Too many phone calls!

Had to make way too many organising phone calls today, but still managed to make most of my (reduced) targets for the day. Boys had an English lesson (vocab from comprehension passage) and a maths lesson, (quadrilaterals and the semi-circle). Ia played with pattern blocks and fuzzy felts and did a little counting work. U fed her dollies and did some scribbling in a colouring book. There was a little time spent on the computer too, before it had a problem and had to be scanned. As usual I will intend to get more done tomorrow!

Catching Up

Had a busy few days, trying to get as much out of the time as I can. I've made plans for each day, they haven't been kept to, but enough has been done. We went to a wedding, which Ia really enjoyed, she seemed to just love the atmosphere. Then on Sunday I took the boys to a Sunday school where they had their first Urdu lesson. They really enjoyed it, alhamdulillah, and are keen to go back. They said they learnt eight sentences, but only seem able to produce two, and those rather reluctantly. While they were there I took Ia and U to the park. U slept but Ia did a couple of pages of a workbook she was keen to start at a picnic table. She was able to use letter recognition to "read" the words red and blue on several labels, once I had pointed out the "r" and "b"to start with. She has spent a lot of time on the computer again today, playing with iboard and Cbeebies, it seems to be helping her to be quickly familiar with the functions of letters and other symbols.
U was still asleep while Ia played in the park and then we went back for the boys and then rushed home in time for their Quran lesson. Despite these arrangements I'm still finding that they are spending time on reading and playing games and not just asking for the television now that we are home a bit more.
Today they had the treat of friends over, while H and I heaved the filing cabinets upstairs. She kindly stayed and helped me find a suitable place for them, but then much of the rest of the afternoon was spent clearing up the things that had had to be taken out as furniture was moved about. Boys read, Ia was online and U slept. Nice to see boys helping Ia with some of the computer stuff.
U can now say "no", (with something of a northern accent!). This is "no" to nappy changing, "no" to sharing a chair with my brother and definately"no" to my sister being picked up. This evening I found a magnetic letter "p" trapped inside her nappy, it had left a clear imprint of itself. So had she put it in her vest? She actually bothered to do a puzzle for the first time this evening, trying to force the pieces in any way, but still better than just scattering them.

Party Day

Everyone enjoyed another successful Eid party, thanks to the efforts of the organisers, maashAllah. They played various party games such as pass the parcel and "musical chairs". Both boys got into trouble at some point, but Ia played well and won a prize. They all ate too many sweets. Only Ia was willing to do anything useful this afternoon, despite the inevitable interuptions.

Nice not to hurry

Bismillah
Still in holiday mode there was no plan for the day. Ia made chocolate cornflake cakes for tomorrow's party. As I was interrupted by a phone call she did most of the mixing and spooning out all by herself. U clearly said "pu-ta" this morning in the hope that I might turn it on for her. From time to time she seems to be saying words, but I almost miss them in the midst of all her own sounds. J and R mostly had their own plans but I also read a biography of one of the Sahabah to them, they joined their sister in painting Winnie the Pooh posters and we managed a game of Kerplunk. J also decided to be a teacher and taught R and I about commas, after which we both had to do a piece of writing about going to the supermarket. He then set a few subtractions, but I was the only one actually working out the answers. U did a scribble, which she was very proud of.

Back To The Beginning

As I couldn't recover the old password I thought I should start again, especially as things have changed so much since the old blog. Having completed 3 years of home education now in some ways I know more and in others I know less. Now I know that the academic education is the easy part, planning the work, finding resources, even the actual teaching. Finding the time to develop the right mental attitudes is the hard part. Developing the whole person is what we are learning to do all the time. It is easy to find out the results of our academic studies, just take an exam and get the certificate, but the "exam" of the personality is something else.