Marbles

I was cleaning the kitchen so i sent the boys down to play in the basement. They made their own game using an empty box, strip of paper and marbles. Summaiya and i came to spectate.... Mashallah i love when they use their imagination and invent their own games :)

Helpers

Saturday morning chores.... Peeling mint leaves off their stems.

Just one of those days....

I've spent the majority of the day hiding from my kids. I've made them play in the basement, let them watch two DVDs and to put it bluntly, anything to just stay out of my hair! It's not their fault, they're actually being really good... But I'm just having one of those days.. It's rainy outside, there is a mountain of laundry that needs to be puy away, all three bathrooms need to be cleaned, house needs vacuuming but im totally not motivated to do anything. I'm just in the mood to sit on my phone going through Pinterest, lay down and cuddle with my baby girl.
I've been asked how I do it all. And I'd like to make it clear that I don't. I do have bad days. There are times when we don't do anything and my house is upside down. I sometimes fantasize what life would be like if I sent my kids to school.
But in the end.... Despite the 'bad' days.. It's all worth it.
This is what the boys have been up to while I've been hiding from them... The have a cricket bats as swords, ski masks as helmets, Carpenter gloves and socks on their hands, and slippers on their feet. They're playing Knights and i have to admit they're kinda cute.

Popsicles

My boys are yogurt lovers! Today we put sticks in small yogurt containers, put them in the freezer for a few hours and voila! You can tell by the looks on their faces what they thought of this.

File folder car lot

Another thing I found on Pinterest :) Baba did this with the boys today when I was at my class.

Craft Fail

I have a new addiction: Pinterest! It's so much fun and has so many awesome ideas! I was excited to do one of the crafts I saw so when my kids two friends came over we tried it out. Alhamdulillah it kept them busy for a while n they had a lot of fun but unfortunately it was a fail. I I think we needed to use thicker yarn and maybe more glue..We also needed a lot more string but the kids were getting tired and didnt want to do more and I was busy making dinner and taking care of Summaiya so couldn't really help them add that much more. Oh well, and it was still fun :)

Image from Pinterest

Drying

Finished Product Fail

Ibby is my lil artist.  He loves sitting and doing crafts...

And then there's Yusuf... not really the crafty type. But  he still had fun. Maybe if we used more string it would have worked better lol.

Alhamdulillah even though it was a fail, the four kids really enjoyed themselves :)

Survival

I used to love mornings.  I used to love waking up early and getting a start to the day.
However, it just recently occurred to me that Im not as chirpy in the morning as I used to be.
I kept forcing myself to wake up early despite being cranky, and would notice our whole day would be thrown off  due to a crabby start.  I would sit down with the boys for breakfast and with my eyes barely open Id be put in the spotlight to answer life's greatest questions from a five year old (why is a fork called a fork? do asteroids hit planets? what eats a shark? when? why? how?....ahhh!).

I have come to accept I am no longer the morning person I used to be.  And I have also discovered the greatness of coffee.... yes I know it sounds funny but in all seriousness, Im really finding it gives me that extra boost that I need [ Yes I know exercise would probably help but were in survival mode at the moment, inshaallah well get there soon too].

I love waking up to Summaiya cooing, Ibby cuddling beside me and Yusuf kissing my forehead.  But after the first few moments of cuteness, I need some time for my brain to wake up. I have told myself to no longer feel guilty if my husband is around and willing to watch the kids so I can get an extra half hour of shut eye.  And I wont feel bad anymore to send the kids down to the basement to play while I enjoy my morning tea or coffee in silence while I check my email (or blog).

When I used to picture how homeschooling would work in our home I would think of us all waking up at the crack of dawn and enjoying each others company etc etc... and though that may happen sometimes, it doesn't need to happen all the time.  I think alhamdulilah we do alot together.  Our homeschooling may not be perfect, but were learning to tweak it along the way to make it perfect for us.  Whenever people ask me about homeschooling, I stress that I believe homeschooling mostly has to do with a change in lifestyle and focus on relationships, academics are secondary.

My kids are awesome and I love spending time with them.  But I need to start the day off right and stop feeling guilty for doing what I need to do to make my day a lil better.

Maybe when Summaiya starts sleeping through the night Ill become more of a morning person again.  But if not, that will be okay too.

Build a Mesjid

The boys got this for an Eid gift and we really enjoy it. Its a cute but simple game that even Ibby is able to play.  You pick up cards while trying to collect the most coins.  There are also mesjid piecea in the pile of cards and youre supposed to ty to collect your coins before the mesjid is built.  The coin cards have different amounts of coins so that players practice math skills by adding the coins. Smark Ark makes this game and you can find it at sound vision or online.

Quranic Opposites

My husband bought this from the Learning Roots booth at a congerence a few years ago.  It is really good for building both arabic and english vocab.

Geography and Orphans

Yusuf has been showing a lot of interest in different countries and people from different countries.  I got a few books from the library and we've been looking at maps. Back in Ramadan our family sponsored five orphans and alhamdulillah we received some onfo about them in thr mail recently.  Yusuf is really interested about them, where they live and how we can help them.
Today we spoke about the ayah in surah hujarat and about how Allah made different people and countries so that we can learn about each other and how no one is better than someone else just because of what country they are from.

Science Centre

Alhamdulillah for being apart of a local homeschooling group. Today we had a fieldtrip to the science centre. The older kids got to participate in a discovery class where they pretended to be detectives, we checked out a space exhibit, sports exhibit and lots more.

Kitchen Science

Someone gave this to the boys when Summaiya was born so we pulled it out today. It has a few different experiments and today wr did the rocket launcher. We just puy vinegar and baking soda in a tube n then placed the foam rocket on it. It was fun but we were kinda diaappointed at how little it popped...we were hopkng the rocket would go a little higher. Maybe next time well put more :)

Welcome Home Baba

Another sneaky way thay I got Yusuf to practice writing skills :)