A brief return to HE!

The kids have been at school now for four weeks alhamdulillah and I must say that life is really busy with them at school and I'm not quite sure that I like that.  We always seem to be rushing about too.  Rushing to school, back home, to madressa, home to eat and then out again in the evenings for their other activities.  I miss them such a lot, we don't seem to get much quality time together anymore and it's not quite the rest I was hoping that I would get either alhamdulillah.  BUT... it has been good to see them learning even if it's not in the way that I would like them to.

I am a little worried that their zest for learning might begin to fade under the weight of so many worksheets, homework and 'the curriculum' so I will be keeping my beady eye on them.  They have already expressed a wish to be home schooled again and I would just love to dash in on my white charger and rescue them from the 'system' however hubby wants them to stay where they are.

That's a turn up for the books.  He's usually a 'whatever you think is best' kind of man when it comes to their education so I have a suspicion that it may be more for the benefit face within his community than anything else [his friends son has just gone off to university to be a solicitor with a whole stack of A's grades behind him and hubby has been wondering if our children '...could be solicitors if they wanted...'] but Allah ta'ala knows best.  Not sure what to do now... more istikharra and patience I suppose.

Anyway, the kids have been off most of this week [yay!] with a virus [boo!] so we have been busy and have really enjoyed just being together, snotty or not!  Despite being ill we have still been...

using the maths balance for solving maths problems...

exploring weight using the scales..

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... writing stories and poems in great abundance

They have also been colouring pictures... dogs, castles, warriors, knights, Warhammer knights, foxes, houses etc... the printer has been on overdrive lol.  The kids were also inspired to write using tips from a program that a friend introduced me to called Brave Writer.  It's developed by an author who believes that English classes do not teach us how to enjoy writing which leads to blank faces when children are asked to write about something [among other things].  I have only grasped a tiny bit of this program from what I read at my friends as I am waiting to purchase my own copy so can't expand on it any more at the moment.  I'm really excited about this and from the little bit I introduced this week and their response I think it would be especially beneficial for Sprite as he already 'hates' writing because of his issues... more on this program in later posts inshaAllah.

Asthetics are important!

At least to Daisy anyway! Trying to get Daisy to 'remember' numbers, letters etc has been a real battle...I know she can do it, I just don't think she 'wants' to do it.  So, in an attempt to encourage her to 'remember' more, I made her this maths book; and it has worked!  She loves her 'pretty book' and has been doing regular maths with no problems ever since LOL. 

We have membership to www.mathletics.co.uk as part of a group and have access to their downloadable workbooks; it is one of these that forms the basis of this book.  They are great little workbooks that include lots of  'hands on' activities that the child can do in addition to the main lesson.  I separated each topic with card & tabs and put a pocket at the beginning of each topic to store any manipulatives that she/we could make to give a hands on aspect to the topic.  I also included extra plain/squared paper after lessons that I thought could be expanded and worksheets from other sources that I thought were interesting.  She's loving all the hands on stuff and is 'remembering' everything that we are doing...the others are also showing an interest and are complaining that I haven't made them one!

Front cover.  I added her name, title and decorated the binding ring with ribbons and charms.

I added tabs on a sheet of card to separate each topic.

And lastly I added all the worksheets and bound it all together.

Same old, same old!

Although it seems like such a long time ago we thoroughly enjoyed the snow; here are some of us sledging!

Crush and Daisy have been trying to learn their number names so out came our trusty laminated fish for our magnetic fishing games

More of my home made matching games to learn their number names...I never really bother teaching this as it seems ever such a waste of time as we rarely use number names in 'real life' and I guessed they could catch up on this later but their tutor is insisting on it!  These cards can be downloaded here, although it should be noted that these ones have roses on them; I have had a request from Crush to man it up a bit and do a set with spanners or something so watch out for these to come!

Daisy decided that she wanted to make her own little 1-20 number book!

We did some writing and spelling in sand!

We spent a long time re-organising our resource shelves, games and some of our books!

And although it's not quite clear in this pic but Daisy made a drum kit [sort of] by filling up several bottles and containers with different amounts of water and spent the rest of the day playing and singing to the Prophet's Hands CD by Dawud Wharnsby Ali.  I spent the rest of the day nursing a headache!

