INDEPENDENT LEARNERS

'O Allah increase me in knowledge,
amin.'


Monday 23 March 2009

Our week or so, in pics!

Some more reading practice with the Leap pad and the Cat in the Hat

My boy won the gold at the Southern Competition in wrestling freestyle


Beautiful Sunset view from my home



A very lovely local park

some more pics from the park

I received a 'love' card from one of my boys!

Some more pics from another local park

A natural reserve

The lake at the natural reserve



Assalamu alaykum,
I don't have much time to update these days but I still like to keep up weekly as I know it will be fun one day to go back and look at our memories!

We made the most of the sunny weather and done little work indoors a part from gardening.

Wa alaykum assalam

x


Friday 13 March 2009

London is burning

Assalamu alaykum,



it has been a very nice week. Boys have been extremely helpful in the garden and have learnt a new historic event!


But let's start from Monday.


We started homeschooling again, after more than two weeks off! I took the books off the shelves and called the kids! They were not so happy but quickly agreed to do some work.



A. started a new topic in Math. He is now learning about area and perimeter of flat shapes and halves, thirds, quarters, fifths and sixths!




In English, A reviewed the past learnt sounds such as nk, nd and wrote some funny stories using 3 new words each time.




In science we are learning about forces, pull and push and we made a small device in paper and cardboard. We then attached to it a string and a rubber band and wrote numbers from the end of the paper to the middle. The highest number was seven and the smallest was 0.




I then asked my child to pull the string three times that it is attached to the rubber band and record what number, the end of, the rubber band touched. Each time it was a different number and my child could understand better what it means by different forces, pull and push. We also pushed a chair in the wooden floor and then do the same in a rug. A. spotted the differences between pushing a chair in the wooden floor that is smooth and the hard wearing rug!





In History, A. read a chapter about Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity! A big chapter and hamdulillah with whatever he has retain!

S. is now fluently reading and has his very own collection of books. He likes Kipper and Floppy books from the Oxford Reading Tree and he has a collection of Charlie and Lola books.




With his mastered reading skills, Maths is much easier and I don't have to sit constantly with him! In fact he can work by his own most of the time. He is learning about tens and ones and carried on using less than<> signs in small problems.





In Science we have been talking about flower's parts and the life cycle of a seed! Allah Akbar, such a fascinating subject!






Both kids had Qur'an and Arabic in the afternoon. After class we had time to squeeze in some art&craft. Pics to follow. Then afterwards I took them to swimming.




Tuesday we have carried on with homeschooling, even thou the weather was calling us out, but I had to stick with the re-found routine. In the afternoon they had their Qur'an and Arabic classes as usual and then I took them to wrestling.




Wednesday, we woke up nice and early and decided to carried on our garden spring clean, started the week before.
Kids have been ever so helpful. I couldn't have done it without them. They cleaned all the weeds and death plants. Removed roots and a small stump that was in the middle of the garden. We planted new flowers, some peppers and finally our potatoes!!!






In the end I let A. use the lawnmower, under my supervision! The garden looks so lovely now. It has been transformed from a blank canvas to a clean, colourful, inviting area! I am so looking forward for sunny days! And of course for our potatoes!





On Thursday we attended our weekly get together with other homeschooling. The Group is really growing and I feel my kids are getting to know other children better and look forward to go there every week. I am happy when I get a sense of belonging so do my kids with the other homeschoolers:'we speak the same language' . Thursday evening I took the boys at madrassa.




On Friday, today, we met up with another homeschooling Group and attended a workshop about London's burning been booked for us by our lovely Group leader sister N.




Jazakillah sister! We had a nice day and I must say this has been one of the best workshop we attended so far. It lasted for over 1.30 minutes and the lady in charge of the kids she really knew her history well. She was also so entertaining and full of great way to keep the kids engaged and at the same time, listening! Unfortunately, I haven't had time to introduce my kids to the topic of London's burning so as we arrived we asked another sister to introduce the topic for us.



It was nice for my boys to learn in a Group and a teacher that is not mum. After lunch, we went to visit the Museum and enjoyed the galleries. Back at home and we decided to stay at home from madrassa, too tired. Cheeky!!





This evening back at home, A. wrote a report about 'London's burning' which we will send to ASDAN. S. has been colouring a very vivid image about London in fire.




Insh'Allah tomorrow A. is at school in the morning. The afternoon will be for me to study for UNI, insh'Allah I need to catch as I am falling behind and I don't like that as I can get very stressed.




On Sunday, insh'Allah it will be wrestling again. A. is getting ready for the tournament in 2 weeks time and he is very nervous about it!
for now
wa alaykum assalam

oven in 1666


' London is burning'-painting in the gallery
S dressed like 'Samuel Pepys'
workshop
ink pot made of horns
workshop
entrance to the Museum
planting flowers

potatoes

building an house with cardboard and a shoe box
the house, outside (front door with a small garden) and inside (2 floors) making some fun cards!
a plate garden: 'it's snowing...
...so we made a snowman'!


Saturday 7 March 2009

Planting potatoes and getting ready for spring!

Assalamu alaykum


it was another week off from our beloved books!! The past few weeks we had taken really easy on the home education front!


The website I am using for S is offline for some tech issues and with Calvert we have almost done, so why not take another week off, eh?!?


Monday dh was at home, again! I was amazed, two Mondays in a row! Kids were happy so was I. But not for long. I ended up in hospital with a very sharp pain in my lower right side of the abdomen...a suspected appendix? I spent the morning at the hospital while kids were at home with dh. They has such fun and apparently took dh 'hostage' in their bedroom to show him all they like to do and more!


I was back at home by lunchtime. The sharp pain was nonetheless an inflammation of my intestine! I don't know why, doct. gave me some paracetamol and that's it! Typical.


During the afternoon we all went to the park. Baby S. enjoyed for the first time a good walk in the park trying to chase this child and that one! Bless him.


Tuesday we met up with a new cyber friend and another sister from the blogworld. Spent the morning at the Natural History Museum, again. Kids liked so much the mammals section and wanted to stay longer but we had to rush back home for the Qur'an and Arabic lessons.

After the Qur'an and Arabic lessons, they headed for their weekly wrestling training.

Wednesday we stayed indoors and managed a day of Calvert and phonics for S.

Thursday I had some errands to run and afterwards I took the kids to madrassa. Friday we went to the park and we received some Potatoes for Schools . My kids are looking forward to dig up some holes in the garden!


We are getting the garden ready for spring and kids have been helping cleaning the patio and removing shrubs and weeds. Mash'Allah!


This morning A. attended the supplementary school and came back home very cheerful. He said he learnt how to play tennis and also enjoyed again educationcity.com.


A very easy week, not much done but lots have been achieved. S. can now read nicely and he is using higher level books. Also I find that S. understands Maths pretty easily and amazingly I can leave him to work on his own with little guidance. Reading has made such a difference!


A. stuck his nose into a new set of books I got him from the Book People 'History News Collection' and he suddenly remember about his DVDs collection of 'Horrible Histories'




I leave you with some pics taken by A.