River Project

Over the past couple of months the boys have been working on a river project based on the river near us. They completed the final piece yesterday. I didn't plan this whole project out in advance, it started with an idea and evolved from there. Neither is it a project that is filed all in one place, it comprises some written work and some powerpoints, so it is not something that can be photographed or displayed. I've done some blog posts connected with this before, but now its time to sum up.
This is a summary of the different tasks that have gone to make up the project:

1.We walked along the areas of the river near us, photographed it at different locations and noted different features. This was done over several days, each day visiting different stretches of the river. At home the boys assembled the photos into a powerpoint presentation to describe the area of the river we had visited. This focussed on describing the features, looking at erosion etc.

2. I borrowed a book about the river from the local studies section of the library. We read about the background and history of the river and its role both  in our local area and other areas it flows through. The boys made some notes on this.

3. Using the textbook "Geography fieldwork Projects" by Jennifer Frew we read about how fieldwork can be carried out on rivers. We carried out a fieldwork project on measuring the river's flow, and the boys wrote up their results for their geography files.

4. Some time later we carried out a second fieldwork exercise on investigating the river's load, which also got written up for the files.

5. Using several internet sources the boys found examples of different ways the river is currently used by people (eg leisure, wildlife sanctuaries), and some examples of historical uses (eg water mills, transportation). From this they put together powerpoint presentations to explain different uses of the river, (along its whole length,) and compare past uses with current ones.

6. Again using the textbook mentioned above we read about assessing water quality in rivers. We then searched online for information about the water quality of our local river. We found several sources of information on this. From those sources the boys put together a report looking at how water quality is assessed, problems of pollution and efforts being made to improve water quality in the river we have been studying.

I'm sure there must be many more things we could have done to extend this project further, but it seems to have run its course with us and now seems the right time to draw this particular study to a close.
However, during this long look at one particular river we have come to know it quite well, and I feel that this won't be forgotten in a hurry. Bringing something local into geography study has been really beneficial, maashAllah. Also I've come to know of some locations along the river, a little further away from us, which I'd like to visit inshAllah, so looking forward to being able to do that too.

Beads and lions

After Ia received her castle U wanted something to make herself. She chose a jewellery making set, which arrived yesterday. In the afternoon we made the clay beads, which I then baked in the oven. Today she has threaded this necklace. We have worked on this together, and Ia has joined in too. U finds it more fun that way, she doesn't want to do the whole thing herself. The beads were not too difficult for her to shape or thread, but the knots on the necklace were tricky so I did those for her.
This week Ia has been working on a literature lapbook. I read "Kimba" by Geoffrey Malone to the girls a few weeks ago. It is a realistic wildlife story about a lion. I thought they could both do a lapbook on it as part of their English study, but U wasn't keen. Today Ia made petal books, one of verbs and the other on adjectives. She made a list of adjectives which could be used to describe Kimba, and a list of verbs to show what Kimba does (roar, snarl, pounce, sleep etc). InshAllah I'll post this when its done. I'm determined that we should get it done within the next couple of weeks, inshAllah!
Meanwhile the girls continued their interest in big cats by watching a BBC four documentary about tigers, called Spy in the Jungle. It featured new cubs - so inevitably a hit!!!

A castle please

Last week Ia said that she'd like to make a castle. I was rather defeated by this suggestion, having already got rid of all the cardboard boxes and tubes that pile up so often.
After a quick search I found this Usborne cut out  model book, which arrived today. It took Ia and I about an hour to make this small portion of the castle! It is fiddly work, but she is enjoying this project, maashAllah. Let's see how long it takes us to put it all together!!

Home ed highlight #2

Examining the river's load. We went down to our local river/stream again today to look at the features of the riverbed, as part of our geography fieldwork endeavors. The kids picked up samples of stones of different sizes from the riverbed, which we measured, weighed (if they were big like the one below), and recorded the colour and shape.

Everyone likes wading, even when the boots leak!!!

