the allotment...an update

anybody wondering why our allotment hasn't featured on this blog a lot more? well that is because.....unfortunately things have not gone to plan in that department!

these courgette plants that you see below, have mostly been blown away by severe spells of wind.

my herb garden is virtually non existence, why? well the lavender refuses to get off the ground.

and the rosemary has lost the will to live.

and the rest of the space has been hijacked by these....

i am quite disappointed, but it is partly my fault, i haven't been giving this space the time and attention that it needs, and it definitely hasn't been the classroom that i had anticipated.

what i'm doing now is trying to make the most of the few things that have survived (will get pictures of those next time).

hopefully next year will be different, insh'Allah.

last few days.....

:: wedding shopping (my brother's getting married)

:: making pressed flower pictures (we pressed flowers weeks ago, when we got them out they were paper thin)

:: reading poetry, from here



:: baking, from here

:: more wedding shopping

:: reading aloud, the classic Beatrix Potter Tales

:: having friends over

:: playing 'stop the bus', a game from my childhood, i don't know if this is an actual game or whether my siblings and i invented it (we invented a lot of games, you see)

baking

i had some delicious homemade biscuits with my tea today, but the best thing is that i didn't need to lift a finger to make them.


my daughter took the lead, and by following the step by step instructions from her book that she picked up from the library yesterday, she made these wonderful treats. the only thing i did was put them in the oven to bake!


i was so impressed, normally when we bake i do all the 'messy' jobs and let them do the stirring and mixing etc.

something that i realised is that, sometime we mollycoddle our children a little, but just by stepping back and giving my daughter some space, i realised that she is a lot more capable than i thought.

this idea (to get my daughter a cookery book and let her take the lead) was given to me by a sister when i complained that my children don't spontaneously read anything, i guess i was wrong, thanks sis.

a long break!!!

Assalamu Alaikum dear readers,
after a long time of, putting homeschooling on the back bench, taking a break (for a while), of being hectic with everyday chores, appointments and illnesses, of being worn out to do anything, of having no energy to sit and explain work in workbooks, of putting blogging somewhere very low down on the the 'things to do' list....we are back! 'official' homeschooling is still sitting on the back bench, i still can't be bothered with workbooks and work sheets, still haven't got the energy to nag my children to write this or read that, so i have made a very important decision, yes, we are now un-schooling! for how long? i don't know, but that's the great thing about home-education, you can go with the flow and not have to answer to anyone!

these are pictures are from the bug hunt we went on today, we didn't find anything exciting, but whatever we did find, we recorded on a chart.

another thing we did today was go to the library. normally i control the books that my children bring home, but today i let them get whatever they wanted, my son picked up a comic book with his favourite characters and a book about the 'toy story' characters and my daughter picked up a book on baking and story book about two girls who are friends, as long as they read it, i don't really care.

to the sisters who have been concerned and have left comments but received no reply, i am sincerely sorry!