Successful LEA Meeting ! Alhamdulillaah !!!

We had the LEA come on Friday, that morning I was so anxious just waiting for the assessor to arrive. But Alhamdulillaah I was pleasantly surprised when he came, I was expecting a much older man dressed up in a business suit with a briefcase, lol, the typical office look, but he wasn't at all like that and I didn't feel intimidated by him.

He was pleased with our classroom, said it was very colourful Masha'Allaah, he looked at a little bit of the girls work, he especially liked the lapbooks. He wasn't actually here for as long as I thought he would be, probably only about 20 minutes-1/2 hour, he said he was pleased with what he'd seen, and we appear to be on the right track, (insha Allaah) and he will send us the report and would be ticking the 'acceptable' box, alhamdulillaah.

I was over the moon, it was such a relief and quite a confidence booster. I am glad that I contacted them now, rather than them turn up at my door unexpectedly or something like that.

All my thanks go to Allaah, for making it easy for me alhamdulillaahil rabbil 'aalameen (All praise be to Allaah, the lord of Mankind).

On another note, here's a few recent web links I've come across which I thought I'd share :

Rocket Maths (note: apparently for home users the flashcards are more recommended for the memorisation of Math Facts)

Primary Home Tutor

Noeo Homeschool Science (U.S)

Math U See

Hearts and Trees

Cambridge Brain Box

Science Kits (U.S)

The Maths Factor (Carol Vordermans up and coming online maths school, insha Allaah)

Science A-Z

BTW, learning was little this past week, due to various factors, and me panicking and trying to prepare for the LEA, we did some work on the human body, some maths, spelling but not enough to post up an interesting enough update, will try better this week insha Allaah !

Also to the sister who sent me the message the other day, if your reading this, afwan sis, I apologise I didn't respond to your second email, I've been a bit busy as your aware the past few days, feel free to call me insha Allaah, probably best late afternoon insha Allaah, I look forward to hearing from you :)

Anxious over LEA visit, plus great web link !

Assalamu 'alaykum, and Hi ! to anyone who may happen to be reading this, Sorry I haven't updated my blog recently, haven't had much chance to come and write our weekly updates, which I must admit I thought I was doing really well at ;) alhamdulillaah, but we've also been away to Wales, we came back on Friday. It was nice to have a break Masha'Allaah.

I'm not gonna write much as it's really late here in the UK, I'm busy trying to organise some work for the girls for tomorrow insha Allaah. I also have the second visit from the LEA (local education authority) on Friday morning, this has totally shook my confidence, and I've been doubting myself big time in the last week, it's the whole 'official' thing and having someone judge the work your doing with your kids, it can all feel very overwhelming and intimidating, all in all I hope that it will be a positive meeting and that he will be satisfied with my efforts insha Allaah. Will try my best to update on how it goes.

Before I go, I just want to make mention of an excellent phonics website I've just come across, I was looking for some sheets to supplement the lessons in Reading Reflex, and this site actually offers free phonic packs, 6 in total, they're nicely set out and illustrated Masha'Allaah. I just printed out some of the worksheets for the 'oa' sound, Dd(6) needs alot more practice, and I'm hoping this will be just what she needs insha Allaah.

Thanks for reading :)

Bit more on our trip to Thinktank

Following on from my post a few days ago, the trip to Thinktank was great, we definitely want to go again soon insha Allaah, there was a floor each for past/present/future/collections (I think!). There was a lovely part called kids city, and it was split into sections like, a dentist's, garage, health centre, cafe, street and they had a water area where the children could play with the toy boats and watch them go over the bridges, Ds(2) really enjoyed that part. I felt quite bad that I couldn't let him out of the pram much more than I did, I had to watch the other kids and he just wanted to explore, maybe next time insha Allaah I will let him have more time, maybe a day when it's a bit quieter, we went on a Saturday, so as you can imagine, it was rather busy.

It was interesting walking through the museum, and looking at all the antiques, there were some red cups which were made quite a while back, I can't recall the date now, but they were gorgeous! Masha'Allaah, would look really nice up on a unit.

We saw the oldest working steam engine, which was used to pump water to the canal between Birmingham And Wolverhampton, which was quite amazing to watch. We saw so much there, that it's hard to remember it all, we missed the human body section, which is a shame because we've just started to cover it, next time insha Allaah.

As I mentioned I did take some photos, not as many as I would have liked, but I was relying on my camera phone, which had limited memory. I'm still waiting for the usb cable to come, I don't know why it takes so long for some things to arrive, I ordered it at the end of last week, but as soon as I get it will upload some insha Allaah.

On a different note, I had my first visit from the LEA (local educational authority) yesterday, I was very nervous, I didn't really know what to expect, but alhamdulillaah the meeting didn't last long, and it went quite smooth, the lady who came said that she was happy to refer me on to the assessor, so I just hope the meeting with him goes just as well insha Allaah.

Yesterday after they had gone, Dd(9) asked me ''Do the LEA have babies?'' Lol, I said of course they do, they're human like us! You just wonder what goes on inside their heads sometimes :D

Another LEA experience.

Here's another encounter with the LEA from the same website, a more positive experience from the start alhamdulillaah, it does make you feel better when you hear these stories, it also makes me feel more encouraged to register with them, and if I was to do so, the reason would mainly be to keep me on my toes a bit more, insha Allaah.