Freestyle Learning

I know, I know...

2012-11-30T14:27:00.000+00:00

My posts are getting even fewer and further between [if that is possible] but life and no home education going on leaves me with little outside of the mundane to write about. I may have to change the main topic of the blog to cover life as a parent in general or something similar.

Progress since the last blog... a very lovely, caring and wonderful sister had, despite my attempt at feigning normality, noticed that I was still functioning at well below par even though I only had Scout at home and made it possible for him to attend an Islamic school too mashaAllah; may Allah ta'ala reward her with success in this life and the next, ameen. And then my wonderful sister offered to help out financially on a monthy basis so that he could continue his studies at the school - subhanAllah, alhamdulillah, the power of Allah never ceases to amaze me; He can make anything possible. This is extra fantastic because although Scout is very intelligent mashaAllah I knew he wouldn't cope with the teaching methods used in the school that the other children attend. He is much more of a visual, spacial learner and needs the freedom to explore subjects in his own way and, alhamdulillah, the school he attends is based on the Montessori approach [which you may remember I did explore myself a while back] which suits him down to the ground and he is loving it. A few of his friends are there too which also helps ;)

It's a long shot from Montessori's vision of a Farm School for Adolescents but he is given encouragement and space to manage his own learning outside of the classroom and they have independant learning time too. Unusually for a small school they also have lab space and they seem to do quite a few experiments, which he really enjoys. All students have access to online tutoring and lessons and a Wikipage dedicated to Biology lessons - they are sitting their Biology GCSE in May inshaAllah. There have been a few issues but all in all I am really pleased with the way that he is developing, he has only been there for 2 weeks so he still needs to settle into the management of the learning he has to do at home but that will come inshaAllah.

So, what am I doing with all this free time? Well, I don't get that much free time - about 3 hours a day - but I do get to the women only swim on a Wednesday, madressa and a weekly majlis alhamdulillah! And you would be surprised how much that 3 hours can do for your health and state of mind mashaAllah. The house is also a lot tidier mashaAllah and I may be able to get some extra space once I sort throught the home ed. resources I no longer need. But mostly I'm concentrating on getting better and back to good health so that I can at least get my 3 little ones back to home educating inshaAllah.

Crafting with the kiddies!

2012-10-14T11:01:00.000+01:00

During this week we have also done lots of art and craft, here are a couple of thier projects that are worth sharing inshaAllah:

You may remember Daisy started this bag from kit eons ago, well it's finally finished. It was so easy for her to sew as the felt type material was so think and the holes were pre-punched so it was difficult to go wrong. She absolutely loved doing it and is chuffed with the results. I have been trying to find more kits like this but haven't seen one anywhere.

All together complete with bling

We also found this old storage board in a charity shop and decided to alter it. Everyone had a hand in this one and it did get a bit messy but it was great fun. The kids learned lots of new techniques and all put their own ideas into how it should look... which involved using lots of my paper flower stash!

Not sure what we will use this for... perhaps storing cards with ideas for those 'bored' moments and other activity type stuff.

Daisy was also tasked with making a musical instrument for Beavers for one of her badges... it was difficult to steer her away from all the string/wind instruments and she didn't want to do a drum as everyone else was doing a drum so we ended up making the trust old maracas out of out of date rice and lentils [everyone gives me their out of date stuff as they know we use them for art etc lol].

After she sellotaped the cups together she glued on torn scraps of wrapping paper [pink of course] with a PVA glue and water mix to decorate it.

Let's see what next week brings as they return to school :o|

Brave Writer Discount

2012-10-12T23:25:00.001+01:00

For those of you that may be interested in puchasing the Brave Writer program the chaps at Homeschoolers Buyers Co-op have a 50% off deal that expires on the 31 October 2012 - so go on over and check it out. Join up if you haven't already you can get some great deals.

Back yard fossils!

2012-10-12T21:24:00.006+01:00

So today the kids decided that they were feeling much better so after Jumah prayer Crush and Daisy raised an expedition to the garden to '...dig for fossils...' and what d'ya know, they found some too!

