Busy, busy, busy....

We have been so busy that I haven't had time to update the blog (apologies).. but don't worry I won't make it all up in one huge post lol......

Where to start....well I eventually got over my cold and regained my voice, it lasted about 3 weeks alhamdulillah. First the good news, for the first year ever my lillys have survived to bloom and fade naturally alhamdulillah - they are my fav flowers and they usually get snapped by the neighbourhood cats, the kids football/toys, or munched by bugs so I am a very happy bunny on the lilly front, aren't they beautiful?

The kids were also challenged by a sister to build a 'waterway' to reach from one end of the garden to another with whatever they could find laying around.... quite a challenge! It took them two days to build it and although it didn't quite meet the challenge it was a brilliant effort, as you can see, with lots of planning and problem solving going on mashaAllah....

Madressah daily as usual but we did have one hiccup - my youngest son didn't seem to be progressing and was stuck on the same page for weeks. I was very confused as he was covering the page without any problems at home - it turned out he was worried about moving on to the next lesson as it 'looked hard' so was pretending he didn't know it in class so he could stay in his comfort zone lol, poor children I don't think I will ever understand how their minds work lol.

DS2 is doing very well with his reading and has almost completed his 100 reading lessons and his confidence in reading has soared - it's such a blessing to see your children progress and the look on their faces when it all comes together, alhamdulillah.

More English and Maths from Mindsprinting, this site it brilliant but it is a bit slow and the kids do find it a bit dull doing the same stuff everyday so I have invested in some new teaching books for math that I am hoping to incorporate into the lessons to make it more interesting. I am also hoping to bring back the Nelson Thorne books to brighten up the English lessons inshaAllah.

Little ones are still ploughing through Jolly Phonics and their basic numbers alhamdulillah - I don't usually start teaching them until they are 7 but my DD1, aged 4, is asking for work and just loves the colouring which will all help with her penmanship skills at a later date inshaAllah.

We seem to have settled into a routine but it seems to have taken all the 'fun' out of our learning..I am not sure I'm cut out or comfortable with structured learning but will have to see if I can inject some life into it - I really don't want to get stuck in a rut and bore the children out of learning lol. I was also reminded today of the problems that I had with DS1 (how easily we forget when all starts going well, sigh) with regards to writing and 'school' in general it seemed and I haven't written about it here either so I am hoping to get something together in a separate post so that others can benefit inshaAllah.