Winter 2016 : Language theraphy

I went to my sons' school to discuss on the Council's language therapy session for my kids. I decided to sign them up for the intervention to help them with listening, grammar, vocabulary, social language and question skills in English.

Winter 2016 : Nabil joined football training

We received this letter in November and thought that it is good to let Nabil join the football team. We are in Manchester kan.... a city famous for football, so why not?

They got meal sponsored by famous sports brand (I cant remember, Nike? or Adidas?) on Tuesdays and trained by experienced footballer.

This is an experience that Nabil couldnt get somewhere else. Alhamdulillah.

Winter 2016 : Ancient Egypt Home-Learning Projects

So this is what Nazreen will learn this term. 

For Ancient Egypt, Nazreen chose to produce a book on River Nile.

First, we discuss on the content and layout. Then Nazreen will proceed with the work. He started with the world map showing major rivers in the world. He traced the map on my laptop screen.

Then he cut each continent, pasted them on the blue card and labeled each river with a pink paper.

These are what he managed to do that night. The world map, animals of the River Nile..

...and diagram showing how people lived along the River Nile longgggg time ago. This is a very detailed drawing and he spent more than one hour to produce this precious.

At the other corner of the room, Nabil pasted together 6 A4 papers to make one big sheet for his Ancient Egypt project. He produces a drawing on the process of pyramid construction.

Similar to Nazreen, he produced a very detailed drawing, however, I didnt manage to capture them because my phone was broken. I was using a very old phone with low resolution and didnt work well at night.

Nabil managed to finish his project that night.

Winter 2016 : Story Hunters

Year 4 students across the UK are so fortunate because they received free set of Story Hunter books from the Book Trust UK! I could not believe it when Nazreen received the first pack – the books are of high quality, interesting and they are not just for read. There are also activity books and stationeries! They will get a new pack every month and parents need to pick it up from the class teacher.

Image from BookTrust (here)

From Story Hunters - Book Trust UK : To encourage that love of reading, every pupil signed up to Story Hunters will get a monthly personalised pack of books and activities, for a six-month period. Every pack will include at least two carefully chosen books, plus engaging games and resources that children can share with their families – a rewarding way to make the most of pupil premium and build home-school links.

Nazmi usually would be very excited when Nazreen come home with the new Story Hunter pack but due to different reason. So he could do this.

Winter 2016 : Ethical Trading Initiatives

I took Work and Employment in Global Economy course. It taught me a lot about globalisation, labour, private standards and global production network. I wrote a lot of essays on private standards, Ethical Trading Initiaties (ETI) in the UK and Fairtrade.

One day I came home and I saw Nazreen’s homework on ETI! It is good for them to understand about ethical trading from early stage and raise the awareness to choose the right products from the supermarket shelves. 

I, on the other hand, only being exposed to this pretty late, during my Masters ;p 

Winter 2016 : Leisure Library @ Cheetham Hill

When they have new home-learning projects, this is how our Saturday looks like.

Nabil is working on a project on Ancient Egypt pyramid.

Nazreen is working on a River Nile project.

Mama has a lot of critical essays to complete, but equally excited to start the new projects with them haha #ohmypriority

Winter 2016 : Meet the teacher - Nabil

A few days after a meeting with Nazreen's teacher, it is Nabil's turn.

It was really impressive to see him art work being displayed at the gallery. Our discussion was around his artwork especially his history of Manchester project. He also has a lot of reading and catching up to do.

They learned about Earth and Space this term. They designed a space buggy.

Nabil's design:

These are the report in his book:

They also learned about Ancient Mayans this semester. I was surprised to know about this. This is a very good exposure for their age!

Nabil's ancient Mayans' mural made it to the gallery:

I am proud to see the comment by the teacher in his book. It is really good to know that they actually record everything, every artwork (scanned and printed), in the workbook. 

The kids will have a very good memory of the school, their teachers, friends and their study when they came back to Malaysia this year.

