DIY: Baby Doll

I have always wanted to these German dolls (also known as Waldorf dolls) for H, they are very expensive, they cost $130 to $250 a piece. I love this one from Etsy and this one from Nobby Organics.

A month or so ago I had a newsletter in my email about a Doll Making workshop in London Ontario offered by Waldorf in March, for only $95!! Its cheaper then the doll itself! I would love to attend this workshop and make my own dolls for my kids and relatives. Check it out here, if you are interested in taking the workshop and live in Ontario.

Since I had made the felt puppets for story time for the kids (will share inshaAllah), I thought, why not try making a doll. I looked up some tutorials and made my first handmade doll for my doll!! Of course I didn't have all the things needed and neither do I have craft store like Loomis or Micheals to ran to for crafty needs. This was a project that made me pull out my creative side and I was able to complete this doll making project, Alhumdulillah. We are officailly becoming producers from consumers.

Here is how I made in a few steps:

I used a old skin colored t-shirt of mine  from our donation box and  cut out the arms  separately,  torso and legs together and a big circle for the head. I stuffed an old sock of H, (small size) with the filling. and tied it close, and then I tied a strong thread in the middle of it form an head. You can see a curved in line by the eye area. I then cover it with the skin color fabric. If you can get the proper equipment, it come with a tube for the head, which works great and doesn't bunch up at the back. I stitched the arms and body on the machine,  and the kids helped me stuff the whole thing. They are in love with it.

Stitched it all toegther, arms, then the body. Its a very easy project if you have little bit of back ground in stitching you can do it.  It took me total one hour, and i did it over 2 days, and ofcourse the kids were a great help so I had to slow down for them, they stuffed the doll for me, mashaAllah.

Took this old dress of H form the donation box and cut out 2 dresses for H's dolls.

 It cost me $0! and my little doll is so happy with it mashaAllah. Homemade toys can be super frugal!

Knitting away...

I had posted before (Click here) about how we have been knitting and crocheting. So here are some or our projects we have been working on. I will also share some resources that are available to learn knitting and crocheting for beginners. Although I knew how to knit a little bit these tutorials were a great help for those who know how to work with yarn. We will also disscuss why and how we should introduce these skills to our little ones.

There are many reasons why we should introduce knitting to children. I feel its a skill that teaches a great deal of patience (I am talking from experience here!!). Children feel a great accomplished and confidence when they make something with their own hands (and so do adults). It also teaches problem solving, you make mistakes while knitting and you have to correct them with patience. Great for fine motor skills especially in boys. They make amazing gifts for children to give to family, friends and relatives. Its imporatnt to teach our children from the beginning to be producers then consumers as much as we can, also a it frugal.

However, before we start knitting with our children we might want to consider some steps to introducing knitting. I will inshaAllah share with you how I slowly introduced knitting and crocheting to my children step by step, we started in after we came back from our summer vacation, I had brought some tools and yarn back with me, Ihad purchase some stuff here too and it was easily available here too, Alhumdulillah.

1. Be a silent role model - Knit and crochet in front of them, and they will ask you what you are doing, take that opportunity to introduce the yarn, crochet hook or knitting needles. Children are more likely to do things they see parents doing. Whenever we go outside I keep the knitting (or any other) project with me in a drawstring bag, so when we are in the car I work on it while reciting/memorizing with the kids or just looking outside.

2. Getting comfortable - Let them get comfortable with the yarn and other tools by letting them touch them and experiment with them making sure you are with them to be safe.

3. Yarn craft - Doing yarn crafts, glue yarn on paper in different shapes,  paint with yarn, nailed wood panel yarn activity, inshaAllah I'll share this one later. Its a wonder math activity as well. You can also practice cutting yarn, we did a measuring cut yarn activity as well.

