Doing whatever

Have spent the morning pulling up the bedroom carpets, two of which disintegrated as I did so, making clouds of dust. With (reluctant) help from the boys I cleared most of the stuff and got the carpets outside the front door. Now I’m waiting for the replacements to turn up.
With no timetable today the boys have gone into the living room (which is full of all the bedroom stuff), to write a film script, on this beautiful sunny day. Ia drew a story, U scribbled, tore up the paper and annoyed Ia until she gave up drawing. Now they are playing with the plastic animals. If I go into the garden to continue its tidy up maybe some of them will follow me.
We went to cricket practice yesterday. The boys are the shortest there, and although they have been trained to bat and bowl from a young age H hasn’t done any catching or throwing practice with them, and it shows! It is the wild, almost star jump, into the air as the ball heads towards them, which gives it away, even more than the drop. And you know how it is when huge effort goes into a throw that travels almost nowhere. Anyway, they enjoy it, and don’t mind being the young ones. I still think it is an unusual set up, and a real assortment of players. Unconventional, but enthusiastic.
LATER
They came and carpeted two rooms, but hadn’t enough for the girls room, so they’ll have to come back another day.
Meanwhile the film script has been shelved after the boys realised their computer graphics skills at their present non-existent level were not going to get them the required pixar style result they were hoping for. They are planning to ask their cousin if he knows how to make a successful animated movie, with no budget and make a profit. He doesn’t usually let them down.
Ia was very helpful clearing up the hedge clippings. Then she and U did some painting on the patio. After J joined them some paint went on the ground, and they all decided to scrub the whole patio with pan scourers!
The boxes of books have come home! The boys have excitedly unpacked theirs. U wants to unpack everything at once. I don’t think so. U loves “reading” Topsy and Tim books to herself. She sticks to the theme of the story but her improvisations are funny. Topsy and Tim are waiting at the dentist, reading comics. In the real story the dentist calls them in and T&T comply. In U’s version they say, in stubborn tones “No way, we readin’ here!”
Concerning washing up U has made some interesting observations. “Mummy, where are you?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Are you washing up?”
“No”
“Why?”
On hearing a neighbour mowing a lawn, then stopping, "They washin' up now.
And the baby want food.”

Sunshine and exercise

Been getting out and about in our new location, covering plenty of miles on foot. Yesterday I took the boys to a cricket coaching session. Bit of an odd experience really. The coaching team consists of a man (coach), his partner, (collecting subs) and partner’s son. On first sight they seem like an unlikely sports family, but they seem very dedicated and friendly. At first we were the only ones there and I thought we might be asked to go home, but apparently they’ll play whatever and soon a couple of other youngsters turned up, they said there are usually more, we will see! Of course I stayed nearby, what else could I do, it is so far from home. The boys loved it.
Something different about this place is the spaciousness of the park areas. It feels very luxurious, people on the other side of the parks are like tiny dots. Today the girls and I climbed up a hill in another park, up to some woods, from where we tried to see what far away things we could spot. At first U was reluctant to go as she was afraid of monkeys in the trees, especially their tails. I realised this was because of another tree we had seen earlier, which was one of those with branches like the tails of monkeys, I forget the name. She must have thought I meant real monkeys and all trees.
Boys spent today in a sports centre, playing various sports with one other kid and two staff. Why is nobody else turning up for things? Still the boys enjoyed themselves again. I took the girls to a fun day organised by some local sisters. Ia had been building this outing up since hearing about it until she was saying that she would be going to “fun world”. Alhamdulillah it lived up to her expectations, she made a paper plate duck, a lantern, a card and decorated a cup cake. She also saw a friend who had come for the day. Really fun world.
The boys are planning to do a project on castles. They chose books from the library. Ia wanted to do a project, she chose a book called…can you guess?....”I can cut out and stick”. That’s an ongoing project, currently fuelled by a purchase of pink and purple craft bits.
Where have all the photos gone? They are stuck in the camera and I can’t get them out.

Thoughts of a 2 year old

On seeing a snail in the garden:
“A snailul, get it!” (me: I don’t want to get it)
“No, we don’t need it in our garden. Nala got legs, she get it.”
On seeing another snail:
“Get it, vacuum cleaner it”
Ia was crying about something. U “Do you love me?”
Me “Yes, do you think I love Ia?” (or do you think I just told her off)
U “Yes, and you like that clock” (???)

