A rainy homeschooling day

I started school early today by doing my written English and Maths workbooks that I'm supposed to do a page of each day. As mum slept in late, we got to play the trains and cars after that. She got caught up with cutting up some cards, so we managed to slot in time to play with the flashlight.....

Thereafter, we played snap with the Scooby Doo matching cards that mum just made. We were supposed to play naming the cards afterwards but Umayr wasn't interested. I got to play the geography game Seterra with mum. We did Asian countries and flags.

When mum had to read to Umayr, she let me continue playing with the programme, I love playing flags and try very hard to be top of the league. After reading to Umayr, they played speling the animals with the small movable alphabets. He later played matching animals and their young cards.

When I was done with my game, Mum did a worksheet on 'Where I live', we explored where I lived from planets to continent, to country, to city, to address. We didn't have outdoors as it was raining heavily outside.

So, Ummi gave us tissue boxes and cardboard to make train carriages which we decorated with glitter, markers and finger prints. After that, we managed to sneak in some time to play with our trains when ummi was teaching Sofiyya.

As she was cooking, Ummi let us watch the story of Prophet Yusof and Ibrahim online. After lunch, it was time for solat and tilawati. As we had some time after doing our Arabic writing, mum played a game of chess and then it was time for TV......

Keeping Abi close....

We were supposed to learn about the United States while Abi is away there for a fortnight but last week both Umayr and I were down with fever for almost the whole week. Last night, we got our first lesson, well I got mine, when Ummi played the 'Alphabet States' with me.

Both of us had a map of the United States. One of us would say a letter and try to name as many states starting with that letter as we can. I had fun but I wonder why Alaska is so far away from the rest of the states and why they made a new Mexico when there's one nearby.

Today, Ummi printed out dollar notes for us with a picture of George Washington on the front. She tried to teach me about pennies, nickels and dimes but I only got the quarters. Anyway, Umayr and I played buying and selling with our foreign currency.

Ummi played another game on the 50 states with me today.The challenge was to name as many states as we can with the help of the map we had last night. Ummi only got 3. I obviously won but 50's a lot of names. I got tired and maybe I'll continue naming the states on the blank map tomorrow.

I tried to read my dictionary after lights out tonight, but Ummi found me out. I wonder what the fuss is about spoiling my eyesight. Now, I don't even know where I stopped....Oh well...

Today, Abi flew to Washington from San Diego. He said it's nicer there with mountains and lots of greeneries. I wish I could be with him....but he'll be back soon. I can't wait to play with my Thomas train set.

our first plane trip

The day that we have been waiting for has finally arrived;our first trip abroad via plane to Brunei. We woke up before six and were off half-an-hour later to the airport.

After checking in at 7 a.m. ,we had breakfast at the lounge before the long wait at our gate to board the plane. I managed to grab the seat by the window while Umayr sat beside me.

We were supposed to take a Singapore Airlines plane, but it turned out to be a smaller Silkair one instead. Oh well, it was still huge enough for me. The best part was breakfast of course, yummies galore!

I loved watching the things below us getting smaller and smaller....then came the clouds but my ears were a bit clogged, Abi started to get irritated with me for talking so loudly: )

Sofiyya fell asleep halfway through the flight to much of Ummi's relief. Sometimes the plane was a bit shaky but Umayr and me were just excited at being in a plane, we didn't really care.

The flight was over in less than two hours our plane landed at Brunei with a bump!Then we were off to meet our uncle, auntie and cousins whom we have not seen for two years.

A trip to the zoo and Amozozo

We had a very long day last Tuesday. Ummi took us to the zoo to play at the wading pool with our friends from the homeschooling group. It was fun walking in the pool and trying to catch tadpoles and fish. Christian and his cousin who joined us that day had the biggest haul.

After two hours, wow we didn't even realise it was that long, it was time for lunch and we headed home as Ummi thinks we are already very tired and should take our naps.Umayr did but I continued playing with my toys till Ummi told us that she's taking us to a special place at the National Museum, wherever that is. She decided to take us anyway, though she was very tired, as it was the last day of the exhibition.

So of we went, on a very long taxi ride.

The exhibition was called Amozozo by Architects of air from the UK. Apparently, the huge balloon structure was influenced by Islamic architecture as apparent in the domes, in red, green and blue and the segments in the structure which played on light and colour.