4. Introducing knitting - Now that the kids are comfortable with the concept of knitting and yarn, you can start knit with them. And the best way to start is finger knitting! No hooks or needles! From whatever research and asking around I have done, I found that the best age to start knitting with children is ages 6 to 7 but some children can start earlier, if the parents have focused on handwork at an early age. Wood weaving tools are also a great way to start knitting with young children
Here are some of the resources we used to start finger knitting. 

• Knitting with kids
• Famly Fun - DIY colorful Jump rope - we are working on this one right now together, we used some old tees and made yarn balls out of them we are still short on old tees. 
• Video 1 - A boy teaching finger knittiing it was a good way to get him encouraged

• Video 2 - Earthschooling finger knitting tutorial... love it how she does it with a story. Since AR is still young I keep him in my lap when we knit and we do it together, so far we have just made strings and he's still learning, it a great bonding time for us. We stop as soon as he says I am done, if we are singing then we get many stitches! MashaAllah its really fun!

Resources:

1. Online - Great knitting tutorial for beginners and those who know how to knit a little, uploaded by Cital 86, They have 12 tutotialsand they are very easy to follow

For crocheting these videos are very helpful

2. In person - Find a teacher who can teach you, knitting is very common here in Saudi, I was able to find someone who could teach me but it was not working out so I started using the tutorial I gave above. If you are living in North American you can find cafes and centers where they teach knitting, crocheting and felting and if you have kids they will teach them needle felting as well. Some even offer private class, all that will cost of course and its not always easy to go. Learning in person is a great way, if you can find someone who can teach you for free, that's great!  Knit-o-matic is a great place to start looking into for classes and more info.

3. Buying - In Saudi almost all stationary stores carry knitting tools and yarns. I buy ours from these two online stores, I bought some in summer last year, it has great variety and great prices. 

• http://www.herrschners.ca/
• http://www.knitpicks.com/knitting.cfm

Here are some things we have made:

My first knit project, A purse for H. MashaAllah TabarakAllaha she loves it and takes it everywhere with her.

Ball for AR

This was a fun and easy knit project. I knit with a garter stitch 6 squares in 3 colors. and with a needle and yarn I hand stitched the pieces together same colors opposite to each other. What you see is the ball inside out, I left the yarn pieces un-cut, they added to the fill.

Turned it inside out and filled it with wool roving until it felt firm, and then stitched it close. The good thing about knitting squares and rectangles is that you can acctually put them together and make so many things about of them, rugs, floor chairs, baby blankets and throws.

A colorful handmade ball!

Baby Bennie for H's doll.

One of the string AR made, this was a gift for H from him.

I felt like making baby booties, so I started..

One completed and still working on the other one, thinking of giving it to preggo friend!

I am making more toys, a rug and a blanket inshaAllah its a slow and long process. I want to inshaAllah make this pouf for our living room (check them out) one day.

Teaching the Life of the Prophet SAW to children

Recently I started a series on Seerah by Yasir Qadhi 'A Mercy to Mankind' I am really enjoying and benefiting from it. One of the things I love about the seerah is that when we study the life of the Prophet SAWand ALL the hardships and difficulties he SAW went through, our problems and issues become so small and worthless. And if there is a hardship or fitnah we have in our life, studying the seerah give us the power and strength to move on and move away, by seeing his SAW's tests and tribulations. Its a wonderful series! MashaAllah.

When I started listening to it, I felt a strong urge/motivation to really focus on the Seerah with the kids on a regular bases. Make it an important part of our lives.

Here are some things we have been doing as an effort to help our kids develop a strong and unique bond with the Prophet SAW at a small age.

1. Almost everyday, after Asr, I put Yasir Qadhi's seerah lecture on so the kids can listen to it. Sometimes AR comes and sits to watch the video and of course H joins, they actually sit and listen mashaAllah. (I don't mind him watching a sheikh on the screen for a few minutes to gain knowledge).  The benefit out ways the damage in this matter in my eyes.

A Mercy to Mankind - Muhmmad SAW

2. We posted the Learning Roots 'Seerah -  Makkan period' chart up to keep track of how far and how much we have learned and how much more to go

I am not sticking the stickers on though, this way I can use it again too.

