Ramadan Journal for kids

We have been doing Journaling this year here and there. I thought Ramadan would be a good time to dive a little deeper into it InshaAllah. I found this wonderful Journal on aMuslimHomeschool. Its wonderful fun and simple enough for kids to use.

 

Ramadan with children - part 1

I will be starting of with the following three activities. 

1. Recording the phases of the moon with a  simple chart and using these worksheets to learn more about phases of the moon. This one we started at the beginning of the month of Shabaan (2 days ago)
   
2. We will be doing is "Let's find a word in the Quran" project. This activity in particular really amazed me, love it because it is connecting children to the Quran. And as we know Ramadan is the month of Quran, this is a perfect activity to help children connect with the Quran InshaAllah.  It can be easily customized for older children.
   
3. The Prophets of Islam 29 part series by Mufti Menk. This one is for me and the kids. Alhumdulillah last year I got to go over the Quran with Taimmiyah Zubair's Fahmul-Quran Live, which was a very uplifting experiencing, this year I really want to listen to this series, and as usual kids will tag along, especially AR.

This begins our Ramadan Prep.

Are you prepared for Ramadan???

Assalamu Aalikum Everyone, A special Dua for all Allahuma Balighna Ramadan {O Allah Allow us to Reach Ramadan}

Are You Prepared????

Let's do it together inshaAllah. Alhumdullillah, the blessed month of mercy, Ramadan is approaching us very soon once again this year, inshaAllah. Just like when we have special guest coming over we makes lists of things to make, to clean and to do with them, the same way, we have to prepare ourselves (bodies and souls), our families and our homes for this month of mercy. InshaAllah in the next few posts I'll be sharing some ideas on how to Ramadan ready

Last year I had the opportunity to organize a Ramadan workshop for children 7 and up with a dear friend Aasiya's Homeschool in Toronto, Canada. This year since we have moved to a new place, we are planning things according to where we are inshaAllah.

This was the layout of workshop from last year, for those who may be interested.

• Virtues of the month of Ramadan
• Caring about our food, body and environment
• Mindfulness in Ramadan
• Spirituality and Connecting with the Quran, (since this is the month of The Quran)
• A small take home project, goal sheet, and acts of kindness sheet

This year the group of children I am working with are all under 9, but an extraordinary bunch mashaAllah. We also have a very unique situation, so we are trying to get our minds around how we can make the most out what we have and where we are inshsaAllah. 

So with a peak inside what we did last year (which I wasn't able to blog about) and touch of what we plan to do this year Be'eznillahi Tala... I will end.

Stay tuned...

Book Review: Ramadan books

Here we go... And InshaAllah hoping to stay. 

We are always looking for good Ramadan books. I want to share some Ramadan titles we are planning on reading this Ramadan.  The best part about them is they cost $0! I had put them on hold at  our local library. Alhumdulilah we got them a few days before Ramadan.  We try to make use of the resources we have, they help us stay more frugal!  

InshaAllah we want to start again

Assalamu Aalaikum wa rahmatullahe wa barakatuhu

InshaAllah we are planning on being back on blogging, been MIA for a while, Alhumdulilah. We have been doing a lot of "living" learning!  We learned a lot about Allah's amazing plans. His Divine Decree, Love and Mercy that surrounds us all the time. We are indeed blessed, blessed and blessed over billions. 

So stay tuned InshaAllah. Be'iznillahi Ta'ala (with Allah's permission) 

Ramadan Kareem!

We're back!

Bismillah,

Assalamualikum wa rahmatullahe wa barakatuhu

It's been a looooong time! The last few months have been very busy and full of Summer fun. We were on summer vacation in Toronto, Canada, and now back home and settled and in a rhythm Alhumdulillah. As most of our time was spent outdoors, running errands and meeting friends and families, I had no time to blog. As much as I missed it at times but everything kept me so busy. I am happy to be back and blogging.

Alhudmulilalh, after all the unpacking, we a back in our daily rhythm. The beauty of having a rhythm in life is, it can travel with you where ever you go (at least some parts). This was one thing that really helped me in on our vacation too. Although it was not always easy, but if we did some of our main activities, like the morning circle, our bedtime ritual even if they were a  condensed version. the kids were much more collected, calm and content on those days. The days we would miss them it would be totally apparent in there behavior.

Lakeshore! Miss it!

A small herb garden in Royal Botanical Gardens

Another wonder of Allah SWT's nature, Webster falls. no matter how many times you go there, it still  refreshing

Our road trip to Orlando in Pictures.

The Swan family we met while canoeing in a river in Ann Arbor,  Michigan

Peach Honey sticks we bought at a farmers market in Atlanta Georgia for a healthy sweet treat!

Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The falls were a sign of Allah SWT Qudrah. SubhanaAllah  they are a beautiful. You have to walk in a cave for a mile and then the Fall comes. It was beautiful!

Gem and stone search at the Falls.

Children's Museum in Tampa, Florida

Animal Kingdom, this was the kids favorite place.

Animal Kingdom, we didn't want to take the kids to Disney, so we found other places.   Although Animal Kingdom is part of Disney, its still has a touch of nature.

