February Books

It was a bright and sunny morning. I hung the washing outside to dry for the first time since October. The season is beginning to turn, alhamdulillah.
This month I decided to make a list of the non-fiction books read by/with the boys, just so that I can remember what general knowledge topics we have been covering. The list includes books I read aloud to them in the mornings, and other books they read themselves. The list does not include their own fiction reading - I'm not going to attempt to track that! It also does not include other books which we are using to study from as part of Islamic Studies, for example.
So, this month:
Archeology Detectives, Simon Adams
Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, Conservation and the Environment
Rich and Poor in Tudor Times, Dr Brian Knapp
The Danger Zone, Avoid being in Alexander the Great's army, J Morley
Stories of the Prophets (between Musa (as) and Dawud (as), Ibn Kathir
Usborne History of Britain series, Tudors and Stuarts
Mad Scientists, Gill Arbuthnott (potted-biographies)

Bit of a history theme this month!

Recently I came across a link to The Periodic Table of Videos. Today we watched some. Basically these are short videos each focussed on a particular element. They contain just the right balance of information to make them both interesting and accessible to the chemistry beginner, such as myself. Also I do like the Professor's periodic table mug. What a great idea for the full information surround effect. Shall I go search for a place that sells them?

Also today they all did Quran , French, maths etc, and the boys finished memorising one of the daily duas they had not known before.
Then off to the park!

Storage Issues

Just another day of reading, drawing and cutting out and playing with a friend, alhamdulillah.
Today U made a piece of artwork. A large, cardboard egg tray, covered with white stickers (like a scattering of feathers), with orange paper glue poured into various egg holding bits. I wonder how long I'll have to keep this rather large item on display. Will it have to go stacked between the two paper fish aquariums? It can't even go on the small art table, as that is currently occupied by the cardboard tube dolls and their ever expanding toy and book collections (the dolls' own personal collections of paper items).
Don't mention the loft. That is the slipperly slope I just can't go down.

Busy at Home

Ia is still playing the game that involves drawing and cutting out. I'm not sure what it is about, but it is a long, involved story. She has been doing some work too, mostly workbook stuff, reading and computer practice for Arabic letters and Quran. But she does not lose the flow of the game, because her work and play are all in the same room, so it is still fresh in her mind. It is such a blessing that she has this time, with minimal disruption to her creative flow, alhamdulillah.

The same goes for the boys' reading. Their current books are always there on the table or shelf, so they return to them throughout the day, in between other activities.

I remember hearing part of a phone in radio programme, a while ago now, about nursery provision. Someone called in to comment on how alarming she felt it was that some three year olds were at home, not attending nursery, and therefore not getting any stimulation!!! I really wonder what the homes of people who make such comments must be like. I guess they must be really boring places. Maybe they are just like dormitaries, where the occupants eat, sleep, watch TV and get ready to go out again.

I certainly don't feel like this about my home. My home seems like a busy place full of opportunities for interesting things to do. A place where we are all working and learning and then playing too, of course. Alhamdulillah.

Yesterday we managed a top up trip to the library. It happened to coincide with a storytime session, advertised for under 5s. In practice under 5s appeared to mean under 3s and U was absolutely not interested in listening in. After all, the rest of the audience were mere babies.

The boys have decided to write books, and they spent a while working on their creative writing today.

So, where was I?

After only only week away from routine I need to think hard to remember where we were! Good thing I left notes for myself in various folders telling me what to do next. For example: Plant lapbook folder, parts of plant info on flowers and fruit. Vocab cards for (lists vocab) and activity two. Alhamdulillah.
The girls threw themselves into a very long imaginative game which involved lots of paper cutting, drawing and sticking.

Tiny things were cut up and put into boxes (below), then these toys were played with for most of the day, on and off.

Next we have a picture of a jam jar with some cloudy stuff at the bottom. This is the result of the crystal growing experiment. In real life they are much more easily seen, you can really observe their shape. This experiment is so easy, here is how to do it:

You need Epsom salts (from the pharmacy) and a jam jar.

We did this experiment directly in the jam jar to avoid using any food preparation utensils in direct contact with the epsom salts.