Refresh

Time to change the template again, just fed up of the other one.
At the end of last week we were confined to the bedroom all day for two days while the plumbers pulled up the floorboards downstairs, fitting the new heating system. We were all getting fed up, kids were bored by everything, I was getting a headache. Eating chicken and chips due to the kitchen being so disrupted did not do much for our sense of well being either.
Even when the job was done the kids kept on with the fed up feeling, “we’ve no friends here” etc. I think they just need diversion, and friends nearby of course, but at least being busy would keep their mind off it a bit. So yesterday we all went out to a kids fun park place, not for long but enough to revive them, so that when we got home they were back into imaginary play again. Just being cooped up dulls it all right out of them. Got some plans for this week, see how it works out insh’Allah, with the weather as well.
The girls are not taking it as badly. Ia can be kept happy for hour (really hours) with coloured papers, glue sticks and scissors. U sits with her and tries.
Anyway, new boiler, but now no airing cupboard, so where can I leave the bread to rise? Yesterday’s loaves are bumpy on top, not the usual smooth, air bubble filled ones I am used to. The texture gets too dense too. I put them on a shelf above the fridge, which is good for ripening fruit, but the heat given off is not consistent I think. Have to think about this.

More effective routine needed

If I have a plan the boys will ignore it, so yesterday they began the day by writing stories in their room, so I did some counting work with Ia and a few pages of her maths workbook. She also did a tiny bit of handwriting and practised pronouncing the “ba” sounds in Arabic. I don’t really know what to call that but I’m copying the phonic method the boys were taught with, where the name of the letter is not taught, but letter by letter the child learns the pronunciation with each vowel. It is a bit boring, I remember the boys getting bored with it, but if it works it doesn’t matter how long it takes.
They are all getting silly now it is raining again. Not all rooms are accessible now either as we are having the central heating done. Bits are being done in each room, tools everywhere and carpets to come up for new pipes.
Yesterday we began studying the pillars of Emaan. I introduced the topic and then they made a poster, with the words, pillars of emaan resting on six pillars, with the name of each pillar written in each. I have the set of books by Muhammed al-Jibaly called “Emaan made easy”. I plan to begin with the pillar of belief in prophets and messengers, insh’Allah, because it is a little more straight forward to explain than belief in Allah, and they are familiar with learning about the prophets.
I have collected enough boxes and tubs for Ia to resume junk modelling. Today she has made a boat at the “graphics table” as they called it at nursery. Our graphics table has multi functions, but it makes her happy to call it the graphics table at least some of the time.
Today R has posted the paragraphs he wrote on libraries. This was prompted by the English textbook wanting a piece expressing an opinion on “an issue”.
From this it seems as if we’ve been busy, but actually I don’t think we’ve been doing nearly enough.

J lost a tooth

Last night in the gloom after maghrib we saw the fox in the garden next door. He is big, as R described, certainly bigger than the vixen in the old garden. He has a long tail with a white tip. In further animal updates, one of the cats from next door killed a mouse this morning and left it on the path. Nala is getting braver, if I chase the next door cat, so it turns round and starts leaving, she chases it as far as the hedge.
Yesterday my parents took the kids swimming, now the boys can swim a width, which is good considering the very occasional chances they get to go swimming. They were all very tired and bad tempered in the afternoon, but helped out sporadically as we gardened, clearing more grass, deadheading flowers and finding the edges of the front flowerbed. When my parents returned this morning we continued the work for a while. The boys got fed up, they are missing their friends. They did a soil test to find the ph of the garden soil.
Since my parents left again they settled back to some tv and then reading. The girls did some puzzles. There was a huge thunderstorm too, so no more gardening today.

Reading

For a few days the weather has been the same, overcast and rainy in the morning, but out into the garden by about 4pm, subhanAllah. I’ve been trying to establish a routine, but with the boys always so busy occupying themselves I often find myself waiting for them to finish something so that they can get on with maths or whatever. I’m getting them through a maths lesson every weekday and now we are adding English, from the textbook, so that the basics should be covered 5 times a week. Also I’ve slotted in Quran recitation after Zuhr. It seems to work best at that time, mornings are not a good time to get the boys to comply, they wake up with their own ideas for the day, and evenings become too last minute. At the same time I’m getting them to recite some small surahs aloud so that Ia can try to memorise them. They do this and also help me with pronunciation of the letters for Ia. They get paid 5p each per lesson. Ia also demands to get paid of course, for learning! So these are the three basics, Ia also does a little maths/English each day. Next week, insh’Allah I must start bringing back the other subjects. R wants Islamic studies and history.
Meanwhile a box containing the CD roms came home, so they’ve been taking a new interest in those. We also went to the library again and restocked. This time J has enjoyed “Boy Overboard” by Morris Gleitzman. It is about a family of Afghan refugees trying to go to Australia. I glanced through it and found it to contain quite a lot of social and political issues, I suppose they are not getting that bit. I am tempted to do some analysis, but then that might spoil it for them. Maybe it is better just to leave it and let them “get” books more over time as they build up more reading experiences. The library is good, but I hope they buy new stock regularly as at the rate the boys are going now they’ll soon start complaining that there is not much of interest. Bear in mind that a good section of the books are “for girls”, another lot are about magic or supernatural stuff and others are about other unsuitable topics, so it doesn’t take long…… After a library visit they will spend several hours a day reading, finishing one book and going for the next without waiting for the first story to sink in. They really should reread more!
My parents are visiting this weekend, helping me to identify plants in the garden, and explaining how to look after them, I’m going to have to take notes!