Surah Fatiha

Here is another activity we did from the ad-duha curriculum. We talked about and paraphrased surah Fatiha (the first chaper of the Quran) and drew hearts and decorated it with sparkles. Yusuf isnt very into art so this was simple but he really enjoyed putting the sparkles on. I have put this up on his bullatin board and inshaAllah will go over it a few more times with him inshaAllah.

Maple Syrup Festival

We went on a homeschoolers field trip to the Maple Syrup Festival. Alhamdulillah the weather was great (just very windy) and we really enjoyed ourselves. What made it really enjoyable was that we went with a group of friends, and car pooled which was great since it was an hour drive! Im so happy the nice weather is finally here so we can do more outings inshaAllah!

Fire Station

Today we had a homeschooler's field trip to the local fire station. It was a lot of fun and very informative for both parents and kids. I would recommend the website www.sparky.org. Yusuf has been going on it for a while now and has actually learned alot alhamdulillah.

May Allah keep us and our families safe and protects us from any fires, Ameen.

The Straight Path

As part of the ad-duha curicullum we have been studying the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Fatiha. Here is the translation:

In the name of Allah, The Beneficient, The Merciful
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds
The Beneficent, The Merciful
Owner of the Day of Judgment
Only You do we worship
And only You do we ask for help
Guide us to the straight path
The path of those whom you have favored
Not the Path of those whom have earned your anger
Nor the path of those whom have gone astray

So we discussed the meaning and importance of it. When we used to go to an Islamic class for kids one of the moms did this really good activity. To help the kids understand the meaning of 'the straight path' she made a line across the room. All the kids lined up on it. If she said a good deed, the kids got to take a step forward but if she said a bad deed they would fall off. And she told them to pretend the end of the line was Jannah. So we did this at home and Yusuf really enjoyed it... so did Ibby! Hes at an age where hes copying everything so its really cute mashaAllah. Baba also had a turn walking on the line while Yusuf said different deeds.

May Allah keep us, and our loved ones on the straight path which leads to Jannah, Ameen.

Diorama

Today we did our first lesson from the book called "Muhammad and Maryam" which is part of the ad-duha curriculum set I recently purchased. Alhamdulillah so far were loving it. Today's lesson was an introduction to Muhammad and Maryam who are twins around the age of four. The entire book is based on their life and questions / experiences they go through. Today's topic was the Oneness of Allah. After the lesson there are some discussion questions. And in the teachers manual there was an art activity to make a diorama of Muhammad and Maryam's room. I thought it was a great idea because it will give us more of a connection to the characters in the book inshaAllah. Yusuf isn't a big fan of art activities but we really enjoyed doing this together. He gave me a lot of his own ideas and input. InshaAllah I will continue to update the blog about the progress we make with the ad-duha books!

Yusuf wanted there to be a mesjid outside the house and drew stairs

Maryam's side of the room

Muhammad's side of the room. Note the soccer balls, trophies on the shelf, and movable prayer mats on the ground.

The lid / roof for the room. Ibby decorated it with stickers. He loves stickers and had a blast putting them on.