Off Shedule

So, after a busy Eid of receiving and being guests we are having a week off shedule. The weather is not suitable for doing much outside, so I'm having a clearout day. I've been rearranging the boys room, trying again to maximise their space, again!
Their wardrobe is falling to bits...really should get them a replacement.
That's about as interesting as it gets at the moment!

Finishing off for the holidays

We've been busy wrapping up our sheduled home ed week. We'll now take a break for the rest of this week and next week, inshAllah.
The girls have both been using Education City, Ia has continued with her Quran reading lessons, and with reading Little Animal Ark books. Ia has also started a Nelson Thornes handwriting book, learning some writing joins. In maths she has begun multiplication and division (in the form of doubles and halves) and both girls have made a small start on a weather project. I should get them started on a weather journal, but I can just backfill the last couple of weeks with "wet and windy" in case they tire of keeping it too quickly. They have also both been doing lots of drawing and colouring in their doodle books, maashAllah.
The boys have begun long multiplication, which is not hard but you need to be careful not to make a small slip somewhere which goes on to mess up the whole answer. Can cause some frustration. They've also continued their ecology study, completing a quiz on food chains and food webs today. In Islamic studies we followed learning about the days of Duhl Hijjr with TJ's excellent Duas unit, maashAllah.
Other daily bits and bobs, reading, Quran etc and evening sports activities have also continued, alhamdulillah

Decopatch

Over the weekend I took the girls to a decopatch workshop. I wasn't expecting much, but it was more interesting than I expected. I knew nothing about this craft before, basically sticking torn patches of paper onto an object to decorate it. The workshop used animals, but they were ready made, we did not have to sculpt them, we just had to cover them with paper. At bit like 3D colouring in. Covering little boxes would be even better! I like making this type of thing, but I don't like decorative clutter. What to do with stuff you make?? Of course these animals can't go on display, so into the cupboard with them.

Finishing off a couple of projects

Today Ia has finished off a couple of projects she has been working on for a while, maashAllah.
The one in the picture is the simple "Where I live" project that I mentioned I would do some time back. It is just done on A4 in a very simple plastic binder.
It consists of:
- our address written out neatly with the parts of it labelled (door number, street name etc)
- a map of the UK with the different countries labelled and shaded in different colours and our town and London marked on
- a drawing of our street and a short description of what it looks like
- photocopies of street maps of our area with our home, friends homes and places we go to (eg swimming pool) marked on it

Ia also finished off her lapbook on dinosaurs today. It was a printed out lapbook I got as a Currclick freebie. U still needs to stick hers together, inshAllah.

The last few days

Tuesday was the best weather day for a while, and alhamdulillah we took a trip out into the contryside that day. The colours were shining, golds and blues. Really beautiful, subhanAllah. I certainly felt better for having a walk in the fresh air.

On Wednesday everyone worked hard on the usual things. Ia is enjoying the Little Animal Ark stories more and more, and now wants to read several chapters to me in a day, maashAllah. I've suggested she could just read them to herself, as she does with other books, but she likes to read them to me in case she does not know a word. She really does not want to miss a thing in those stories!

Today Ia's friend came over and together they worked on the poster above, on a treasure boxof kind words. This is an Islamic studies connected piece of work, linked to the hadith that says "a kind word is charity". The treasure box is filled with kind words we can say to one another, as kind words are precious.

I took the activity from here, where it is activity 5. We have been working on the other activities too, and aim to complete the project, inshAllah.

We've also been learning about the virtues of the first 10 days of Duhl Hijr, and I've started to read the "Tell Me About Hajj" book to the girls. We also watched part of a DVD showing us the Eid ul Adhar celebrations in Mali. The girls did not previously understand the concept of sacrificing a sheep for Eid. The film showed nothing graphic, but sheep before, and cooked meat after, so the message got through, alhamdulillah!

Monday

Another Monday. All pretty much the usual today alhamdulillah. Not finishing off any projects at the moment and I haven't taken any photos in ages!!!
I am currently reading aloud "Oliver Twist" to the boys, so that is going to take a while! Yes, it is that Victorian social history again. And how about use of entertainment media (remember it was initially serialised) in expressing social or political messages? Victorian social history, always relevant. As I frequently point out.
In science the current theme is ecology, as it seems to have been since before the summer....
I'm using the Galore Park textbook, "So You Really Want to Learn Science book 1" as a backbone text, guiding the topic area, but we have gone off in so many further explorations along the way that after a full year we are only just a third of the way through it, maashAllah! InshAllah we'll be moving onto the second third soon after Eid.
Geography this year is another very slow moving topic, using the Trail Guide at a very gradual pace. We couldn't possibly do all of what she suggests in a week in a week, unless we were hardly doing anything else.
Slow and steady is how we are doing at the moment, alhamdulillah.

Enjoying the weather?

Today the girls and I set out in the wind and rain, off to an art workshop in the town, and of course to visit the library. It was a day for being fully kitted out in waterproofs, and we were, alhamdulillah. Even the library book bag got a waterproof jacket made out of a large carrier bag.
The workshop was OK. It was about puppet making. The actual tasks were very simple, and nothing more than what we have done at home before (sock puppets, finger puppets). While I was there I was trying to weigh up whether or not it was worth attending, especially considering the weather and the fact that H had to pick us up afterwards in order that I could get home in time for Asr.
Ia certainly enjoyed the session, she can't get enough of that type of thing, wherever the location, maashAllah. U enjoyed it for the first hour, but then she got fed up again, as she usually does. She is not as interested in art/craft as Ia.
The main advantage is that they are in a group environment and taking instructions from someone else. The leader of this session was very well organised and clear in her presentation. Of course they get something like this every week in swimming and gym classes, and whenever we are able to attend other one off workshops or events, but today's workshop forms part of that picture, and for that reason is probably worth it. Alhamdulillah.