INDEPENDENT LEARNERS

'O Allah increase me in knowledge,
amin.'


Friday 16 January 2009

Dressing up as a Victorian Traveller!

Assalamu alaykum,
it has been a while since I last updated this blog.
Things have been really frantic around here. In fact with Calvert and Asdan on the go and the new season of outings with the homeschooling Group, it has been waaayyyy too busy.

But here's it's a quick update.
A. is still working in regrouping and subtraction. He is finding it really hard to regroup and subtract 2 digits number. I allowed him to use counters to help him with tens and ones and regrouping.
So the struggles goes on...I could see a little glimpse of understanding just few days ago but then he fall in despair again! :(
In English we have been busy with a Composition titled 'If I were a teacher!'. It was funny to read the composition as it looks like A. would be a very serious teacher but he would only give homework to his pupils once a year!!

We also read a new story about the new theme 'Amazing Animals' : the ants. I always find the ants so fascinating, really amazing animals, Allah Akbar!
In History we are now reading about Slavery and used this website to get extra useful facts about the topic. Also the pics we took at the National Maritime Museum sometime ago came handy. We visited the exhibition about slavery and a really helpful lady on that day talked my kids through about African slaves and showed them around.
In Science, we read about sounds. We really did skim through the topic as it is not much of interest around here. After all sounds are all around us!
Qur'an and Arabic have not be in our timetable this week as the tutor is ill. May Allah restore his health.Amin.

Now for S.
S is improving a lot in reading and he has now finished level 4. He can now read other books of his choice with a bit of guidance form his older brother.
I have dusted the Jolly Phonics workbook and made lots of copies of letters sounds and phonics. Also couple of interesting games with words.
S is slowly completing his first lapbook about Phonics.
In Maths S carried on with adding and subtracting to and from 10. Also he used the measuring tape to measure various items around his bedroom and recorded all the measurements in his book comparing them.

In the last two weeks we attended two outings with the homeschooling Group.
The first was at the Transport Museum. Kids attended two workshops. For the eldest it was about Victorian Travellers and A. had a chance to dress up like a middle class Victorian man.
For the youngest, they enjoyed talking about transports, and make a big red bus made of big blocks of foam. They then ended up breaking it all! S said that was the funniest part :)

As part of our Asdan challenges, we had it to cook a two course meal. A. made and cook a big round pizza, his favourite Italian dish. He then made a big green salad with eggs, cheese and green olives. I captured all with my camera as pics will need to be sent to Asdan as proof of the completed challenge. We also had some of A. little friends around. As part of Asdan, he needs to proof that he can entertain for a coffee with his friends and show them around the house. All done and captured on camera!!!

Today we visited the Imperial War Museum. It was about a week that were talking about sheltering in World War 2. A. prepared an illustrated presentation using this BBC website and wrote a description using his own words about how was life in the shelters during World War 2.

The presentation will be sent out to Asdan as it is part of another challenge.

This week we even had time to fit in some art&craft lesson. This time we used colourful Pipes cleaners to make little pets such as a chick and a bunny.

Kids have carried on with their usual swimming and wrestling session. Both sports would be useful when filling up the Asdan challenge about Health and leisure activities.


For now it's about it.

Hope to keep this blog more updated but I doubt it as time is pretty limited.











0 comments: