Learning about the solar eclipse

       

This Friday we will see the first total solar eclipse for 16 years! It's all very exciting and we are eagerly awaiting this rare event. I remember watching the last solar eclipse in 1999. We were all anticipating a spectacular sight of the solar corona surrounding the hidden sun but, unfortunately, we did not get a chance to witness this due to the cloudy weather. Still, it was an unusual occurrence, seeing the sky blacken for a few minutes in the daytime, which has stayed with me. Although I don't remember much, I was quite young, I do remember hundreds of camera flashes during the blackness when people were trying to catch a shot of the sun's sensational corona.

                 

As we will be watching the eclipse on Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to brief the children on what will be happening and why it happens. First, I explained how an eclipse occurs. They seemed very interested in this. I told them about partial eclipses and total eclipses and we filled in the above worksheet which I downloaded from the twinkl website.

       

Next, we made some solar eclipse artwork. This piece of art aims to capture the magnificence of the sun's corona. It is very simple to do. Simply take some black card or paper, a circular piece of card and some chalks in colours such as red, orange and yellow. 

        

Stick the circular piece of card in the middle of the black paper using blu tac. Then, use the chalks to draw the corona round the edge of the sun. Use your fingers to smudge the chalk to create an amazing effect. When you have finished, remove the circular card.

       

Here is D's finished piece, I think it looks really effective!

       

This is R's artwork.

       

Next,, the kids asked to do some painting so I thought we could paint the different types of eclipses. I got some white paper and drew two circles onto it. Then, the children used orange and black paint to paint a partial eclipse and a total eclipse.

                 

Here they are getting stuck in.

       

They were using orange and black paint.

      

Here is D's finished work. She really enjoyed doing this and I believe it has helped her to understand what an eclipse is.

       

R got bored quite quickly so this is all he did. He did, however, help me draw the circles.

Have you done anything to prepare for the upcoming solar eclipse?

The bilingual baby name debate

             

Having a baby brings such excitement and joy but with it also comes the dilemma of choosing a name. It's such a big, important decision and cannot be taken lightly. At almost 30 weeks pregnant, I am in the middle of this challenging, decision-making process myself. It would be easy if it was just my decision to make, but it isn't. Obviously my husband will be joint decision-maker and this is where the challenge of being part of a multicultural family can really materialise.

Growing up in England, I always had some names I liked stored in the back of my mind ready for when the time came for me to start a family. Then, I converted to Islam and married a Kurdish man and suddenly I realised my name choices had to change. And they changed in a big way. My main criterion was that the name should be an Islamic name with a good meaning. My husband wanted to Turkish or Kurdish name and this fit in well with my requirement of an Islamic name as many Turkish and Kurdish names have Islamic origins.

So, we had established this but then more challenges arose. Should we chose a name that is similar in Turkish/Kurdish and English? Would a foreign name prove difficult for people to pronounce? Would it sound odd? How should we spell the name? You see, there are some letters which are pronounced differently in Turkish and English, 'c' for example is pronounced as 'j' in Turkish. Should we use the English spelling or the Turkish or the Kurdish spelling? So many things to think about!

I know many people worry about choosing a name that is foreign to the place where they live. They want to choose an English-sounding name. But, I can honestly speak from experience of this as my name has an unusual spelling (it's Polish and the 'w' is pronounced as a 'v'), I really haven't found it a problem. Yes people may say my name wrong the first time they see it written down, but I tell them how it's pronounced and then it's fine after that. It's not an issue at all. I really wonder why some parents worry about this so much, but I guess it is a parent's job to worry, isn't it?

Another difficulty is the challenge of trying to keep both sets of parents happy. If you give your child a name that is not familiar to your parents, this can sometimes cause issues. I have had the issue of family members Englishifying my children's names. They normally stop after a while, as they get used to the  name. However, if they do not, you may like to give them a gentle reminder that that is not actually your child's name! One thing I would recommend though, is to pick a name that both sets of  parents and families can actually pronounce!

I do think people in multicultural families should worry less about others people's opinions when choosing a name for their child. As long as you like the name and it's not offensive in either culture then it isn't a problem. That is my opinion anyway.

What kind of challenges have you faced when choosing a name for your baby?

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Homemade gift for Grandma

         

Gifts do not always have to be expensive. In fact, I prefer a homemade gift because you know a lot of thought, time and effort has gone into it. I love to receive gifts from my children that they have made themselves and they also enjoy making gifts for family members too. A few weeks ago it was my Mum's birthday and the children made her these lovely flower pictures. As today is Mother's Day, I thought these pictures would also make a wonderful Mother's Day gift.

Supplies

A4 card or paper

small pieces of tissue paper

PVA glue

         

First, get some PVA glue and tissue paper. We used a pack of tissue paper that came cut up into small squares, but you can also use large sheets of tissue paper that you can cut up or rip into smaller pieces yourself.

