Homemade Beauty: Lip Scrub with kids

Kids made Lip scrub today with 3 ingredients that we already had in our Kitchen. It was a simple and fun project that they really enjoyed, especially the kids. I try to teach kids to make whatever they can at home and from scratch and whenever they can instead of always buying it as the first option. Instilling the idea of being producers rather than consumers is crucial at a young age. AR always has chapped lips so we made these lip scrubs for all of us. These have always helped his chapped lips. H of course love making it since it's a beauty product. Also teaching them that our beloved used to do things himself (Peace and blessing be upon him).

Kid's lip scrub

Here is what we used in the kids version of the scrub:

• 1 tsp - organic coconut oil
• 2 tsp - organic cane sugar
• dash - organic cinnamon 

Adult's lip scrub

Here is what I used for the adults scrub:

• 1 tsp - organic coconut oil
• 2 tsp White sugar 
• 2 drops lavender essential oil
• 1 drop Eucalyptus
• Dash of grated lemon 

Optional additions when making it for adults or giving as a gift:

• Food coloring (gives it a LUSH touch)
• Coffee
• Brown sugar instead of cane sugar and white sugar
• Olive oil
• Honey

Enjoy the recipe and polish those beautiful smiles!

Stay tuned for more of our Homemade recipes for the whole family.

Yoga with kids

Every morning as I do my yoga after dawn prayer time my kids start to creep out of bed one at a time. Sometimes after I am have completed my yoga regimen I put one episode of Cosmic kids on for them for their yoga time. The kids have been doing Cosmic kids yoga for quite a few years, recently she has been adding plenty of new videos.

Happy Yoga Mommies and kiddies!

Hajj Activties # 7, 8, 9 and 10

And for the last round of activities!

7. Educating ourselves before we educating our little ones: I listened to a couple of lectures to re-remind myself about the details and and virtues of Hajj and these 10 days. Here's one that I really benefited from when talking to the kids about the rituals of Hajj.

HAJJ WORKSHOP

8. Hajj ritual setup: By using the kids blocks, making a few things and printing Day 1 to 5 cards from Islamic Bulletin Board, we setup our Hajj table. This was by far the best teaching tool we had about Hajj. It was very hands on for them. So many people did Hajj on our table, AR took almost everyone he knows to Hajj. 

Make a Kabbah and learn the hitory though story telling. You can use cardboard box, construction paper. I played safe and painted a wood box black and added some gold to represent the kabah. it. Its very sturdy. Make some hujajj in ihram we added  their wives. 

Using the kids wooden blocks we made Mina and Jamarat. You will be able to find many things to represent these if you look around the house.

We used 2 big rocks from our rock collection to represent Safa and Marwa mountains 

The empty area is where Arafah is, the Hujjaj stand there and make dua. Muzdalifah is where the people are sleeping.

Felt sacrificial animals, the camel is missing.

This project is very easy, frugal and green. We try to keep things around our home as pure and simple as they can be, the goes for play, learning, cooking and cleaning.

9. Hajj Felt story board: Using our felt story board we did some hajj related stories and a life time journey of Hajj in our imagination. Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures and now we are out of town. It was a time consuming project for prepare for me, because I had to cut out each part separately.

10. Memorize and Chant the Talbiyah, Tahleel, Tahmeed and Takbeer : The Prophet SAW said: "There are no days on which righteous deeds are greater in the sight of Allaah and dearer to Him 

than on these ten days. So, intensify Tahleel and Tahmeed."

  

• Tahleel - La IlaahaIllaAllaah "there is no one worthy of being worshiped but Allaah"
• Takbeer -   Allaahu Akbar "Allaah is The Greatest"
• Thameed -  Alhamdu lillaah "praise be to Allaah"

I pray and hope that you all find these activities a good idea and helpful teaching tools for you families inshaAllah

I pray that Allah SWT gives us all to the taweeq (ability) to benefit from these best 10 days. And also accept  all our acts of worship in these day. Ameen 

Hajj Mabroor to ALL the Hujjaj inshaAllah. 

DIY: Felt Bean Bags

I made these bean bags for us to play different games. They are great for outdoors and indoors. They are super simple and fun to make. It's a great feeling to see your child play with something that's especially handmade  for them. The kids love the way they feel and the little sound it makes when its moved. We used felt, but they can be made with other fabrics as well. Hope you enjoy making them for your little ones.

Here's what you'll need:

Felt in assorted colors
Scissors
Strong thread or embroidery floss
Needle
(Optional: Sewing machine if you don't want to hand stitch the pieces together.)

Once you have all the supplies cut 2 pieces of felt in the shape you would like your bean bags to be. Then start stitching the side using the blanket stitch (I really like the way it looks on the finished bean bag). Before closing the bag fill it with rice/beans/ lentils and then stitch it close.

Here are some fun things that can be done with bean bags.

