Maths: Numbers and chocolate?!

As a part of our number recognition and counting lessons, we did something that was a huge success! Alhamdulillah!

 Firstly, we made numbers 1 to 5 using playdough. My daughter rolled and I cut and then we swapped, I rolled and she cut. We made the numbers out of different coloured playdough and placed them on the table. To test her, I would make number 1 and then ask her what number I needed to make next. She got it right, alhamdulillah. After making the numbers, I gave her a ball of yellow playdough and asked her to stick tiny balls on each number: so 1 yellow ball on number 1, 2 yellow balls on number 2 etc etc.

After this, we took 5 plastic cups from the kitchen and a bag of honeycomb balls covered in chocolate (yummy!) I placed a cup next to each number and asked her to place the chocolate balls in each cup according to the number next to the cup. She did it successfully, masha’Allah and then smiled a cheeky smile which literally said: ‘Okay, let’s eat them now!’ Which she (and I) did! Here is a picture of the chocolate balls in the cups before we devoured them (!):

Henna

My daughter looooooves henna! We were having a relaxing early afternoon after lunch and she asked me to ‘do henna’ on her hands. Now, for those who know me – I am definitely no artist. But, here are my latest designs:

 

It was interesting as we got into a discussion about how the henna ‘turns orange’ and stays on her hand. The reason why this discussion was initiated between myself and my 3 1/2 year old is because as soon as I had finished my master designs, she wanted to wash it off immediately so that it would ‘turn orange’. Thus, I explained that she needed to wait; why the henna was brown first of all and how the orange result stayed on her hands. She was intrigued and fascinated. Now, for those ‘unschoolers’ out there, I am beginning to understand your method. However, I am not converted…yet! It was interesting though: a scientific lesson from drawing a flower and a butterfly on the hands of my daughter using henna! Mmmm…