All very common but the intrepid explorers were filled with excitement nevertheless. Here are some pictures of a few that they found:

a very worn ammonite - a marine invertebrate related to the squid, octopus and cuttlefish family which apparently became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period [about the same time as the dinosaur]. In medieval Europe it was thought that they were petrified coiled snakes and were called Snakestones in England. Apparently ammonites found in Nepal are thought by the Hindu's to be a concrete manifestation on of of their gods [astagfirullah; how does this make sense?]

ammonite... this one is much clearer

There's that ammonite again but not sure what the others are (if they are fossils at all; but I'm not going to burst any bubbles until I know for sure LOL)

absolutely zillions of Devils Toenails [Gryphaea], these were oyster type animals that lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous period. They are very common in the UK and apparently it was believed that carrying one of these around could prevent rheumatism.

Daisy has been looking through her Beaver Handbook and has decided that she is going to work very hard to get all of her badges. She is of the opinion that if she does a small project/presentation on her finds she may be able to submit it for a badge. So that's on her 'to do list' for next week inshaAllah; I'll let you know how she gets on!

A brief return to HE!

2012-10-12T20:52:00.001+01:00

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..

... 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.

Not at school

2012-09-11T20:40:00.000+01:00

So we spent the first Friday that the kids had off from school in the park. We were supposed to take a picnic but after making packed lunches all week I couldn't face making another sandwich so we had lunch at the park cafe instead. They played for hours and spent quite a bit of time in the sandpit... the little ones made a fort..

and the big ones planned strategic manouvers based on specific scenarios that they took turns to make up...

Daisy made dessert when we got home. She planned what she was going to make, drew her shopping list and then went shopping with Crush to get all her ingredients and this is what we had...

Strawberries in a melted ice cream sauce with ice cream, raspberry sauce and chocolate. The melted ice cream certainly gave it a unique flavour that I'm not sure I want to try again lol.

Then on Sunday we went to the centenary celebrations of the Leicester AERO (flying) club. It was a blissfully warm day and very enjoyable although the kids were disappointed to have missed out on the free flights as they got booked up so quickly each time.

Replica of a WWII Doodlebug

Replica of a Lancaster or Spitfire [depending on which one of the kids you spoke to].

Lots of helicopters to look at.


Kids had an interesting chat to the glider pilot who explained how the glider flew and how to pilot it

A restored WWII Lancaster plane that did an amazing fly by right over the heads of the crowd.

Playing with the 'blues and twos' in the police vehicle.

We went to the fun day as Lego has expressed an interest in becoming a pilot for quite a while now and we did have a lovely day. The best bit was that the boys got to chat to some really interesting characters including old pilots both private and from the RAF... it was really strange listening to Lego chat to a retired RAF pilot about the qualities of Hurricane planes [or it is jets] that the gentleman used to fly.

The kids did lots of recapping at school last week and as it's not 'full time' I have had to supplement a lot of their learning with further explainations; especially for Sprite as he has trouble remembering what he has done during the day because of his dyslexia. He is not enjoying his time at the academy as much as the younger two and has been feeling ill quite a bit... I think that this may be a masking technique because he is finding it difficult to deal with his dyslexia as at other times he is so enthusiastic about what he had been doing. So we are having to give him quite a lot support at the moment but we are hoping he will settle in soon.

Daisy and Crush come home every afternoon amazed at everything they have learned... like we have never done it before! Hmmpf...

Now that it's getting a bit colder I am planning to start a project with them to do on their 'day off'. I want to teach them about the human body; I have been planning this for a while and have lots of fun, hands on, learning activities for them to do so hopefully they won't see it as even more 'school work'.

Strange things happen at sea....

2012-09-07T08:07:00.001+01:00

and on land too! For the last 6 months or so I have been feeling really tired, physically and mentally. It's mostly because of all the running around I have to do and my hypothyroidism; I am apparently, still supposed to be taking it easy but after being almost house bound for more years than I care to remember I can't seem to be able to slow down. It feels like defeat. Or a step backwards. Apart from that with 4 children (5 including my husband) it's difficult to slow down isn't it? Anyway, during Ramadan, having at least acknowledged an issue with my health and the impact it had on the family, especially the children's education and my deen, I made lots of dua (supplication) asking for help in this particular area. I was thinking along the lines of more energy, more time, a house move, some inspiration to be able to organise myself Fly Lady style and remain healthy too. I wasn't sure what I wanted or needed; only Allah ta'ala would be aware of that so I left it in His hands.

