Drawing

Yesterday the girls and I did some sketches in the garden. I've never been any good at art, but it encourages Ia if I join in with her, and it is quite enjoyable to sit together and draw. (U had some help with hers).

What has been happening?

Not much!!
This week has been different. The boys have had sports activities every day and are off for cricket again today. They've just been doing Quran and maths in the mornings, to keep those ticking over.
Ia has also been doing a little maths, and she has completed a notepage project on "Good Deeds help you get to Jannah". I'll probably put this on Always Learning Resources at some point, but I'm currently working on a different long post about a friend's project for ALR. Basically the good deeds project was a collection of moral Islamic stories (man and thirsty dog, etc), which we read and she wrote a little about.

Apart from that the girls have enjoyed a lot of play time, done lots of drawing, played in the park and are expecting a friend over this afternoon, inshAllah.
Of course, you might assume that with this relaxed HE shedule I must have got a lot of other sorting/organizing/planning type things done, but alas no. When the pace slows, I also slow, and don't get half what I should done. SubhanAllah.

Painting

Painting giftwrap in the sunshine.

Suncatchers

This week the girls and I made it to the art workshop, alhamdulillah! They made suncatchers, and painted jam jars.
Ia has continued to work on her skipping and reached her target number of skips without stopping, maashAllah.
The weather is dry and sunny, alhamdulillah, and that means more cricket for the boys.

Friday

It has been quite an intense week, what with all the reviewing and planning, so I need a nice, refreshing picture to top this post.

Ia has been practising her skipping today. She needs to improve in skipping in order to pass her next gymnastics badge, inshAllah. Her skipping is the only thing she needs to work on, as she has now mastered the headstand, alhamdulillah.

Today the boys did some making mixtures experiments to find out about substances that mix together and those that do not. The book told us to use food colouring in the mixtures. Above is ammonia and vegetable oil, not that you can actually tell from the photo!

Also today the boys finished the English language textbook we've been using for this year. The final piece of work was to rewrite a passage, changing it from first person and present tense into third person and past tense. I'll continue the weekly ten minute spelling work for a while longer but take a break from other English language work until the autumn, inshAllah. I expect they'll do some of their own creative writing between now and then, as it is something they enjoy, and of course the reading continues, inshAllah.

Maths is the main outstanding subject this year, as it was last year. The programme I'm following has a lesson for every school day of the year. I'm only about 1 week behind shedule at the moment, but compared to other subjects it seems a lot is still left to do. Last year I ended up having a maths week when we just did several maths lessons every day, just to get it done!

I'm not planning to use the same programme with the boys next year, but then it will be Ia's turn to start using the materials instead!

Anyway, next week is school half term holiday here and the boys already have a fully booked week of sporting activities to look forward to, maashAllah. Can't decide what to do with the girls yet. Maybe some art and craft, inshAllah.

Wider reading

The girls have been spending lots of time on creative play with lego these last couple of days. When they get engrossed in something like that I don't like to disturb them, so Ia ends up doing her daily work later in the day.
From time to time I shedule some non-fiction reading into the daily task lists. This doesn't include Islamic reading, which we do a little of each morning. By Islamic reading I mean that I read a little from an Islamic book. It is like a daily reminder or refresher. Sometimes we read about the lives of the Prophets (as) or the Seerah, or at other times it is topics on imaan or tawheed or reminders about Islamic behaviour and so on. The whole range really. This is as good for me as it is for the children. Actually, they tend to remember more details than I do.
Other non-fiction reading will usually be of library books related to topics we are currently studying. The boys have been reading about marine life, habitats and Vikings and Aztecs this week. The further a person goes with their studies the more independent wider, research reading they have to do, so I take the view that the foundation for such reading habits can be built up from early on.

Thinking ahead

I've begun an alphabet project with U. I really don't enjoy this teaching the alphabet bit of home education! It seems so dull. Until those letter symbols get combined into words they are just boring symbols. This probably contributes to my leaving it as late as I can before teaching alphabet stuff, in the hope that the child will have picked up lots of it on their own already, so the bit with me involved can get done more quickly.
At the moment U is mainly interested in sharks and fish, wanting me to read the same library book again and again, subhanAllah!
The boys have been doing an acid base neutralisation experiment today, after I finally got organised and bought the household ammonia. We did the experiment outside. They plotted a graph.
I'm reaching the winding down stage of our home ed year now. I've made lists of whatever I want to get completed before the summer and begun working on lists for next year. Over the weekend I went through all the English and maths resources that I have for each of the girls to use next year. I don't need to buy anything for them, alhamdulillah, I'm reusing resources. I listed down each workbook etc that we have, so that when I come to look for materials I can immediately see what there is and decide what to use when, inshAllah. I've also made a list of projects and topics, not in any particular order, just a list to choose from, inshAllah. I need to make similar lists for the boys.