Usborne lift the flap

When I come across a non-fiction book I really like at the library it is very often published by Usborne. They seem to have got it just right in terms of delivering information in an interesting way.

In the photo are two books we currently have on loan, which are just right for Ia at the moment, maashAllah. The Planet Earth one is a lift the flap book. Each page is a full illustration, with lots of little flaps to lift and information usually printed on both sides of the flap.

Looking for a project? Why not make one of these yourself? Not a whole book of course, maybe just a double page,like a greetings card. Double up the card pages, so that you can cut a flap in the top layer and read on the layer underneath. Oh! I just thought of that now as I typed. What shall we make one about???? Magnets maybe, hmm tricky to illustrate....ok, come back to that later, inshAllah.

The book on the right is filled with double page spreads on animals in different habitats. Around the outside are pictures and information about each animal and you have to search for their pictures in the very busy, cluttered page. I hope no child gets the impression from this that in the real wild all these creatures live so crowded together. It looks more like a crowded urban street at peak hours (except with animals!) But, nevertheless, it is fun searching for all those creatures and grouping them by habitat.

Both these books are part of series, and I think they are great for young readers to dip in and out of, reading as much as they want at any time, without having to read the whole thing in sequence.

Look out for them at the library, inshAllah!

Home ed fitness training (non-physical)

In the course of home eddding I find myself reading a lot of books. For example I've just finished reading aloud a chapter of "The House at Pooh Corner". (Some evenings ago the boys overheard me reading AA Milne to the girls and they couldn't help laughing. Now they are old enough to get the jokes, maashAllah.)

Then I read aloud various picture library books to U, I read aloud to the boys and during the boys Islamic Studies sessions I'm reading from books written for adults and I simplify where necessary.

I also try to read some of the non-fiction library books I get for the boys, although they read them by themselves. Why am I reading those books? Because I need to refresh my knowledge and keep a little ahead. At the moment we have an interesting book from the library called "Chemicals in action: Metals". This book is written in a simple (thankfully) but informative way. I find myself trying to memorise facts such as: when metal reacts with acid hydrogen and a salt are formed. I don't NEED to know this now, but the last time I studied chemistry I was 16 and the parts of my brain that dealt with those things have long rusted over. Not that a metal oxide has formed on my brain (see p 28 ), but you know what I mean. To take this idea further......I need to undergo a thorough polish and galvanisation.

Get myself ready for study, be in the right learning zone myself. Otherwise how can I expect my children to be in learning mode??? Surely I need to set the right example.

You get the picture.

And then there is the book in the picture at the top of the post. It is a fun read, readable in short chunks, which is handy considering all theinterruptions a mother has to contend with. It covers all sorts of language, including (briefly) the obscene, so be aware of that before letting kids dip into it. But a gentle way for a busy adult to keep on learning and flexing her brain!

A little refresh

We've been working quite hard here recently, lots of learning going on, alhamdulillah. Also lots of thinking about what is being learnt and how, and thinking about how to take that forward. Add to that the seasonal changes and how this impacts on some of our regular activities. The move from the football to the cricket season for example. (Not that it isn't still very cold of course!)
We also need to do some work around the house, so now seems like the right time to take a little break from the structured work. This coincides with the school holidays too of course, and maybe there'll be some activities to take advantage of, inshAllah.
Today we finished off an English book chapter and got to a point in the French book where we can take a break and come back to a quick revision. Same with the science topics.
And to give this blog a little sense of freshness and moving forward I went out and took these photos this morning, before the cloud came over and the rain poured!

More magnets

Some days are just so busy, subhanAllah, that by the end of them I can hardly remember anything! Sometimes I keep a running notebook, but otherwise I'm trying to piece bits together.
Ia has been doing more on the magnets project. Magnetism is such a great topic for young children, my girls find using the magnets quite exciting, alhamdulillah. We have a collection of different sized and shaped magnets, which I keep in a pot along with the magnetic marbles, oversized paper clips and a couple of springs that I salvaged from broken toys. Iron filings are also good to have, but having them inside a plastic bubble works best as otherwise thay just cover everything and are really hard to clean up!
We've tested how many paper clips different magnets can pick up, we've tested the distance from which the magnets start exerting their force on a paper clip and today we tested how many layers of non-magnetic material a coin needs to be wrapped in before a magnet is no longer attracted to it. We wrapped the coin in aluminium, paper and then cloth.
I'd definately recommend putting together a magnets box at home, if you haven't done so already. This can also include items containing magnets, such as a notepad with a magnetic closing clasp, or old reading glasses case. The children can play with these as toys and learn a lot at the same time!

A bit of science today

Ia finished the heat and temperature lapbook we were working on and now we are moving on to a topic study of magnets. This evening I read a library book on magnets to both girls and we got out the magnet set and did some experimenting.
The boys are back on the topicof electricity and circuits in their science study. Today I found a couple of links to try to add variety to the topic:
Electricity games and activities
Skool.co.uk
Although it seems that the boys would be just as happy doing the work mainly out of the textbook! I wonder if there are any intermediate electronics sets out there? We have the basic circuits set, and others I've seen advertised look very complicated. In fact we had one other set given to us. It said it was easy to use but we all found it so fiddly and complicated that we couldn't get anything to work on it at all.
Also today the boys watched "Bang goes the theory" and the girls watched a Primary Geography programme on water use. I'd forgotten all about those BBC schools programmes (currently shown around mid morning on BBC2)! The girls seem to find the geography ones really interesting, and some of the Science Clips are quite useful too!

Links for learning French

I'm trying to do French more often with the boys. I'm hoping a little and often approach will work best, inshAllah. I've been looking around for websites to help add variety to the books we are using, so far I like these:
Bonjour les amis
Languages Online

These are good for us as they start from the basics. Lots of practice is needed, but that means finding lots of different approaches to keep it from getting boring.
Languages Online has pages for other European languages too, by the way.

Book review

Ia has been enjoying this series of books from the library. The dog character has lots of faults and is presented so realistically I'm pretty sure it must be very closely based on an animal known to the author. The stories are not as fluffy as the usual animal stories, in "Jake the Good Bad Dog" Jake saves a man from a violent attack. I think this slightly increased depth makes the story more interesting. The book is recommended for age 7 +, so it is not too serious, just right I think.

Ia has been reading these books aloud to me and after finishing off one of them this morning I asked her to write a book review. Part of my plan to ease her into more independent writing, inshAllah. Little by little, maashAllah!