Then, out of the blue, the children got a place in a new local Islamic School on a flexi-school basis. The school is managed by the children's old tutor. Knowing about my health issues she phoned to let me know about their new venture as she thought it might be beneficial for us. At the same time Allah ta'ala made the finances available for the kids to go. How could I refuse? I nearly did? I really, really dislike everything about school, even Islamic ones, but a friend pointed out that it would take the stress of educating the children away (apart from Lego who still studies at home with me as he is too old to go) and give me some time to rest. So, two weeks after the phone call they have completed a week and so far are really enjoying it mashaAllah. They go for 4 days a week from 8.45am-1.30pm; they start and finish the day with dhikr and pray the mid day prayer together before coming home. They do Math, English, Science and ICT daily for the first 3 days and then on the last day, instead of Science and ICT they do PE and either Art & Craft, History or Geography.

Sprite is a 50/50 about going but I feel that's because of his dyslexia; the other two are loving it. I am still a little uneasy about sending them and my heart drops every time I see worksheets in their bags. However, at least this way I can continue doing what I want to do with them without stressing so much about it all. I can also rest much more. It also means that I can concentrate more on helping Sprite with the issues around his dyslexia God willing. It means, inshaAllah, that I can have more time to focus on them when they are at home.

This week I have really missed my children being around. I have missed being a part of their learning. I miss seeing that little sparkle they get in their eye when they 'get' something, or have done something that they really enjoyed. I miss watching them discover. But this isn't about me, it's about them. So while they are enjoying it I shall stand back and let them continue. I do, however, harbour a hope that I will be able to take them out and home educate them completely again soon. We will have to wait and see.

Time out for crafting

2012-08-29T11:49:00.001+01:00

Took some time out for myself over the last couple of weeks to start an art journal inspire me during my new weight loss journey with my sister. I also wanted to alter a box I found in a charity shop as a gift for a dear friend...

Ahhh... I feel much better now!

Art Journalling

2012-08-29T11:10:00.001+01:00

I have been teaching the children some different techniques to make backgrounds for their art journals as they always seem to get stuck on this. These ones we made by spraying different coloured inks onto a page and then spraying over them with water to help them blend. We then used stencils to make the 'watermark' kind of patters; you just lay down the stencil and then spray over with water. You then 'dab' off the water with kitchen role and there you have it. This just amazed the kids and they loved the effects they came up with. The kids use cheap scrapbooks from the £1 shop for their journalling so we have to gesso the page first so that the the ink [or whatever medium you use] isn't absorbed into the paper. Actually, whatever paper we use we gesso it first.

We used ready made inks for our backgrounds but you can make your own using the little bit of ink that is always left in your printer cartridges when you change them [how annoying is that?]. Just mix a little bit with water and put it in a pump spray; you can add mica [the shiney stuff] from make up or the craft shop if you want it to have glimmer. You can mix different amounts of all the colours to make any colour at all... we learned all this from a fantastic crafting lady on You Tube and you can check out her video here. It will be worth it as these sprays cost a fortune. I think though if you want the 'glimmer' to stick to the page you need to add a tiny amount of glue but I think that this lady said it may 'go off' after a while.

Sorry these pics are not great because of the reflections bouncing off the glimmer in the ink sprays but I think you will get the idea of the effect inshaAllah.

Crush put a compass and fleur de lis in this background as he wants to use it for his cub scout stuff.

Daisy also chose the fleur de lis but wanted to make her page about the family - obviously a work in progress!

This is Sprites 2nd page - this time he spread gesso through the stencil to give a raised, textured effect. He wants this page to be about time inshaAllah.

This is Sprites finished page. He's not too happy with it but I think it looks great.

This is another page in Daisy's journal. I think I have showed this before but she insisted it go on again and I do hate to disappoint her lol!