Winter 2016 : Meet the teacher - Nazreen

It was a pleasant session to discuss about Nazreen's progress with his beautiful teacher. Although he has a serious catching up to do (due to the difference between Malaysian & UK syllabus), but Nazreen is progressing well. He needs to read more.

Winter 2015 : Forces

Nabil, Nazreen and Nazran have received list of topics to learn over the holiday to prepare for the next term. Nabil's lesson for next term is dynamics and forces.

On Thursday, when I went to the Harpurhey Market (second hand market on Thursdays) with my husband and Nazmi, I found this precious box for GBP3 <3 .="" i="">Alhamdulillah.

It consists of equipment to conduct 40 experiments on dynamics and gravity at home for kids.

The first few experiments we did that night was on surface tension. First, we found out whether a pin can float on water surface. Yes, it can for a short while. 

  This experiment was also on surface tension.

This experiment was on air pressure. Nazran has successfully turned the glass upside down without spilling the water.

The last experiment we did that night was whether an egg can float in a salty water (a lotttttttt of salt involved in this experiment). Yes, it can float. 

Nabil was so happy to get a heads up on his lesson next term. Alhamdulillah Allah eases our journey here. We have another 36 experiments to go!

Winter 2015 : The Anglo-Saxon costume

The last school project (well, this one is specifically assigned to the parent) before I could resume with my final essays.

The first night, I sew the trouser. I have brought a used light brown corduroy curtain for the trousers because the trip will be held in the winter. It must be really cold to spend the whole day outside.The Anglo-Saxons wore wool trousers wrapped around with a strip of cloth or leather. I have compiled a few photo/illustrations to give you some ideas on how the trousers look like (left), on the right is Nazreen's trousers. It was quite complicated but I am glad I've nailed it!

A few days after that, I did his tunic and other accessories. Alhamdulillah. I brought a used duvet cover for his tunic and another thick curtain for his cape (I designed it in such a way that the cape covers his chest, to keep him warm in the cold winter). 

The Anglo-Saxon has decorations on the neck and wrists. I found a haberdashery one day (Alhamdulillah!) and bought decorative fabric ribbon (for the wrists), rubber strip for the waist (before, he needs to tie it) and huge pins to imitate Anglo-Saxon's brooch. Photos on the left (below) are the Anglo-Saxon's brooches. The right is Nazreen's brooch. The round steel is actually a curtain's hole :) It is not the same but close enough. I am sure people in the Anglo-Saxon village would appreciate the details.

Well, I was glad to be able to finish this project in two nights. Nazreen was really proud running to his school in the morning in this costume, cant wait to show his costume to his friends! The initial plan was him to wear black shoes but the morning was so cold, he need to put on his winter boots.  

He asked me for a photo shoot session near our house after the trip.

Winter 2015 : The project table

This was how our dining table looks like for a few days during Christmas break. Both Nabil and Nazreen were working hard for their projects (Nabil's here and Nazreen's here). And I have been practicing my patience all the times because I have to do my final essays as well, yet, they need to use the laptop for their researches.

It was hard. But family first.

It pays to be patient. Seeing them produced good projects at the end of the day is the best feeling!

Winter 2015 : The history of Manchester project

During the Christmas break, while Nazreen was working with his Anglo-Saxon project, Nabil was busy doing research on Manchester. He need to prepare an informative model on Manchester. I was thinking about an A3 card which opens like a window but Nabil has better idea. He want it to be 3D!

The only problem was... we have no box. haha.

And suddenly, somebody knocked on our door and....our ikan kering (dried salted fish) and ikan bilis arrived from Malaysia!! The parcel was sent by my family. 

I was excited to get the ikan kering, I fried it right away! We ate it while chatting with my parent via Skype. But Nabil was excited for different reason. He got the box!

Nabil starts to gather recyclables around the house for his project. 

I helped him to shape the box into suitable size we filled it with recyclables according to our agreed design.

We covered the recyclables properly. It started to take a form.

Then, Nabil took it from there. He covered the box with coloured papers and add in some 'grass', where he will positioned the famous peoples.