Little Highlights

Even when we are not home educating in a structured way, we are home educating. You can't get away from it really. Even when the parent takes a break the child continues the education in one way or another. Its just living.
It feels like summer - even though its April - and after this break I feel like it should be the summer holidays! It feels strange to think of getting back into the swing of structured days. I think the children feel the same!
I don't update this blog as often as I feel I should. Somehow I find I'm running out of things I can say here, that I haven't said before, but maybe I should be on the look out for those little home ed highlights, the things that tell me its all ticking along, alhamdulillah
Today I did some sewing. I made a khimar and a rough and ready laundry peg bag, using some left over cotton and a small clothes hanger (the kind that comes with small size kids clothes). Seeing me sewing made the girls think of making little clothes for their soft toys, so they got out the scrap bag and cut out bits of fabric to make non-sewn coats, scarves etc. Different fabrics cut in different ways. Some slip about, some easily tear, depending on the direction you make the cut. Today's little highlight: learning about cutting fabrics.

Spring pace

From today we are taking a couple of weeks off, to coincide with the school holidays. As most of my kids' friends go to school they like to treat those weeks differently too.

As another sister recently remarked as children get older you just get busier! Although when busy with little ones and their constant demands you can feel very tied down you do still get to set the timetable. As they get older I'm finding myself busy with accomodating their various activities and  having to work myself around the timetable that brings to me. Its a different sort of busy! Plus, I suppose when they are younger you do get periods of the day when everyone else is asleep, either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Now of course that is no longer the case either, as pretty much everyone goes to bed at the same time, and only U tends to sleep a little longer in the mornings.

So, although the weeks have gone by and I have blogged very little here, home education and life in general has been continuing apace, alhamdulillah. In fact, if anything things just seem to get faster and faster, as I try to squeeze more and more in!

Recent good weather saw us taking time in the garden and bringing the books out there too whenever possible. The boys have been doing lots of their usual outdoor sports practice and also cycling, alhamdulillah. The garden is really too small now for them to play "football" in, as their kicks will always send the ball staright into the hedge, and they can only run a few paces before reaching the hedges themselves! However, it is still good for cricket shots, so they can go outside for hours just bowling at eachother, maashAllah! They are getting better at controlling their shots now too, so fewer balls go over the hedge.

Last week I put U on a free trial at Reading Eggs.co.uk, which I heard about via a sister on the IHSAN forum. Clearly this has come along too late for us, as U has really grown out of this stage of reading, maashAllah. She has been enjoying playing the games, as there is plenty of novelty value to the site, however I don't think she has really learnt anything new, as the word level she was placed at is pretty easy. So, I won't be enrolling her after the trial expires. However I think that if I had found this site a year or so earlier I would have been really tempted to sign up. It looks really good for a child of around four to get started with.

Sunny days also saw me return to Ia's science topic on light and shadow. One day last week she spent the day recording the different lengths of the shadow cast by a brick standing on end in the garden. It goes to show what a grey winter we had that I didn't feel we could do a whole day experiment like that until now! Of course the book she was working with told her that the shadow should be shortest at noon, but as we are in British Summer Time, of course it was shortest at around 1pm, by the clock. So, this led to a discussion about the  changing of the clocks.

So, we are still here and still immersed in our life of home ed, maashAllah. Now in these weeks of break I have the delights of spring cleaning (!), next term planning and maybe a little sewing to look forward to!

Reading (again)

Anyone who reads along here from time to time may notice that I have an ongoing theme with sourcing reading materials, especially for the boys. It just gets harder and harder. The library selection of books for the "young teen" age range is very poor. If horror or fantasy is your style, then maybe you are happy with what's on offer. If you are a girl whose interests are gossiping, backbiting and general rudeness then you are probably satisfied too. If you don't like either of those types of books then the library has hidden away the reading stock you'd like in the "reserve store".
You have to be pretty determined to unearth items from the reserve store. To start with you have to know the authors or titles you want to read. This means you need someone who read them to recommend them. If you are a kid then this is quite hard. Your friends can't recommend books they've never seen either. I asked around on a home educator forum full of clever home educators and someone suggested the author Geoffrey Trease.
Since getting this name I've ordered lots of Geoffrey Trease books from the reserve stock and the boys are really enjoying them. Most of these books have not seen the light of day for as long as ten years. They have the price in shillings on the cover. They are historical, adventure stories. The main character is always a teenage boy. I liken it to grown up Famous Five in an historical context. The boys are always "decent", the girls are always no-nonsense with a touch of tom-boy. The history in there is often based closely on real events, but is so wrapped up with the adventure story that it is effortlessly absorbed. It's ideal for my sons at the moment. So good not to be hearing "What shall I read now?" every few days!
Geoffrey Trease wrote loads of books, but the library stock is dwindling. Only the survivors remain in the store. Enjoy it while it lasts.