Quick round up

Ia has started work on place value.

We've also been working on the topic of the 5 senses, today making use of some interactive resources found here.

The boys have been working on perimeter in maths. In English it is back to the textbook, after our literature project and today they were happy to do their favourite educational activity, writing an imaginative story. Funny how I can see the Enid Blytonisms coming out, especially in dialogue...Meg chimed in .....etc.

Ia and U have both been producing plenty more pictures, maashAllah. Today they drew, then cut out and stuck into a scene.

Heron

At about half past seven, as I was looking out of the patio window thinking about how we don't see many small birds in this garden, I saw a heron. I know it is a tiny image, but a heron has a distinctive shape, I hope you can make it out!

Another lapbook, done!

We finally finished the "Tamburlaine's Elephants" project, alhamdulillah! This time the boys did a lapbook each, rather than making one together as we've done in the past.

I've written up a full description of the project on Always Learning Resources.

Today Ia started work on an Elmer book. More elephants! I was going to keep it to a quick few activities, but she wants to make a whole lapbook on it. So, it looks like we'll have to do work about elephants, colours....

About organising

R was man of the match in football today. He did well, maashAllah! And he loves fruit loaf.

This post is meant to be about organising. I never used to be well organised at all. I would get my HE activity planning done, but at the expense of everything else! House stuff, meals and so on would all be done in a mad catch up, covering the basics only. But recently I started to do weekly meal planning. I shocked myself with that one! I would never have seen myself doing that. I'm not much interested in cooking, baking I like, but not the daily meal cooking.

I felt moved to it from reading the advice on Towards an Orderly Muslim Household. The idea of an orderly house seems such an attractive aspiration!

Well, begrudgingly I have to admit that it does make things easier. After a few weeks practice I am now able to come up with meals for the weekly list fairly painlessly. However, I do tend to shove unlikely concoctions down towards the end of the week, so when I get there I think...what is that?? But overall it is an improvement, alhamdulillah, and makes sure that if I need to defrost something I do actually do it in time, instead of realising at the last minute when it is too late.

Being able to plan and organise better I think is the result of not having any under threes in the house anymore. The under threes are certainly very cute and have many endearing ways, but they sure do make a lot of mess and demand a lot of attention. Nowadays I wash up straight after a meal, that was unthinkable a year ago! U would always be needing my immediate attention back then. Now she and Ia play together a lot, U reads, draws and does puzzles independently. MaashAllah. Things always move and change. Make the most of your under threes while thay last!

U's day

At last U has completed her lapbook! I say at last, that being her opinion on the matter. Most of it was printed from Homeschool Share.

U also did her own Humpty picture, and Auntie Z made the clever fold down Humpty. U likes to see everyone involved in making her lapbook.

Today everyone got their work lists done nice and early, alhamdulillah, so we had a relaxing afternoon with friends over to play.

U helped me make a sponge cake, at the assembly stage. She doesn't like the electric whisk.

Ia has been enjoying reading books from a set of synthetic phonics readers. She is bringing them to me to hear her read, maashAllah!

Rushing to fill every moment!

It has been a busy couple of days. We managed to get out and about for the time between Asr and Maghrib. Yesterday we went to the library, today to the park.
The boys have been learning about food groups, planning routes using transport maps and kushoo (concentration) in prayer. Ia has been doing phonics work and more work towards a senses lapbook.

There has been lots of reading. The books above are a few of those the boys have recently read, or reread. My brain is feeling drained! Hopefully, inshAllah, I'll recover a bit and be back with something more interesting to post!

Owl Babies

Doing this lapbook was completely Ia's own choice, and I printed almost the whole thing from Homeschool Share.
The little bits I added myself were ideas borrowed from looking through the Look Inside pages at Scholastic.

Where resources are free make use of them I say!

Resources can be really old too. I've seen books from this edition of the series in the town museum.