So Biryani isn't just memorising books

Biryani was in a very kind mood and actually carried out my suggestion to read poor, ill S, a story. She read a 'Spot' book straight through, and I thought maybe she'd memorised it. Then I tried her with some basic 'Kathy and Mark' books, similar to Peter and Jane . I was quite shocked, she read some books from the first two levels almost error-free and managed level 3 with a bit of help. By this time S had dropped off to sleep, much needed and Biryani was as pleased with herself as I was. I think my surprise comes after having gone through 3 boys learning to read. However they all get there in the end, don't they?

Mostly Biryani

Biryani has a pink spoon she calls her own. She’d retrieves it off the floor, takes it to the bathroom and washes it herself (v. impressive mashAllah). It drops on the floor again. I pick it up and wash it. Tantrum – she wipes it on the floor so it’s dirty and she can wash it HERSELF again.
She’s been annoying brothers by remembering a sentence in a Ladybird storybook before he could read it. M has been reading her some bedtime stories (piles of them) a few nights a go. He looked up from the penultimate one and saw she was asleep as was everyone in the house except me and him.
She also likes the Ladybirds ‘Knights’ book. She insists the first page says ‘fight for their country’ another memorised bit of text! I wonder if it’s not too confusing, considering the books mostly about Knights (not nights) and pages (not the ones we’re reading).
She’s also being playing far too much computer. Admittedly most of the games are pretty educational. She pointed out an octagon the other day (a stop sign)I can’t think where else she learnt it from but the internet games.
And today I finally got around to recording myself reading ‘The Billy goats gruff’ All my children and now especially Biryani, love this story. I have read this story so many times, and hence tend to read it ever so fast. I had heard ages ago about Dads who’d be sent to jail being advised to record themselves reading bedtime stories. Then they could contribute something positive to their children‘s lives even while inside. So I borrowed S’s phone and made a recording, only making one error I think ‘Billy boat gruff’. I was still reading too fast even though tried my best to slow down. Since I recorded it (around 7.30 pm) its been listened to 2 times, Biryani turning the pages at(mostly) the right spot herself, and then I was able to get on and pray maghrib. It felt like I had a babysitter in the house for 5 minutes, something better than a TV or computer! Of course it’s not as good as the real thing having a story read to you, you can’t pause and answer queries or discuss points in the story. But as most have already been discussed (the troll needs to cut his long nails Biryani thinks) on the previous numerous readings I don’t think it mattered. I’m thinking of recording some more and wondering if it’s possible to make an MP3 for the car?

Naps and reading

I haven't been very good at falling asleep for a nap recently, as much as I try, but then trying to sleep often brings about the opposite effect. In fact I probably do go into a stage of sleep for a few minutes that I read about once, where you think you haven't been asleep, but when a baby cries/ child beckons you realise you were actually sleeping as you suddenly awaken. Anyhow this thing about 'sleep when your baby sleeps' is really only applicable to your first child, and then if you are good at power napping/ short cat napping. So anyhow the result was that yesterday evening I was pretty tired Alhamdulillah, and it was the first day DH had been away since the baby was born. DH has been taking charge in the main for getting the older ones to bed, and staying up with Biryani (who ends up having a late nap which powers her up till midnight and beyond). They were reluctant to get ready for bed but I certainly wasn't in the mood for mucking about. Eventually I think nearly all teeth had been brushed and maghrib prayed. M decided he wanted to stay up for Isha. As it was only about 20 mins away I agreed, and then we all sat down on the sofa and had actually a really fun and quite interesting time. M read most of a Swedish library book he'd chosen to do a review on. Then H wanted to continue with his Peter and Jane book. In between Biryani tried to elicit some story telling from me, and then I challenged M to read some of a harder Peter and Jane book. The fun part was that M (who has always been a bit of a clown) decided to read it in a funny voice (something akin to an Irish accent) and change, not always deliberately, some of the words. So for example, Jane became Janie, and also James Bond. It had me and H in fits anyhow. The interesting thing was I noticed M's reading in Swedish was more hesitant/ errors. He still has to sound out most of the words even if it's repeated in the next sentence. He also decoded a couple of the peculiar Swedish vowels incorrectly quite often. Whereas his reading in English was much more fluent and accurate than the last time I heard him read a book out loud (quite a few weeks ago). Maybe it was because he hadn't done any Swedish reading for a few weeks and also hasn't been speaking it for over a week. But it was around this age I think that S clicked with his English reading (as far as I recall, (I'll maybe check my archives) so I hope it's the same for M. M announced that reading English is easier than Swedish, when in fact it's much less phonetic. However his spoken/ comprehension ability must be better in English and must be making it easier by using the context of the text?

