forest demolition

the cress has finally become a fully grown forest, so there was nothing else to do except demolish it. so today at lunch time the demolitions began.

cutting down forests is a very bad thing, but in this case, it's all good!

(don't forget to look at my newly thrifted plates, cool don't you think?)

growing cress

we had some cress seeds lying around the house from last summer, so after the kids finished their chocolate mousse, they washed out their pots and took the initiative to grow cress seeds, they did everything themselves (we did this a few months back, so they knew what to do), now the pots are sitting on a window ledge with the other house plants, and the kids are waiting eagerly for the first arrival of shoots.

the part that i initiated was for them to keep a diary, from the first day when they grew the seeds up until the cress is ready to be eaten. we will be watching and discussing, how it grows, how long the process is, the importance of putting it in sunlight, whether they need to water it or not, how they are going to eat it etc.

i will keep you updated on the progress inshallah!

science project: space exploration

it's been a long time since we started a new project, when i first started teaching my kids at home , we did one project after another based on whatever was going on around us at that time, whether it was my daughter losing her teeth, the changing seasons, certain islamic events, whatever it was we did a project on it.

space exploration was something that i have been planning to do for a very long time, but we have never got round to it, until now.

we started with these 3D pictures, my son has been into all things 3D, so i used that interest of his and applied it to this, the results were absolutely great!

snow activities

it's been really cold and snowy over here, we've been mainly in-doors, this is what we've been up to..

catching snow flakes and looking at them under the microscope

drawing snow flakes

salt dough snow flakes

knitting for charity

a sister at our homeschooling group came up with the idea of knitting blankets for charity. many of us thought it was a brilliant idea and decided we'de all get together and knit seperate square's (the quantity doesn't matter, as many as you can do), then we'd put all the squares together and we'de have a blanket! sounds quite straight forward doesn't it? it wasn't! first we had to decide what kind of charty we wanted it to go to, then there was the factor of whether it would get to the destination or not, so after a lot of toing and froing the sisters came up with this charity
www.algerianaction.co.uk do check it out!

my daughter has started knitting her square. after a long day, a lot of explaining, showing and showing again, she finally got the hang of it! and now theres no stopping her mashallah. she loves the fact that she's doing something she enjoys so much but getting rewards for it aswell, as it's for charity.

please let me know if anyone wants to contribute then i can give you more details, like the size of the square etc.

snow poem

i love snow, i love snow

i love snow because it's fun to play in

i love snow, i love snow

i love snow because its white and fluffy

i love snow, i love snow

i love snow but sometimes it's really icey

by my daughter (8)

jumble sales

it was just another ordinary day, i was walking along the street, going to the chemist to pick up some medication for the kids, suddenly i saw the sign 'jumble sale' written on a poster, hung up outside a building. it's my lucky day, i thought to myself! when i was growing up going to a jumble sale meant that you were poor, no one admitted that their parents went to the jumble sale on the weekend, and if you went and saw someone you knew, you would walk past and pretend you haven't seen each other, it was not mentioned the next time you met, but now it's quite different, i'm different, now i get very excited when i see a jumble sale sign because i know the secret about jumble sale, as the saying goes, one mans trash is another mans treasure, here's what treasure i picked up from the jumble sale that day......


some great finds don't you think?

welcome home

we have been busy welcoming back my husband who has been away for the last 10 weeks on the hajj pilgrimage. the kids have really missed their dad and are overjoyed to have him back.

it's quite a special time when someone returns from the sacred lands of makkah. there are a lot of joys when a person returns from hajj, enjoying the beautiful presents, eating the delicious dates and drinking the fresh zam zam water, but the best and my favourite bit of all is listening to the endless stories, the stories of the hardships that a person faces, the stories of the spiritual journey that a person goes through, the overwhelming emotions that over takes a person, the funny stories and the not so funny ones, the stories of bravery and the stories of being afraid.

the hajj comes and goes, year in year out, millions of people come and go every year, but it's the stories and memories that people bring back with them is what lasts forever

...achoo

we are full of viruses at the moment, again! this area maybe a little quiet in the next few days, so please be patient with us

welcoming winter

whne i woke up today it felt like the world was covered in a sprinkling of icing sugar, it wasn't snow, it was frost. branches looked like fluffy reindeer antlers. i was expecting it disappear by 12 o'clock, instead it stayed all day

ever since the weather has gotten cold, my little ones have been ill. winter is definitely the season when the weather takes it's toll on our bodies, minds and immune systems.

so this year i have devised a little plan. the plan is to try and prepare my family, using as many natural ways to stay healthy and keep the immune system boosted, for the months ahead. here's how.

