Thursday 22 September 2011

Well these past two weeks have been so busy and have flown by.  I've been having some Osteopathy on my back [great stuff; highly recommended!] so am getting back on track back wise but came down with an evil stomach virus.  Nevertheless we have all taken the opportunity [on any rain free day] to get in the garden to do some clearing, digging and general chopping stuff down and it's now looking like this;


That's an exhausted Sprite you can see in the middle who had been chopping wood and digging with the pick axe [alhamdulillah for his axe training with the scouts lol]....he is soaking in a hot bath as I type! You will notice the missing pile of wood etc that took hubby three trips to the tip to dispose of; not to mention all the metal etc he took a day to put in the garage poor thing.  And just in case you don't remember what it looked like here's a little reminder.


We have also been collecting conkers:


And Crash has been cooking [if you can call a flan cooking] and it was extremely yummy!

 

We have also been making ribbon roses [very addictive and therapeutic!]...I know they look a strange type of cool in the photos but we weren't very successful I can assure you!  Lots more practice needed LOL.


Apart from that we haven't done much at all outside the usual daily madressah, maths, English and reading etc and are still trying to get back into 'the swing of things' following Ramadhan.  However, Cubs and Beavers are back on as is the English tutor for Lego and sports for the two little ones so I guess it's back to the mad daily dash around.....but on reflection, they won't be needing me for much longer so I should savour every moment inshaAllah.

And lastly... in my quest for the right home schooling curriculum/method for us the 'Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Educations' keeps coming up so I guess that in response to my prayers Allah ta'Ala is guiding me to this book...which I have ordered but it STILL hasn't arrived!  I feel that Montessori doesn't really have much to offer my children but feel really excited about what this has to offer and would love to hear from any of you following the recommendations in this book for your home ed!

4 comments:

Muslamic Blog said...

Asalamualaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatahu

I love love love love your blog and your family mashallah. Your boys remind me of my little five year old and how I imagine he will grow up to be at your boys age. He loves his lego, history, and everything that I dont! lol

I would love to sit here and go through all your posts but my kids will have me up early in the morning. Im going to add a link to your blog on my blog list inshallah so I can watch for any new posts etc.

I love your freestyling approach to HE, its really refreshing to see because I know a lot of sisters who do the whole sit down lessons every day which leaves me feeling incompetent and asking my self if Im doing the right thing because they do SOOO MUCH and I dont, but alhumdulillah reading your blog reassures me that a laid back, fun, and most importantly a realistic approach is the way to go and its not wrong for me to not have such a rigid schedule. Dont get me wrong, a little structure is good, like you say, an idea of what you want them to achieve and study in your mind, just as a rough guide, in my mind that is enough. I myself would love to be one of your kids lol because they just have so much fun and see so many places mashallah!

Im so laid back we just have fun doing what we want when we want and also because we have quite busy lives, I just dont have the time or energy to sit down everyday going through everything. We tend to just learn things as and when it pops up. Saying that though my eldest is 5 so I'm sure I will battle with my "style" of HE a billion times as he gets older and life brings its problems and complications.

xxx

Umm Adam said...

Assalaamu alaikum sis, wow such lovely comments mashaAllah...I hope I can live up to them inshaAllah LOL. I've battled long and hard with teaching styles and from what I know of HE'ing families routines and methods are continually being assessed, rejigged, developed and dropped LOl. Just relax with your kids and enjoy them inshaAllah, they are so young too mashaAllah...I tend to not start teaching 'formally' until they are 7 in line with the hadith [you know: 'from aged 7 play with them, from 7-14 teach them etc'] which I think is really important as something special seems to happen to a child's brain when they reach 7. I think you have a good approach education and trying to meet other peoples expectations of how you should educate will lead to burn-out which you don't want inshaAllah. Keep up the good work sis xXx

Umm Tafari said...

As salaam alaikum,

Those roses just look so beautiful and inviting, maashaa Allah.

I had the Well Trained Mind, but recently sold it to earn money for other books for them. I realized that we really don't have to spend much as the library has so much to offer the children.

Umm Adam said...

Wassalaam Umm Tafari [how funny I was just commenting on your blog and came to see you had done the same on mine LOL]. If you could see how the roses are supposed to look you would be nodding at my comments but practice makes perfect LOL..I too am trying to down size our book collection [we have quite a lot *blush*] and need to use the library more; we are especially blessed as we can use the City libraries and those from the neighbouring county too! x