Summer Nature Table

Our summer nature table. Felt Garland AR insists on putting around the table.

We have a table set in the Rawdah as our nature table. Mostly, we use it for seasons but since we don't have all season here we also use it as a general nature table where the kids put things on it from our nature walks, or anything that reminds them of Allah SWT and His creation.

Nature table's are a great way to let kids explore Allah SWT's creation and the beauty He has add in everything thing He has created. 

Some yummy sweet and juicy hand picked apricots by the kids from a farm field trip we had with a some families a few days ago.

Extra large figs, also hand picked from a farm. Felt strawberries I had made as a their Jummah special for food play.

We also have sea shells and corals that the kids have collected on their beach trips. MashaAllah we have a HUGE colletion of some amazing looking shells.

Learning through play

I still remember when I attended the homeschooling conference in Toronto, I met a sister there who said to me "Oh, your son is still too young, don't worry about anything right now, just let him play till he's about seven. After seven is when children are actually able to learn, at that point you can start academic work with him." At first, what she said came as a shock to me but as I learned and researched more, the more I started to agree with what the sister had said. 

A lot of you have asked me what do I do with the kids all day anyways?? InshaAllah I will answer that one day! However, I would like to say one thing that are many AMAZING mommies out there that inspire me every single day one way or another. Some online, some in person and some by phone. Love you all and May Allah increase you (us) all in your (our) good righteous efforts and accept them from you (us). And chose our children for His deen Ameen

Until I post about what kinda stuff we do at home, here's a great article that will inshaAllah help those with little ones enormously and also give you an idea what we do around our home most of the time. The author talks the importance of learning though play.

Big girl!

Last week, while AR was gone to school, I did my usual morning routine with H. After that I went to do the house chores for a bit, usually when I do that H normally plays around me, we talk and recite and sing nasheeds and nursery rhymes. On Monday however, H decided to stay in the Rawdah, after about 15 to 20 mins of silence I thought I should check on her.

So I did... and mashaAllah she surprised me with THIS...

Yes...MashaAllah she made the train track all by herself. Also attempted to puzzles at the back. Apparently this was not the first time. When I told my husband he said she did this in last month too, I was not aware of it. We were proud of her little achievement.

I strongly believe when toys and educational equipment is accessible to kids, it gives them more opportunity to learn. Kids tend to learn better when they have the freedom to explore their environment. As parents its our duty to try our best to make the environment safe for them. It's really important to teach kids and supervise them. However, it's as important to give them an unsupervised learning experience. This teaches them to be independent, confident and gives them a sense of responsibility and trust.

YES, at times this unsupervised learning can be messy, but that's okay. Simply in a calm voice just ask the child to help you clean-up, and most of the times they will be more then willing too. 

Toddler Activities: Color Recognition

H has been practicing her colors. We did this simple activities together, to have fun and learn our colors. I would place one cube of each color on the floor and then helped her sort the colors and from their she made towers of each color. Then she would get to drop them all, which she loves doing.

In the middle AR joined us too so we practiced colors in Arabic and used their color pencil rug to sort wooden cubes and their pretend food matching the colors.

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. :)

Book Review: Father Loves His Little One

A great bedtime/storytime book. AR, H, I and Baba all love these books. The best thing is they are board books, so its very sturdy for H.

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?

Book Review:The Gift of Jummah

InshaAllah from now on we will be adding this book to our Jummah checklist. "The Gift of Jummah" is a very well written book by "Shazia Nazalee", who has also the author of "Little Explorer" Magazines click here to see their website. My friend is a distributor in Canada for the LE Magazines, mashaAllah she is done a great job. You can also check out her blog Aasiya's Homeschool.

May Allah accept all of our efforts to please Him and live our life according to The Quran and Sunnah.
Ameen

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.

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!

Popsicle Labels

On the bookshelf I used colored-popsicles and wrote on them with permanent marker. This way all the subjects remain separate and easily accessible. I have all math related books, workbooks, activities and puzzles in one shelf and so on.

I use this "paper tak" to stick things on the walls and things. I like them more then tapes or double sided tapes because it doesn't effect the walls/leave marks on them. They even stick Bristol Boards!!