After that, Nabil added in information on Manchester, historical timeline, famous person from Manchester (we made a quick trip to Curry's to buy a printer for this purpose) and map of Manchester. He trace the Manchester map from my laptop screen since we didnt have a printer yet. Talk about hardwork and creativity!

 

The finished project! He stick the printed famous people onto a cardboard, cut them then taped them to ice cream sticks. The sticks were then inserted into the foam underneath. Now you know why we put some layers of foam in the photo up there.

He wrapped the box with wrapping paper and add in leftover studs from Nazreen's project.

He was extremely happy and proud with the outcome. He made it in four days. He was invited to show his project to the school assembly. His teacher told me that Nabil's project is really good during the parent-teacher meeting. Alhamdulillah.

Winter 2015 : The Viking helmet

While studying about Anglo-Saxon, Nazreen also learned about the Vikings. He made this cute Viking helmet at school.

Oh yes, for your information, there were no horns in the actual Viking helmet. My brother told me after I shared this photo. You can read more here - Did Vikings really wear horned helmets?

Winter 2015 : Anglo-Saxon shield - the final product!

Yup, it is Plan C alright.

Thank you Papa for having the strategic thinking (the papier-mache is going to fail ;p). So, we are now constructing the shield with the aluminum pie pans *sigh* They are too small *sigh*. My husband told me not to be too serious with the whole size thing. lol. Nazreen doesnt mind making small shield, so, we just proceed with the SMALL pie pans.

Nazreen cut an A3 papers into two semi-circles. He painted each paper with red and blue paint. Leave it dry for a while. Then, he put a good amount of glue on the bottom of the pie pan and stick the red and blue papers.

Then, I helped him to stick a grey duct tape in between to make it looks neat. We leave it for a night, while I am endlessly in Alice Mode, thinking how to make the small steel dome in the centre and studs around the shield (click here to see shield design chosen by Nazreen). Baubles came to my mind!

We went out the next day to buy baubles. It was Christmas and there were baubles everywhere, some of them are shiny and steel-like. I also found a suitable embellishment to act as the studs. I bought both for GBP1 each. Yay!

So, here is the excited Nazreen. My husband helped him to cut the bauble into half. It was hard. The first attempt by end up with miserable chipped dome. Luckily we have 8 baubles. lol. The following attempt came out okay (not that good, still chipped but not that obvious).

Nazreen stick it in the centre and started to put on the 'metal studs'. And he continues with smaller studs around the shield.

Meanwhile, I helped him with the holder using fabric and kitchen tissue roll on another pie pan. And finally, Nazreen pasted both pie pans together (his beautifully embellished shield front and another pie pan with holder).

IT TURNED OUT REALLLLLLY GREAT!!!!!!! He even offered Nazran some helps afterwards because Nazran wants an Anglo-Saxon shield too!

This was a very adventurous project. A very good break from my final essays. Bring it on!!!

Winter 2015 : Anglo-Saxon book

I went to the second hand market in Harpurhey Market on one fine Thursday morning (before I went to the library), hoping to get something useful for Nazreen's Anglo-Saxon projects. He has to create an Anglo-Saxon shield and I have to create an Anglo-Saxon costume for him :)

They are going for a trip to an Anglo-Saxon village in January, so they have to blend with the rest of Anglo-Saxons and experience living as one of them. I love this project. It is SO FUN!!! That's why I got myself a sewing machine (here) and fabrics (here) before this.

After a few minutes walking, I found one roll of brown fabric ribbon (around 20 metres) for GBP2. I really needs it for Nazreen's costume! Then, I found this for 50p. Alhamdulillah.

The book explains in detail who are the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans, the Alfred's laws, England after Alfred, the Battle of Hastings, the Crusades, Magna Carta and many more. It is full of graphic which keeps me interested to read it till the end.

And later that night, the King Arthur movie was aired. It was about *duh* King Arthur and the invading Saxon army. The whole family really enjoyed studying the details especially their shield designs and costumes. Nazreen was so excited every time he heard the word "Saxon" mentioned by the actors.

For me, this is not a coincidence. It is Allah, Who eases everything for us.