autumn/winter ice sculptures

after a very boring week of workbooks and worksheets, i decided to give the kids a break today. after a couple of hours of reading to each other and watching programmes about fishing and another about animals that live in holes, the kids went out to play. their discovery of this block of ice and leaves fascinated the children, and got them really excited, it also gave me some inspiration to make our own ice sculptures! so we got to work looking for whatever we could find that could go into our sculptures.


here's what we found


we arranged these objects in a glass

poured in some water

and left them in the freezer for a few hours

and voila, beautiful ice sculptures to admire, well for a few hours anyway.

the kids absolutely loved this activity, it was very exciting for them, they waited impatiently all day, checking if it was ready or not, i would definitely recommend this activity to anyone.

,

gone fishing!

all summer my son nagged me to take him fishing, and although i always had the intention to take him it was one of them things that we never got round to.....until one day we picked up these fishing nets for fifty pence each at a car boot sale. now there were no more excuses we just had to go fishing, so we did! and it was one of the best things we ever did, it's definitely one of the things that we will be doing more often (whether permitting of course). inshallah

they actually managed to catch something!

sunshine in the rain

i came across this book by accident, while i was looking for something, deep down in a drawer at my mums house. i asked everyone if they knew where it has come from but no one had a clue.

it has really interesting short stories like 'whale in distress' and 'the yeti' but what was really nice about the book was it little factual passages about things like 'plants that move' and 'the long tide'. this books covers history, geography, literacy, science and a whole lot more. we've done reading, comprehension, had loads of dicussions and have asked and answered hundreds of questions.

this little book has put a smile on the faces of the children and mine as well, especially through our miserable days, which were full vomiting, tummy aches and fever. i'm going to see if there are anymore in the series! can't wait!

happy eid

with eid al-adha fast approaching, kids still not well and me still away from home, things have been pretty hectic around here! we haven't been doing much in terms of schedule etc, so our days have consisted of practicing arabic and quran, reading stories, hajj activities and watching live hajj on the telly (my husband has gone for hajj this year so the kids try to spot their dad).

one of the activities we did was called footsteps of hajj, we made a map of all the steps of hajj, by drawing pictures and writing a little bit about what each step is, the kids really enjoyed this activity. we also went to the library to pick some books up related to hajj and have going through those.

tomorrow i plan to do some pre eid baking, mehendi wearing, and other last minute eid prep, inshallah.

i want to take this opportunity to wish everyone who celebrates eid 'eid mubarak', have a lovely time, enjoy!

(still no luck with the camera)

blowing the cobwebs

when things aren't going to plan, you don't feel like yourself, kids are worn out from viruses, your daily routine feels like a burden, when the thought of literacy and numeracy gives you a horrible feeling, forget everything, put your coats on and get yourselves down to the library. i find it a peaceful and quiet place where the kids are overwhelmed with the amount of different books in front of them, you can read together or on your own, it's a place where you (the parent) can take a backseat and let the children lead. and the thought of coming home with bags full of books, is exciting.

3...2...1...blast off (old post)

we went on a space adventure! we boarded our rocket and off we went!as we zoomed off we could see the blue/green earth behind us, we waved goodbye and looked forward to see what lay ahead. as we went further and further away from the sun, it got colder and colder, we went past all the planets one by one, we almost got hit by flying asteroids, shooting stars and comets, when we zoomed past saturn we noticed that the rings are made up of bits of rock and ice, we went outside of our galaxy, to us it looked like a big bowl of ice-cream all swirling about, but then it was time to come back home, so we turned around and zoomed staright back to earth!

what did you do today?

the simple things

hi everyone, unfortunately, things are no better at my end, so i thought i'd re-post some of my favourute OLD posts (hope you don't mind)

recently i have been really inspired by a certain sisterhttp://ittosjournal.wordpress.com/ , she lives in the morrocon mounitains, many miles away from civilisation (as they would say), she doesn't have access to all the shopping malls and fastfood joints that we who live in so called civillised parts of the western world are so used to, this sister makes new out of the old, she makes beautiful handmade objects, which are made out of love and resemble personality, this sister has really made me appreciate the simple things in life! i will be adding more personal touches to my home inshallah

and we have started off with these lanterns!!!

there's something quite magical about sitting in the evening with these handmade lanterns lit up, reading a quiet bedtime story to my children.

still here....

in case your wondering where i've disappeared to, children were sick, i'm away from home, sd card not working, and i'm coming down with something......hope to return to normal very soon inshallah