Enjoying the outdoors!

We've been out quite a lot since we last looked in {so very long ago}. We spent some time in London with my mum and have spent almost every fine day out and about. Other days have been really relaxed with child led activities including maths, english and baking among others including some excitment caused by flooding in the garden!

The boys have all taken up archery and basketball and are loving it. Lego has had a couple of camps {one of which I got called to collect him from and get him to the hospital with suspected menigitis.  Alhamdulillah [praise be to Allah] it turned out to be a much less serious HSP but it does involve fortnightly bloods etc to make sure it hasn't spread to the other organs. It's not very common apparently and Lego had a torrent of student doctors asking to look at his rash; he wasn't very pleased especially later when he was getting really tired and grumpy lol! He has also reached level 2 in his canoing and now helps in assisting with the younger cub groups that come for canoing sessions.  He was also tasked with helping the younger scouts at the last camp and he is really enjoying the responsibility mashaAllah [as God has willed].

Crush and Daisy have had a long break from Cubs and Beavers not sure of the reason but as it fell in Ramadan I wasn't disappointed; it gave us all a chance to relax a bit Alhamdulillah.  That and the fact that our car has broken down too. Crush is really enjoying his archery and is taking it all very seriously and they are all really looking forward to getting back to it after Ramadan inshaAllah [God willing].  Having no car has also meant that Lego has had to become more independant and has been cycling to the other side of town to go to his activites along with the very kind assistance of a special sister that has volunteered to collect and drop him off to his evening activities mashaAllah.

Here is just a little of what we have been up to...

Bug hunting!

Sculpting in the sand with friends..

Fun with measurements

I was suprised at how much a measuring tape can occupy young chldren

Sprite did this all by himself...

Flooding in the garden...a tornado apparently but it didn't do my veg a lot of good!

Lego's strange rash {that kept us at the hospital all night...}

Making necklaces

This is Daisy's attempt at making me a healthy lunch

The kids spent a couple of days playing with the 'electric stuff'; this was one of Sprite's creations.

Two out of the four went on a day trip to Thorpe Park with the Scouts

Alphabet matching games & alphabetical order

Catch up!

Well we have been up to so much these last few weeks but now it comes to it it seems that I have little to relay but I'll continue anyway!  Well, due to a prompt from Beavers Daisy and I did a little study on good and bad foods and made this traffic light poster thing [I think I may have mentioned this before].  We discussed the types of food that could be included under each colour and why they were good/bad for you and then she cut out pictures from magazines etc and stuck them under each coloured flap of the traffic lights.  

She did get some wrong so I asked her why she had included them in that category. We then discussed her answers and I asked her to tell me where she thought they were still in the right place.  The 'lights' read: red = Stop! These things we shouldn't eat very often (cakes, biscuits, red meat etc); yellow = Wait! Don't eat too much although they are OK choices (potatoes, pasta, bread, chicken, fish etc) and green = Go! The more you eat the better (fruits & veg).

We have been to the park several times these past couple of weeks and had lots of fun looking for local wildlife; Daisy's keen eyes spotted this toad hiding in the brook!  

We also spent some time admiring the gardens...

Not sure what these plants are but we all liked them!

and spent an hour or so using the outside gym...boy did I ache the next day - the kids want to [and I need to]  go every other day to use the gym but we'll see if the rain holds off first.

 

Lego also started at the canoeing club and will start working towards his staged awards inshaAllah [God willing].  He is also going back to boxing next week now that his hand has healed...he's really looking forward to it.

We have also been to see the dyslexia consultant and she did some amazing work with Sprite and taught him to spell a couple of words in just a few minutes using some visualisation techniques. He was so happy to be able to spell these 'difficult' words and is still able to spell them so the techniques seem to be very effective; it's all about finding ways that make it easy for him to commit the info to his long term memory apparently. She also suggested he worked on his cursive handwriting as it makes it easier for his hand to relax and his memory take over when writing and spelling. He needs to be formally assessed which I couldn't afford to do with them so I decided to contact the LEA to see if they could offer some help.

So we are now 'known' to the Education Inspector who will be visiting us next Thursday.  She seemed very supportive and said that just the month before the Educational Psychologist had agreed to assess another home educated child.  So with a precedent set it seems hopeful that we could get Sprite assessed via the Local Authority, this is important as he will need some additional support in the next few years, especially if he wants to take exams [I am hoping to get some ongoing sessions to teach him strategies to help him with his learning too God willing].  I am also enrolled on a 2 day course, run by the local Dyslexia Action group, which aims to teach us how we, as parents, can help our dyslexic children in literacy and numeracy.  I think these types of strategies could benefit any child to retain information so will pass on any nuggets that I pick up God willing.  Have a strange feeling of deja vu about this post!