There's Umayr, sitting in one of the segments.After the exhibition, we went to Raffles City where we were joined by Abi for dinner.

Ummi had lots of ideas for activities today, she was up since morning on what we can do.First counting and adding with coins, then making flowers with circles, learning how to use a needle and sewing through the flowers, playground, shapes in Malay, tv, lunch....

However, soon after lunch, she was knocked out; especially after Sofiyya asked for her milk....hehehe...so I got to play with my trucks and cars without any disturbance as Umayr was also asleep.

When Ummi woke up however, I had to read my tilawati book and recite my surahs. I did something very bad to upset Ummi, so she was very strict with me through the sessions.

After that I did additions with the small number rods and a worksheet that Ummi printed out for me. I only got to the addends of 8, actually I was too bored and tired by then and eager to join Umayr and Sofiyya who were finger painting in the kitchen.

When we finished our finger painting, Ummi let us play in the pool in the bathroom.That was fun... I always love playing with water.While we played, Ummi scrubbed some dirty mats and looked after Sofiyya who joined us in the pool.

Then, I got to play games from the Sesame Street website. I was supposed to have that yesterday but as we went to Labrador park, Ummi let me play today.

I made Ummi upset again and she was very angry. After giving me a earful, we went to Lot 1 to collect some books that Ummi reserved.We had a very nice dinner of spaghetti and fish and chips with mango juice...After window shopping for a while, it was time to go home and sleep.

Hope, Ummi's more tired tomorrow...then I'll get to play with my cars more....

I'm not well today so ummi and abi took me, together with Sofiyya and Umayr to our doctor at Bukit Gombak, have the cold and a slight fever. We had brunch at Alif, my favourite prata shop and then went back without Abi as he had to go to work.

When we got home, ummi gave me my medicine, five in all. Later ummi showed us how we can get different colours from just three basic colours of red, yellow and blue. They are called primary colours.

She put them in these transparent plastic cups so we could see how the colours change. After that, ummi let us, including Sofiyya, paint with the different colours that we made. We even had a spray to paint with. Sofiyya truly enjoyed herself as this is her first painting session.

Ummi then let us play in the pool. We played 'rain' with the colander and our elephant water container. She also gave us funnels to pour water into our water wheel. After all that action, we had TV time, we watched Sesame Street and The Backyardigans. Then, its off to bed....zzzzzz....so tired.

a walk in the park

Yesterday we had a nice walk in Choa Chu Kang Park with Ummi and Sofiyya. At first we wanted to play at the sandpit playground but we decided to join Sofiyya at the toddler's playground instead.

After a while, Ummi called us to take a walk to look at the different plants that can be found there. She let us take photos of the Cempaka Hutan, lime, curry and lemongrass plants. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any home as souveniors, maybe next time we can plant some at home. After learning about the plants, we sat down for a drink and Ummi asked us to look at the different shapes of the plants around us. Some were triangular, some round and some looked like fans.


We then took a slow walk to Lot 1, stopping to look at the mimosas in the open field for a while before having our lunch there.We really enjoyed ourselves that by the time we got home we were too tired for anything else, much to Ummi's relief.

A week ago, a day before Hari Raya, Ummi let us in on the action that was abuzz in the house. We got to scrub clean our table and chairs, we've never seen Ummi wipe it that clean like we had.

Ummi sprayed the water, then, the cleaning fluid, she didn't let us spray coz she was worried that we'd hurt ourselves. She said there were chemicals in it that is dangerous to us. Adults; they get to do all the fun stuff.

We had fun scrubbing all round the table, sometimes Ummi will point out to us the parts we missed.After the table, we got to scrub the chairs. Thereafter, we wiped it with the kitchen towel and when all was dry we put them all nicely in our room.

Can't wait for the next spring cleaning. Then again, Ummi always make us clean up.Her most common quotes are "Never take another toy before you keep the one before", " If you spill; wipe." and "What are all these toys doing on the floor?!"

Assalaamualaikum wr wb

Hi! We are brothers Ihsan and Umayr on a journey of adventure and discovery.Come join us, together with our mummy and baby sister, Sofiyya, as we learn about the wonderful universe of knowledge.You can also read about Sofiyya at www.sofiyya.blogspot.com.