File Folders

I made a few file folder games for the kids to go along side with their everyday main lesson plans.

I used online resources and store bought books. MashaAllah the kids are really enjoying and benefitting from them. 

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? 

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.

Calendar

Our calendar is Alhumdulillah almost complete now, we still have to add the Arabic months, days and dates to it. I have the months ready from Talibiddeen junior but our color printed is not working with Linux. Here are some details for the details we added to it

1.   I simply LOVE the fact that I forgot to print the date 17!! That is because it shows (to me at least) its genuity of it, It makes it real for me that WE made it with our hands, and that we are humans and we make mistake and ONLY HE IS PERFECT! (ALLAH SWT)

2.  We used oil pastels to color the months, days and year. The reason why I chose oil pastels was to give AR a different medium to work with and explore. He specially enjoyed the smudging it with the tissue paper part. I have always loved them.

3.  We used stencils and acrylic paint for the weekend (Thursday and Friday) to make them stand out and easier for the kids to catch on. now he knows that the blue stencil wine is Friday so on Thursday he gets really excited about Friday Alhumdulillah! He did the stenciling with me too, he choose the wine style and also the colors. I think its really important to let child speak up on there choices even though they might not fit in with the latest trends and styles. A lot of times people focus on fashion and latest Home decor so much that they ignore the child's choice and also and what their comfort!!

btw, I bought these stencils from DOLLARAMA!!

4. This is the box of a some frame we had that we used to hold the months and dates. 

I had to add the stencil to the box too! 

5.   These the symbol of SPRING!! 

I made these for our little girl from my some scrap pieces of fabric I got from my tailor who told us that they through them in the GARBAGE!!! I was like WHAT!! The 2 garbage full of fabrics he gave me had meter and meter and a half of pure silks, pure chiffons, cotton, beaded fabric pieces and many more. he beads I had from my bead collections! I have some other projects I am doing using the other fabrics which I will sharing inshaAllah later on. So these are just some of the flowers I put up that I had made of H. 

I would just like to add, for those who see this and think...we don't have time do these things! I would just like to say that this is ALL done following my 20mins (read here) for the house/me time. It took me a while to finish..."slow and steady wins the race". I cant devote my entire self to all this because I am the cook, cleaner prime caregiver for the kids, laundry woman and now with the new role of a full time (247) on duty teacher/nurture of the kids, it not justifiable. I know, as is the case of most of you as well. 

After seeing the final result I was content with my 20 mins a day decision Alhumdulillah. 

Home lamination

I used to home laminate sheets and book marks with the clear vinyl book covers aside from just covering books with them. They would do a great job for me but now with kids I don't find them too durable so, I started home laminating. It very simple, easy, quick and cheap!

What you will need:

1. Laminating pouches/film (you can get laminating film in any size)
2. Iron
3. Two 10' by 13' bristol board 
4. A safe place to iron

Instructions:

I will let the picture do the talking.

 Open the pouch, which will have 3 sides open and one affixed. Place the material that needs to be laminated in between the  laminating sheets. 

Gently close it making sure that they do not move and then carefully place the laminating pouch between the two pieces of bristol board. Now, simply iron on moderately hot iron setting (I had our iron on 4.5, it goes till 7). Make sure to start from the side that is closed to avoid any bubbles or bumps to form. IF...the iron is too HOT it will simply make the film to curl up...so the whole game is on getting your hand set on the right temperature.

After you are done ironing...be very careful because it will be hot, give it a minute to cool and get hard.

Our finished product cut.

We had many other things laminated...

Did you know?!?

That... on laminated sheets you can also use WHITE BOARD markers! It works great for checklists, daily schedules, chore charts, GROCERY lists and reminders. You don't have to worry about wasting paper, recycling and it also eco-friendly (if you get the biodegradable laminating film/ pouches) :). Isn't that great??

I know some of you may be thinking right now...why waste so much time?...why not go to the stationary and get it done! Here are some reasons I do it at home

1. It ACTUALLY takes less time to do-it yourself at home then to get yourself (a muslimahs that could mean hijab, abaya, or even niqab) and the kids (1, 2, 3, 4) ready.
2. KIDS will love it... Children tend to like and feel attached to things that they see done in-front of them. Its a great learning experience.
3. If you have older children it could be a great practice for them to iron.
4. Its a great creative outlet...you can laminate leaves, make bookmarks for gifts, make labels, laminate a great art work of you child to preserve it and many other things.

Rawdah Setup :)

Here is how we have setup our "Rawdah" (Rawdah is our name for your HS/study room) to have our day run smoothly. I started this project at the beginning of this year. My goal was to only 20 minutes each day for the setup. The 20 minutes included setup and clean up so basically I was left with 15 productive minutes. Since I have other responsibilities (cooking, laundry, dish-washing and so on), these I can not ignore or have someone else look over. Due to which I only put aside 20 minutes to setting up the house and paying attention to details.

I still have a LOT of things to change and add, I will be sharing them as we along (InshaAllah). I have a dairy I have put aside in which I jot down ALL the ideas and thoughts that come to my mind, or come across in my blog hunting, or from a book. This way I don't have to worry about forgetting an idea or thought! and most of all my BRAIN gets lighter! I will inshaAllah post about this in detail. 

This is our final product so far, after many changes and days where I didn't do anything (for the setup because I put those 20 minutes to doing other things which I wanted to do or they were my priority). Talking about PRIORITY... I would like to share something, as much as I love/enjoy house decor and details in things...I do not want to make them my priority anymore! because this is not whats going to benefit us in long term. Meaning, ever since our HS decision this I have turned our direction (be'edhnillah) to focusing on the ourselves (more) and our children. Giving priority to Deen and the nurturing and education of our family. After this being said I would like to say that there is NOTHING wrong with doing things in a Ihsan  (beautiful/perfect) manner. Prophet Muhammad (saw) said: " Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty..." (full Hadeeth is mentioned below).




From 'Abdullaah Ibn Mas'ood (radiyallaahu 'anhu) who said that the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "No one will enter Paradise who has an atom's weight of pride in his heart." A man said, "What if a man likes his clothes to look good and his shoes to look good?" He said, "Allaah is beautiful and loves beauty. Pride means denying the truth and looking down on people."