the woodland trust

i was browsing the web, you know how everyone does, from one site to the next when luckily i came across this wonderful site http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx it has endless ideas and loads of free downloadable resources, especially for autumn. i know i'm going to enjoy this site with my children, hope you do too!

pasta bake anyone?

looks good doesn't it? want some?

errrm.........maybe next time!

To-Do list

one thing that i have become a fan of after ramadan is making a 'To-Do' list. I've realised that having all the things that you want to get done, in a day or week, written down in front of you really helps you to achieve your goals. so beside my weekly list, we have made this daily one. it looks like a lot of things to get done, but remember, this is going to be done all throughout the day, not just in our 'schooling' hours inshallah. this list is hung on a door, where we can see it everyday.

goodbye sunshine, hello rain

it's the chill in the air, the last batch if my cherry tomatoes, the empty fruit tree's, the ripening pumpkins, the sign of harvest put up at our local church, the nights drawing in, that tell me that summer has well and truly gone and autumn is here!

my patch

although i didn't do as well as i had hoped with my little patch, i realised that i won't have a corner full of pumpkins this year, and there won't be any extras to freeze and put away, but i have to say we have been enjoying fresh from the garden vegetables of some sort or another throughout the whole summer, so i guess i have much to be thankful for alhamdulillah

skills for life

when i began home schooling my kids i was a little lost and confused as to what i was going to do with them, what curriculum i would follow etc, but one thing that i was definitely sure about was i wanted to teach them skills that they would need throughout their entire lives, such as sewing, cooking, cleaning, knitting, you get my drift, alhamdulillah we have been able to do many of these things and incorporate them into our everyday learning. to start them off sewing i bought these puppets, they have holes around the edges (making it a lot easier for the children) and plastic needles (very necessary to start off with i think), my daughter made a little scented cushion for herself, she filled it with Cotton wool and a few drops of perfume (essential oils would have been nice but we didn't have any).

how can you make puppets and not have a puppet show?

living in jacobean times

we went on another trip with our homeschooling group, this time it was to visit a house (house doesn't do it justice) from Jacobean times, i visited this place once when i was a child, as a child everything looked opulent, huge beds with plush bedding, pictures as big as the wall, rooms were deep, dark and mysterious, going there as an adult my experience was a little different, things didn't seem as big and mysterious this time round, not to put the house down in any way, because it is truly a beautiful and charming house (as you can see from the pictures hopefully! ever tried taking pictures holding a baby?), but i know my children loved the experience and felt just the way i did, alhamdulillah

we had guide to take us round, the kids listened, answered questions and filled in their worksheets and after all that hard work, there were some hands on activities to do, phew!

i can cook

after watching a children's cookery programme, the kids were very excited to try the recipe out so, we went shopping, bought the ingredients, and made these, your wondering what they are right? they're called

tomato spirals!
made with puff pastry, tomato puree, and basil.

very simple to make and even better to eat!

and look what i made (for myself) with left over pastry, cherry tomatoes from my hanging basket and left over vegetables in my fridge. delicious....

happiness is....

my hanging basket cherry tomatoes!

art attack

a space rocket made from football cards!

eid baskets

these will be left out tonight and tomorrow morning they will be bursting with all sorts of goodies for the kids to enjoy, just a little added extra bit of excitement, for me, thats what eid is all about. alhamdulillah

Eid Mubarak!

festive bicuits

more eid preparations took place today, this time in the form of these lovely almond biscuits, the kids really enjoyed making them, the recipe that i followed seemed simple enough on paper but when it came down to it we had a couple of hiccups, we improvised, so it was OK in the end, can't wait to serve them up to my guests on eid day, no doubt the kids will go round chanting 'we made these ourselves'

now all it needs is a dusting of icing sugar and a cold glass of milk......

eid decorations

although it's really sad to see the end of this blessed month, the fact of the matter is that it could be eid in one or two days, the kids are so excited they might burst and they just want to see their mommy preparing for eid, so today we made and hung our decorations, paper plates with hadiths about the etiquette's of eid.......
paper plates spelling out eid mubarak.....

paper lanterns (instead of paper chains, we made paper chains last year)

and a happy eid banner to go on our door outside for all to see.

next some eid baking i think, inshallah

ramadan lapbooks

our ramadan lapbooks are now complete, i waited and did them towards the end of the month so that the information that we put in the lapbooks has already been discussed at some other point previously in our day to day lives.

my sons one has the gates of jannah (open) and jahannam (closed), we made a paper chain to represent shaytaan (devil) chained up, and some quranic ayats and hadiths

my daughters has a mini book with the months in islam, a ramadan poem, a hadith, information on how rewards are multiplies 70 times and some other information about ramadan.

so for next year we ahve a wealth of information ready to devour well before ramadan even starts inshallah