Another day....

of grumpy children... they just don't seem to like waking up before 6am mashaAllah. But we got to madressa in the end with all three children and only 5 minutes late.

Well we had a really quiet weekend alhamdulillah relaxing after a hectic week where the boys stayed over at a friend and the friend then came and stayed over here, swimming, sports, madressa, quran teacher for me etc mashaAllah. DS1 went with his dad to collect some friends from a week long stay at smallwood manor in Saffordshire. They are from a Turkish Muslim organisation that hire out the manor for a week and take loads of kids away, they get to do lots of sports, walks, nature studies etc. They have different wings so the separation of girls and boys is easy and they also use the pool at different times. Seems perfect. Infact, it is such a lovely place that it has inspired me to see if I can organise some sort of retreat, Muslim HE holiday or something..... make dua inshaAllah!

DH is also putting in a toilet and shower/wet room kind of thing downstairs so the kids have been watching him with great interest - handing over tools etc. They have watched and learned about plumbing, mixing cement and getting told off (they just don't realise that when a man comes in with a heavy bag or piece of porceline in his hand they need to move out of the way).

Well we did some maths and english at the weekend but that was about it on the home school front as I had lots of work to catch up on especially as it's that time of year for businesses to get their accounts in order...... a daunting task for me as I did no accounts at all last year oooops!

Kids feel a bit deflated as they was not moved on in their Quran today (I did't push them into praticing this week so I hope they see the effect of their laziness inshaAllah). The snack today was chocolate rice crispy cakes skillfully made by DS1. Here they are in their full glory mashaAllah......

In fact they were so yummy that this is what was left on the plate after only a few minutes.....
DS1 also had to fight of dad to save some to hand out at madressah tomorrow inshaAllah. I need to go shopping so not sure what the rest of the day will bring.......

Tests all round.....

We started this week joining in some of the new free swimming sessions and although I love the idea behind this initiative I do (just a little) begrudge the kids having to share the normally quiet pool with loads of other children. They have been used to sharing it with just a few select friends but commented this week about how manic it was and that they couldn't swim properly. Oh well!

Other than that DS1 started a project on the Animals of Africa that we purchased from www.currclick.com for £1.38. It's a complete study unit that he can read and work through himself, some of it is way too easy for him but he is really enjoying it mashaAllah. A friend of his is doing the same project and they have spent some time studying together awwwww ;0) This is what he has done so far....
By the way, if you like lapbooking and you have not already done so it is well worth registering at currclick as they have a weekly free product for you to download which are usually good mashaAllah.

Other than that we, among others mashaAllah, sacrificed some time and learning this week to help out a dear sister and her family that are going through a difficult test at this time. This has been the focus of our week really and the kids have learned such a lot through this experience mashaAllah. They have learned that any of us could be faced by a difficulty at any time and as an ummah we have to work together to help each other out inshaAllah, they have learned about putting what they want on a back burner in support of the greater good mashaAllah. Some sisters looked after kids so others could go and help, brothers also helped when needed and supported their wives in whatever they could do to help. SubhanAllah, it has been a week of reflection and I hope we have all learned something from this family whose faith has only been strengthened by this test, I pray that Allah (swt) grants them the best of this life and allows them entry into Jannah without reckoning inshaAllah.

As the weather has been sooooo nice we have also spent lots of time in the garden and are going to be spending some time planting seeds and stuff (better late than never my old dad always said) in the next week inshaAllah. The kids made a habitat for wood lice and have been observing their behaviour and learning about what they eat etc., They also spent two (or was it three) whole days playing at a friends house and still they want more - this morning they all spent a lot of time and energy trying to convince me to let them stay for another day..... will they ever choose school work over play, lol???

Swimming and sports as usual with madressah in the mornings. The kids have been doing citizenship this week at madressah with a brother, and they have really been enjoying the male input mashaAllah. They are developing a love for Quran and Islam mashaAllah and I pray that this continues and grows inshaAllah; DS2 announced he wants to be a shaykh and hafiz when he grows up mashaAllah be idhnillah. Although my 6 year old seems to be having real problems with memorisation of Quran - any ideas greatly appreciated.

Curiosity, cakes and colour.....

