Drawing

Yusuf drew a picture of him and Pops on the snowmobile. And Naani is watching them from the window. [Note Naani's hair]

The Science of Pee

Yusuf has always had this obsession with drinking bath water! I used to discourage him from it but wasnt too strict about it until his little brother started sharing the bathtub with him...however, Yusuf was still determined to drink it. He would try different tactics to distract me so he could quickly get a gulp of the 'special drink.' I tried telling him many times that Ibby may have peed in the water so its disgusting if he drinks it. But he insisted that he couldnt see the pee therefore it was fine.

I was tired of hearing myself say the same thing over n over again so I decided to do a little experiment. I got some dark purple [pomegranate flavor] juice from the kitchen and showed him how dark it was. Then I asked him what color pee was to which he answered yellow. I then took some of the juice and poured it into the bath and within seconds it 'disappeared.' I explained to him that the pee/ juice mixes into the the water and because theres so much water you can no longer see the pee / juice.

I think he finally got it!

Happy 100 posts! = )

Yusuf has been having a few listening issues especially with Baba. MashaAllah Yusuf and his Baba are super close, but, Im starting to notice that Yusuf views him mostly as someone to play with instead of someone to listen to and respect. So, our plan of action is that Baba will do one worksheet [such as printing practice] and review the Quran that Yusuf is memorizing every morning with him. InshaAllah this will have many benefits: it will get Yusuf out of the bad habit weve let him get into of going on the computer first thing every morning, it will a good help for me, and it will give Yusuf more chances to have Baba as an 'authority figure' to respect and listen to.

My best friend who comes from a family of 6 siblings told me how when she was growing up they would always have family meetings and I would really like to implement that into our lives. So yesterday we had our first official family meeting [all 4 of us] and alhamdulillah it went well. It lasted about 10 minutes and we just talked about how we are a family which is like a team and we have to work together and we have goals [note the use of sports terminology ;) ]. So we talked about who we want to make happy [ie. Allah] and what we have to do to keep each other happy. I introduced some new words to him such as respect and gentle and we talked about examples of each.

After the meeting Yusuf and I wrote up what we talked about on a bristol board and it is now hanging on the wall in our living room.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it. I noticed after I wrote it hat my writing is not straight.. but oh well = )

Markers

Ibby made it clear to us that he was not into car painting. But, today Yusuf coloured a picture to send in the mail to my parents... and as usual, Ibby was trying to copy. So I got a big bristol board and let him go crazy on the kitchen floor.. which is exactly what he did! He LOVED it! He really enjoyed taking the lids on and off. He loved taking the green markers out of the marker bag... and he definatly prooved that he loves colouring a lot more than Yusuf ever did!

He got some marker on his skin and the floor.. but its washable.. and the mess was so worth keeping him occupied for a good 20 minutes!

Car Painting... with Ibby

I was really excited to do car painting with the boys...since Yusuf loved it last time.. and since Ibby loves cars and coping Yusuf, I thought it would be a hit.

I tried so hard to convince him that it was a lot of fun (the painting in the picture was done entirely by me).
As you can tell from the look on Ibby's face, he was not impressed.....

Ad Duha

I am excited to be starting a new Islamic Studies Curriculum with Yusuf inshaAllah.  Ive heard a few people talk about but hesitated because of the price.... but after researching it, asking around, and borrowing it from a friend who has purchased a set to look through it, I have decided to get it.

Check it out here - www.ad-duha.org

Here are the things I love about it:
[note: my opinion is based on looking through it not actually implementing it with Yusuf yet]
*lessons are planned out! (whoohoo, yeah for saving time)
*Arabic language is covered
*different activities which are related to the lesson are given (ie. art projects, reflections etc)
*evaluation included
*support available (email address, and fax number provided)
*covers many fields in Islamic studies (oneness of Allah, Quranic studies, biography of the Prophets)
*includes a story book about Maryam and Muhammad who are brother and sister who go through typical muslim issues (ie. their uncle is going for Hajj so they learn about Hajj)

Im not fond of dishing out a lot of money for a kindergarten curriculum for reading / math because there is so much available on the net / in dollar stores etc.  But for Islamic studies the resources are a little more limited  and because one of our main reasons to homeschool is to be able to give our kids enriched islamic studies, I really dont mind making the investment! 

More specific reviews to follow inshaallah!