any fine weather when it comes, but still get the work covered.
I finished reading another "My Story" historical fiction diary to the boys this morning. This time it was "The Queen's Spies", all about the Babington plot to replace Elizabeth I with Mary Stuart. I'm really feeling like getting reading some more Islamic history, and will need to search out more books.
Ia finished another lapbook today (another one she has been working on for a while), inshAllah I'll post it on Always Learning Resources around the weekend.

Spring time!

I tried to get everyone to hurry up and finish their work quickly today so that we could get out to the park in the afternoon to enjoy the fine spring weather, alhamdulillah. Ia is now completely well, alhamdulillah, and U is yet to develop any spots - so just have to wait and see.
We got the spring packs from the Nature Detectives. Below you can see Ia and U using the pack to design their own forests. Notice all the animals just waiting to be able to move in!

New, improved, Ihsan Website

The new Ihsan website should be up and running on 15th March, inshAllah.

Ihsan (Islamic Home Schooling Advisory Network)

Read more about the new look website and forum here.

Hope you'll visit, inshAllah.

Ia's 5 Pillars of Islam lapbook

Ia finished this lapbook today. We had been working on it for some time. I copied the idea from a friend, maashAllah.

Along the way I did extended work on the topics of the Shahadah, salaah and zakat. That work has not been included in the lapbook. The lapbook is a kind of summary. InshAllah I intend to do further work on fasting and Hajj when the appropriate seasons come along.

Last couple of days

For the last couple of days drawing has become very popular! I sincerely hope that drawing imaginary creatures does not break the Islamic prohibition on drawing living things, as they are not real living things.

Ia and U have also been doing lots of colouring,

cutting up and sticking,

and U decided that it is time for her to begin on workbooks. She even agreed to do the pages in order.

Ia made a copy of a Surah Fatihah poster.

This morning I finished reading "Armada, Thomas Hobbs",a "My Story" book published by Scholastic. It is one of a series of historical fiction diaries. The boys enjoyed the story and it is a light, easy way to pick up historical general knowledge. There are plenty in the series in the library. (Lots come up if you put "My Story Scholastic" in the Amazon search.)

Simple Experiment

This is a very easy way to show how a flower absorbs water. Put the flower in water with plenty of food colouring.

Twenty four hours later the flower has a definate green tinge. The photo doesn't really do it justice, but if you compare the two pictures you can see yellowing. That is not just the light in the photo.

If you look carefully at the underside of the petals you can see the streaks of green. These show up more all over the flower now.