Modelling Fest

2012-08-29T10:01:00.002+01:00

We have been really indulging our artsy side this Ramadhan [and beyond] and the kids have been modelling. I mean really modelling. With a passion. They have been modelling with plastic kits; modelling with foam, modelling with card, modelling with wood and tissue. Basically, anything they can get their hands on. They made: masks, knights, planes, tanks, landscapes, terrain for gaming, houses, huts, anything and everything. Here is a small sample of the stuff they have been doing...

A lot of the card models were downloaded free from either Currell Models, Raven's Blight or SS4's Paper Models.

Gardening firsts

2012-08-26T08:22:00.001+01:00

This is our first harvest of the year, albeit a bit late because of the odd weather & the floods it brought; I thought the plants would never recover but they did by the Grace of Allah. The kids were just thrilled to see the results of their efforts & our deformed (or are they normal?) carrots amused them for hours... Daisy even put on a 'puppet' show with them lol.

My first commission, yay!

2012-08-12T00:30:00.001+01:00

I was commissioned to make this for a friends mum... I love doing these but the supplies are expensive here in the UK so it means that financially I just break even when I sell one but at least I get the enjoyment of making them... wishing I had relatives in the US at the moment; Joanns has a 40% off sale and they don't deliver to the UK LOL... Loved the colours in these papers, some of them were so nice I couldn't do much to them at all!

Royal Duxford

2012-08-11T19:39:00.002+01:00

As a part of the boys ongoing fascination with war planes and tanks etc we spent a really lovely day at Royal Duxford in Cambridgeshire. Set in an old WW1/II airfield it houses hundreds of aircraft, tanks, military vehicles and boats. And as they had an air show on the weekend after we visited we were also lucky enough to see the old planes flying and doing tricks in the air, it was fantastic - even for me and I'm not into war planes lol. Anyway at a cost of £17 per adult and children under 16 going free it was a cheap day too and I would highly recommend it. There is lots of walking between all the hangers and the two younger ones found it a bit hard going so we sat on some picnic benches towards the end and let the older two finish the hangers by themselves but everyone loved it and we plan to return one day soon inshaAllah [God willing].

And as usual, here are some photos...

Enjoying the outdoors!

2012-08-11T19:23:00.002+01:00

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

So, fasting is good for you!

2012-08-07T11:20:00.000+01:00

So did anyone else watch the Horizon programme about fasting, healthy lifestyles and the aging process? The presenter carried out some research based around diet and fasting the conclusion of which was that 2 days fasting a week [5 days of normal eating and 2 days of 600 calories a day] is good for you as it encourages the brain/body to grow new cells, has a positive effect on your blood sugar and cholesterol levels and can reduce your risk of getting cancer [because of a decrease in IGF1; a hormone in our bodies that controls our aging/cancer risk]. This, in turn, increases our metabolic health and slows the aging process.

Of course as Muslims we already knew that right? We know of the health and spiritual benefits of fasting 2 days a week as it was one of the great sunnahs [practices] of our beloved Prophet Muhammed [peace be upon him] that we should all aim to practice inshaAllah [God willing]. So, if we ever needed an extra incentive to adopt this sunnah I hope this can be it, but with the right intentions of course!

***For those of you that are unable to view the programme on the above link try this one at You Tube inshaAllah.***

FREE Ramadhan Kit

2012-07-22T19:09:00.002+01:00

I realise that this is a bit late but hope it may be useful for some inshaAllah; I wanted to remind everyone that there is a free Ramadhan kit available here for the littlies from Mini Mu'min Publications.

Ramadan Mubarak

2012-07-22T19:00:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the long break but there was a problem with my account and I haven't been able to log in :0(

Anyway, I finally have access and wanted to drop by and wish you all a blessed Ramadhan. I pray that Allah ta'ala accepts your fasting and it becomes a means for you to become closer to Him InshaAllah.

I will try and update the blog with little snippets of our activities over the last couple of months as and when I can inshaAllah.

