What I am grateful for....

I want Yusuf to practice his writing skills more so Im trying to do it in an indirect way since the old fashioned writing drills dont exactly excite him.  Today I made a chart for him and asked him to write / draw four things which he is grateful for.  I was doing some housework while he did his homework and once in a while Id peek over his shoulder to see how he was doing.  I must admit I was a little disappointed that the first two things were materialistic... I was hoping hed choose something a little more meaningful ( I had given him no ideas or guidelines when I put the paper infront of him).  When he called me to show me that he was done my eyes kinda teared up and my heart was relived and grateful that he had chosen Mama and Baba to include in his short list <3

May Allah swt help us to raise grateful children, and always keep us all grateful to Him and to those around us, Ameen.

'Yusuf's dream'

Yusuf's description: this is my dream. Ibraheem has a smiling face and I have a monster face. This is Ibraheem's long leg hugging me. And the end was the beginning.

Drawing

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

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!

Map

Yusuf has been spening alot of time making this map today. He used pieces of tape to represent peoples houses.

Drawing

This morning I was getting ready for Arabic class when Yusuf decided that he would go to his desk and start writing. When I came out of the washroom, he came running to me and said "Momma, look, I drew mad!"

I know its simple but mashallah I was proud of him. Im not sure what prompted him to make it, but I was proud of how he sounded the letters out himself and knew what he wrote.

[I took the picture at the end of the day... Im not sure how the paper ended up ripped in half but I still wanted to take a picture to document his art work]

Picture

Yusuf's Description: The x's are soccer players. At the top I drew a referee and I wanted to connect the dots. I made a big S because s is for soccer. The circles are the cheerleaders. Nothing else.