We don’t really do any formal science due to R’s hifdh. I know she would love to do more but inshaAllah am hoping our recent weekend science time will suffice for the time being.

Each week, I or the kids choose an experiment to conduct and we have a discussion on our findings. Recently we made electric bugs! This was to test whether materials conduct electricity and thus complete the electrical circuit.

So, you need coloured paper, foil, tiny bulbs, wire, glue, Sellotape, scissors and a battery. This experiment is from one of the Usborne science experiment books. Basically you need to connect the wires to the battery and bulb to make a circuit. But leave two wires free which will act as the antenna of the bug. Wrap these with foil.

Wrap the main part with paper, you can add wings etc. Your bug is now ready for testing!

R, Z, and Y each had a bug and went around the house testing different objects. Z was just excited to see the nose of his bug light up when the antennae touched electrical conductors. R’s observations went a bit further and she asked why some objects made the bulb shine brighter whilst others just about got it to light. We then discussed good conductors and poor conductors.

It was a very enjoyable, fun and hands on way of doing science mashaAllah.

So busy subhanaAllah. No time to post but thought I’d share some of what we’ve been up to in pictures…

Freestyle junk modelling. This is Z’s robot

R finished this knitted bag in Algeria

Snake art with the boys

Yummy cupcakes made by R – she loves baking and alhamdulillah I can now sit back and relax and let her do it alone.

Counting activity and number recognition with the boys

R taking an interest in BSL Sign Language

Y in the taste experiment!

Taste experiment R prepared.

Decorating numbers – we do lots of stuff with these. Hide them around the house and they need to find number 1, 3 etc. Run to number 4. All numbers at top of the stairs – the boys run up and grab the number I shout out. Works well as my boys can’t keep still.

Air pressure experiment with R – fill up a glass of water – place a card on top. Turn it over and watch how the water doesn’t fall out.

Learning high frequency words

Z placed these body part cards onto Y’s body.

Quick post to let all home educators know that we have a discount for the eid funday at Chessington World of Adventures!

More details of what MRDF have organised can be found here: http://www.eidfunday.com

Discount I have is £15 per ticket for both adults and children. Kids under 0.9 metres go free.

This discount is exclusively for home educators only. If you’re interested, please email the following info to ummraiyaan@googlemail.com:

Name, address, tel no and email address of person paying.
Full names of all others attending

Then send PayPal payment to ummraiyaan@googlemail.com. Please note you must pay the PayPal fees otherwise your place will not be guaranteed and your money will be refunded back to you.

First come basis.DEADLINE 6th MAY 2013

Its been almost 2 months since I last posted. Home ed is very much continuing over here but I seriously have no time to blog! 4 kids, home ed plus lots of other stuff going on really means that I am searching for minutes. I do tend to have time when I’m breastfeeding – but I normally use that time to catch up with sisters I know on whatsapp – thats about all the socialising time I get at the moment!

Currently, have just returned from Algeria. 3 of the kids are still there for an extra month. They were supposed to return in a week’s time but had to change their ticket due to some urgent family matters and the first available ticket was mid April! Am hoping that we can find an earlier date change inshaAllah.

Home ed is continuing – constant adjustments and constant evaluation on my part in how and what we do in our home ed journey.

I feel like closing the blog as I really don’t have time to blog anymore and feel its somewhat pointless to keep it open. Having it open makes me feel like I need to blog which is unnecessary pressure so might be closing it down.

We’ll see..

Life is full of changes and so home ed must change – it can never stay rigid.

I don’t seem to have much time to blog at the moment but will try and do what I can here and there til I can get back into a good flow insha’Allah.

Home ed routine has started back again alhamdulillah – some updates:

Zuzu (almost 5) and Y (almost 3): I’m teaching them together as they are pretty much at the same level – got a nice routine going with them now. Impossible to teach them all in the morning as they are soooo active and can’t keep still. So, what seems to be working with them is doing bitesize small 5-10 minute stuff regularly throughout the day. And am trying design their work so that they burn energy.
What they are doing: memorising 1 ayat per day and going over what they have already memorised.
A bit of math – no writing for now – just loads of games – eg, running up the stairs and grabbing the correct number or jumping on the correct number/shape
A bit of english – a mix of jolly phonics and a You Can Read program where they learn a set of sight words – masha’Allah they’ve learnt 6 phonics and 4 sight words so far
A bit of arabic – learning the alphabet
I read to them loads and try to talk about Allah and the Prophet (saw) as much as possible. Am reading Muhammad and Maryam from the Perfecting Pillars series from Ad Duha to them every morning at breakfast.
And then LOADS OF PLAY PLAY PLAY
Sport – Z is doing swimming, kickboxing which he loves and archery

R (aged 8):
Hifdh – moving along alhamdulillah. There’s another child she knows who is roughly at the same level as her so she’s competing which seems to be working.
Murajaah – we’ve changed this to half a juz every day where she listens, reads and recites with a qari and then we have been taking a portion of her previous hifdh and listening to that and fixing any mistakes. This has been working very well masha’Allah. My husband teaches quite a few children and just leaving them to listen, read and recite is quite risky as they might be doing it from memory and keep repeating their mistakes. The ‘fixing’ of all surahs/pages has really worked alhamdulillah.
Reading – she reads a portion every day and started from Baqarah.
English – this has so far been mixed with topic work. I made a list of topics she needs to cover in English under the sub headings: wordwork, grammar, punctuation, writing etc and then I make sure she studies a topic incorporating English work into it. Currently doing a Weather project with her
Math – MEP and some other workbooks/online resources – quite slow here but insha’Allah its okay
Arabic – still carrying on with Madinah Arabic books, just started Bayyinah.tv – Arabic with Husna program which she loves aswell as reading and some online stuff
Sport – Kickboxing, swimming – she’s on stage 3 masha’Allah, archery which she loves and Muslim Scouts – Cubs
Other – she can now knit and crochet, bakes regularly on her own, helping with housework more and is currently doing a Design and Technology course for home edded children
Islamic Studies – very practical – praying, discussing, reading and acting upon it insha’Allah – focus for me for R is her character more than rolling off Islamic facts which anyone can do!