1. Balancing game - walking with the bean bag on the head, we count, say our letters, Haroof and recite while playing our balancing game.
2. Bean Bag toss - in baskets or in a scoring bean bag toss we made from a cardboard box.
3. Pass the bean bag in a circle - we made up a few fun ways to do the passes
4. Played catch the bean bag
5. We passed them saying colors in English and Arabic. Its a great for color recognition.
6. Counting by 2s, 5s, 10s can be made fun too with bean bags.

Summer in pictures

I am hoping to  get back in  routine inshaAllah. Its been super busy since we got back from our Vacation. InshaAllah I will be posting about all the different things we have been up to lately, and also reply to all your questions...if Allah SWT permits me too. Now, let me start off with telling you all a little bit about our trip. I think its always best to plan things before hand, this way you have a map of things to be done in your mind/paper/iphone/laptops, whatever it is that suits your way of life.

So, here we go...

Our Vacation started by visiting my brothers and their families in Riyad for a week. The kids had a great time, I got a chance to catch up with my sister in-laws after the kids were asleep. From there we headed off to London, England where we had planned to meet my in-laws, I think it was a great, fun reunion.

We had carefully planned our 4 days stay in London. We organized it such that we got to see all the that were special about London. Also, things that would interest kids and give then something to do. One thing I liked most about London was they had these healthy vegetarian sandwiches readily available everywhere (almost). And one thing that was very disappointing was the lack of wheelchair accessibility. From London we headed to our final destination...

Toronto! Alhumdulillah it was a busy and fun filled summer. We visited lots of places, did lots of things, ate lots of healthy and yummy foods and attended some playgroups with my friend from her Homeschooling group. Got to catch up with some good old friends (Alhumdulilah) and was not able to meet some due to the busy routine. We had a busy Ramadan, with fasting, Quran, taraweeh and iftaar invitations. By the end of the vacation we all just wanted a vacation from the vacation. Our flight back to KSA was on the third day of Eid, which was sad and super tiring. However, we were also happy that we would get to see my family too before Eid ends. Finally, home sweet home.

Here are some snapshots of another memorable summer vacation.

London, England

Science Museum
Kids at the science water center (left bottom corner)

Everytime we took the subway from this stop we would grab some fresh local fruits for  the day to snack on.

AR was excited to go on the London Eye. We all really enjoyed the ride.

SubhanaAllah Amazing Sea life at the London Aquarium. 

Jellyfish! AR would not move from this spot, he stood there for about 10 mins, we had to physically remove him from there due to the lineup behind us! He loves Sharks and Jellyfish.

Big Ben from London Eye.

Another beautiful view from London Eye.

Both the kids really enjoyed the bridges, especially when we would go under them on the tour boat.

We saw this bag of chips in london and found it very interesting,t he flavor was called "Norfolk bloody Mary"  

 ToRoNtO

One of the first things we did in Toronto was attended the Journey Of Faith conference, despite the fact that we were all summer tired we all really enjoyed ourselves. We ran into some of our friends and family.
MashaAllah all these bothers and sisters took Shahdah.

Kids @ Splash Park with their cousin "taaki"by my in-laws's apartment.

Niagara falls... been there many times but still its beautiful, as long as you don't turn around (to the busy market and restaurant street).

We went to Niagara and Birdkingdom with my younger brother. He was dressed in a thobe, so a man approached him and said "what do I have to do to wear this?" MashaAllah that brother was ready to take shahdah, but he wanted to do in a masjid. ALLAHU AKBAR! 

My father-inlaws BBQ,! He is a fun loving man, he was super excited to BBQ this year and was anxiously waiting for us come in summer.

Alhumdulillah I got a chance to attend this one day class, it was a beneficial reminder. I really wanted to gather some family and go over some important points but, time was too tight. Jazakallahu Khairan to my hubby and mother in-law who watched the kids, because of them I was able to go take the class.

Last 2 years all the men from my in-laws get together and go camping for a night. AR went with his Baba and Dada both years and really enjoyed himself.

We went to Muslim Fest for a few hours to check it out and eat!

We did a family Eid gift exchange on the 29th of Ramadan, it gets to rushy rushy on Eid day. We had lots of lovely, fun and educational gifts.

Nutritious Summery treats

Frozen fruit and veggie bars for a hot summer treat for the little ones and the adults. I made 3 different flavors, they are a great option for parent who choose not to give sugary store bought Popsicle to their little ones. Also a great way to get those fruits and veggies in our bodies.

They also make great yummy summer desserts!

Here are the recipes

1.  Strawberry and Mango frozen bars

• Half a mango
• 5 Strawberries
• quarter cup Almond Milk
• 2 tbsp of honey or agave nectar.

