Well, we’ve been really busy around here lately. It has been a long week already. We are expecting our fourth child, InshaALLAH and I have been super tired lately. AlhamduLILLAH the “morning sickness” is usually a nighttime, after dinner situation so it hasn’t affected me during school time. People are surprised and seem to be giving me unwanted sympathy, lol. Really, I love having my children and find that they are not the handful that most people imagine them to be. Children thrive if they have safety, nourishment, encouragement and routine. I cannot stress routine enough. They are only out of sorts when the extraordinary occurs, like a visitor dropping by (at bedtime) or when they are out of their comfort zones (shots at the doctor, lol). Otherwise, it’s business as usual. They are really excited about the baby and my oldest is already trying to feel for kicks although it should be some time before that is possible, InshaALLAH, (I’m about 7 weeks along).

AlhamduLILLAH we have finished the unit on trees! I never thought it would end. As a final unit, we learned about things made from trees. We discussed how dependent we are upon trees as a natural resource and talked about what the world would be like without trees. I think the best part for my daughter was playing with a new toy that comes from Ikea trees.

We finally put our science journal together with pipe cleaners and manila drawing paper.

We will fill the pages with goodies from outside, drawings and projects from the science book, InshaALLAH. This is our tree menu. It shows the kinds of foods that animals can find in trees. I stenciled the words at the top and my daughter practiced her handwriting at the bottom and she set the prices too.

We paid a friendly visit to Costco recently and found a set of Bob Books that I really like.

They are level 3 and so far she is getting a good workout from the new words and she is able to use the phonics rules that she has learned from the Saxon program as she goes along. I am very happy about that.