Weekly Report - 31st January 2010

I wanted to get this update in before I head off to bed, otherwise it'll probably never get done! We had a fairly good week alhamdulillaah, this is a brief summary of what we did,

Maths - we worked on Number bonds (can't wait till they learn them insha Allaah), we used the number bonds machine that I mentioned in a previous post, I try to have them do at least 5 minutes of it a day.

Dd(6) did some adding/takeaway in her book and volume and capacity on Smart Kiddies.

They both practiced their times tables, and wrote them up in their book.

Played on Timez Attack - again, practicing their times tables.

Dd(9) worked on some fractions, alhamdulillaah it went well. She went on Smart kiddies first, then did some work in her book.

Also covered some division and multiplication.

Grammar - Dd(9) did lesson 43 and 44 of 'first language lessons for the well trained mind' which were 'poem-months' and 'nouns-ideas'.

Dd(6) read some Dr Seus books, she's really into them right now, so am I !

We have put writing with ease on hold for now, as we wait for the workbook to arrive.

History - Re-started SOTW, ancient history - The first nomads become farmers, I read aloud, and Dd(9) wrote down in her own words the parts she remembered.

We watched some videos on crocodiles/alligators and Cheetah's, these were the animals of the week before that they studied. We found out where the animals mainly live, and looked the countries up on the map and globe, Dd(9) wrote up a fact sheet about Cheetah's.

Geography - Local area and Continents in workbook. And did a nice set of worksheets from the Teacher file box on Globes and Continents. The girls drew up a map of the garden, using symbols for the things that are in there, like swings, plant pots etc..

Dd(9) is really trying hard now to get the hang of knitting Masha'Allaah, she's getting there, I've ordered this DVD to help her progress a bit more insha Allaah



I'm also intending to use it ;) I'd love to learn this skill again insha Allaah.

She's also started back learning to touch type alhamdulillaah.

We're intending to start doing some salt dough crafts, maybe this week insha Allaah, we've got the flour ready, and the acrylic paints and brushes, just waiting for the gloss to arrive. Here's the basic recipe for those who don't know ,

You need:

- 1 cup of salt
- 2 cups of flour
3/4 to 1 cup of lukewarm water

you can add in some glitter to the dough or some paint if you want to give it some colour.

Mix the salt and flour together in a bowl, using a wooden spoon. Then add the water until a large ball has formed. Knead at length on a lightly floured work surface (somewhere smooth and easy to clean). The quality of dough you finish with will depend on the time spent on kneading.

It's probably a good idea to make your model on a sheet of baking paper so it's easy to pop it straight in the oven when your finished.

Bake for approx 2 hours using a low temperature setting
50-70C for the first half hour then increase temperature
slowly to 90-100C and cook until the piece is uniform
in colour.

You must gloss or varnish the finished product to preserve it insha Allaah.

We will upload some photos of ours when we've done them, can you believe the usb cable I thought I had ordered for my camera phone, was actually still sitting in the basket at the amazon website, lol, looks like I didn't put it through the checkout after all!, so still waiting for that to arrive, plus have ordered a new camera, which I'm hoping I'll have no problems with insha Allaah, I'm missing my photography :(