Still waiting

The boys were doing their regular spelling work when they came across the word “purser”. (ur words). One of them looked it up and this sparked lots of drawings of ships, with diagrams of where everything is located. All imaginary of course, they wouldn’t want to draw something realistic!
Today they’ve done a maths assessment, which they were really excited about (!). But of course one has to get a lower mark than the other, sparking a tantrum. This always happens. They say they really enjoy the assessment, both do really well, but this is not enough as one will see himself as the loser. It’s the same as with board games or races. We finally finished off the symmetry work today too, which is a relief as they really don’t like that type of maths.
Ia has done some counting and threading buttons, drawing and a session with i-board.
Apparently there was no wholemeal bread flour in the supermarket so I’ve had to manage with white today. It is so gloopy and doesn’t behave well at all. Two very odd looking loaves in the oven right now.

Waiting

First sponge cake for years!

Robot construction replaces cricket when rain stops play.

Another robot.

Mr Fox and his sad friend with balloons, as previously blogged.

More art by Ia.

Friday was warm and sunny and saw us in the park with friends again. Ia was very good with U, helping her over the play equipment (which was really a too big for her), especially coaching U over the wobbly plank bridge, maashAllah. U said “This is really fun.”
The weekend was a fed up couple of days. I found it hard to fend off worries about the whole move being about to fall through. Trying to bring myself round to accepting that we could well be staying put for some time, and trying to forget about the house that we now have all the documentation ready to purchase. The overall mess everywhere doesn’t help. As I tidy one room another is simultaneously reduced to chaos again.
The kids generally entertained themselves, with no park outings as by Sunday the rain was continuous. Today H has taken the bigger three out for a walk, wearing their winter jackets! We’ve done a bit of English this morning too, and should get a few more bits done this afternoon, insh’Allah.

wash clothes while the sun shines

L came over this morning and we continued our study of rocks. Today I decided to look into igneous rocks as a group, how they are formed and so on. Then we did a study of basalt, the most common igneous rock, we have a sample of it in our rock set. The boys seem really interested in this topic, alhamdulillah. Next time we should look at granite as we didn’t have time today. In the afternoon, while Ia was at nursery, they played with a barcode battler game (?) and did a couple of activity sheets on right angles. In between they are really into their cricket computer games at the moment. One that you have to select a team and play the shots and another that is a “cricket manager” game. Ia wants more time on the computer, they have to be prised off to let her have her go!
J also finished the story he began yesterday in English. It is long, illustrated and action packed, starring himself and a list of friends. R wrote a similar story. From their writing you can detect the influence of Enid Blyton, vital adventure equipment luckily carried in one’s pocket for those days when, whilst out for an ordinary walk, one stumbles across bands of shady men up to smuggling or whatever and one is compelled to investigate and take them on.
Meanwhile Ia was in the winning team of the nursery sponsored obstacle race. She was so tired that she had a nap before dinner!
This all sounds so lovely when I read it back, but don't be alarmed, we did also have an anger outburst, a falling over with bloodied hands and knees, and a messing about on the bus incident today too. Does that make it sound more normal?

What you know about your child

Ia got homework from nursery today, and they have been doing calculations on paper using the plus sign and numerals only. I was rather surprised about this. Do the children have enough understanding of the underlying process of addition to introduce the plus sign? I asked Ia about it, and she didn't know what it meant. I wouldn't expect her to, I prefer to delay the introduction of formal notation until loads of practical adding has been done. Otherwise I think they just end up memorising the calculations without understanding the process. Anyway, maybe I'll mention it to them.
As my friend was picking Ia up and receiving the homework sheets she overheard another mother remarking, on receipt of her child's worksheet, "Does she recognise the numbers?". My friend was shocked, the mother is asking this about her own child? I suppose for us home educators the idea of not knowing this about our child is like not knowing about our child's food preferences or favourite toy.