Education Inspector's Visit

2012-05-10T20:28:00.000+01:00

Yeah, our visit is over! I can't explain how stressful I found it getting ready for this visit. I had sleepless nights and worrisome days; my friends [and my poor husband] couldn't believe I was so stressed over this visit and no matter how many wise words and wonderfully kind things they said I couldn't seem to calm down. I had spent years and years dreading this day and it was showing. Needless to say my fears were completely unfounded and a waste of energy but we won't mention this any more OK.

Our inspector was lovely; she put me at ease straight away and was almost apologetic about all the paperwork she needed to complete. Sprite had made her some cup cakes which put us in her good books straight away LOL. Our hour long meeting stretched to over 2 hours as she took time chat to all the children and look at their lapbooks and project work. She has a love for art and loved their mixed media art journals and their sketch books. She was very pleased with all their progress especially Lego's and gave us some alternatives to his IGCSE plans - which we won't be taking on this occassion but it's great that she had so much information available for us.

She was great with Sprite as she had experience of teaching dyslexic children and was able to give me lots of advice and put him at ease too; it was good for him to hear from someone else that dyslexia didn't mean that he couldn't follow his career dreams. After she left he said 'I am so happy, I didn't think that I could be an architect or an engineer' [two jobs that she thought he would be great at]! She is going to push for him to get a formal assessment with the LEA; she said that even if I had a private diagnosis it wouldn't be accepted by the examination bodies for him to get a scribe or additional time for his exams...he would need an assessment by the LEA! However, dyslexia isn't considered as a 'special education need' [not sure if that's a national opinion or a local one] so there may not be much help available for him via the LEA, especially as he is home educated but it's good to have her on his side. She seems quite determined to get him some help!

All in all she seemed impressed with the children, our plans and what we have done so far; I thought she was really supportive of my method of teaching and she loves the whole lapbook thing. So that's it for another 12 months! PHEW! Just the report to wait for now. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a special lunch to celebrate.

We're all off for an early night to catch up on my sleep as I have my course to go to tomorrow inshaAllah.

Sweet dreams!

Asthetics are important!

2012-05-10T19:42:00.001+01:00

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.

Owls this for progress?

2012-05-06T20:57:00.001+01:00

Ooo that was bad wasn't it?

This terrible pun was inspired by Sprite and his owl project which is almost finished. Yeah! His enthusiasm was sparked by the opportunity to dissect owl pellets. I have been putting this activity off for some time but Sprite was beside himself with excitement at the mere thought of doing it and just in case it inspires you too here are just a few of the pictures we took of the whole process. Please note however, that because of the gross factor I had to take off part way through and Crush abandoned his dissection completely so you may want to skip the photos!

We had to soak the owl pellets [which are basically a ball of bones, fur, feathers etc that the owl is unable to digest of it's prey which he then regurgitates] in a non-cloudy disinfectant for 30 minutes; I just found out you can keep them in the freezer for 48 hours too which does the same job. Sprite found it difficult to get all the wet fur out from the inside of skulls etc. however, Crush did his dry and thought the pellet was easier to dissect.

They used tweezers and tooth picks to separate the bones from the fur.

Here you can see some bones making an appearance.

These are some of Sprites skulls -he had quite a collection by the time he had finished.

...lower jaws

he was able to use a flow chart to identify the prey that the owl had eaten

...finally he used this chart that we got form the internet to place all the bones and he stuck it all onto a mini blackboard so we can hang it on the wall in our classroom cum dining room. Great!


Sprite then used this information sheet to identify the owls prey.

I gave all the children the opportunity to dissect a pellet but two refused and Crush couldn't see his through to the end; it was making him feel queesey. Sprite was the only one to see it through to the end and ended up with all the bones which he went on to soak in bleach to whiten. He is currently contemplating how to store them. He only needs to complete the booklet of his dissection and then he can finish his lapbook. This project, although it took an immense amount of time, involved a lot of research on his part and although there wasn't any tangible evidence of his learning he was continually learning about the topic; we have watched what must amount to 100's of videos, read copious amounts of info in web sites and books and he has done some fab art work related to this project - the most amazing of which was an A1 size owl decorated in real feathers resting on a branch; sadly I can't find the photographs of it and it has since been binned; it seems that small children couldn't help but pull off the feathers lol.

