Homeschooling trip to UPM Edupark

Last week, some homeschooling families got together for a trip to UPM Edupark. It is just 20 mins from our place. I was not expecting much, but..look at this..

What a gorgeous place! We took a farm truck to go in, and all of a sudden it was like we were transported to a different world..and it is beautiful.

I am blown away by the beauty of this place.

As breathtaking as New Zealand, right here at our doorstep.

We went to the cow milking place. I was hoping for handmilking but apparently these days cows are milked with electric pumps! similar to breastpumps actually. UPM students do handmilk these cows still for educational purposes. (how fun their courses must be!) I dream one day to own our own cow for milking. Fresh unprocessed milk everyday! I can make cheese! butter! cream! soap! hehe...wishful thinking but who knows, right.

The kids get to feed the baby calfs. The smell of fresh milk is amazing - delicious, fresh, sweet. It was not what I imagined the smell would be. Different than the milk you purchase at supermarkets. We went to their mart to purchase some fresh milk but they've run out quick. There is a high demand and you can only get them in the morning, 3 days a week. Very dissapointed. I will go again insyaallah early morning to get some milk.

After the cows, we went to see some deers. Cute baby deer here named Tin. The other deers are wild creatures and shy away from human contact. But Tin is quite friendly.

Male deers grow new antlers every year. The old ones drop like these.

Next we went to see the horses. Horse riding for the kids! The horses here are well cared for and it shows. They look very beautiful and healthy. Shiny hair and muscly.

Kids had fun feeding carrots to the horses.

It was a nice trip. Will go back again for the milk ;)

Make your own noodles

My kids tend to go through a whole LOT of homemade playdough. Yours too? How about we use that to our advantage and have them make their own lunch? hehe...

 The recipe is super simple. Only 2 ingredients. 500g of flour, and 5 eggs. Yup, that's it. Dump the flour into a huge bowl (pink bowl is a plus, obviously), make a hole and break the eggs into it. Mix it up. Knead. It makes a nice soft pliable dough. If you find it too wet, add a bit of flour. If too dry, add abit of water.

Then let the kids play with it. The longer you play with it, the better the dough will be.

Still playing the dough. Mia liked the texture so much that she asked for more the next day, just for playing.

Set your noodle maker on a floury table. I got ours from Giant, cheaply at around rm30+. It is very simple to use and the kids can operate it on their own. We were pretty much wrestling each other ( even me!) to get a turn to use the noodle maker.

When we're done this is what you get. Beautiful homemade noodles. Dry it on a kitchen towel.  You can use right fresh pasta right away or leave it to dry for a couple of hours, then keep it to use another day. It should keep for a week or two.

Freshly boiled pasta. Yum! It's a hit with the kids.

Oh, did I mention we go through a LOT of pasta too in this house?

First day of 'school'

My New Year's resolution is to blog more. Yup. Don't believe me? I don't blame ya ;)

The beginning of the year this year feels a bit..heavy for me. This year Adam is turning 7, which means that when the other children started school last Thursday, Adam is officially a Homeschooler. The weight of responsibility felt especially heavy on my shoulders. Am I doing something right? Will he turn out ok? All those voices of doubt started to creep in on me a little bit. So I decided to take out my camera, and record the little events of our regular day, to remind myself why we're doing this.

 Early morning, he and Mia decided to build Legos together. Without a fight ;)

 Then we made colored foam. Still in their pyjamas.

Recipe for those awesome foam: A squirt of dishwash/shower gel in your blender/food processor, a little bit of water, some food coloring and then blend! The longer you blend, the more foam it makes. Bonus; your blender gets a good clean.

He played Jengga. Made dominoes and then later robot armies.

They fed little sister Maryam..

This is our read for the day. Adam's choice. Oh yeah. We dig dino poops. Not your regular textbook that's for sure.

He taught Mia to read Furqan after prayer times..

Alphabet homemade playdough in the evening..

At the end of the day when I look at these photos and recall Adam's first day of unschool, I thought,

no..it's not so bad afterall. In fact it's a great first day. It is an ordinary day. Full of family time, fun, child-led learning. The children get to claim their childhood.

This feels right. Alhamdulillah.