                   

Next, draw a picture on some card or paper. The children chose this bright yellow card for their pictures.

               

Then, the children can screw up the pieces of tissue paper and stick them on the card to build up a beautiful, colourful picutre.

        

Here they are getting stuck in!

              

R loves using glue to stick things. He really enjoyed screwing up the tissue paper too.

               

Here is D's finished picture. She has a great attention span now so was able to complete the picture.

              

R's masterpiece.

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Play dough and buttons

       

Play dough is such a wonderful play material. It can be used in so many ways. The children often like to roll it and cut it out with cookie cutters or stuff it into silicone cupcake cases to make their own cupcakes. Today, however, I decided to add some buttons to the invitation to play. I have written about their love of buttons before in this post where we used them for numeracy activities. Buttons are such a brilliant, inexpensive resource.

Today I gave the children the choice of coloured buttons or black and white. They chose the black and white to work with. I gave them each some play dough and told them they could roll it out and use it as a canvas for the beads to stick to.

       

They soon discovered that the buttons left lovely prints in the play dough and they had fun exploring this for some time. 

       

R used buttons to create marks all over his play dough.

     

D then started to print the marks in the shape of letters. Here is a capital 'I'.

      

D rolled out her play dough again and used the edge of the buttons to draw letters, numbers and a girl. I love how she had thought of using the edge of a button to do this.

      

R began to place buttons on the play dough and make a picture.

      

      

D started to make some flowers, one white, one black and one black and white.

      

The finished picture.

      

I love the way she placed black buttons on top of the white ones and vice versa to create an interesting effect.

      

R decided he wanted to make a sausage so he rolled up his play dough. Then, he stuck buttons all the way down in a line. I used this as an opportunity for some counting practice. I asked him if he could count them and he could! This is the first time I have heard him count to 10 in the right order, usually he skips a few. After we had practiced counting in English, we then practiced in Turkish. He needed more help with this, but practice makes perfect!

       

Finally, he got bored with the lay dough and started stacking the buttons instead. This is a great way of developing fine motor skills and balancing. He managed to stack about 8 before the stack toppled over. He enjoyed trying this over and over again, trying to build the tower higher each time. So much concentration on his face.

Do your children enjoy play dough?

Language learning - colour wheel

       

As you may know, we are a multilingual family so I try to integrate language learning activities into our homeschool. Today, I decided to focus on colours. We are learning Turkish so I did it in this language but you can do any language your children are learning. If you are not learning another language you can always do this activity for your native language aswell.

       

First, I got a paper plate and divided it into 10 sections. 

       

Then I took different coloured pens and wrote 10 different colours on the plate, one in each section.

               

Then, I gave the plate to D to colour in. I asked her to say the words as she coloured to try and aid memorisation. Below, is the finished product.

       

After, she had finished, I tested her by pointing to colours and asking her what the Turkish word was. We can now use our colour wheel over and over again as a learning resource. It's great to make your own resources.

Monster tea party

           

I had some baking soda dough left over from this activity so decided to get it out and put it to use. I thought it would be fun to set up a monster tea party! I placed the tablecloth on the floor and set up some tea party things; teacups, saucers, plates and teapots. The aim was for the baking soda dough to be spooned into teacups and the vinegar to be poured on top, making fizzing, foaming, monster tea.

         

The children couldn't wait to get started! They eagerly began to spoon the dough into cups.

          

Then they poured the vinegar into the teacups and watched the magic! It's not the first time we have experimented with baking soda and vinegar. We have done this activity a few times now and it is one of the children's favourites. It keeps them occupied for ages! 

They really loved this monster tea party, imaginative, invitation to play. It was wonderful to watch them role play and interact and amazing to see the wonder in their faces as they watched the magical reaction of baking soda and vinegar. I don't think they will ever tire of this!

Blueberry scone recipe

              

Scones are the ultimate British teatime snack. I love to eat them mid-morning or mid-afternoon along with a lovely cup of tea. They are really very easy and quick to make and you can adapt them to suit your own taste. I often add currants, which I prefer to raisins. I have also added chocolate chips in the past. This recipe calls for the addition of fresh blueberries which give a delicious fruitiness to the scone. When eating a fruit scone always spread some butter on it. Clotted cream and jam is reserved for plain scones. That's scone etiquette for you! For this recipe, I sprinkled the scones with brown sugar before baking but this is optional. You can leave them plain if you prefer.

Ingredients

2 oz/55g butter

1 lb/450g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp castor sugar

250 ml milk

100g fresh blueberries

                         

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it is a breadcrumb consistency.

            

Add the milk and bring the mixture together to make a dough. Stir in the blueberries.

            

Roll out the dough to 1cm thickness and cut into circles using a cookie cutter or a glass. The amount of scones you make will depend on the size of the cutter. Brush with milk and sprinkle with brown sugar.

            

Bake in the oven at 220 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

            

Enjoy your scones slathered with butter alongside a hot cup of tea.