We also had the annual Scout Parade [when I say we I, of course, mean the kids; us damp mums went for a cappuccino as soon as we could escape unnoticed] and seem to be setting a tradition of having a post parade pizza meal with our favorite homeschooling family.

This is just one of the Scout bands that were playing during the day...I have no pics of my scouts as my phone decided to throw a tantrum! Lego has also been caving again and has started attending the Explorers group; he is currently trying to decide what he wants to do for his Duke of Edinburgh Award.  Also on the Scout front camping season has officially started and as I type this he is on a Muslim Scout Fellowship camp.  He also has a skills camp coming up with the explorers in June.  Sprite has decided to rejoin the Scouts and is looking forward to being invested in the next couple of weeks.

Both Daisy and Crush are working their way through the 'Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons'; they are really, really enjoying it and we often do several lesson in one day!  Other than that they seem to be working their way through worksheets from the tutor which I try to build on during the week.  Having said that, it needs to be said that Daisy, although improved, is still having difficulty in retaining the information but I get the feeling that it's because she doesn't want to rather than can't!

Great progress has been made on the infamous Owl Project...more of that in another post!  The kids have been plodding along at their various tutors but they all seem to have lost their spark; their enthusiasm for learning.  I thought it was me, the rut, lack of direction or whatever so placed them with the tutors but I have come to realise that they did better when they were unschooled.  Maybe the problems we were having was because I had lost my way and was allowing others to have too much influence in the way my children should learn and what their goals in life should be; you know GCSE's at 16, university and a good job to support their family and, last but not least, return to their Lord!  Wanting all these things is OK but it should be their decision, when they are ready for it.  After all, if they really want to become a doctor they would put in the effort to make it happen wouldn't they?  I mean that's the way it works with me and it definitely worked that way with others that I know.  More consideration is needed on this front! I think the first thing I need to do is to have a chat with Lego about his feelings towards his GCSE's...I need to make sure that he doesn't feel 'railroaded' into taking them just to please me/the LEA/family/tutors etc.  I need to make sure that he wants to do them; for  himself!

Lazy week....

Alhamdulillah this [well last] week was a lazy week as we were all preparing for Ramadan. The children had no madressa all week but instead their ustadh [teacher] planned different activities for each day of the week. So they had: football, bring and share food, a certificate presentation and a dawat where their teacher provided the food mashaAllah. I was also very pleased to hear that the boys all received grade A's in their tests mashaAllah...they all came running in waving their certificates in the air lol. Sprite made this lovely [so I'm told as I didn't get any **pout**] chocolate fudge cake for the bring and share day.

Lego has been playing around with movie making and has made a very short stop motion animation film. He was just playing around and seeing how it all worked but he is pleased with it nevertheless. I would attach it but he is trying to work out how to get it into a format that will play on the blog. He's been using VideoPad which was very good but it was only a 14 day trial, we're now on the lookout for some good free software...I will upload his movie when I can inshaAllah.

On Friday we were inspired by Umm Tafari at River City Homeschoolers to have a tea party mashaAllah. However it was soon overtaken by the boys and was transformed into a BBQ; that's boys for ya, and there was me saying how they enjoyed a tea party lol! They are all growing up so fast mashaAllah... Lego got everyone organised, set up the BBQ and got the coals going and Sprite did the cooking. BBQ's are a real mans domain aren't they? I guess Daisy and I will have to have our own little tea party one day without the testosterone muscling in!

We have been doing lots of stuff for our owl project including some virtual owl pellet dissections here... in preparation for the real thing [which I'm really not looking forward to!]. Nothing else much going on, just ad hoc learning at the moment. I was ill yesterday so we didn't get our Quran reading started so have a juz to catch up on already! Not a good start to Ramadan eh!

On another note, I finally finished my sisters wedding album cum memory book, I'll put the pics in a separate post as it's easier, and I have a commission to make another for a 50th wedding anniversary gift, yay! Here are some pics of the first memory book I made her when she got married, it already has photos etc in so I can't show too much as it's quite personal to her [she's already gonna kill me for the 2nd pic lol, but she did grow into a beautiful young lady mashaAllah [there, are we good now?]]:

Daisy spent the day at an International Scout Camp yesterday and had a thoroughly fantastic day mashaAllah, hubby couldn't believe that she spent the whole day out without her mum or dad in tow lol....personally I think he's in denial and doesn't want to see his little girl grow up...it's different for the boys of course lol!

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.