It's funny what a new day can bring..... firstly DS1 decided he wanted to learn again alhamdulillah. Next we had a strange discussion about what plastic surgery was in the car this morning (lots of education goes on in our car; Quran, times tables, off the cuff debates and discussions - a captive audience lol); what it was, who has it done etc and when we came home they looked up some info on the www and found about about a US socialite who, in an attempt to win back her unfaithful husband, spent $4 billion to make herself look like a big cat - her husband was a big fan apparently - and now a once beautiful woman looks horrific. The kids were so shocked that people would want to change the beauty that Allah Ta'ala has given them that a wondrous piece of literary ginius ensued (lol)..... it goes like this:

Why would someone change the face
that was given to them by Allah's grace
they won't find happiness in their life
at the end of a surgeons knife
happiness comes from within
and true beauty comes with your love for Him, Allah

OK it still needs work but I am a very happy mummy never the less.


I also decided that each day one of the children could help me choose and make a snack on our return from madressah - we get home about 9am and the kids are always hungry. It means that they get a little bit of cooking and math in and a bit of time with mum. This week DS2 made these.....yummy

The kids also wrote about the colour and light experiments that we did at Brocks Hill Park and we mounted them on black paper mashaAllah... It was wonderful to see all their different writing styles and it was great to see how much DS3 remembered when he was messing about most of the time....

We also did lots of math and english from mindsprinting; and I am also still trying to work out a new routine with madressah to fit in now but I am sure it will all come together soon inshaAllah.

The week that wasn't.....

what I had planned at all. I took an unplanned visit to Birmingham to learn from a well respected sheikh - he is so humble mashaAllah, it was fantastic and it made me realise how little effort I put into learning my deen - may Allah bless the sheikh give us barakah in our time inshaAllah. It also made me realise how much I need to learn and how little adab I have..... subhanAllah, I am grateful for these reminders and pray that Allah facilitiates my learning for me and us all, ameen. This has been one of those weeks where I hoped to achieve so much but in fact, achieved so little. We have been trying to implement new routines into our day on the advice of the Sheikh but it has been difficult, alhamdulillah. Seems to have been a week for not doing stuff but here is what we did do....

Sports: swimming as usual on Monday, although sports for the littlies and biggies were both cancelled.

Maths: continued with Mindsprinting worksheets and online games.

English: hasn't happened at all, although they did some sentence structure as part of their madressah work alhamdulillah. DS2 has also been putting in some hard practice for reading mashaAllah.

Science: This kids did some unoffical testing of liquids which got them told off but that was about it.....

On the plus side; DS3 seems to be conquering Suratal Fatiha alhamdulillah, and the sun is shining so the kids were able to spend some energy in the park, go to the carboot sale with abi and do some planting....... alhamdulillah. Looking forward to a bright new next week inshaAllah.

What a week that was....

We have had a busy week this week alhamdulillah but haven't opened a text book (not that we use text books) all week..... boys are still attending early morning madressah and although they still aren't keen on waking up early I am loving the new routine (especially the early bedtimes; it's good to have time for myself alhamdulillah). MashaAllah, they are doing so well alhamdulillah - good move!

We spent two days this week at our local Country Park where they have been running lots of half day courses for Science & Engineering Week. We had a Dr of Physics, who was also Head of Space School UK, from the local uni that did a two hour session on 'light & colour'; we were imagining a much grander topic considering the status of the teacher, but apart from a few flash lights and a pair of refraction specs there wasn't nothing else the kids did that they couldn't do at home which included 'catching' a rainbow in milk, mixing primary colours on filter paper and sorting pictures of different light sources into groups. The second session was an acid and alkali session - seemed to be totally unprepared and the kids spent some time testing different liquids (and later sauces i.e. tartar sauce) and seeing where they came on the pH spectrum. The kids were then given a large piece of filter paper each that had been soaked in boiled red cabbage juice and dried (a giant home made piece of litmus paper basically); they then drew a big fish on the paper and 'painted' it with one acid and one alkali liquid which gave them two different colours (all of a sudden it occured to me that, that must be what they make those 'magic painting books' from). We also went outside and did the minto in a bottle of diet cola experiment (which failed miserably I have to say)! The kids also got to play with goo (as it was called by the education officer a.k.a. cornflour, water & green food colouring) but as we had done it before the kids were able to tell her that it was a 'non-newtonian fluid' and explain how it works. I know we should not revel in these moments...... but I will, her face was a picture. These two sessions cost us a total of £72 and were no way worth the money, all of the experiments could have been done at home but I suppose they did get to learn from someone else in new surroundings - but I don't think we will be going again.

Swimming and sports as usual and not much else I'm afraid. Oh hum, onwards and upwards inshaAllah.

Has it been that long?

SubhanAllah, it's been quite a while since I last blogged so I won't bore you with everything that's been going on, just some of it.

