I’m pleasantly surprised whenever I go to the dollar store. I always find something that is useful and the children can go a little nuts without breaking the bank. I was happy to find items that keep the four year old occupied and I found a few items to help us along in our curriculum.

My four year old hates to feel left out or like she is missing out on the fun, but I don’t think that she is ready to sit still and focus on reading and writing just yet. She literally begs me each day to “have school with her” and tells me that she sees me spending school time with the others and that it’s not fair. I even tried to get some activity books for her but she wants “real books”. LOL, maybe she is ready?

At first, I thought that she just wanted more quality time but she quickly let me know that she wants to “do stuff in books”. And so I’ve given in after weeks of pestering and ordered books for her. InshaALLAH when they arrive, I will let you see. In the meantime, I’ve purchased some puzzles to add to our collection – she’s getting good at them so I tried to find some that will slow her down a bit. Here are a couple:

By the way, do any of you have a special way of storing puzzles? Do you keep them stacked or put the pieces in Ziploc bags or anything?

Remember oh so long ago when I told you about the Western Sunrise course? AlhamduLILLAH, I took the exam and scored a 93. One of the questions was something that I did not know AT ALL and another was something that I should have known but missed it anyway. Well, we are just finishing up our section on Ancient Egypt and then I think that we will cover ‘Isa (alayhi salaam) and the spread of monotheism and tawheed next. This means that we will talk a little bit about the struggle against Rome and how the Muslims traveled Westward along the Mediterranean coast. This is all just a broad overview but it gives my oldest more chances to practice her geography and study another prophet of Islaam, InshaALLAH.

The dollar store had a few items that I think will be handy for this:

I’d like to start getting out more for science but it snowed here again so I don’t see it happening just yet. We are anxious to get out into the night sky to take a look at the stars. This year, earth science is on our curriculum, so the children grabbed a few pairs of binoculars (to look at the moon) and I found this:

We also grabbed a few odds and ends, like brainteaser books, read aloud books and crayons!

Why oh why do we lose so many crayons and where do they go?! See that plastic box? I’ve refilled it probably three times since August. Actually, if you could see my walls…that’s where the crayons have gone. O_O

*top photo: Billy Alexander

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