Maps

Its been a few days of outings, walks and visitors. We're out of routine, but kids are always learning, especially if you mention that it might be bedtime. There is no better way to avoid bedtime than to suddenly be doing something educational, such as reading a potted history of the Persian Empire, or drawing a map of an imaginary town.

Well done J and R

Today they have (together) completed the reading of Surah Baqarah in one day. MaashAllah. I know that some children manage to memorise large parts of the Quran by this age, and for those children this would not seem like much of an achievement, it is basically reading half the surah each, but for my boys it’s excellent.
And the sun is at last shining, alhamdulillah. The cat is out basking in it.
We did a little French this morning. The boys used to learn the Arabic language where we to lived before, but I have no one here to continue teaching them that yet. I think it is important for them to get to know a little of another language from a young age, so I'll switch to French now, as I can’t personally offer anything else. I have a friend from France whom I asked to check out my rusty pronunciation, which was found to be adequate. If I find an Arabic teacher they can do both!
The boys also revised the duties of Prophets today. Alhamdulillah they remembered a lot from before the summer.
Ia and U have been running in the garden and playing pets and babies. Ia is getting into pets!

The snail

This snail had made it to the top of the patio door this morning.
Been feeling a bit cooped up by the building works on one side and the torrential rain on the other. All of us, all day in one room, pretty much. Alhamdulillah.
HE wise we did the basics, then the boys chose to do some more on their castles project. R did a very good, detailed drawing of Framlingham Castle, which we visited last year. He found a drawing of it in one of the books. J traced a drawing of a Japanese castle. Ia also drew a castle, but was more concerned that there should be enough sheep there, than with the architecture. They also looked castle stuff up online, using the internet linked Usborne Book of Castles. They especially liked this knights site.
Then, around 4 o’clock R decided that they should read the whole of Surah Bakarah, between them. They began, taking turns, and continued for ages, maashAllah. They actually made it to two thirds through. R was determined not to give up, but in the end it was too long for him! I still think they did really well, maashAllah.

Rainy, rainy

As the rain whirled down you could have been forgiven for thinking it was November, if it wasn't for all the greenery and the still vibrant, yellow flowers in the garden. Even the birds are getting confused it seems, we saw our first visitor to the bird table, a thrush, which just chucked everything off the table. Should fit in round here then.
H took the boys to an indoor nets cricket practice, from which they returned highly excited.
I think I've finally settled on an effective routine for the home ed. A lot has changed since the move and we needed to find new ways of working. Now I'm making a weekly list of topics to be looked into, under very general headings, such as "history", "project". The list should be completed within the week, but in no particular order and on no particular day. This gives us the flexibility we need. The boys get to have some control over what they are learning and when, but I still get to "manage" the overall balance. This is on top of daily Quran, and 5 times a week maths and English.
Yesterday I continued reading to them from a history of the Prophet Muhammed (saw). I'm using "Man and Prophet" by Adil Salahi. Its for adults, and I tend to skip over the analytical bits and stick with the narrative, so that they understand better. After that they filled in a time line for key events in the Madina period. We used a time line kit from Learning Roots, because we had been given it, but it is easy to make really. That will go on the boy's bedroom wall, together with the Makkan period one inshAllah...once I find the blu tak.
We've also been doing some more work on the general history of the Prophets as part of our study of the Pillars of Emaan. The favourite facts from that session were that Adam (as) was 40 metres tall and lived for 960 years. Sound incredible? The Prophet (saw) said "Allah created Adam according to his (Adam's) image, and he was sixty arm-spans tall. After him, the size of people continued to shrink until now" This hadith was recorded by Al-Bukhari and others.

Ia has been busy with her art work as ever. She has also been cutting and sticking things into an exercise book.
Today the boys did the final maths test for Year 3. (They love tests - so did I as a child - just the sort of challenge I could manage and do well at) They got exactly the same percentage mark, although different questions wrong. Its a twin thing.
We've also got plumbers in. One of them had an accident today and put his foot through the hall ceiling. The debris just missed U, alhamdulillah.

Hiding

Had a lovely visit from a good friend this week and following some conversation I have decided to stop trying to hide this blog. After all it is not as if I do rant posts, or deeply personal posts, both of which a person may prefer not to go too public. I have gained much benefit from others sharing their blogs, so sharing is good. You never know what someone may take from these sleepy posts! This does not mean I'm suddenly going to put myself on a blog ring, just I'm going to tentatively be more blog sociable!

It has been a good, busy week, the kind that gets blurred out of memory. We worked quite hard at the beginning. Made posters of the names of the Prophets, in order. The picture doesn't look like much, but they took ages. We are not artists.

A few hours of cricket were squeezed between the showers. The girls room is now pink, with curtains that look like a little dress. I also passed my driving theory. That was the easy bit. Now I have to remember how to start the car. H cannot understand how I could forget. But I can, because I CAN'T SEE IT WRITTEN DOWN! If I want to remember something I visualise the page. Where is the driving page?

Everyone loves exploring

Spot the apples.

Spot the stream.

Lords and ladies.

Signs of the season to come, inshAllah.

Just because they are so pretty.

Apart from a lovely explore today, how can I account for the rest of my time? I did a little gardening, until it rained, I repaired the holes in the girl's walls, ready for painting, I read to U, I tried to deal with the contents of one box. Re the comment from the last post, I do usually try to deal with one small zone at a time, but right now different members of the household want different things done first. So that leaves me juggling.

This afternoon the girls and I got an unexpected invite to a sister's home, where we enjoyed a sociable few hours. Ia made a new friend.

I Need To Stop Wasting Time

I just can't seem to get enough done. I start the day with good intentions, for example this morning I trimmed the lavender and hung the flowers up to dry, then I completed clearing that flowerbed of weeds. The kids helped to deadhead some other flowers. But so much remains, the chaos is ridiculous. I intend for there to be an improved, visible difference by the end of the day. But usually its a worsened, visible difference.
Ia has been busy making things again. She did a lovely hama bead butterfly this morning, which of course I can't iron because I can't find the ironing paper. Then she began painting an eggbox, to make a bug when dry. Later she had her first go at sewing. I've been waiting for that!

Alhamdulillah, the flowers need no improvement at all. And the sun is out so we can read in the garden. Although the boys tend to read indoors, during meals, when I've just asked them to go get dressed etc. Reading, they know, is a way of avoiding doing something else. I'm not really going to insist they stop reading am I?

This was yesterday's "make". A nest, with birds. The birds live next to this nest (!). To avoid cluttering up its beauty? And there is a Topsy and Tim book. Never far away.

Can you see what I think is a tiny Scarlet Pimpernel near these dasies in the park? My camera is old, so image not sharp.

The boys have been learning about Venn diagrams again. This is so easy, they've done it so often. I'm in the last week of the summer term work now. So a few easy lessons to take us to the end of Year 3 work. Nearly finished the Year 4 English textbook too. I think I'll try some other English ideas before going to the year 5 book, (which I've yet to buy anyway). Time to turn away from the computer now and face all the things I have not done.