This tree is 2000 years old 

Sea World

Fascinated by Dolphins as usual!

On the way back we drove through Washington and we stopped to see the Native Indian museum which had a really nice children's area where they had there own personal passports, they really enjoyed stamping there passports. We also went to the Natural History Museum and the Space Museum.

Natural History Museum

So this was a little picture summary of our summer trip. Of course there a lot of other things we did and places we went and people we met, it hard to remember and go through every thing. These were some main highlight of this Summer.

Ramadan prep, decor and family Eid gift exchange night is a huge part of our annual rhythm.

Until next post please remember us in your duas

We love you RAMADAN!

(Belated) Ramadan Mubarak to my lovely readers!!

Alhumdulillah, so far we have had a great vacation, except the fact that we are missing my parents a LOT! (Alhumdulillah A'ala kuli haal).

With the blessed month upon us, and almost half way in it and our busy Ramadan routines, I feel the Ramadan spirits are going down. I think its very important to remind ourseleves again and again that this whole month is blessed and its not going to come back till next year. And, who knows if we will live to see the next Ramadan or not. So to ALL my beloved readers keep up the spirits and don't let your nafs take the best of you this month. Remember! "The devils are chained and Jahnam (Hell) is locked for ALL of Ramadan!" so WE are in-charge / responsible for our actions this month.

Spending the month of Ramadan away from home can me very difficult! I miss my kitchen, home, rounitne, and most of all my resourceful 'Rawdah'. Alhumdulillah, we are still having a great time here with my inlaws and friendly sisterhood. We have not done much sit down and learn stuff with the kids but did lots of other things to make them feel the importance of this holy month. I had so many things I wanted to do with them, so many ideas to celebrate this month... Qadr Allahu masha fa'al

Here are somethings we did... and are doing.

1) We made a Ramadan banner for the house before Ramadan started to Welcome Ramadan. I stuck to my '20 minutes a day' rule and we were done in 2 days!

2) We attended a 'Welcome O Ramadan' playgroup/Ramadan Party that my friend had hosted. They kids had a great time, they did crafts, circle time, Ramadan nursery ryhmes, and had lots of healthy snacks.

3) We have been going to lots of Iftar parties! Everyone waited till Ramadan to invite us over and now mashaAllah we have invitations almost everyday! Alhumdulillah.

4) We had prepared a Ramadan special gift for both the kids, so they feel that its something very special for us.

5) AR has been reading "The Gift of Ramadan" and "The night of decree" with me and Baba. Since he is older I try to have a little discussion with him here and there about

• Ramadan being a special month
• The moon
• The extra hasnaat (good deeds) we get in this month for doing the same acts we do in other months.
• Poor people who don't have food to eat
• Quran and the revelation  to the Prophet (saw)
• Atikaf
• Extra remembrance of Allah

6) We are still listening to our Ramadan Nasheed collection

7) Ramadan crafts... coloring a masjid, and setting a pretend iftar table. AR painted a wooden car we had gotten him and we wrote Ramadan 2011 on it as a keep sake. 

8) My friend gave me this amazing Ramadan chart  from Little Explorer. Its a bit advance for AR but he still tries to go through the list by doing what he can do.

9) I wanted to give a Ramadan mubarak gift to family and friends, so I thought why not write the iftar dua on a nice paper and give it away. It was very inexpensive from our last year Ramadam mubarak gift. We gave out dates coated with coconut on a plate with a Ramadan Mubarak note.

10) We made a sadaqah jar for our brothers and sisters in Somalia. This has been great to teach him about the concept of charity/donation. We also played the game 'charity shop' by smart ark. I found it to be a great learning tool.

11) We made binocular to see the Ramadan moon and lanterns to lighten the house at night.

12) InshaAllah we'll be learning about the moon cycle.

So these are somethings we have been up to this Ramadan and this vacation. I pray to Allah swt  that all of us can make the most out of the last half of this blessed month of mercy. We should strive utmost to get His mercy and our sins forgiven and recite the book of Allah as much as we can. Make the most out of this month and the last 10 days!

Please take a few minutes and watch this video

Fi amanaAllah from us to you all <3!

We Miss you Ramadan!!

As the blessed month of Ramadan is approaching close I really wanted to do something with AR to teach him about how special and important this month is.  We will be traveling soon and will be away from home for Ramadan and Eid. So, I decided to do somethings with him before we left, because I will not be able to do all this where we are going, since all our teaching resources are in our home. Alhumdulillah for being able to travel!

These are some things we have started of with:

He has been listening to this beautiful Nasheed by Zaky says "We Miss you Ramadan, we love you Ramadan"

A beautiful nasheed about Ramadan  in arabic, I translated the nasheed for him a few times. 

SO CUTE! We all enjoyed this a lot! It was also nice for him to see kids fasting

Aliya's Ramadan Dairy by Abdullah Puppet, checkout a his website.

Ramadan came..

Abdullah's Arabic letters, one letter each day Ramadan. MashaAllah AR really enjoys Abdullah Puppet. 

These are some videos we have been watching and listening to recently to bring in the kiddies (and ourselves) in Ramadan spirit even Hanan is starting to enjoy it MashaAllah!