The picnic season is here, some more felting and a finished project!

Assalamu alaykum,

the season for picnics is back and we do enjoy a lot to be out in the sun, eating some nice home cooked food and enjoy Allah's creation!

It reminds me of my childhood. We used to camp out during summer and enjoy the mountains and valleys. My mum always cooked food at home and brought big dishes of lasagna, pasta salads, stuffed peppers, pizza, pastries and various salads including fresh watermelon! Basically it was not a picnic, but you would be eating out in great style :)

In London, you cannot fully enjoy Allah's creation and be in contact with everything that is natural and that is so important for me for obvious reasons. Let's just say that I would rather be living in a big farm surrounded by green valleys! I am just dreaming now...

I would love for my kids to enjoy the great outdoors as much as I do, but I don't think they fully appreciate it.

Nevertheless it has been a week of picnics. We had time to spend some good quality time together as a family, finally after months of being apart. Hamdulillah.

Of course homeschooling was on as usual. We haven't just been out, stuffing ourselves :))

Kids have followed through with their programmes:Calvert and mindsprinting. And they carried on with their Qur'an and Arabic lessons daily. Hamdulillah.

A. finished his lapbook about Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alyhe wa sallam) and we are currently reading the story of the first caliph, Abu Bakr Siddique (ra) as a carry on for our Islamic History lapbooks collection.

S. made a mini lapbook about shapes and colours.A really simple approach to lapbooks, just as I realized he couldn't finish a big project, see Arabic words and letters lapbooks still incomplete.Hamdulillah!

Sports and other activities such as the art and craft club were on but we did not attend the Thursday meet up as I was recovering from my usual back pain. Hamdulillah.

There is so much more I should write but at this moment things are coming up all muddled up and I cannot put them in order. In fact this post looks more like a list of events!

So to carry on with the list:
-visit to Hastings and the bluereef aquarium;
-felting. Mash'Allah we are doing great! It's hard work, lots of rubbing and rolling but enjoyable;
-picnic with friends at the Lady Diana Memorial Playground on a very hot, sunny Friday. We had such great fun and ended up with 3 big ice-creams offered by a lovely Italian lady at the nearby cafe'. Thanks again!;
-Art in the back yard! Kids coloured with chalks the back garden including walls, shed, floor etc;
-Our vegetable patch (pots!:) Veggies and potatoes are growing very nicely.


And now the for the pics.
wa alaykum assalam
x

A square placemat with two flowers.

A long, rectangular shape table runner.

The complete table runner

The bluereef aquarium, walking under the sharks!

Look up!

Dori!!!

Of course, Nemo

Starfish

Stony beach and further down a patch of sand, wow!!

What a view!

Arriving in Hastings early morning

Hastings Historic centre

A nice drive around the English countryside

Our dwarf beans

Cherry Tomatoes, need a bigger and deeper pot!

And look at the potatoes!

Being arty!

Chalk-ing the shed...

...and the pavement

finally some real sand

Baby S. in the boat

Pirate ship

Baby S. enjoyed the water feature

Some cool shed

Indian tents

A. made this spring picture

Islamic Art

Part of Prophet Muhammad (saw) lapbook

Some more on Islamic Art and below the finished lapbook!

Sitting Bull and Quraish

Assalamu alaykum,

just an update about our progress.
In the last week we have been busy with few new themes including a new PC CD-ROM game called Quraish and 2 new Lapbooks!

In Maths A. has been learning how to regroup and adding and regrouping and subtracting. He found it hard to understand at first what regrouping means. So I allowed him to use colourful blocks to help him understand how to regroup in tens and ones and to trade tens for ones.

In English we reviewed words ending in -ture and -tion and made sentences with them. Also we study nouns and pronouns. The composition for this week was about 'My best friend'. A. decided to talk about a friend he met at the madrassa and they used to get along very well and still meeting every week till now.


He also started a new lapbook called 'All About Top Gear Cars!' It is a collection of colourful drawings, obviously cars and information about how the engine works, the history of cars, the speediest model, and all about his favourite cars.



He also started to write down a presentation about safety on the road, namely safety when crossing, for ASDAN. He made a poster to go with it and worked on some worksheets we downloaded from the Renault website. He then rehearsed his presentation in front of me and dh and he is now ready to make his presentation in front of his friends. Insh'Allah will invite them over for a coffee.


In History A. study about Custer's land Stand 1870. One thing will stay with him, the fact that Sitting Bull killed a bull when he was only 10 years old. :)


In Islamic History we read about the Year of the Elephant and Quraish mainly due to the fact that I bought this new software CD-ROM game called 'Quraish' and A asked so many questions about the actual historical period.



Qur'an and Arabic, we carried on reading and memorizing Qur'an everyday for 30 minutes and also with the tutor.


Now for S.


S. is carried on learning how to read with the Oxford Tree books and the adventure of Kipper and Floppy. I dusted the Jolly Phonics workbook (we did not use this book since A was 6!). I photocopied lots of pages for him to work on. We started with the sounds -ch, -sh, -ar and -an.


I also helped him compile his first lapbook about Phonics.


In Maths S practiced more on subtracting and adding. Also we started to regroup in tens and ones.


We done some Science too and talked about living things and non and the parts of a plant.


In the afternoon I allocated 30 minutes per each child to work on their own favourite educational CD-ROM. While A chose Quraish, S opted for Learning Ladder 5-7 years old.



So this is our week update. Just to keep me in track with our progress.


Incl. in the pics: kids decorating their bedrooms with rockets, stars and planets!


x wa alaykum assalam

Quick weekly [Ramadan] update

Assalamua alaykum,
not much time to be spent in front of the pc.
So here's just a quick update about our week.

Learning about the Companions
Arabic Memory Game

S is learning to read and write in theme with Ramadan
Iftar food from a 5 years old perspective!

You can see the borek in the small bowl, lol

Islamic Calendar - learning the Islamic Months
Tarawih mats decorated by A

Hilal by A for the lapbook (bookmark)
some more work for the lapbook
Man in sujud
Suhoor time by S

Team Read Challenge - Achieved!

Kids got their bags and gold medals.

Ramadan Lapbook folder by S
Ramadan Lapbook folder by A
lapbook work
Well, just Ramadan!

wa alaykum assalam