Never a dull moment...

Sorry its been so long since my last post, but it seems like I don't get a chance to sit down these days; but they do say that the devil makes work for idle hands so I should be pleased.


Well our Triops have hatched, what an exciting moment it is when you spot your first tiny body swimming around the tank. However, I was put off slightly when we went to visit a friend and we saw all the dead skins and stuff they shed and learnt that you had to change the water on a weekly basis. The kids even fished out an old skin to look at it under the microscope (but it was really cool that they could identify the cells!) Oh well, they are here now so I guess I had better get used to the idea! The ants are doing amazingly well and have built lots of tunnels mashaAllah. I must read the surah of the Ant with the kids whilst doing this little project. We had an ant escape today which caused a bit of a commotion but it all got sorted quite quickly alhamdulillah.

For our joint teaching session on Monday we covered 4 and 6 numbered grid references and ended up playing a really cool game with the map signs (drawn very poorly by me I'm afriad) put in a grid and the kids had to give me the grid reference or state the sign that was in the grid reference that I gave them..............Once they got the 4 digit grid references we added the last two and they all got it mashaAllah. They even asked for more mashaAllah, can you believe it? That's never happened before!

We also continued studying animal and plant cells, learning all the really long names of the cell organelles and finished by making a cell in a flan case. At the very end they had to label the parts of their cell (flan) before they could eat it (cruel I know!). I think this is just about it for cells and we will move back onto the main topic of plants next week inshaAllah, but it has been a fascinating detour! In art the kids made squared 'tiles' using positive and negative images - they really enjoyed it mashaAllah but I missed out (and I really wanted to make one too, pout!) so I am hoping to make some again over the weekend with the boys inshaAllah. Also on Monday our lovely new microscope did a back flip off the table and broke and the next day all our lovely new plant and insect slides arrived........... oh hum, that's life! I may be able to fix it inshaAllah. We also had swimming in the evening.

I love Mondays, I really enjoy the joint teaching and swimming but the next day I am shattered and we usually have the day off! The only work we do, if any, is what's left over from the lessons on Mondays.

The boys behaviour is improving all the time and they are getting more settled into our joint teaching sessions. A is really improving and seems to be more responsible all of a sudden, he is also coping quite well with his prayers mashaAllah. I am also trying to spend more time with them for chat, stories , play etc. InshaAllah as it really is beneficial for all of us. I got so used to not dealing with them when I was ill that I am still trying to fit dealing with them back into my routine. Apart from all of this I have a sore throat, ears and head so will pray Isha and then bed inshaAllah, only 11 days until DH comes home inshaAllah.

Salams