Baby S (we kept her name in the end lol!) – is 7 weeks now masha’Allah and has started smiling and giggling at things masha’Allah. Other than that – poops, sleeps and cries all day

Thats about all that I can manage at the moment – life is very busy subhanAllah

At the weekend, the girls and I went out to visit a sister who had just had a baby.

After we left, I took R out for a hot chocolate and we had ‘the chat’ about periods and puberty. I have been planning to do this for some time and am so glad I did it when I did.

She is slowly showing signs of change and I just felt it was the right time. MashaAllah she was very mature about it and asked lots of questions.

Am so glad she didn’t hear about it from anyone else aside from me. I tried to emphasise that she is slowly moving towards more changes and that she isn’t accountable at the moment but will be accountable one day and so needs to start implementing some changes – ready for when the angels begin writing down her deeds.

I’m not too eager for her to become baligh – I want her to remain young and accountable for as long as possible inshaAllah…but if she follows me, it could be very soon as I was 9 years old!

I really don’t know where time has gone subhanaAllah.

It only seems like yesterday that I was in the intense moments of labour. Alhamdulillah, I have taken the last month to try and rest and mashaAllah my mother in law spent the month with us and this definitely helped. She returned to Algeria a week ago and this week has been an adjustment to being an Ummi to 4 children.

This last month has been completely out of routine. The children haven’t really been doing very much academically. But it definitely has been a month of learning – life’s learning!

R really enjoyed having her grandmother here – masha’Allah she learn 4 new knitting stiches and completed quite a large piece of knitting. My mother in law also taught her how to crochet – so R has been doing a lot of this. She is currently working on a knitting project – making a small bag. She also enjoyed a trip to the Ragged School Museum with some other home edders – I actually went on this trip as a child and it was amazing so much so that I still remember it. The children enter a real Victorian classroom and kitchen with an actress acting as a strict Victorian teacher. R absolutely loved it.

We are currently trying to decide what baby’s name is – we did previously name her S but my husband wants to change her name – so at the moment – she’s nameless lol!

Yesterday, I spent most of the day planning next week’s home ed – I feel that we have been ‘off’ for far too long. I’m not sure how next week will go as it will be home edding with a newborn but we’ll see how it goes insha’Allah.

After the last month, I feel that I need to give a lot more of my attention to Z. He’s going to be 5 in March inshaAllah and I am concerned about his emotional development – I’m not too fussed about his academic progress but I am worried about his character and emotional well being. I can see that he needs some quality time with me and I hope I can give him that inshaAllah. I have been reading a lot about children who are aggressive/angry. Children that don’t seem to be interested in anything etc and also how I as a parent can change and bring about a positive reacction in my children. I feel that home ed is so much more than just academics. I want my children to emotionally and spiritually grow in a very positive way – I feel I have lost sight of that to a certain degree amongst the hifdh, math and english lessons.

Another topic – This last month has also seen an amazing thing happen within my family. My father and I have been estranged for quite some years and masha’Allah he recently got back in touch and we had our first telephone conversation a few weeks ago after so many years. SubhanaAllah wa bi hamdih – this is purely from Allah! Prior to this telephone call, he was writing to R and R wrote a few letters back. This has been quite an emotional time especially after the birth of baby. I praise Allah for the blessings He has recently brought me – walhamdulillah.

Hope to blog more insha’Allah…time permitting

Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us with a baby girl. Born on Thursday – another vbac alhamdulillah. R is over the moon that she finally has a baby sister mashaAllah. Were still in hospital as baby had some blood sugar problems and had to stay in neo natal. But she’s better mashaAllah and is back with me now. Am looking forward to going home inshaAllah. Miss the others. Alhamdulillah for all of Allah’s blessings – welcome baby S to the world l

I do like to document ‘moments’ so that I can look back on them.

My kids are obsessed with the upcoming arrival insha’Allah and are getting very excited.

I have a birthing ball which they think is the best thing ever – they jump and roll over it – to be honest, I think they’re making more use of it than I am!

This morning after breakfast, Zuzu lay on the floor and placed the birthing ball on his chest and said ‘The One, The One’. It was such a funny but sweet moment – it took me a couple of minutes to clock on that he was imitating Bilal (RA).

He does keep us entertained masha’Allah.

As for me, lots of menstrual type cramping but other than that – playing the waiting game…

BIG TIME!

Got less than 2 weeks left insha’Allah before new baba arrives insha’Allah. And am in nesting mode BIG TIME!

Noticing dirt everywhere – decluttering the entire house and repainting all those dirty walls. Tiring but feels good alhamdulillah.

Home ed is pretty much continuing. R’s hifdh is going well masha’Allah. Z’s phonics and sight words are coming along slowly but nicely alhamdulillah. Y is addicted to Reading Eggs – which suits me just fine at the moment.

R has started attending a knitting club run by our local Muslim home ed group and has really got into that - quite a relaxing hobby mashaAllah.

And ALHAMDULILLAH, Y is now officially potty trained with the exception of nights – relief alhamdulillah.

So, just waiting and nesting some more…