Well as is the nature of home schooling we have changed our routines and timetable quite a bit since I last wrote and in fact we didn't have a time table at all for quite some time but lots of learning still goes on mashaAllah. The three boys have just started a madressa that starts at 7am, it is a bit of a way from us so we do get up really early and I am in the process of restructuring our week and education timetable to fit in around that. The great thing is that we can be home by 8.30-9am and be ready to get on with our work inshaAllah. The boys are still not totally appreciating the wonderful, but rare opportunity to get up at 5.45 to go and learn Quran etc in the early morning when their little minds are at their optimum learning capability, but I am sure they will get used to it inshaAllah.

For Islamic studies we are now using the Tas_Heelul books for fiqh, history, adaab & akhlaaq and Aqaa-id, you can view them here inshaAllah (this shop has free postage & packaging too) as they use this in madressa. I should also mention that the books have recently been revised and fully updated and are much more colourful and child friendly that the pics of these books would have you believe.

For maths we follow the lessons on Mind Sprinting; a free online tutoring service for math and English (to some point). The child takes an online assessment test and a free personalise programme it put together for him/her. I have found that it doesn't work for me as an everyday tool but it does give us a springboard to base our weeks math lessons around. I sometimes use the worksheets and sometimes I don't, but if you use the manual method you can just tick off the units you are sure they can do and then move on to the next subject. I love it! We just do some general work in exercise books for English and are still using the Nelson Thorne books but not for everyday use.

The two little ones are working on a 1-100 lapbook and a A-Z scrapbook, modified slightly from a unit that can be downloaded from www.lapbooklessons.com - the mini-books etc easily fits on two pages of a scrap book and is really well done however, it does have some quotes from the Bible etc that I have had to rewrite. We also added other appropriate islamic words or items to the pages such as the name Allah to 'a', Bismillah to 'b', prayer mat to 'p' etc., we also added some stuff from the Jolly Phonics books that they are working on i.e. the sign for the letter and the writing practice sheet and a list of words starting with that letter.

With the group teaching sessions we finished the plant lapbooks (pics to follow) and have almost finished our second topic on the Weather. SubhanAllah, there is so much in the weather to bring the kids closer to Allah, I was fascinated and learned so much (I hope the kids did too!)..... but alas, this is our last project with our little group, ahhhhh! We will miss them lots.... but I am studying on a new course which, when coupled with the early mornings means that we have had to trim down our outside activities; planning for a day of teaching takes me a long, long time (but that could just be me!!).

I am also aiming to introduce a dhikr session into our day both in the morning and evenings inshaAllah which will include some reading from a wonderful book on the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) which was given to us by a very kind, loving sister. Jazakillahu Khair.

Haven't thought much beyond this but will add some more subjects as the new routine unfolds and grows inshaAllah. I love the beauty of home schooling and the way that we can adapt our teaching to suit our ever changing prayer times, home situations or weather....... alhamdulillah.

Time flys.........

Well doesn't it just! Been a while and of course lots has happened. We had a good Ramadhan and invited some friends over for Eid mashaAllah but we all missed DH.

Well, our joint teaching group have finished their lapbooks (will try and post some pictures inshaAllah) and we have just started back at our joint lessons again with the new topic of 'The Weather'. I am approaching the teaching a little more prepared this time alhamdulillah and have even managed to set homework (so far!). I think everyone is enjoying it inshaAllah - it is definitely a very interesting subject with so many reminders of Allah's wrath and mercy all in one thing and lots of new duas to learn too inshaAllah. May Allah protect us from his wrath, Ameen.

The kids have settled down into a routine now and seem to be enjoying it. We have just started using a free online math tutoring programme that was recommended on one of the blogs I visit. It is an online assessment test in math and English (American) called Mindsprinting. Your child takes an online test and it sets up a personalised programme for them with daily worksheets to download. We use it as a curriculum as I feel that worksheets are not a brilliant way to teach (although they do use them sometimes) and its great. DS1 panics aboutmaths worksheets so I copy the work into a exercise book for him or cut up the worksheet and make little manipulatives/mini books and glue them in his exercise book. See below but please ignore dates...not sure whats going on with this camera.....blah....blah....modern technology...... wouldn't have happened in my day.... blah....blah.....blah!


DS2 doesn't mind worksheets and just gets on with them. I tend to spend a lesson explaining new concepts and try to break up the week so they are not doing worksheets every day - we will spend a day doing hands-on stuff, or working on the white board etc.