Photos of the completed project will ensue, God willing!

Catch up!

2012-05-05T17:52:00.001+01:00

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!

Sunshine after the rain!

2012-04-12T01:04:00.002+01:00

So, my new tactic for getting the kids to knuckle down is the promise of something nice after a couple of hours graft doing the things that, as far as they are concerned, are just unnecessary in life! Things such as math and English. Yeah, those really non essential skills that we never use on a day to day basis. Fortunately for me this bit of sunshine can include: science, art, crafts, nature walks, baking etc; basically, anything except Math and English.

Bearing this in mind this morning kicked off with some word games that Sprite made a while back. The 'clue cards' have descriptions of words that the children can either shout, spell or act out once they know what it is. The alphabet cards are used for spelling and the pink cards are from the Jolly Phonics books and are basically spelling/matching games.

We then moved on to making sentences using the DK Silly Sentences game; after making their sentences - which were very, very silly - they had to write them in their books and draw a picture to match. Sprite didn't quite understand the list of several instructions that I gave [it's a dyslexic thing] so made some mistakes. I really must remember to give him one or two instructions at a time. They then went on to do their maths on Maths Whizz.

Then after lunch came the sunshine stuff which began with blow painting. Daisy also wanted to do blow painting in her art journal. And then everyone wanted to do their art journal. Of course they would!

So here are the aforementioned art journals:

This is Crush's journal page that is based around the pictures they took for the
library's Homeschool Group

This is Daisy's journal page. She is so creative and has firm ideas about what
she wants to do. I just love the photo of the doorway.

This is Sprites journal about Spring; obviously! He does his pages all by himself
with no input from me. He has used several techniques on the background page
and the flowers are made from old jam tart trays.

We then painted some nice large stones that we found whilst digging up the
garden.

Lego has picked up his Word War 2 project again and completed another two parts to the project.

And last but not least; I found this science kit in the charity shop for £1.50 and thought that it might be nice for the little ones to have a go at. The box was taped up so when I got home and opened it up I was surprised to see that the kit was completely intact with all the contents still sealed. So, as it would be neglectful to let such a blessing go by unused, we will start working through the booklet of experiments at some point this week God willing.

Phew, it's now midnight and I am hoping that I can keep the up the pace...goodnight xXx

Lazy Days

2012-04-06T23:28:00.002+01:00

Sprite, Crush & Daisy are did another play at their tutoring session; can you guess what it was? If you guessed Goldilocks and the three bears then you guessed right. Sprite volunteered to make all the masks again so we printed off these cool 3D masks and he painted them and customised them using some fur from the hood of an old coat...he gave the daddy bear a beard too lol!

We have also been enjoying the sun and have had some long afternoons in the park with friends and have been digging over the garden and have managed to get one little area done and placed the raised beds reading for planting. It sounds easy but we had to dig it all over [not easy with clay soil!], level it out, lay the weed membrane and then wheelbarrow over heaps of sand and shingle. We were soooo tired at the end of the day we just had to have a take away for tea.

We also began to demolish the 'oven' that hubby spent so much time and money on and I am so pleased that it's on its way out of my garden! Can't wait until it's all gone.

We have holidays from Scouts, the library home school group and madressa so have been taking it really easy; giving me lots of time to plan and think about the way I want to go with the children's education. Group tuition isn't really working out for Sprite because of his dyslexia. One of the main things that the educational specialist said he needs is to be over taught any subject and he isn't getting this at tuition. He understands and gets all the worksheets etc correct on the day but he is not retaining any of the information. On the other hand he does enjoy it and it is giving him confidence to see that he is on the same level as his peers - but I;m not convinced that's going to last! Need to do a lot of thinking about where to go with him!

The colder weather has left us all with colds but God willing we will be back to a proper learning schedule next week.

Just wanted to share...

2012-03-28T10:53:00.001+01:00

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated... This is another great talk by TED, you can watch the whole talk here. I would love to know what you think about this topic!