We played lots of games this week...funny that you can go months without playing any and then have to play them all in a few days!

We practiced pioneering with paintbrushes and pencils!

We've been playing with plasticine.

We have had a craft day at the museum which included looking at lots of different toys from various parts of the world including, among others, those pictured above.  We also made masks and laminated 'things'...sorry, still not sure what they are meant to be lol.

Daisy, for some reason, has been really - and I mean REALLY - hooked on numbers over the last couple of weeks and she also modelled the numbers 1-20 from pipecleaners lol!

We have been baking up a storm, these are our yummy blueberry, banana and oat breakfast muffins.

Lego has also discovered the soldering iron and has been making remote controls etc, from scratch this week!

Apart from all of this we have had a couple of days out visiting friends and have also been plodding along with our usual school work - nothing spectacular! Tutoring has been going fabulously for Lego who is doing really well on his GCSE courses and I need to start thinking about getting some exams sorted for him.  He really wants to do his Science GCSE but I am finding it difficult to find a center for him to sit the practical aspect of the exams.  I know nothing about getting exams sorted for private candidates so any ideas would be very welcome.  

Tutoring for the younger ones is also continuing but with my approach to home ed. I'm feeling uneasy about them having to follow the National Curriculum so strictly; they have been stuck on number names for longer than I would have liked for no other reason than it appears in the curriculum at this point.  I also feel that Sprite needs to be pushed a bit harder...he is flying through his work and is always sitting their with his coat and bag on when I arrive to collect them as he has long finished his work.  He also needs to learn to focus more...not sure how I can help him with that other than to give him shorter periods of work needing concentration.  Must do some research!  We also had an really good heart to heart chat about life and education during which I asked him which way he liked to learn most i.e. by watching, doing, reading etc and he said...'I don't know', very helpful lol!

Lego also has a swimming gala coming up so the boys have been swimming a few times a week for the last couple of weeks to get their speed up...Lego is determined for his team to win this year!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.....

at least that's what I'm hoping will happen...the relationship between me and this blog definitely needs a nudge in the right direction.

Any ho, I will try - in this post - to summarise the main events of the last 8 months [it was a bit of a shocker to see that it's been that long since my last post lol, but it's been made; we've been soooo busy] so among other things.....

The boys have had a few camps with Sprite winning the 'Cub of the Camp' award..he was dead chuffed. They have also done several hikes, archery, abseiling, climbing, kayaking, shooting with air rifles, orienteering, map reading and a whole bunch of other stuff far too exciting for this aging bint! Ooo and Lego was also chosen twice to represent the Muslim Scouts at the Scout Associations Jamboree training camps to talk about Islam and being a Muslim in their Diversity and something Group [I'm sure I've got some of those titles wrong but you can get the gist]!

Lego [and the now drawn in Sprite] have been continuing with their WWI & II projects and have been building numerous war planes out of Airfix [or was that just a ploy to get me to buy the models hmmm]... here is just one of their creations there's far to many to keep track of and just in case your reading boys this pic wasn't picked with any sort of preference it was just the first one I came to:

Lego has also read the autobiography of Manfred Von Richthofen [The Red Baron] - among the numerous other books on the two Great Wars - which he thoroughly enjoyed. However, apart from a short essay on the Red Baron and a short precis on life in the trenches [which was excellent I have to admit] I have yet to see a finished 'project'...think I may need to put my foot down on this and get a line drawn underneath this project [or should I say obsession!].

We have been on lots of nature walks, found some exciting badger sets, some strange trees and had fun in the sun with friends.

We had a couple of trips to the National Space Centre; they do a great deal where you can upgrade your admission ticket to an annual pass free of charge, well worth it if you live in or around Leicester.

We have been to Abbey Pumping station too many times to mention [it's a very small museum but the kids love it there!].

We had the Scout Parade:

and Twycross Zoo:

We built boats to float on the brook:

We attended a 'build a solar car' workshop at Loughborough University, the first is the car built by the two 10 year olds and the second is the one built by the 8 year olds.

