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 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 : 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. 

Winter 2015 : Anglo Saxon shield - first and second attempt

Nazreen will learn about Anglo-Saxon this term. Anglo-Saxon is a group of people who inhibit Great Britain since 5th century. Nazreen has a list of Anglo Saxon-related project to complete over the holiday and he chose to do an Anglo Saxon shield.

I browsed through some websites and I found out that their shield is massive (photos below). The Anglo-Saxon shield is characterised by a small dome made of steel fixed to the centre of the shield. I had a few Alice modes on how to plan that part. Nazreen chose the red and blue design (below, right).

Since we didnt have any huge material to construct the shield, Plan A, I asked my husband to bring us to the nearest supermarket to get some big boxes. They usually gathered the boxes near the electrical items aisle after they unpack their products. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they have brought everything out and the recyclables was just collected by the lorry +_+

Therefore, Plan B. I plan to construct a papier-mâché shield. My husband bought aluminum pie pans for Plan C, should our papier-mache project failed ;p 

Determined, we starts the project once we got home. We use the largest stainless steel tray in the house.

We manage to do 20 layers before we ran out of glue. My mom was on Skype all the way, scanning for areas which require more glue or more paper. She loves arts and crafts just like we do. 

I use a plastic ice blended drink cover for the 'steel' dome element. I stuffed it with newspapers and taped it to a board. It turned out great :)

We use the portable heater to dry it.

Well, I am proud to say that it is unsuccessful because we ran out of glue. We need more glue so the papers could hold the weight of the massive shield. However, I applaud the effort put by my kids for this experiment :) Although it failed, it was a time well-spent with the kids. I went straight to my laptop to do my essays afterwards. lol.