High expectations

2012-03-10T23:02:00.000+00:00

In general, do home educating expect their children to achieve a much higher standard of work than would be expected of them at school? Guilty as charged your 'onor. I hold my hands up to being a bit of a perfectionist and I must admit that I do expect my children to also aim for perfection too. I am a high achiever and expect them to want to achieve too. I often feel that they could do better! I don't voice it of course. But they must be able to tell by my tone when I praise/talk about their work, mustn't they? Actually, I hope that they are too naive/young/inexperienced readers of body language/vocal tones to have noticed! This week somebody made a big deal out of some work that Lego completed. They thought it was fantastic and mentioned every little piece of detail in the work that they liked and Lego mentioned that I had given him some 'constructive criticism' about the work. His words made me blush and made me realise that I don't praise the children enough for their work and that I expect too higher standard from them. This person is a teacher and gets to see what kids his age are producing regularly so I guess her opinion counts.

So, I am having to rethink my home ed efforts {again! but being able to continually assess and redress home education is one of its many blessings}; especially my expectations of the children's work but it's difficult when you have nothing to compare their work to? Although I do know when they are trying and when they're not. Should I be pushing them to achieve more or should 'good enough' be enough. The men in my family have always been laid back [to say the least] and they are boys after all {I don't have the same issues with Daisy}so if I didn't push them would they ever push themselves? Some would argue that it doesn't matter what they achieve academically; but don't they need these pieces of paper in order to compete in the job market? I was always of the opinion that they didn't have to be little geniuses but that they should always, for the most part anyway, do their best. Who am I trying to please anyway? As a Muslim I should be walking the 'middle road' in all that I do; but finding a balance isn't always easy and I've definitely gone off track with this one. Sorry, I realise that this post is all over the place and probably contradictory in places but it's just the way it's swirling around my head! Which can be incredibly messy lol! I'll stop now or I'll be blathering on forever!

We have also recently discovered that Sprite is dyslexic. Poor thing, he knew he was 'different' but hid it away because he just wanted to be normal...with hindsight I can pick out little signs along the way but didn't see them until recently. It explains lots of things. Aspects of his behavior that I couldn't quite understand, and he of course couldn't explain, were just ways of him 'hiding' his difficulties. The way he speeds through worksheets because it's just copying and filling in the gaps [mostly] but struggles when he has to reword things or do his spellings etc. I just hope that I can 'step up to the plate' given what's written above lol.

Anyways, other than all this we have been back in the kitchen...

We've been making healthy snacks to take with us on our many trips to the other
side of town for their activities /madressa etc to save on some money and
calories (for me specifically on both counts) that are usually spent on take away
- this one is fruit, yogurt and crunchy oat cereal. Yum.

The kids love to bake and this week we have been experimenting
with the icing bag for the first time too.

This is a word game - much like scrabble and connect 4 combined - that we got
at a charity shop and the kids have been using the tiles just for spelling practice lol!

Cuisenaire rods have also been a big hit this week...

as did the putting together of the raised beds for our new garden layout.
If you need stuff for your garden I would highly recommend you visit
www.greenfingers.com; it has a ton of good quality very reasonably priced items.

Lego has started to dig himself out a trench for somewhere quiet to sit he reckons...boy is he going to be
disappointed when it all gets filled in during next weeks gardening exploits!

This is a poster Lego made for one of the questions on his English
homework...now this is the extra effort I'm talking about. Yeah!

We also {eventually} got round to planting our seed alhamdulillah.
We have lots planted for our first round and are actually planning on growing
in rotation so that we always have fresh food available... we'll see eh! lol.

I have decided, after discussion with Lego and hubby, to pull Lego out of GCSE Maths as I feel it was going a bit too fast for him and he was beginning to get overwhelmed. All of the other students in the tuition group are older and already studying/studied the subject in school so the tutor is really running a revision class; this means that Lego isn't actually being taught the topics which has left him at a bit of a loss; poor thing. He is continuing with the KS3 Math and GCSE Science inshaAllah.

The other 3 are doing well, praise be to Allah, and are doing a play in their tutor group on Monday so I'm off for an early night ready for a day of wig and mask making tomorrow...enjoy your weekend folks!