We have been for a couple of stays with my family in Essex and had some lovely walks etc. But unfortunately missed out on a trip to Royal Duxford as the car wouldn't start [with, unfortunately, all the kids (including my nephew) sat inside with packed lunches and cameras at the ready]. So, thanks to the efficiency and general all round wonderfulness of the AA in fixing my car we were able to plan to go the next day instead. But, alas, had to cancel again as there is a lot of outside stuff at Duxford and it was absolutely pouring down. So, to placate the angry mob, we had a trip into Harlow and bought some more Airfix models instead, lol!

Lego has been going history mad and has been looking into lots of different eras in history but needs to be tied down as I feel he is getting overwhelmed. So, we will all be starting a unit on Ancient Rome real soon inshaAllah [God willing] using the Evan Moore book on Ancient Rome as the basis of our studies. A friend, who happens to be at Uni studying to be a History teacher [what luck eh!] is also going to set him some work and will be sending us a good text book for him to work through - she has also agreed to mark his work too mashaAllah.

Maths is progressing well with Maths Whizz [thanks to Grandma who finances their memberships bless her] with the odd detour into taught sessions when needed; by the way if you are a member of Education Otherwise I think they were talking about getting cut price membership to this programme, it's well worth checking out inshaAllah.

Lego is still progressing well with his English tutor and I have just started teaching Sprite and a friends child English once a week based on a chosen book...we have started them off on 'Cherry Tree Farm' as it was recommended by an older friend. Not too exciting so far but a nice easy start to the lessons.

Crush and Daisy are still attending lessons with friend once a week to do Maths and English mashaAllah and are doing well and apart from the list above they also enjoyed a trip to Drayton Manor with the Beavers.

We had a break from Supercharged Science as I was doing lots with the little ones about changes in materials and simple electrical circuits etc but have started it up again following the boys interest in robot building... This was Lego's first effort at robotics:

Last but not least we have a new member of the family...his name is Sky, a beautiful budgie to replace Lego's two canaries who sadly died. Lego was beside himself when they died so we got Sky to cheer him up and he loves him so much mashaAllah.

Well I think that's the highlights all done, forgive me if I've mentioned any of this stuff before but hopefully we can get back to normality now inshaAllah...

We have been continuing with our maths and English as usual and I was somewhat surprised (and a little proud) when Lego's tutor discussed his progress with me. She said that they were doing very well and were well above average - in fact she thought that they could go for their GCSE next year...wow!

The surprise came because I was really worried about Lego's progress....as a boy he didn't do worksheets and we only 'discussed' grammar rules etc, on top of that he only learned to read when he was about 9...I thought he would never learn to read and was pulling my hair out because I didn't have any physical evidence of his learning and I thought he would be way behind but alas no! For me this was a timely 'prod' that goes to prove that when children are ready to take on the information they will, and in a very short space of time.

The prod was necessary to reminded me that I should be taking it easy with Sprite...who also appears to be a late learner...and relax more about their education inshaAllah.; I am really stressed about their learning at the moment but am not sure if this is just a manifestation of guilt because I have started work again!

The same day, we were playing a game of 'Bananagrams' (which is fab for the kids!) and when Daisy spelt the word 'nut' with the tiles she impulsively ran off to get a paper and pen and immediately wrote the word down. She continued to write down each word that she made.
I was amazed (again) at the difference between boys and girls and the way that they learn subhanAllah. I know I've said this before but it never ceases to fascinate me; having three boys before Daisy I was used to the way they learn but she is a dream to teach (or not teach, as the case is) and it doesn't seem to be just her, girls the world over seem to approach learning in the same way.

Unless they ask, I don't start teaching the children until they reach 7 years but, on her own initiative, she copies paragraphs from books, writes letters all the time, tries to read, counts, sorts and will really try to work things out for herself. She is very observant, extremely communicative and is fab at just explaining her emotions. I often forget she is only 5 mashaAllah. I'm glad I had the boys first otherwise I think I may have found really difficult to teach them after a girl lol!

