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.