WHY DO THEY DO IT?...

I often find that in every situation in life there is a real opportunity to reflect and find an even bigger opportunity. Today was one of those days.

Alhamdulillaah A and L have so far managed to fast all of the days, they are really determined to complete the whole month inshaaAllaah. So I was really upset with myself today when I overslept and missed suhoor. I said to my husband that I was not going to let them fast today as the days are so long and the heat makes it much more difficult for them, so without suhoor it would be even harder. When they woke up the first thing they said to me is ''Mummy we missed suhoor'', so i explained that I had overslept and that it was okay as they could have a break today. Well the looks on their faces made me feel even worse than I already did. They looked deeply saddened by what I was suggesting. They told me they did not care about missing suhoor and that they really wanted to fast (it was a real 'pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease mummy' moment). I could tell that I was not going to win so I agreed and they ran off to pray Fajr (out of its time of course) with huge smiles on their faces.

This was my moment to reflect! What made an 8 and 10 year old so determined to fast? Why were they so keen? Did they want to please me? Was it the prize I had offered for them fasting as many days as they could? I needed to know!

I made up a quick questionnaire with the following questions on it:

1) What are your reasons for fasting in ramadhaan?
2) Why did you chose to fast even when I said perhaps you should have a break today?
3) How do you feel when you fast?
4) How do you feel at the time of opening your fast?
5) What do you hope to gain from fasting the month of ramadhaan?

I was about to find out just why they were so adamant to fast this whole month.

Here are their answers:

A

L -  (I can tell by her not so neat writing she is tired - but oh so determined maashaaAllaah)

Their answers made me so happy maashaaAllaah. None if this was for me. They know they fast for Allaah. They know the reward comes from Him. A said he sometimes feels bored, but yet he still keeps going maashaaAllaah.

I am so proud of them I can not explain it. May Allaah subhanahu wa ta'aala continue to bless and protect them, keeping them safe from all evil and harm and may He continue to help me raise them in a way in which they love to seek His pleasure, aameen ya Rabbil alameen!!!!

THE HUMAN BODY...

Part of the science work we are covering at the moment in our galore park book is the human body so today we headed off to the London Natural History Museum to visit the human biology section. We visited the museum a few weeks ago but purposely missed this section as we wanted to cover it separately.

Alhamdulillaah we are blessed to have some amazing fellow homeschooling sisters around us who are doing some fantastic work maashaaAllaah. One of those sisters over at Iman's homeschool has recently shared some really useful note book worksheets and they fitted perfectly with what we are currently covering.

So with our note book sheets in hand off we went to the museum. The plan was to do the work there but because my mum also joined us and the kids were so excited we ended up covering almost the whole museum again which left little time for writing so we will be doing a follow up lesson on Monday inshaaAllaah where the children fill out their work sheets.

I was really shocked to discover just how much or should I say how little blood the human body has (and Allaah knows best). I don't know why but i expected it to be MUCH more. 

It was pretty hard to take lots of photos as I also had baby I and Z to look after but here are a few I managed to take along the way:

This was my lesson for the day! 

The children are already planning our next trip to return inshaaAllaah, i think it may be the gift shop they are after though lol 

WE ARE STILL HERE...

I have very little time to blog nowadays so this is a bit of a catch up for me. Baby I is almost 18 months and is into everything (mainly my 'classroom' drawers) and baby Z is nearing 5 months inshaaAllaah so its all go here.

We had our home education visit on Friday and alhamdulillaah it seemed to have gone really well. They said they had not expected much work from us this time round as I had just had baby I last time they came and was in early stages of pregnancy with baby Z. They were more than happy with what the children presented to them and as usual the poor ladies sat there while A and L shoved everything under their noses in one go.

We have started a new project, the Titanic! We are working through that slowly and the children love to sit and watch the documentaries from an 8 DVD box set that i managed to pick up on ebay very cheaply maashaaAllaah. I like to use a spider graph theme when we do any project and branch off from it to cover the main subjects such as maths, science and english. The children were learning about different types of putting things in order and had to put a series of events from the making of the Titanic to the actual disaster itself into chronological order. They also used their maths skills to make bar graphs showing the different types of passengers; such as class, age, gender etc. We also done some reading comprehension. I would read a chapter at a time from an usborne book we picked up at amazon and then the children had to draw pictures to represent what I had read and also write a few words to explain the picture.

We have also slowly been working through galore park science book 1. I originally bought this level for L and level 2 for A but we decided to work through them one at a time together. This is the benefit of A and L being pretty much at a similar level. We can work together and i can just give A a little more challenging stuff.  I hope the same happens when I and Z are a little older inshaaAllaah. There is just 13 months between them so i am hoping the ease will continue when it comes to teaching them. We have been working on healthy diet and just recently went on to teeth. InshaaAllaah we will be going to the natural history museum next week where we will spend the whole day in the human body section to go with what we are covering in our lessons at home. We went there a few weeks ago but that was just a general day out, this time it will be more of an educational trip.