Daisy has been asking to learn 'how many' the numbers need...she recognises her numbers to 5 so I gave her these really cute animal counters and she had to match to the right number of animals to the numeral. She worked on this theme all week as she can really get going on her Maths Whizz account once she has this under her belt!


Maths Whizz is going a real treat for the boys mashaAllah, I love it and so do they (still) although I am waiting for a lull in their enthusiasm! We have been plodding along with the online lessons and then I check their progress and what they have been doing and then ensure they use what they have learned in 'real life' experiences or print off a related work sheet.

Lego has been on yet another (very muddy) hike alhamdulillah. He just loves hiking and said he feels really close to Allah when he's 'out there', his leader says he is the only one that has never complained on hikes....I really want to do a hike with just him if I can. I think it would do us both good as I have been inspired to spend more time in silent reflection after I watched an episode of a program called 'The Big Silence' on BBC iplayer.

It's about a Benedictine monk who takes 5 people and tries to teach them the benefits of silent meditation as practised by monks. It was really touching; they all seemed to connect to Allah in some way and it made me realise that I spend too much time rushing around and not enough time alone with Allah ta'ala. I have decided that the kids and I need to spend some time in silent reflection each day inshaAllah...my shaykh says that we should be spending at least two hours a day in dhikr; and to be frank, I am really struggling with it. I am really having to squeeze it in and my mind is running with jobs that need to be done when I'm finished astaghfirullah. So I am hoping this will be a time when I can get us all into the routine of silence that will lead to a bigger and better relationship with Allah ta'ala inshaAllah.

We have also spent some time making these really cute finger puppets from felt....


I let the boys make some on their own and they came up with evil bird (the red one), bat and zombie...boys are so sweet aren't they?


The cooking theme has continued with Lego and he made these enchiladas during the week mashaAllah. He and his friends also had a 'practice run' for the three course meal they need to cook us for their Chefs Badge. They did well considering they refused any help from us but they really need to work on their timing and cleaning up skills lol...most of the meal was lovely but we did have hard roast potatoes which weren't so morish lol.

Took Sprite for his hike and had a nice surprise when they said the Beavers were going so Crush was able to go too. He was so excited I thought he was going to burst, fortunately he was dressed appropriately and Sprite had enough food for two in his back pack alhamdulillah....his first hike and what a good 'un; 5 miles and 3 challenges; The Tunnel of Doom, Mount Everest Junior and Log-on! It was quite eventful for him too; he apparently nearly 'killed' a leader when he fell oh him mashaAllah (Crush isn't fat but feels like he's made of solid muscle!) and he had to tell off one of the helpers who offered him a pork sausage! I was very happy to hear that at 7 he felt confident enough to stand up for what he believed in as, although there are mostly Muslims that attend, apart from the Scouts group not everyone involved in the group is Muslim and I do worry that they might eat something inappropriate.

What else.....well, hmmm, well the kids got to relax for the two days I was at work this week as hubby was unwell but I am on holiday for three weeks now so they WILL be making up for it lol! Actually, I think everyone needed a break as we have all had this virus that's going around so alhamdulillah. So we started Weds with Lego's English tutor, then rush back to take my friends daughter to Sports, then back home to pick up Crush & Daisy for their sports. I then get some time for a quick cuppa and then have to drop my friend off at the sports center (she walks back home with the little ones) and I go off to pick up Lego +1 from the tutor. We all get to relax and eat for an hour before we have to get ready and rush off to madressah...back at 3pm sit for a while and then it's off to swimming lessons. This week we had to wait at my friends until the boys were dropped off from Beavers, so by the time we got home everyone went straight up to bed and were asleep in seconds alhamdulillah...Weds is a very busy day for us!

The children's grandmother very kindly paid for the kids to join 'Maths Whizz' and I must say it has really encouraged the kids to do maths and I am able to keep a close eye on what they are doing and keep them chugging along. It has also made it much easier for me as I don't have to plan too much, I just check what they have been doing and print off some worksheets or activities to go along with it...it's brilliant and much, much cheaper than a tutor. Yay!

Still haven't got going with the science yet this term for some reason but I do aim to have our owl project finished in the next three weeks inshaAllah, which will include dissecting owl pellets....not looking forward to that!

