I doesn't like...

The boys have been out and about with H lots these past couple of days. Yesterday it was just me with the girls and the seemingly endless painting.
I've been doing short maths activities with Ia. Today we did an investigation of the combinations made by picking out 5 cubes from a selection in three colours, (2 red, 1 blue, 2 green, etc). Then she wanted to see how it would work with totals of 6 cubes. She recorded the results on the whiteboard.
Both girls have also been keen to act out their current favourite library book "I don't like Gloria", by Kate Umansky. Colin is a small dog and he is not impressed by the arrival of cat Gloria into the family home. Gloria eats his food and sleeps on his special cushion. The only thing that unites the two is their dislike of the next new pet, Jeffrey the rabbit. Ia and U can play this out endlessly, but there is no actual fighting, just "looks". I struggle to stay interested, in my role as owner of the pets. Of course we've read the book over and over too. U goes upstairs to read it by herself, but I still hear her rendering it into her own grammar "I doesn't like Gloria".

Messy

More busy, disorganised days house decorating means not much more than maths and Quran recitation being done. Yesterday the boys woke up early, ready to go cycling, only to find that it was raining. They spent the whole morning waiting for the rain to stop, counting the hours, deciding to wait half an hour more before giving up, etc. Funny that the day's maths work was about measuring time, if it is 9:16 now what time will it be in half an hour, and so on. Well, they got a ride in the end, and today too. So lots of exercise being done if not much else!
Yesterday I drew fish bowls on the whiteboard, Ia placed red cusinaire rods (fish) in the bowls, and we counted the different combinations of fish. Today she has not felt too well, as she demonstrated by throwing up on the floor of B&Q.

Hard at work already?

No! With H home it is hard to shake off the weekend feel, so it is a slow easing back into routine. Although I hope it is really just me who feels they are hard at work at anytime! H took the boys out cycling today. Ia is trying, but she finds it such hard work getting the pedals round she can hardly start thinking about balance.
So we got back to maths today. The boys did a page of subtractions and J joined in with some activities with Ia. I began by putting some bricks in a pot, getting Ia to estimate then count the number inside. Then she repeated this, with me doing the guessing. We discussed how the outcomes would be different if we were using 1cm cubes, or potatoes inside the pot. Next we played the game where you count out some bricks, then use a cloth to conceal the removal or addition of a few bricks before having the other person guess what you've done. We played that quite a few times. Lastly Ia wrote out the numbers 1 to 10 on the white board, firstly copying, then free. She finds using the whiteboard more interesting than paper.
U has found the draw-over-wipe-clean books. Tatty as they are, as soon as they came out everyone wants a go!

A book

We are still on post-Eid holidays. We've had guests, and from today its back to house painting, starting with downstairs ceilings.
Aside from that, on our last library visit I noticed a new book on the shelf. I look through the children's fiction to help the boys to pick out titles. If the three of us look we can usually find enough to keep them going for a week or so.
I found a book called "Ida B", by Katherine Hannigan, and the blurb begins "Ida B Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun. That's why she's so happy to be homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook."
I brought it home to see if it could be of interest. Ida B loves to play outside, with the trees and brook as her friends. Her first days at school are difficult, she is miserable so her parents decide to withdraw her and homeschool her instead. After a few years her mother gets cancer and Ida B is sent back to school. She resents this deeply, and resolves to make no friends and to withdraw from her parents. The rest of the story shows how she gets used to the situation until she is fine with school and restores her relationship with her parents. (The mother survives).
The writing style is fun and expressive, and that makes it pleasant to read. But what is this all about?
Of course this book is for children, but as a mother it is quite horrifying. Its like a worst nightmare, you home ed your children, but get cancer and become too sick to continue. Your child hates you for sending her back to school and cuts herself off from you. Your fun loving, full-of -questions child no longer speaks or looks you in the eye. May Allah keep us mums in good health for the sake of our children.
And then what does it say about homeschooling? The parents withdrew Ida because she was unhappy, but then look, when they are unable to cope the trauma the family would already face from the cancer is compounded by the trauma of returning to school. Does the author imply that it would have been better for Ida B to have stuck it out from kindergaten and just got used to it?
Are the parents to blame for withdrawing her too hastily? The author stands over us saying "What are you doing with your child, what if it goes wrong?". And Ms Hannigan has a degree in education of course.
And about never having enough time for fun? We don't really know where that goes. And what would the child reader think I wonder?

How was Eid?

Alhamdulillah we passed a busy Eid, visiting family and friends. I even got prepared this time! The boys put decorations up and "helped" me make choc chip muffins. Can you imagine the help given by two excited boys using an electric whisk which has a button marked "turbo" on it? I also tried cookies, but these always look more like splodges when I make them. Tastes the same!
I think for the rest of this week we'll take it easy, finish learning about Ibrahim (as) and read.

A little history again!

Beha Ed-Din describes that around 1190 the Marquis of Tyre commissioned a painting depicting a Muslim horseman trampling over the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, and the horse was also urinating. This painting was then carried around the market places of Europe by priests clad in hair-cloth, in order to encourage the people to join the Crusades. the King of the Germans, Beha Ed-Din asserts, was one of those to respond to that painting.
Whether this account can be taken fully at face value cannot be assumed without the use of other sources of course. Rumour itself being a strategy of war. Beha Ed- Din does not claim to have seen it himself. A story of this kind could equally be used by either side against the other.
Propoganda- the past and now are not so far away.

This week as Eid approaches, inshAllah and the Hajj gets underway home ed for us will be more about things of deen, inshAllah. Today we read more about Ibrahim (as), and we started to look at some of the ways to improve our dua, inshAllah.

It all adds up

We liked the window pictures we saw here, and today Ia made her own version. Jazakallahkhair to the sister who posted that artwork. I took a photo to post, but once again I found I was unable to upload the photo. After clicking "upload" it simply redirected back to an empty image selection box. Any ideas?
These past few days everyone has made themselves very busy. I don't really know what they've been doing in their room, but it has taken up lots of time! The girls have painted and done "baby games". The boys have been very disappointed to learn that the city of Acre eventually fell to the Franks after such a prolonged effort from Salah-ed-Din. It was a lesson in itself to realise that this is history, not fiction, so it won't always work out the way you think it should! They are so used to childrens' stories where the character they support comes out on top!
We have been continuing to learn about the life of Ibrahim (as), episode by episode, recently covering the building of the Kabah and the incident of the Sacrifice. Instead of doing separate Hajj related study this year I am just trying to cover the life of Ibrahim (as) as thoroughly as possible, making the links to Hajj clear. InshAllah I will finish off this topic during next week.
Today we also learnt/ relearnt Arabic colour words using the activities found here. The boys mastered the exercises quickly, maashAllah, and its given me some ideas on games to follow this up with. Maybe we can do the same with French too! We did French colours on Monday, didn't we? Time passes so fast, alhamdulillah!
That reminds me. Getting on with things here at home, I do sometimes wonder how my children's educational experience compares with others. Not in the sense of is it better/worse, just what are the differences or similarities. For example, amongst the regular gloomy school related stories I hear on the radio, (how do most parents feel about that?), I heard that the government is stressing the learning of a modern foreign language in primary school. Then I heard a teacher talking about teaching French in her classroom for half an hour a week. Half an hour a week? Long ago, when I used to run an after school French club, we had about 45 minutes a week, and it doesn't go far! So what is my point? If half an hour a week is enough for government announcements, fanfares or whatever, just think of all the little half hours the home educated child spends on all sorts of things. Its all learning, its official!