:: one thing that cropped up again and again when i was researching was, washing your hands. so i'm going to try and get all of us to wash our hands whenever we've been out, after sneezing etc.

:: wrap up warm, wear layers of woolly clothes, cosy socks, extra blankets at night, a hot water bottle at the end of the bed works wonders, and don't forget hats, gloves and scarves when your out and about.

:: use essential oils like eucalyptus and lavender on bed linen and with a candle burner to sooth and unblock the airways

:: eat loads of fruits and veges, i know that it's easier said than done, especially if like mine your children don't like vegetables but you know you children best so do whatever you can.

:: cook warming and healing foods like chicken soup (or any soups), chicken soup is very healing and soothing, especially for someone who is run down.

:: give your immune system a helping hand by eating vitamin C rich foods such as broccoli, tomato, red, orange and yellow peppers, blackcurrants, papaya, mangoes, oranges, and don't forget fruit juices are a great way to get vitamin C inside you.

:: herbal teas (this is for adults) work wonders when you are feeling a little under the weather, they warm you up and give you that extra boost, ginger, lemon and honey are all good for common cold symptoms.

:: take plenty of naps and get as much rest as possible, it really does revive and revitalise.

i have by no means given you all the answers to beating coughs and colds throughout winter, but i hope i have made it that little bit easier for you to get through these cold and frosty winter months. if you have any suggestions do let me know.

maybe now, instead of dreading the winter months we can embrace it.

bread recipe

the bread recipe (requested by sister aasiya) is as follow's:

ingredients:

500g of strong white bread flour (i use allinson)

1 7g sachet of yeast (allinson easy bake)

1 and half tsp salt

1tsp sugar

15g or 15ml of butter or oil (vegetable or olive is fine)

300mls warm water (1 part boiling, 2 parts cold)

pre heat oven

method:

put the flour and the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together, slowly add the water and mix with your fingers, once the flour and water has mixed together to form a dough, put the dough onto a floured surface and start kneading (10 minutes approx, or until dough has become smooth), place the dough into bread tin or shape onto a baking tray, or to make bread rolls, devide the dough into 10 seperate pieces and roll into ball shapes (to make the plaited loaf that you saw in my picture, you need to seperate the dough into three balls and roll out to make three long strips of dough, like long sausages, get the three pieces and stick them together at the top, them slowly plait the dough, stick the other end together as well, cover with a damp towel and leave in a warm place for the bread to rise for 30 minutes, once the dough has risen place on to the middle shelf of the oven gas mark 7 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to gas mark 5 and bake for another 20-25 minutes. tap the loaf on the bottom, a hollow sound means it is ready for you to devour.

serving suggestions:

home made soup and a chunk of your lovely bread

perfect!

science fayre

we had our very first science fayre last week, and it was absolutely brilliant. the experiments ranged from tornadoes in a bottle, we blew up balloons with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, we done a sink or float experiment with layers of different liquids such as golden syrup, water and oil, we had cleaning metals with vinegar, kaleidoscopes, sticking skewers through balloons and much more.

there were two down sides to the day #1 due to several hindrances we couldn't do an experiment and #2 the battery of me camera went flat so i couldn't take as many pictures as i would have liked.

all in all we had a great day, well done to all those who took part, can't wait for the next one inshallah

bread

i never saw the point of baking my own bread, i mean why would i go through all that trouble?, all that stress, when i can pop to my local shop and pick up a perfectly good loaf of bread, do you want to know why, because freshly made bread is one of the best things that you may taste.

i've always had a thing for bread, but now i'm totally in love

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.