MIA

sorry weve been mia lately.  my husband went to malaysia for two weeks and weve had a bit of a difficult time without him around [weve never been away from him before].  both boys were quite sick with fevers n coughs... and yusufs behavior has been totally off [he resembles a child taken from the show super nanny!]. we spent a few days at my parents house which helped. but its gonna take a while for things to get settled down again. inshallah he arrives tomorrow night, and im sure well all go through a bit of an adjustment period.
keep us in your prayers!

Bullatin Board

Yusuf got a new Bullatin Board. Im excited :)

Eye Chart

We made our own eye chart [I googled it]. :)

Hooked on Phonics

MashaAllah Yusuf is showing alot of interest in reading these days. Alhamdulillah he is able to read 3 letter words. I bought this Emaan book series from Sound Vision [where his arabic classes are] and hes enjoying them. My sister in law also lent us her hooked on phonics set which we started yesterday and alhamdulilah hes doing really well. I think its so amazing to watch a child [especially your own] grow and acquire new skills such as reading. SubhanaAllah its a miracle how Allah has created us and giving us the ability to learn. May Allah always increase our children in beneficial knowledge, Ameen.

Climbing

I went to the resource center yesterday and picked up these for Ibby to help him strengthen his legs inshaAllah. So far hes loving it. He climbs up the ramp and pulls himself up to stand. But hes afraid to go through the tunnel. And it goes without saying that Yusuf is enjoying them as well :)

[sorry I dunno why but Im having issues rotating pics]

Basketball Cake

Today is the last day of Yusuf's kidsport class. He has been going once a week for about three months now. MashaAllah he has come a long way. The first few classes he had major seperation anxiety (it was his first unparented class), but mashaAllah he really improved each week. In celebration of his achievement we made a cool basketball cake and and also, myself, Baba and Pops will be attending his class to watch them play a hockey game = )

We had a lil science lesson with mixing yellow and red food coloring to make orange icing. Yusuf also broke the eggs and poured the ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Happiness is...

...a freshly organized storage room! = )

Alhamdulillah we have two good sized storage rooms. This one (the cold cellar) was full of Mahmood's aunt's stuff. So I moved all of her house to the furnace room which also has boxes of the boys clothes. And now, this room is our homeschooling storage room :) I got this idea last night while falling asleep and am super excited about it. I hate having all the boys toys out all at once, becasuse as you can see, they have a lot of things! I really like rotating their stuff so they get better use out of it and enjoy it more. After is been stored away for a while it feels like new once taken back out. Plus I have a weakness for buying educational things for them. But please do note that this is a collection that I started since before I was pregnant with Yusuf... and alot of stuff is from garage sales. One of my biggest pet peeves is not taking proper care of toys/belongings so alhamduliah I have managed to keep everything in good condition.

Anyways, now that everything is accessible and organized, inshaAllah we will benefit more.

My Friends

Today at Deen class the kids learned that the word 'Sahabah' means the companions of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. They learned some names of the sahabah such as : Abu Bakr, Uthmaan, Ali, Umer, and Bilal. Then they did this cute activity where they each got their own bristol board and then went around the class asking their friends to trace their hand and write their name on the bristol board.

Fingerprint Art

Yesterday at playgroup we discussed the human body. We did this neat finger print craft to go along with the theme.

Paper Mache - Part III

The finished product - a decoration piece for Yusuf's dresser.

Public School Parents guide to Homeschooling Parents = )

click here = )

Labelling Body Parts

We traced Yusuf back in Ramadan to make a good deeds poster. It was hanging on his door but Ibby started ripping it any chance he could so we took it down n put it in the storage room. I took it out today and we labeled/decorated it. This is the start of our human body unit study inshaAllah.

Paper Mache - Part II

Ibby helping

painting it orange to make a basketball (did I really think hed choose to make it something other than a basketball??)

holding the balloon that we removed from the paper mache

Unit Studies: Human Body

I was privileged to take part in a meeting of homeschooling moms this weekend alhamdulilah.  It was awesome to meet and learn from these sisters.  Anyways, we discussed Unit Study as a form of homeschooling and I want to give it a try.  Basically you take a topic (ie. dinosaurs) and cover all subjects (math, science, art, language etc) by incorporating that specific theme. 

