Lots to do...

...but so little time!!
Assalamu alaykum
summer just started and as promised the free courses and sport events are out! So much to choose from. This year looks even bigger and better than any other year! Mash'Allah.
So I took advantage of those great free courses once again and registered both boys to some maths, literacy, science, fencing, tennis, cricket, art and craft club and much more!!! Insh'Allah.
This year, above all, I am so interested about what the Muslim Community has to offer for our youngsters and small ones. I found some excellent resources and I am sure so many kids won't be bored at home, stuck in front of telly! Mash'Allah there is lots to choose from: from Islamic science to the Seerah, from Quranic classes to Nasheeds workshops! There is bound to be something out there for your kids,insh'Allah.

Back to us...
The past week I have home educated the kids for 3 days mash'Allah. I was hoping to stay indoors for 4 days but the weather was irresistible!! Mash'Allah!
Saturday A. gave a miss to the Saturday school and we ended up having a picnic at the park.
Sunday the boys were at wrestling all day while me and baby attended a janaza prayer at the masjid. May Allah have mercy on my dear friend/sister.Amin.
On Monday we re-started homeschooling.We carried on with Calvert curriculum for A. . Just few more lessons and we are finished for this year. I am really hoping to finish before the end of July insh'Allah but I don't think we will.
S. carried on with mindsprinting for literacy and numeracy. But he used enchanted learning and parents in touch for science.
Monday the boys attended swimming and had their tests. Looks like they passed, mash'Allah. I am just awaiting for their certificates and new badges.Insh'Allah.

This week was also the start of our new Islamic curriculum. I am so pleased with it and I cannot tell you how much my kids have enjoyed so far.
We started to talk about Tawheed. I wanted the boys to re-start afresh with Islamic Studies and go back to basic.
We made a poster and wrote about the categories of Tawheed:
Tawheedur-Ruboobiyyah: Maintaining Oneness of the Lordship of Allaah
Tawheedul-Uloohiyyah: Maintaining Oneness of the Worship of Allaah
Tawheedul-Asma was-Sifaat: Maintaining Oneness of the Names (Asma) and the Qualities/Attributes (Sifaat) of Allaah
We studied Tawheed Ar-Ruboobeeyah and Tawheed Al Uloohiyah in depth and produced some nice work. Kids listened to this lecture prior to start the lesson about Tawheed.
The kids worked on two main projects: it was a story book for A. He had to write down a story for children of 3-4 years about Tawheed Ar-Ruboobeyah. He wrote a story of two children that while enjoying in the park wondered about Allah's creation and ask questions about who created this and that. Mash'Allah. He completed his work adding colourful pictures to his booklet and a hard back.
S. worked on a mobile made out of paper clips and straws. He attached to each paper clip a cloud. In each cloud he wrote about Tawheed ar-Ruboobeyah answering questions such as 'Who is my Creator?' 'What does Rabb means?' ' Name three small things Allah made' etc. Mash'Allah.
This Islamic Curriculum is really one of the best for us as it uses very nice and inexpensive resources, mostly free from the Internet. Hamdulillah! I would recommend it to all. (see my previous entry for more details about Tailor Made curriculum).

Thursday we attended the usual meeting with other homeschoolers...there weren't many this week. Where were you all???? I bet the weather was far too out for the kids!!
My boys really wanted to go so I made an extra special effort to take myself down the park without the car! And the bus was crowded and hot!!!!Kids complained all the way...hamdulilah.

Also this week, art and craft club for S. He mastered a new technique using paint and cotton buds. Mash'Allah. We reproduced same technique at home and decorated some paper plates.

What's more?
-There was a visit to the Natural History Museum to learn about mammals and to the Investigate Centre;
-Qur'an and Arabic was on as usual;
-Learning the stories of the Caliphs from a audio CD from Islamic Foundation. Really nicely made and A. really like to put it on in the evening before listening to the Qur'an. It's a bit like bed time story, mash'Allah.
-Boys received new Islamic books mash'Allah. Some great titles there such as 'Qur'an stories', 'Parents love', 'Ramadan is coming', 'The story of Yusuf (as)' and I was impressed by one in particular. It is called 'Let's go Dua catching'. A really sweet story with very nice pictures. A different Islamic book from the rest.Mash'Allah.