Bureacracy Update

Well I rang the Education boss again as unsurprisingly he hadn’t got back to me. He told me he would be ringing his boss to find out the procedure re applying to home educate and would get back to me. He used the word ‘strax’ which I thought meant ‘next, presently’ but did double check in the dictionary. I was indeed right, but haven’t heard anything as yet.. Half of me thinks even if I don’t succeed at least it’s got them thinking about the concept that Home Education is an option here in Sweden, even if you have to jump hoops to do it.
DH back to Africa today and MIL went back to Pakistan yesterday, so back to reality of 4 kids and me.
The last 2 days M was off school (due to previously mentioned school trips), which did give a taste of home ed. DH even commented something like ‘It’s not so hard to home educate when you’ve got just one at home with you.’ Well I don’t know if it makes it so much easier, depends what you’re working on I suppose. But it was hard to keep him away from the computer. They are currently into Penguin club, which at least does involve a bit of reading, and not solely mindless shoot ‘em up type games. S actually plays with his friend in the other town sometimes, as penguins, I’m not sure if it’s real ‘social interaction’ but is cheaper than him using my mobile to talk to him all the time. It seems to have been hard to meet up with him recently (in the real world!) due to people’s other commitments.
Anyhow M did some Quran, more on spelling the trickier vowels (‘oo’, ‘oa’) He initiated his own game on the white board influenced by countdown, so he learnt the difference between vowels and consonants as well. Then while I had to have a nap, he did some of his maths workbooks from school. I woke up to hearing a little voice saying something a long the lines of ‘8, 12, no start again , 8, 10’ There was one number logic sequence he was supposed to fathom out, and I just couldn’t either. Maybe I was thinking too hard, but you get worried when 7 year old maths stumps you?! There must be an answer book teachers get their hands on? Maybe I’ll type it out when he brings his book home later and see who’s a clever clogs out there!
Biryani is watching Madeline on the TV , she says a v cute ‘ooh la la’ and actually there’s more French in it than I realised before. She also counts to 5 in Spanish (Dora). It’s a shame Arabic/ English cartoons are not so readily available. There is now a Jazeera kids channel on Sky, but it’s all Arabic at a relatively high level and also seemed to be some dubbed western cartoons which did look strange. Also more music on than the English cartoons.
The Dhuhr Adhan has gone off on the clock DH brought back from Singapore. She almost always likes to say the Muhammad RasoolAllah’ part but 'AllahhuAkbar' is pronounced in a v funny way something like ‘cluckley’
As for potty training, it feels like we are beyond the point of no return, she is v good with it as long as not wearing anything on the bottom half. Attempts to get her to wear pants/ trousers resulted in many accidents, which she must be thinking are going to do the same job as nappies. It has also been a nightmare getting her to put a nappy on for naps/ bed which I ended up having to do when she’s dropped off to sleep. So it’s tempting to leave the nappies on but seems like she is almost there so maybe a shame to stop?

Camera back in use

We got to try some bowling for free, courtesy of the organised activities for the half-term, known as 'Sportlov', where children have time to play various sports. You'd think it was called 'computerlov' if my kids activities were anything to go by.

and those shoes they make you wear, just as untasteful here in Sweden as anywhere else....

And on the same day, we went to the observatory, but this in fact was the water tower next to it, but it's top part that I couldn't capture was a satellite dish shape.

The actual place was basically a group of sheds!

The telescope inside afore-mentioned sheds, with the astronomer whom M thought was Mulle Meck, managed to rouse some interest with a remote control that made it point in the direction of Mars (although we couldn't see it due to clouds).

The model rocket outside..



and for UmmRashid, managed to get these from the library, whether they'lll sit and listen is another matter...

Should be napping.

but I wake up feeling groggy, even though it's sunnah to do so after Dhuhr, maybe need to do regularly to adjust my body clock..
Just had a go at Biryani as she started to pull various papers off my desk, and then she started putting them back on the desk, girls, they’re so different!

I don’t know why, maybe because I’ve not been at my best with ear ache, but forgot to mention M read his first proper book to me (‘Up and Down’ Oxford Learning Tree), without me asking him to! That’s what I like about autonomous learning, it happens without the ‘I don’t want to… later… do I have to?…. I’m not doing it *humph*. I feel so sorry for him that about 60% of English does not follow the phonic rules, so words like ‘he’ are sounded out perfectly ‘h’ ‘e’ heh, and I have to tell him it’s actually ‘hee’, but his personality is such that he doesn’t get too disheartened and we went onto the Ugly Duckling (Ladybird)with great gusto.
Now for those learning in the UK, me getting excited about my boy starting to read when he’s practically 7 must seem a bit mad, but from experience with son no.1, Islam's age-guides for learning, as well as the Swedish school system not staring til 7, I did not really push the literacy stuff around the usual age 5. (Phew that was a drawn-out sentence..)
H is actually picking up on the phonics work M is doing, and he’s starting to segment and blend words. He liked the word ‘cucumber’ beginning with ‘c’


Some questions that have been asked recently by S that need research (may have noted before but still haven’t looked up anything about them):

How they discovered bread?
Cyclones?
Inflation (the money kind)?
How do they make windows and glass? (could do a ‘field’ trip, there are some special glass factories in Swede I think.
Japanese buildings (as regards withstanding earthquakes)
What’s a rifle (as opposed to a standard ‘gun’) ? hmmn?
Is chocolate (cocoa powder) denser than icing sugar (mm I enjoyed that cake that sparked this question, and maybe should do more research in this area!).
Also he’s interested in doing things with Balsa wood (aeroplanes maybe?)

Here’s some closer-up photos of the tomatoes, inspired by Zainab's blog:

And here’s the end-result of some rare time I had alone to tackle the kids room whilst the boys were out at Jummah prayer and Biryani was asleep. I maybe could have done a ‘before’ picture to show the contrast.but forgot, but probably will be back to it’s usual state in a a few days. Just had to document that there is a floor under there. I got motivated to do it as S had been sneezing a lot and I’m worried my lack of cleaning may be causing this.

Luckily the poor exposure of the photo masks how I have used the top bunk as a place to cast the toys. (Need shelves, now take it one step at a time, we do now have blind no. 2 installed)