So Im gonna start of with the Human Body since mashallah Yusuf is really inquisitive about the way his body works.  He often makes comments such as "Momma, I wanna see my bone" or "Is my nail made of skin or glass?" :)


I have a few ideas floating around in my head that I jotted down but if anyone has any ideas/resources/links they would be appreciated.

I will keep you updated on how it goes inshaAllah.

My ideas so far:

art: make a life sized tracing of yusuf n then decorate/label body parts
language: head n shoulders song (learn in arabic as well)
sounding out body part words
science: learning about 5 senses
why do we sweat (he has a facination with sweating)
different injuries (he talks alot about how bones break)
deen: why Allah made us (to worship Him) Allah made man out of clay, angels of light, jin of fire
different things we do with our body to worship Allah (fasting, praying, dhikr, tasbeeh)

Seerah Mobile

Today in deen class, it was my turn to be the the teacher. The topic was the children of the Prophet SAW... so we made a mobile with different shapes n colors that had the names of the children on them: Abdullah, AlQasim, Ibraheem, Ruqayyah, Fatimah, Umm Kulthum and Zaynab. On one side we wrote the name in Arabic and on the other side we wrote in English.

Must Read!

mashaAllah I love this sisters blog....
shes an amazing writer with an amazing story to tell...
may Allah swt bless her and her family in this life and the next...
check out this recent post :
click here

Yusuf's Eid Gift [well, one of them...]

I love this. Its a classic toy and reminds me of my childhood. = )

Good Deeds Jar

As all children do, Yusuf is going through a phase where he is testing his limits... including talking back, using bathroom words [constantly] etc. Ive noticed when we give attention to the negative behavior, it doesnt really eliminate it [ though consequences really do work with him]. Anyways, I wanted to reinfoce positive behaviour and saw this idea on a blog a few weeks back. I bought a glass jar and some rocks from the Dollar store. The jar is placed in the middle of our kitchen table so that #1 Ibby wont get ahold of it and #2 so that he sees it often. The rules are as follows: Myself and Mahmood give the rocks for good deeds/behavior that we notice from Yusuf; Yusuf is not allowed to ask for a rock; if he has bad behavior, rocks may be taken out; when the jar is full we will have a family meeting to discuss what his reward will be.

So far, hes loving it, and he only asked for a rock once [ I thought it would be alot more]. Yesterday I gave him one rock for holding the door open for me and my sister in law when we went to the mosque [without us asking him to]. And Mahmood gave him one this morning for being very caring with his little brother by bringing him balls to play with and convincing him to come out of the bathroom [which is Ibbys fav place to be if one of us accidently leaves the door open].

So, so far so good, I shall keep you updated inshaAllah.

Labels

Yusuf is really into sounding things out these days so we took sticky notes and lebeled things around the house [including Ibby, but I forgot to take a picture]. I did this activity with him last year but that was for letter recognition. This time it was for reading. MashaAllah he was really into it and I think its helping him learn to read inshaAllah.

Hopscotch

I wanted to make a hopscotch for Yusuf inside so I began to make it out of masking tape on the carpet but then Mahmood and I thought it would be a better idea to write it on an old sheet, that way if I need to vaccuum, the tape wont start to come off. So this sheet stays folded in his sports basket and comes out whenever hed like to play with it.

Paper Mache - Part I

I mixed together one cup water and one cup flour to make the paste. We pasted newspaper squares with the paste and inshaAlah tomorrow when it is dry we will paint it. We are still deciding what were going to make it: a basketball, soccer ball, foot ball or globe. Ill be sure to post pics of the finished project.

Btw, Ibby enjoyed this activity the most. He was facinated that we were covering his ball. I let him touch the paste and he enjoyed taste testing it ;)

Im Back

After a long break Im finally back into the blog world. Weve been busy with playgroups, classed, family, quality time, Eid and life in general. We had a big kids' eid pary which was a blast alhamdulillah!