Daisy has been doing lots of random writing by herself and, I don't know why, has been copying words, sentences and paragraphs, without instruction, from anything she can get her hands on! Girls are really, really different from boys....she just seems to teach herself whereas the boys need 'gentle' coaxing all day, every day unless it's hands on stuff of course!

Sprite is working on a 'fire safety' brochure using all manner of resources, I can't see how he's going to bring it all together and I am trying desperately not to interfere....it's so hard because they get so disappointed when it doesn't work out but they must be left to make their own mistakes.

We have done little art and craft lately so I think I will also bring out the wellies and we will go for a nature walk with our note books and do some sketching and painting with water colours...it's only a thought at the moment, I may have to start off in the garden if it rains!

Camping, camping and more camping with a little bit of something else!

My computer has died yet again! (fortunately it still had 2 weeks left on the guarantee alhamdulillah (praise be to God) so it's back in the shop getting a new mother board! So after a while with out a PC I have managed to get the kids old one going again (hoorah). I am now able to communicate with the outside world again......only kidding I do have a real life alongside my virtual one!

We haven't done much structured learning over the last few weeks and have opted, instead, for lots of outdoorsy type stuff, the kids were:

Given hammers and nails by hubby to use on this pile of wood in our garden to build something. I wasn't at all convinced that this was a good idea but it kept them quite for days and nobody got hurt alhamdulillah...amazing. Here they are constructing the floor to a 'den'...it was quite good when finished but I wasn't quick enough to photograph of it before little terror (DS3) and friend tore it down!

They have also been camping with the scouts and camping with their friends and their father at Proctor's Pleasure Park in Loughborough. It's less than 30 minutes from our home which came in handy when we had to drop off some stuff they had left behind *roll eyes*. Infact me and the other mum thought it was so lovely that we might camp there with the kids ourselves. Some of the group got stuck up to the knees in boggy ground so they had to mount a rescue operation (their words not mine! lol), which was successful I am pleased to report.

And last but not least of their camping escapades they had their friends over to camp in the garden. It was great fun, I enjoyed myself too. They found a space to pitch their tent next to a semi circle of logs in the garden which lends itself brilliantly to a camp fire. They were all very responsible and after much debate and adult guidance we built a lovely little fire where they cooked sausages, beans, jacket potatoes and toasted marshmellows. As it got dark we started singing nasheeds, telling stories and having discussions about our most frightening, embarrassing moments etc, it was a lovely evening mashaAllah. We left the big boys to sleep in the tent at about 11.30pm and amazingly they stayed in there all night. When I woke up in the morning they had relit the fire to cook breakfast...lol!

Tent pitched!

Dinner on the go!

Semi successful jacket potatoes....they were lovely on the inside! Honest!
The evening campfire...wish I had made a video of them singing and telling stories, loools.

They have also spent a day a Wicksteed Park with the scouts and DS1 and his friend were also chosen to represent the Muslim Scouts at an event in Dewsbury as they are trying to set up a Muslim Scouts club there. He was sooo proud that they were described as 'the best scouts in our troop' by the scout leader. He is also off to an Extreme Survival Camp at the end of July with the Muslim Scouts and the Muslim Scout Fellowship which they are really excited about. Their packing list includes a Qur'an, prayer mat, slippers for wudu etc; what a blessing!

We have also had two picnics for home educators, spent lots of time in the park, in the garden and at the swimming pool. The two little ones have also started their English & Math lessons with 'aunty' and they loved it alhamdulillah. The joint learning with 'Stig of the Dump' and maths with the others is also going well. It has been a really, really busy few weeks and we don't seem to have spent much time at home at all. We are all a bit tired after all the excitement so, I have decided to have this week off of structured learning and relax with unschooling! Ahhhh!

Apart from all this, we have been doing lots of modeling with plasticine, socialising, library trips, reading together, DS1 has been sorting through and organising his WW1 stuff (we all had a few surprises there!) and cleaning....I have decided to draw up a rota for housework which includes the kids inshaAllah (God willing) they are all getting a bit lazy lately! I am sure we have done more but I can't think anymore.......