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.

Life cycle of a Butterfly

AR's first ever book, illustrated by mama! I have to add that this was lots of fun and it also turned out to be a GREAT learning aid! We are definitely going to be making more inshaAllah.

You will need:

• Foam paper
• Permanent marker
• Hand single hole puncher
• Fiber yarn (from the rice bag)
• Colors to color the pictures
• Construction paper to cut the eggs, leaves and caterpillar out,
• Stapler

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. 

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!

Adam (a.s)

So we started off with Adam (a.s). Here are the things we covered.

1.    Read Adam (a.s) story books (we have 2 from Darussalam)

2.    5 Questions

• Who was the first human Allah (swt) created?
• Adam (a.s)
• What did Allah (swt) make Adam (a.s) from?
• Clay
• What did Allah (swt) teach him?
• Names of everything (I used the Ayah as well from Surah al-Baqarah
• Who did not do sajjdah to Adam (a.s)
• Iblees
• Who is Ibees?
• Shaitan
• What did Allah (swt) made shaitan from?
• Fire
• Who was Adam (a.s) wife?
• Hawa (a.s)
• Where did they live?
• In Jannah
• What did shaitan do?
• He made them disobey Allah, and took them out of Jannah.
• Where was their new home?
• On the earth.
• What did Adam (a.s) do after he made a mistake by listening to shaitan?
• He did Tawbah (asked Allah to forgive him and his wife)
• Did Allah (swt) for give them?
• Yes, Allah is Ghafurur-Raheem. He forgives everyone who repents to him sincerely (explained sincerely)
• Who is our GREATEST enemy?
• Shaitan

3.   Watched the Habeel and Kabeel Youtube video

4.   Listened and read some ayat from the Quran that covered the story of Adam (a.s)

• Important note: I did not force him to read or listen. He read until he didnt want to read anymore and then I just read the rest trying to make sure he could hear me.

5. Craft

• For the craft I want to keep it to something related to the story we are doing. So for this we worked with clay and talked about different types of clay and how Allah (swt) has made us with clay. 
• We made a Hand print in clay for AR. I had been wanting to make this for keepsake for a really long time, this worked as a good opportunity.
• We also made a small car, since AR loves cars.

AR chose this color although I did not like it but I let him tell me how he wanted it. In his room most of his things are olive greeny...it still has a green hue!! He did most of the work, but the things that he was not able to do I helped him with them or guided him to do them. 

He wanted to add a white hand print. I still have to make our daughters, InshaAllah when I do that I will post pictures of it as well.

  

Please do advice for any thing we can add/change/subtarct for next time.

Steer the Wheel!

AR and mama made a HONDA CIVIC steering wheel. This was something that made him really happy b/c he loves cars!

What you will need:

1. A solid paper plate ( I used Dixie) 
2. Scissors or a carpet cutter (we used the carpet cutter, I like use it)
3. Some pictures of car logos (we cut out some from his car magazine collection)
4. Glue
5. Old baby stocking in black, grey or beige color. (we cut it and glue gun-ed it on)
6. Glue gun

Prophets

Every week we will be covering one prophet. I am trying to cover them in sequence, starting from Adam (a.s), but if he wants to pick one of his choice, we will cover that one. This is what we will be doing, bi'eznillah hi ta'ala.

1. Read with the story of the prophet.
2. Plan a craft/activity or two from the story
3. Lesson/gem from the story for the children and myself
4. Few questions about the prophet and the main incidents of his life. (I don't want to make him memorize the answers but just go over them with me a few times during the week.)
5. Make the prophetic tree to teach the order of the prophets, we will add one every week.

InshaAllah, this is the outline for how we will be covering the prophets.  I am really excited to do the crafts about each story with the kids.

Any suggestion for as to what else we can add to our list.

Homemade play-dough

We made play-dough at home with AR's helping hand, he enjoyed making it a lot and also playing with it. I really like play-dough for AR because he has very delicate fingers and playing with play-dough, kneading it and making things out of it helps him strengthen his finger muscles and fine motor skills. Alhumdulillah he loves playing with play-dough!

Even our daughter H loves playing with it and sometimes EATING it! Alhumdulillah it's non-toxic so no worries... but it still has lots of germs!! She will get use to not eating it.

Play-dough recipe for those interested. Why buy those toxic play-doughs when you can do-it-yourself at home!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup salt
• 4 tbsp cream of tartar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Food coloring

Instructions

Combine the flour, water, salt, cream of tartar, and oil in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the play-dough begins to form a ball, it's cooked. Cool for five minutes and then knead in food coloring. 

I divided the dough in 4 balls and then added vanilla essence, mango essence and coco powder with the food coloring.