Tuesday's update

I know, haven't posted any of our 'learning' updates for a while, afwan, blogging seemed the last of my priorities lately, but I have missed it, insha Allaah I'll get back on track.


Well we started off our day a little bit later than I wanted to today, but alhamdulillaah it was still early.

We got started on our morning adkhaar, masha'Allaah the girls are starting to remember many of them now.


Dd(8) got her qaa'idah out, she's now learning the long vowel 'a' , progress could be alot faster if we spent more time on it insha Allaah, would like to start doing an extra lesson in the afternoon insha Allaah.

Dd(5) still working on the small letters, just going over it each time until she can recognise each letter well, she's getting there Allaahumma baarak feeha.


As I wasn't able to get most of the planning done for this week over the weekend, except really for maths, today was a bit unstructured, but actually seemed to get quite a bit fitted in, I chose some things randomly, and to tell you the truth I kinda enjoyed it, but I do still like to have some structure, but it made a change.


I signed Dd(5) up for Whizz Maths, Dd(8) is also doing it, masha'Allaah after doing her assesment, it showed that her maths age is 6.31, Allaahumma baarak feeha, I was very impressed, alhamdulillaah, I'm hoping insha Allaah this programme will benefit both of them, I have seen progress with my other daughter also, masha'Allaah, but we haven't been using it consistently, would like to try and schedule 3-4 days for them to go on and do a couple of lessons insha Allaah.


So today, Dd(5) did a lesson on place value (on whizz) and measures, I could see she was getting a bit frustrated with the programme, as there's so many questions, and sometimes she just wasn't getting it, but she was determined to keep going, I think probably because she knows that they give you points for each lesson and test, and then the child can go spend it in the online virtual shop, she really wants to buy a pet! lol.


She also did some pattern worksheets, we've done a few lessons on this topic, alhamdulillah all has gone well.

played a few learning games online, some memory games, watched little bit of adem and the ants (what a name ey?! lol) on bbc, it's kinda like a maths cartoon, first sounds game (also on bbc).


We did some sight words practice, masha'Allaah she knew quite a few of them, plan on doing a little bit of these each day insha Allaah, probably just about 5 minutes, as at this age they tend to lose focus easily, and don't want to be burning her out now! insha Allaah.

" Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. "-- Roger Lewin


I probably did less with Dd(8) today, I think mainly because I had to spend alot of time sitting at the computer with Dd(5) doing her assesment, I couldn't leave her do it by herself as not everything on there is voiced out.


She did also go on Whizz, she worked on doubling, which I think she got,alhamdulillaah, when she came out of school back last year, her teacher told me she was having trouble understanding doubling and halving, so I'm glad it came up now, she also did place value,seasons.


Did some workbook exercises for Maths, she worked out a few money problems, and did subtraction.


I copied some worksheets from a couple of her english books for her to do, one was 'simple sentences' which focused on capital letters and full stops, also 'letters and words, the 'ow' sound'


Science - Just a bit of reading and a worksheet on the topic 'growing up' looking at the stages of life etc...


I know it doesn't look alot, but at the moment really trying to work on my consistency, last week we did 'school' each day alhamdulillaah, and so today I felt this was better than nothing, insha Allaah, at least they'll learn something, I don't really want to be dishing out worksheet after worksheet, but it's made me realise that when I need to get busy with something, for example the cooking, attending to the baby, my eldest daughter at least can be sitting down with a workbook, instead of wasting time, I like to see them more as a backup, but i think they are great for subjects such as english/maths.

" Teaching does not make learning --- organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to 100% false. Learners make learning. "-- Education Reformer John Holt