TIME FOR AN UPDATE...

I have not had the chance to update for a while, plus things have been slow since ramadhan. Children have been working on their five pillars lap book. I was hoping this would be finished a while back but alhamdulillaah they are still enjoying working on it so I guess that is all that matters.

Some of the work on the Sawm section was taken from Imans Homeschool so may Allaah reward the sister for her efforts aameen.

They have also been working on Conquer Maths and now we have added MEP maths into our lessons as well as I always worry about the numeracy side of things (It is not my favourite subject and I worry I hold them back in it)

We have re-arranged the class room and we are now back downstairs as A needed his bedroom back (my boy is growing up fast maashaaAllaah). I realised how much stuff I bought (mainly work books) when we first started that we really never needed. I have had a good clear out and our class room is feeling much more organised now.

Pregnancy and a young baby is keeping me nice and busy maashaaAllaah and extra tired so most days we just do some work books and a little bit of Islamic studies. Alhamdulillaah my husband is a great support and does regular Qur'aan lessons with them and makes sure they practice their Qaidah daily. He has also been taking them to the park quite often to give me a break and a chance to catch up on other stuff. We bought the children a games table for 'Eid so they have also had fun playing air hockey, table tennis and other games.

I guess we have taken the un-schooling approach recently and the children have kind of been leading the way. They asked if they could use a big cardboard envelope style box that our white board came in so for a while it was stood in A's bedroom (collecting dust), I was tempted to throw it out as I didn't have a clue what to use it for and then the children asked if we could make a puppet show so we have just started to decorate it and make some puppets for a show they want to put on. I will video this when complete and add on here another time inshaaAllaah.

Before we got started

Where we are at so far

These are yet to be finished

There has been lots of free arts and craft time and the children really enjoyed sitting in the garden painting plant pots that were given to them as an 'Eid gift by a lovely sister and her family maashaaAllaah. They came with seeds but we are yet to get round to doing that part (laziness from me).

They say one mans junk is another mans treasure and alhamdulillaah I found this to be true this week. I have sat for ages searching ebay and amazon for a big plastic container that is strong enough to hold all the work books and exercise books that the children work in daily so that everything is in one place. This makes it easier if my husband has to take over as he doesn't have to search all over for stuff to do. Anyway I found a few but they were either too expensive, not big enough or not strong enough to hold all that I wanted to put in them. Then the other day as I was walking to the chemist I saw exactly what I was looking for on the field at the end of my road. It's a place where people often dump stuff they don't need and so alhamdulillaah I got what I needed and it never cost me a penny  -  Allaah is the best of planners and providers maashaaAllaah.

Baby I has started to show an interest in books maashaaAllaah, he is just 9 months old but will sit for ages with a book and just flick through the pages and stares at all the words (he often chews them as well lol) so I have really been trying to make time to just sit and read to him while A and L get on with work by themselves.

My eager readers, including baby I maashaaAllaah

That's about it for this update. Things are much slower but alhamdulillaah it still seems to be working for us.