Anyways, Ill post some pictures today of some of the things weve been up to lately. Hope to enjoy = )

What Allah has given us

We have joined a class where kids between the ages of 3 - 6 yrs learn about Islam. The moms rotate taking turns teaching topics of seerah and tafseer. Yesterday we learned about the second ayah of surah fatiha, the two names of Allah meaning the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate. So today on our whiteboard (at home) we wrote the names of Allah in the middle and drew pictures of things which Allah has given us and which we are thankful for.

Hajj Playdate

Our weekly playdate was at our house this week and we did a Hajj theme. I made a pretend kabah with a box on a table and then covered with a black cloth and wrapped my hijab around it. Here were practicing tawaf.
Yusuf wore his uncles ihram (the plain white clothe that men wear on Hajj).

One of the other moms brought colouring sheets for the kids.

At circle time we briefly went over the different parts of Hajj. I got these printouts from Talibideen Junior but for some reason I cant find the link.. But there are many other ones available including this one that I just found : http://ummabdulbasir.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/hajj-lapbook

We also served our guests with small glasses of zamzam water [forgot to take a pic].
And inshaAllah next week, we will be attending a playgroup event of a full pretend Hajj experience = )

May Allah SWT grant us all the privilege of performing Hajj one day, Ameen.

Car Art

For someone who doesn't enjoy art much, this was a big hit! First we put a piece of paper on the table, added some blobs of paint and Yusuf drove his car through the paint to make tracks. Ive been wanting to do this for a long time, and since he's going through a phase where he totally loves cars, I though this was a perfect opportunity.

As you can see from the look on his face, he loved this!

Decided to get a lil messy n do some handprints as well.

He was having so much fun that I took out a bigger piece of paper, he got some more cars and we added lots of blobs of paint.

He also decided he needed to change out of his shirt [which was long sleeved n required the sleeves to be rolled up] and put a short sleeved one on. More cars were added. And after almost a full hour of fun, we let it dry and hung it up on his door. = )
This was a definite favorite!

Oh, and as an extension, later in the evening when the boys were in the bath, I let Yusuf clean his cars with a toothbrush. He enjoyed playing car wash. The bath water got a lil murky, but I just gave the boys showers after they were done.

Leaves

We went on a walk last week and while Yusuf rode his bike, I collected a few leaves. The next day when they dried out, we put the leaves under a paper and then rubbed crayons over the paper to reveal the imprint of the leaf. After that we cut a hole in the middle of a paper plate and stuck the leaves on to make a autumn wreath.

Yusuf's Workplace

This is what Yusuf's workplace looks like these days [we change it around often].
It includes:
-pictures to illustrate the timings of the five daily prayers
-a poster of names and pictures of tools
-his measuring activity
-his hammering activity
-a container of leaves we collected on a walk [and will be doing a craft with them soon]
-his daily schedule of things he needs to get done in the day
-a new calendar I purchased from Scholar's Choice recently
-and Ibby's toy parked beside it :)

Measuring

Since Yusuf is into tools these days I gave him a measuring tape to measure different things in the house. It was a little advanced for him but I helped him and he really enjoyed it.

Hammering

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Got this from our friend @ handmade beginnings [sorry cant find the link for that post].
My grandpa was here last weekend doing some jobs for us around our place and since then Yusuf has been really interested in tools.

Baking Cookies

Today we made cookies. It was really fun! :) We got the recipe from here.

We made a few batches.. including one giant cookie, and a blue batch that Yusuf made with his cookie cutters. InshaAllah well take them to playgroup tomorrow to share with our friends :)

Race to Nowhere Trailer

White Board Writing

Were still using the white board to write. Today I took it off the wall and put it on the floor for him which he enjoyed. I also wrote some words for him to copy which mashaAllah he did really well.

Egg Carton Math

After having breakfast yesterday I took the egg carton and put numbers 1-18 on them. I got a bunch of beads and tried explaining to him how to put the number of beads into each section. He didnt really understand so Baba came and put the activity into basketball terms which helped him understand. Thanks Baba!