More about this week in our pics...it's 4.15am and mash'Allah dawn is here...such a beautiful time of the day...I am going to catch some blessings insh'Allah!

Happy home edu to all! x

Bubbles: a classic of summer!

Thursday Group!

Baby at the Thursday group.

Some more pics of the park we do attend on Thursdays

Foam puzzle, learning about continents. £1 from Poundland

Learning about the Human body in English and French.

Baby's art attack!

New arty technique

Painting with cotton buds

A.'s painting his paper plate

Baby and his friends: ducky and eeyore.

Learning about Art very fast, mash'Allah.

The mobile S. made about Tawheed Ar-Ruboobeya.

It's the one with the clouds!

A close-up of one cloud. it says: Allah is my creator.

Lavender blooming in my garden

Some really nice flowers I forgot kids planted in Spring

And our veggies...cherry tomatoes

Dwarf beans

Some freshly made mint tea after dinner...

better drank in the garden.

A collection of 5 books, great value for money and great titles.

' Let's go dua catching'

At the Investigate centre, Natural History Museum

baby's learning too.

A.'s writing about his findings

A 3 mt. long snake skin (python)

S.'s using the computer in the centre

The Investigate centre

A Photographic update of our week!

Assalamu alaykum
just a photographic update to cut time but keep on top of the blog!! LOL!

Snails have been eating up all our beans plants

Just one survived and mash'Allah look the small beans

Cherry tomatoes are growing nicely

A.'s plants growing fine

More pics of A.'s flowers

Potatoes, is it time to take them out???

Kids built a masjid with their new found love for woody toys

S. new mini book

And a massive pyramid made out Lego

Yum, yum, Baked Aubergines, S. helped with the dish

New found love for cooking. S.

Magnetic tiles, decorated by S.

A.'s learning Cross stitching

Decorating the bathroom tiles with Bath crayons

More on bath crayons

S.'s building with woody blocks

A lovely Hadith colouring book from Umm An-Nu'man website

S.'s mini book about cursive letters

The List:

-Qur'an and Arabic as usual. Kids are progressing very well. I was wondering if we were allowed to celebrate when a child finishes a Juzz of the Qur'an;

-Swimming and wrestling was on as usual;

-Visited the Library almost everyday as S. is so into reading now. Need more books...thebookspeople here I come!;

-had a massive clear out and gave away all the plastic toys. We replaced with some nice old style woody toys mainly bought from charity shop and couple from ELC. We will keep to few but good ones.

-Kids started a new hobby: cross stitching. A. is really into it but S. got bored after the first try.

-A. finished to read all his collection of 10 books of Roal Dahl and his favourite was 'Danny the Champion of the World'

-re-organized all our files and folders that contain all the worksheets and resources for this coming year;

...the end!

wa alaykum assalam

x

It's just the beginning, insh'Allah

Assalamu alaykum,

one more week of home education has gone. It has been a quick and easy week, very enjoyable and with the sun out there is a renew wish of being out there!

But...we have been mainly indoors due to the half term. I don't like half term, too many kids out and about, traffic and shops are always full.


From Monday kids are back to school and the sun is out again. Time to be out? Not yet!! We had so many other things keeping us indoors!


A. had a full 5 days Calvert. We are catching up for all the days of Ramadan we didn't do 'schooling' and for some other weeks when the sun was too nice to resist...cheeky!! :))


Let's see what A. produced in the last 5 days.In English he had lot to write; two compositions and a dictation. His spelling is getting better and better. Calvert has a really strong curriculum when it comes down to writing and reading. Just what I need for A.


The use of the dictionary has continue and many of the words found where not in my 'small' English vocabulary too...I still have lots to learn and a reminder that English is not my mother-tongue.


In Maths he finished the section about measuring. He learnt how to measure using a yard stick, a measuring tape using both imperial and metric scale. He also learnt how to measure liquids in pints and litres. And finally to measures weights in kg and pounds.


In Science, he completed the worksheets related to the last section about ramps and lever. Started a new topic: magnets! We made couple of nice experiments with the magnets kit we bought last year at the Science Museum. A. was so interested to know how the Maglev train works. I remember we had a book about trains when we did the 'All About Trains' lapbook. So we took that out and read it all about.


In History, this time he looked at conflicts resolution the birth of the Olympic games and the role of the UN (United Nations).