Mix 60g of epsom salts with 60ml water in the jar. Place the jam jar in a saucepan with about 10cm depth of water in the pan. Heat gently on the stove, stirring until the epsom salts have dissloved. Put the jam jar in a safe, warm place and leave it for a few days until the crystals form. We put ours on top of the bookshelf.

The boys were rather underwhelmed actually. They must have been imagining something really spectacular!

I started a zakat project with Ia today. We have not finished the five pillars lapbook yet, but I decided to take a diversion and instead of just sticking a sentence or two in the lapbook and moving on I thought we should work on the topic of zakat, because Ia doesn't know about it at all. I shall be following the project outline the boys did at a similar age, inshAllah.

Finally, I found the clay work picture! I'm glad about that because since then some of these items have broken.

Is it nearly spring?

Home education is not complicated really. It is just what many other educationally oriented families do in between school, turned into a lifestyle.
Take for example this Sunday evening. Ia has taken a book from the shelf and has been reading it to herself. I observe this and see that she is taking steps towards independence in her reading. I mentally note this as a record of her progress, and consider it as part of the always learning pattern of home education. My school-going neice, who is the same age as Ia, may well have taken a similar book from the shelf this evening too, and read it to herself. Maybe my sister would take this as evidence of progress made at school.
My niece also enjoys arts and craft, just like Ia. Maybe today she also made a model from a cardboard tube, based on a picture in a library book, or something similar. For me that is evidence of learning, maybe for my sister it is a leisure activity.
Also this evening U decided to copy down some numbers displayed on the screen during a computer game she was playing. She hasn't tried to do that before, I was surprised at how well they came out! If she had been going to nursery I might have assumed that she had been writing them there, but I know that this isn't the case. I praised her for her efforts, and made a mental note that next time a suitable opportunity for trying out writing comes up I will remind her of how well she wrote those numbers, and encourage her through that. U is still not yet four, so I have not yet formally organised anything for her. She just learns informally, in her own way, as many other three year olds surely do.
The boys have been very busy this weekend with various sports activities.
And the feeling of spring is creeping into the day! Yesterday I was out in the garden for the first time in months. I also got the feeling for doing some spring cleaning, but then I came down with a cold and felt too tired to bother. Maybe next time the sun comes out!

Ending our activity week

I think they are finally tired! U certainly is.
Thursday saw us at our third museum in three days! The girls took part in an art activity while the boys went around with clipboards searching the museum for crossword clues.
For the last two days the boys have attended football activities, the girls have been to the park, had a friend over to play and, of course, Ia has done lots of clay work. I took a photo of all the clay things, but I cannot locate it on the camera, strangely.
It has been a different, busy week, alhamdulillah. Variety is refreshing.
And this morning the news reported that children in schools are not getting the breadth of curriculum they need.

Activities!

It has been a tiring couple of days, in a good way, alhamdulillah. Yesterday we met up with friends at the science museum. Of course it was really, really busy and the Launchpad was just too busy to visit, but we went to some of the other galleries we had not been to before, the boys found plenty to do in the energy gallery. Ia was more interested in the toddler of the family we visited with than she was with the museum. She loves making a fuss of babies, maashAllah.
I do find that museum really stuffy and hot. Everytime I visit I come out with a headache. I wonder why they don't keep it at a more comfortable temperature.
Today we were off again to a theme day at a local museum. The kids made clay pots. We arrived for the beginning of the activity and I could see that the boys were not feeling comfortable because most of the other children were younger girls. Thankfully another bigger boy then turned up too. It seems a shame that more boys, of any age, were not brought along. As well as the clay pots we could look at and handle various archeological finds, so not just a "girlie" activity.
After that we looked round the rest of the museum and the play area before heading home. On our way we passed by some charity shops where the boys found a football board game they wanted. We also went to ELC for some air dry clay for the girls, Ia having been inspired by the clay pot activity.
Once home the boys got the football game out, worked out the rules and played. (That is real life reading comprehension!) Ia got busy with the clay. U apparently made something with the clay too, but I thought they were just discarded blobs of clay so I put them back in the storage pot! She didn't seem too bothered though!