What are some ways you label your items at home for your children and adults? 

Laminated Labels

We have been working on some labeling items around the house. My goal is to label as many things as possible for ALL the family members to know where things go. For the Rawdah and children's play-room I made labels with pictures to help them see the images and know where something belongs, since they cannot read yet and even H can eventually catch on to the idea. This will inshaAllah be good phonics practice as well.

To tie the labels I used rice bag yarn from the rice we bought to give the labels a shabby vintagy look.

Our color printer is not working so I used pictures from the magazines and did some free-style drawings. We looked for pictures together and then cut & paste them on the labels. This became a good learning experience for AR. I also laminate them to make the more durable.

Calendar Activity

This is what we do every day for the calendar activity.

1. Put the date on and then say the date
2. Sing the Days of the week
3. EXERCISE to the months of Islam/year. In our highschool daycare we would do months of the year to "The Macarena" song, I asked a around about this from some students of knowledge and concluded that there is nothing wong with it as long as you are not doing it with the intention to dance. I decided to do it without telling AR anything about the "Macarena". I simply just say "Morning exercise" time. I have to say that MASHAALLAH he memorized both sets of the months in 3 weeks with this great technique! now even H tries to imitate us.
4. Recently we added the weather and seasons in Arabic and English.

Goop!

Kids love Messy play so... we made Goop! Both the kids had a great time, even I had a great time playing with them and watching them. Its really messy! and loads of fun. I let them get there hands and feet involved so it turned out to be a great experience for them. Do give it a try, but remember it wil require some good cleaning up afterwards.

What you will need: 

1. 2 cups corn flour
2. food coloring (or you can use the natural dyes)
3. water (add until you get the desired consistency)

Instructions: 

Mix the food color with the water and mix it with the c.flour. Keep adding water until you like the consistency of the goop...make sure to not make it watery!

Arabic letter puzzle

We bought this Arabic puzzle for the kids... it was a bit expensive (by that I mean $5) but they will inshaAllah benefit from it. I was looking for the pegs one but didn't find it!

I find puzzles a great learning tool, wouldn't you agree?? InshaAllah we will be sharing it with him on Friday... this will be his Yawm ul Jummah special!

Aromatherapy Play-dough

Next thing with play-dough I would like to do/try are the essential oil play-doughs, buy them or even better try to make them at home. Will share if I do make them, meanwhile checkout these aromatherapy play-dough. You can even find gluten free play-dough for children with allergies.

Crayon Hockey Pucks!

We made these chunky crayon hockey pucks. Why they might be good for you to try??

1. They are lots of FUN for the kids  as they watch them melting
2. A little science experiment about how heat melts an object
3. Great color mixing experience for them to watch
4. Amazing for the tiny toddlers hands
5. No wasting those tiny non-handleable broken pieces of crayon

What you will need:

1. A muffin tray
2. Aluminium foil
3. Broken/small pieces of crayon 
4. A napkin with  little oil to slightly layer the foil with oil. (you can also use oil spray)

Place it in a warm oven not HOT. After melted, let it sit until its cool and hardens. 

Ta da!

Car Paint Toddy

H car painting... mashaAllah she had a blast!

Great for Preschoolers too, I have done it a few times with AR...for him it like his SPECIAL treat!

Ball Painting

This Ball painting was another great hit with AR. He really enjoyed banging the ball in the Tupperware. Its very easy to prepare for and lots of fun for the kids,. It makes a great toddler activity as well.

Line Tupperware with paper.

Put some paint on it

Get a good size ball.

Let the child shake it.

Ta daa!! 

Beautiful Ball art Masterpiece!

Yogurt Painting

We did yogurt painting! both the kids loved!! It was initially suppose to be for toddler activity for H but AR really wanted to do it too so he did some too.

Four teaspoon of yogurt with a drop or two of food coloring 

What you will need:

1. Yogurt
2. Thick paper, cardboard or bristol board
3. Food coloring
4. And some cute toddler hands!!

This is a wonderful activity for the toddlers and its safe, they can lick their fingers!