We have been using the CT booklet (Critical Thinking) again. The new chapter is about 'facts and opinions'. He had it to read a story and then divided into two columns marked 'facts' and 'opinions'. A good exercise to understand what's a fact and what's an opinion.


With A. we started a new project, another big one. This time is about Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alayhe wa sallam). We are still working on the 'Ancient Romans' but A. insisted we start on Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alayhe wa sallam). He was watching Sultan Fatih on DVD and wanted to learn about fort and fortresses and asked thousands of questions...we ended up talking about the battles at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alayhe wa sallam) and watched the DVD related to it.


So a new lapbook it's on its way! But I have already 'warned' A, it will take weeks before we finish both works, so no more wondering about 'what's next project?'



Quran and Arabic as usual. Still in Surah Al Baqara making little progress each day, mash'Allah.



S. is getting along very well with mindsprinting. I am also using a bit of parentsintouch.com worksheets and finally I got around getting my membership renew with enchantedlearning.com! I am so happy I did as their resources are great and best of all, most of them, are in black and white, just what you need when you print so much like we do.

In English S. has been reading and writing a lot. He can now write almost all my shopping list and he goes around with a little pad in his hands pretending to write all that we say and do: a little bit too ambitious!! But well done anyway!

In Maths he carried on with tens, ones, hundrends, thousands...a bit boring really. I think mindsprinting sometime get stuck on a topic for weeks and unless you don't want to fall asleep, it's better to jump over those lessons and get on with the rest of the curriculum! So I swapped mindsprinting for Schofield&Simms books for additions and subtractions, just to get things moving a bit, a change of scenery after weeks of hundreds, tens, ones...

S. started his weekly art&craft club. He came out his first lesson running happily. He quickly told me all about his new passion lines! He has been learning about lines, curved, straight, zigzag etc and he was so excited to show his big folder and his arty works. Jazakillah to sister U. for making this possible!

Qur'an and Arabic as usual for S. too and guess what? He has reached his older brother! He just started Surah Al Baqara! Mash'Allah we are all so proud of him. The teacher is always full of praise. Mash'Allah.

I would need to write down so much more about our week. It has been full week and now that kids are back to sports activities and their clubs it will be difficult to keep this blog update so bear with me if you don't see me around.

More on this week:

S. asked to start a lapbook about Arabic letters and words based on a book for kids in Arabic called 'Fi Al Souk'. He was happy to write few words and colour some pics, but after a while he got bored and left it all uncompleted. :( Maybe it was just too much?) I will leave it for now and see if he asks back for it, insh'Allah.

Also S. made a small booklet about the bean plant just as our french beans are growing so well.

Design and technology? Have a look at our metal models. A. built them both from scratch, no instructions included in the box just a small picture on a cardboard. They are so nice: one is a sporty car with a spoiler and the other it's a small airplane.

And more...

We bought a new board game. The caterpillar story, a colourful game where kids can learn about counting, colours,healthy diet and of course the story of the butterfly. All based on the book of 'The hungry caterpillar' by Eric Carle.

Kids finished their first week of the 'change for life' challenge. They did really well and I was happy to see for once that charts really do work! A. has never had problem with eating, hamdulillah but S. doesn't really like meal times. The chart was a great incentive for S. He was asking for fruits and veggies for lunch and dinner, hamdulillah!

Finally, we got around creating our first little project with felting wool. It's not much but it's a big step for us. We got to touch, use and finally make a small piece of 'art' with this great versatile material.

Just have a look! It's just the beginning, insh'Allah.

wa alaykum assalam

Felting wool beginners kit

Starting with the first layer.

I think we should have brushed the wool, what do you think?
The second layer is up and trying out a design

A. opted for a more linear look

Rolling it up after wetting and soaping it

No yet finish! Almost, just need to dry.

Once dried it will be used in any crafty project including

cards making, felt board, coaster, sewing, stitching etc

Romans in their fortress fighting against Sultan Fatih army

The Roman fortress

The 'Vellum' just a booklet where the Romans used to record their days,

like a journal. A. used it to write the story of Rome.

Roman mosaic: a shield, a spear and a sword

Roman mosaic, a shield

The Hungry caterpillar board game

Our dwarf french beans

S. little bean booklet

Arabic lapbook by S.

metal model

sporty car