The children have been doing bits and pieces in other workbooks. I am not a fan of workbooks but having the two small babies means i sometimes have to give in and allow the children to use them rather than do nothing while my hands are tied elsewhere.

From Monday inshaaAllaah we will be following a new 4 week schedule. We currently cover english, maths, science, history, geography, islamic studies, arabic, other languages and projects. I was struggling to cover it all and often our lessons would spill over in to the weekends which wasn't much fun. So now i have made a new schedule where our lessons change from one week to the next. It gives me the chance over the period of a month to cover all the lessons we need to whilst only doing three days a week. We do Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Thursday is what we call a free day. The children can choose to do things such as painting, crafts, clay, crochet, baking, trips to library etc. I am hoping this way of doing things will make it more enjoyable again as home schooling should never feel like a burden. I must admit i am looking forward to knowing that when we finish our last lesson on a Wednesday, i then have a few days to catch up on other chores at home until we pick up again on a Monday. I made myself a planner (yes i know i am a nerd) and without it my whole world collapses lol. I really am one of those people who can only function when everything is planned out and i follow the rules. I was looking at planners online but they can be very expensive and not always suitable for what we need so i decided to have a go at making my own. I can not begin to tell you how much it has made things easy for me maashaaAllaah! Here are just a few of the pages:

I have not had chance to take many photos along the way since i last blogged but here are a few bits from what the children have been working on and some from our day out at the Natural History Museum:

Our Titanic information display

A and L drawings of the Titanic maashaaAllaah

I got this display aaaaaages ago and forgot we had it.
Alhamdulillaah it went nicely with our studying the human body. 

I am going to start taking lots more pics along the way again inshaaAllaah as it is really nice to look back through them and see how much the children have actually covered (especially when i have my ''I cant do this anymoooooooore" days lol)

That's it for now as i have a sink full of washing up that refuses to do itself!!!

AND THEN THERE WERE SIX...

Alhamdulillaah baby Z has finally made an appearance (explains why I have not blogged for a while). He was born on 16th December 2012 and he is a wonderful addition to our family. I can not thank Allaah enough for His continuous blessings He grants me and once again He has shown me mercy by giving me a beautiful ease after such hardships. Pregnancy was quite difficult with baby Z and having such a small age gap with him and baby I (who is now only 14 months old) I was worried that home schooling would be on hold for a long time after I gave birth but alhamdulillaah we only took a short break and was back with things from the 1st January.

We have been continuing with our geography work and will continue with that inshaaAllaah until we have covered as many countries as the children wish to. We made a display for the times around the world and for every country we cover the children make a mini clock to show what time it would be in that country (based on it being 1pm here in UK).

As part of his maths work A made a bar graph to show which continents we have been working on the most and so far it seems we have covered Asia more than any other. As they work through the countries they will add to the graph.

The children also asked if they could do a winter project and so we started that as well (we still have some old projects on the go but oh well they can wait lol).

Out of a piece of cardboard we made a winter folder to write some winter facts in. A decorated it with a snow man and we placed some flaps inside with winter based questions.

They also done some written work for their winter project, including acrostic poems and information on animals that migrate and hibernate. 

Poem writen by A

Will the snow ever come?

It will be lots and lots and lots of fun!

Nice and neat piles of snow

Tea time, tea time, here we go!

Everyone loves the snow

Really, oh really, didn't you know!

Poem written by L

Why is snow cold and white?

Is it because it falls at night?

Nice and cosy in my house

Tucked up warm is a small brown mouse

Every year the snow might fall

Resting on my garden wall

A and L also made calendars as gifts for their nan and aunt maashaaAllaah. They really enjoyed doing this and I simply printed off a calendar template and they got on with it themselves. Nanny and Auntie were very happy with their gifts.

As part of their Islamic studies with my husband the children have been working through the 'Aqeedah and Fiqh book published by Salafy Ink. This is an excellent workbook maashaaAllaah and A and L have benefited from it greatly - May Allaah bless and protect them and increase them in much good, aameen!

Baby I is becoming more of a character by the day maashaaAllaah and loves to scribble with crayons and 'read' all kinds of books (upside down). He is now talking in his own language and giggles when doing so, so I am sure what ever he is saying must be very funny lol. He is now walking so the fun has begun and most equipment and resources have now had to be raised up another level out of his reach. 

Baby Z is just chillin for now but with how fast the last year has flown by I am sure it wont be long before he too is causing chaos in the class inshaaAllaah - The joys of homeschooling maashaaAllaah. 

I wouldn't want it any other way :-)