Stress

Have just been through the most stressful 24 hours of house moving problems yet, with me ending up going into the estate agents office in an effort to extract the truth. A friend helped by taking the boys (may Allah reward her) and Ia was at nursery, so I only had to take U with me. The estate agent remarked on U’s likeness to Madeline!!!! So how do you think I felt when as I went back to pick up the rest of them on the bus and a tired U started wriggling, struggling, crying and shouting out “mummy”! More than the usual “embarrassed with loud child on bus” anyway.
As for the house move we are now waiting to see whether or not the buyer will still go ahead.
At least when I went to Waterstones to pick up my order of maths books for Ia it didn’t matter that the order numbers didn’t correspond as the assistant there said “I know who you are anyway”, the benefits of being a regular customer!
So no home ed yesterday, too much stress. Instead the boys got to play in their friend’s garden in the sunshine and eat home made crisps- which sounds good! Ia got her nursery fun, and seemed reluctant to leave yesterday, walking towards me so slowly!
Another group day for the boys today, so at least they’ll be getting Islamic studies, geography, and English today, with maths this evening, insh’Allah, finishing the day with tajweed rules revision and our usual read from “Muhammed, Man and Prophet”. That’s if it all goes to plan, insh’Allah.

Breezy Saturday

Today was a breezy, sunny and laid back kind of Saturday. It is nearly nine, but as everyone is feeling calm I’m not rushing to get the kids to bed. The boys are reading and the girls are playing with toys.
I took the girls to the park earlier and while we were there I noticed a couple of middle aged men watching from the adjoining tennis court. After a few minutes one of them spoke to me saying that I must be feeling particularly bad about the newspapers these days. I had no idea what he meant. Then he pointed at U saying “She looks just like her”. Then I realised. Your own child is just your own child, looking like no other (except their twin brother of course), but now someone has pointed it out I suppose U does look a bit like Madeline, it is mainly the hair, but something of the look as well maybe. I was shocked of course, and hurriedly pointed out that U is only two, Ia is four, and obviously bigger. But they kept looking, and asking questions, in a friendly way, discussing the news and so on. In the end they said, “We had to ask”. Later someone else seemed to be looking at U as well, I felt a bit uncomfortable, maybe just paranoid, so we went to join the boys and H in the field, where the boys practised cricket and the girls chased after balls.
I’ve started packing in a slow kind of way and for the rest of the day everyone occupied themselves. The boys had a Quran lesson, and did a little more work on symmetry. Their Quran teacher is making them work hard to cram the tajweed rules into whatever period remains before the move, insh’Allah. We will certainly miss her good teaching, I think it has been three years now. I’ll miss her anyway, maybe the boys will not miss their lessons as much! R says he enjoys tajweed rules, he saw a book on it in the bookshop and asked to buy it. Surprising, alhamdulillah!
Ia is becoming more aware of letter sounds, although I have not been formally working on this at all. On the way to the park today she commented that on the handwriting page about “S” they could have included sandals. She can write numbers to 10 reversing some and struggling with 8. She has become confident enough to try copying some letters rather than just tracing.
U is trying to be helpful. She offers me a turn on the swings and slide in the park, “You turn now!” even offering to push me on the swing. Earlier when H was trying to sort out a problem with the digital camera I must have been hovering by him too much as she said “When Papa finish puter you turn”. She also seems to have a good memory, maashAllah, as this evening she recounted events which happened on Wednesday involving her good friend Hj. She also helps me to type on the keyboard (!) and to put out laundry, wet or dry, either type anywhere will do. She has also become skilled at removing her trousers. Could be useful when it comes to potty training.
I would have a photo of Ia’s painting of Mr Fox with his sad friend each holding balloons, if the connection was working!
Speaking of foxes the girls just spotted the fox coming over the garden fence again. Mr Fox in the picture is apparently a puppet though. He is painted as happy. U looked through a Mr Men book last week, “reading” the pictures by pointing at the characters and saying either “happy”, “sad” or “bored”. Bored was for a flat line mouth. But what does she know about bored?

Sunshine

A lovely sunny day for the children to play out side in the park, with their friends. The boys getting into their usual play fights, with no hard feelings. The girls chatting and imagining together. Then it was back home again, to checking the email for updates on the house move. Finally a bit of progress today, insh’Allah, as a bit of paperwork I’ve been chasing for weeks has finally been received by my solicitor. After all the frustrations of waiting to see this done! Like the change in the weather today, a change in events. Alhamdulillah. Of course this is only a breather, I’ll soon be on to stressing about the next bit! Really all this is taking up too much mental time. The home ed is ticking along, all the basics are getting done, but there is not much creativity at the moment, I’m too distracted.
Plus the kids are always hungry, are they about to grow suddenly? All day there are requests for more, for every meal I increase the amounts, but still they want more. Is the healthy food plan resulting in bigger appetites?