Business as usual!!

Assalamu alaykum,

may this finds you all in the best of health and Iman.Amin.
We are back to our normal routine, actually thinking about it, we have never left that routine even during my little 'crisis'!!
Carried on home educating my lovely boys as usual. Just really working hard to make sure my eldest gets an head start before going back to his Saturday school after the half term.
The Saturday school would be a great asset for A's education and mainly in Science, Maths, English and ICT. I am so glad that despite all he got a place and all for free!
These last few weeks I have been searching for free activities for my boys, anything, of course halal, from sports to courses. I am amazed about how many lovely activities and sports free of charge or really cheap for a £1 or less than that, are held in my borough. I found fencing, archery, swimming, courses of French, English, Photography, Computing and even how to build your very own go kart and test it!!!


I enrolled A to a photography course. It's an introduction on how to use a camera, how does a camera work, so I guess a bit of science and maths will be taught and finally how to take great pics! All for free! He will be starting this course next week,during the half term, insh'Allah.

Back to home education, it's going mash'Allah. All praises are due to Allah. Just few days ago I was moaning but I feel better and full of energy. Hamdulillah for Islam and for dua'as!

A. is doing very well with Calvert programme. He is progressing as usual and I realized he can do it all by himself, just a little guidance here and there, but I can leave him to work alone and he can produce a great work. I was really happy the first time I left him. I had to follow S. with his new Math programme and I was away for about 1 hour. I thought I would find A. playing around with his baby brother but I was wrong. I went back only to find him all concentrate, learning about the perimeter and area of solids!!! I never taught him about solids, let alone perimeter and area. Hamdulillah as I can now leave him to do his work, of course he is still in need of a bit of guidance when it comes down to History, Geography and Science activities but for the rest he is quite happy to get along by himself.

Also I was surprised when his teacher at the homework club remarked the fact that he is the only one that can get on with the work without need of help and little guidance. I thought this must be due to the fact that he is home educated and he always work on a 1-2-1 method.What do you think?
At the homework club I gave A. the worksheets from mindsprinting.com and he completed the daily lessons in Maths, reading comprehension and reading all by himself. The teacher was asking where I get all the resources from :)

For the past few days we have been reviewing the timetables. I left the timetables last year as Calvert doesn't teach it until the child reach grade 3. But I felt he should go back to it just in case his teacher at the Saturday school ask him.

S. is doing great at reading. He is always working very well in Maths and currently studying with mindsprinting.com Every day I would print out the worksheets for his lessons and he would try his best to work on them. I am glad he can now read and the worksheets reinforced his phonics and reading. I tell you that mindsprinting.com tutoring programme is great!
In Maths, S. is learning about the signs <, > and = and lot of additions and subtractions. In reading he is doing various exercises such as fill in the blanks using words that contain the short sound A, also words with the sounds bl and cl.

Qur'an and Arabic as usual in madrassa and at home with quranreading.com. The ustadh at quranreading.com is really working hard on teaching my kids how to read and I am pleased he gives them lot to do at home. I can see the benefits, again, on working with the child 1-2-1.

In Islamic studies, S. is learning about the dua'a that Prophet Yunus (as) said when he was in the whale. A. is back to the Pillars of Islam and daily dua'as. Repetition is never enough!

for now
wa alaykum assalam x
Pics 1-2-3: Learning about Japanese cuisine:sushi nori with fresh vegetables and rice. Pics 4-5-6-7: A bit of art and craft. Pic 8: S. is counting tens and ones with the help of colourful blocks.