2. Creamy Avocado frozen bar

• Half Avocado 
• 3 drops of lemon juice
• 3 tbsp honey
• less then a quarter cup of water

3. Pineapple & blueberry frozen bars

• Half cup of freshly cut pineapple.
• Coconut Milk
• 2 tbsp of honey or agave nectar
• Blend the 3 ingredients together, put the blueberries in the molds and pour the pineapple puree on top. (This one looked really nice because of the contrast of yellow and navy. Even the Grandparents enjoyed them lot, my father in-law is diabetic, so it was a nice, sweet and healthy treat for him)

Blend the ingredients of 1 & 2 seprately and pour them into the Popsicle molds.  Let it freeze for 6 to 8 hours and serve. You can even freeze them in layers.  

Zaky's Adventures

A dear friend recently told me about these great Islamic cartoons for kids. It's called "Zaky's Adventures" My little man has simply been in-love with the previews! We can't wait to get our hands on some DVDs. He watched them over and over again, lol. Since he was sick, I let him watch them for however long he wanted too, usually he has a limited laptop time. I am a big advocated of NOT putting children in front of the screen for more then an hour, and absolutely NO exposure for children under two.

The Story of Abraham (a.s) with Zaky

DO check the related videos for more previews!

I would love to know what you guys think about the videos... :)

Welcome spring art

We made a spring art piece with water bottle bottoms and caps. AR really enjoyed it alhumdulillah. We talked about how Allah swt brings one season after another, and how we feel cold at on time and hot at another. We talked about Allah swt for a while, and also how he changes different season and what they are. It was very informal.

We watched this 4 season time lapse video. 

We got this idea from, MPM School supplies.

Train track letters

Letter practice using train tracks. We used AR's train track set we bought him last year for Eid-ul-fitr and made letters with it. I showed him that if he connected the tracks in different ways they make things, shapes and letters. He was thinking so hard to figure how to connect the tracks to form letters, it was really nice mashaAllah. We also practiced letter tracing using the trains. We also had H trace the letters and make them/break them with us, however she was more interested in breaking then making. :)

Toddler fun

H's new found love....PLAY-DOUGH!!! Seeing her older brother playing with play-dough H started joining in the fun. Now, sometimes in the middle of the day if she finds the rawdah door open, she goes and get the play-dough zip-lock and brings it to me (telling me to open it for her).

Play with play-dough has great benefits for children

• Builds fine-motor skills
• Strengthening their muscles
• Promotes creativity without boundaries (since there is no one way to play with play-dough)

What are some benefits you find playing with play-dough?

Jummah special tent

We bought this Igloo tent for my friend's boys during this break, but turns out they already had one! So, she insisted that we keep it for the kids if they don't have one (which they didn't). We ended up keeping it and I thought it would be a nice Jummah special treat. We ended up opening it on Thursday because the kids discovered it. lol.

The kids LOVED it, they really enjoyed it Alhumdulillah. I was thinking of making it his nook but its too big for the Rawdah so we kept it in their playroom. I have great idea for the nook but it will be a LONG time till I actually come around it.

Up-cycled: Flower Box

So I bought this box on sale for ONLY 6 riyals, slightly damaged, decided to up-cycle it by covering the burn on the lid.

This makes perfect storage for our future fabric flower projects, inshaAllah. 

I have a book on how to make different types of flowers from fabric, felt, ribbon and paper and some childhood experience. There are many wonderful blogs with tutorials teaching how to make flowers. Here is a link to one, she has a tutorial for a ribbon rose, you can use the same tutorial for fabric. The turquoise flower I made is the similar style but with a long piece of 2 inch wide fabric. Enjoy!

BTW, this is another project done sticking to the 20 mins a day rule, Alhumdulillah.

Blow the candle!

Today we did a very random activity which AR really enjoyed and H tried it as well. We blew candles!!! It was a great practice for H to learn how to blow, she tried to imitate us SO hard.

 

The kids had a great time blowing them out, since they were scented candles we worked our smelling senses. We had to guess what  fruit or flower the candle smelled like. I loved the excitement AR had on his face every time he blew the candle and watched the smoke swirl in the air. He was so worried about his little sister, who kept trying to touch the candle, he would spontaneously respond and hold her hand back mashaAllah!

It's Jummah!

We will be adding this to our Jummah checklist! InshaAllah!
IT'S JUMMAH CLICK HERE
Enjoy watching! Jummah Mubarak!

Straw Painting

Okay so today after a normal routine stuff we had some great paint fun! We did straw painting! AR loved it but got REALLY tired since it required a lot of facial muscles for blowing in the sttraw reall hard to get the paint to spread.  It was a very creative type of painting and of course lots of fun He was very fascinated by how the colors were blending. He then suggested if we could use a dark color paper and use white paint...I added some purple to it too...It turned out beautiful! Definitely a keeper! My friend suggested on getting the keepers laminated...I am really considering that since he really enjoys painting and paints.

After the colors were all dried! I love it! Such a master piece!

After the kids went to sleep...in my "ME" time I pulled out my canvas paper and did the straw painting myself. I have always really enjoyed painting so it was a lot of fun after a LONG time! Alhumdulillah!

Mama's Masterpiece. Doing this reminded me old times!