3.  Lastly but most importantly we started reading "The Noble Life of the Prophet SAW' with the kids at bedtime. I know some of you might be thinking isn't that too much for the little ones?? No, not at all. They really enjoy it mashaAllah! How can they not, its indeed the life of our Prophet SAW.  It did take some effort from our side, to have them start it.

Since AR was very small we would tell him the stories of the Prophets and Sahabas without books. When we moved here and I made our bedtime ritual, this time I added bedtime story books, which were never there before that. However a few months ago I stopped reading books to the kids at bedtime again and went back to our old storytelling method. It took me a two weeks or so to wine them off books and listen to all the wonderful REAL stories mama has to tell them. To be honest some days I would have to look at a story before I would relate it to them.

I don't believe in making up stories too much, there's nothing wrong with it, but why fantasies when we can tell true stories. Like, for example if you were to relate the story of Salam Al Farisi (R.A) to a child, how can it be possible that a child will not listen to his story?? Theres no way a made up tale can be as beautiful and as meaning full as the story of Salman Al Farisi or the story of Prophet Sulaiman (A.S). AR still get lost at the thought of flying in the air. In order for us to tell the stories from our Islamic history we need to learn them ourselves and learn them from the right sources and learn them over and over again. So we don't have to relay on non-muslim folk stories and fairy tales, which to be honest in my eyes are all imitations of stories from Islam, some what.

When we share a story of the past we shouldn't hesitate to tell our kids about good and bad, death, murder and physical abuse the muslims went through. I have seen many parents who feel like they are scaring the child or the child will be traumatized. I feel this is a wrong way of thinking, because if this was the case then why would Allah SWT mention death, Jannah and Jahnam to us over and over again?? And the consequence of our bad and good actions?? Its important that we teach children to be detached from this duniya and have a desire to die and go to Jannah, not be scared to death!

Its not easy! The worldly life gives children (and ourselves) an immediate gratification. And Aakhirah is something that we have to remind them about about. Why remind and not tell?? Because its our fitra (nature)! and that is what Allah swt dose again and again in the Quran. And for children, to develop a love and longing for the Aakhirah we need to give them a mental image, and image that is fixed in there minds of Aakhriah(Hereafter) is, Jannah(Paradise) and Jahnam(Hell fire) are. Its not easy, we have to constantly remind them and ourselves and most importantly fight the devil's whispers.

This storytelling phase really helped them move to the book. Since there are no pictures in the book they have to make an image in there minds just by listening which is a great way to promote imaginative thinking. 

When we read it we have simplify here and there a bit to make it comprehend-able to them. We skip some parts here and their that will be beyond there ability to understand. We don't want to make it a philosophical discussion. We still read books and we read lots, but just not at bedtime. 

The last thing I want the kids to sleep with is a story or image that will actually benefit him in this duniya and Aakhira, and that is definitely not in 'Curious George' or Dr. Seuss'  etc. I am not at all saying that these books are bad or shouldn't be read or somthing! I just don't want my child to fall asleep thing about 'Cat in the Hat' or 'how George is a goood little monkey'!

Since MashaAllah Baba is a better story teller then Mama, Baba reads the book to them most of the time. Its a great Baba and kiddios time, Alhumdulillah.

Allah knows best!

How it all started & Where we are today?

The purpose of this post is to share our homeschooling journey. Also to give a support to the all families and mommies who have decided to embark on this unique journey but don't know where to start... its okay to be confused! Some of you have asked me how and where to start just as I have asked others the same question and still do when I feel inspired by a mother and her child.

A summary of our journey through this unique experience...

When our son AR was born we were really happy with this blessing and trust Allah swt had given us. As parents we wanted to be the best we could be and wanted to give him all we could from love and our time.   I as a mother started to prepare myself before AR was born, reading books, articles online watching videos, attending classes and lectures on stages of pregnancy and labour, child rearing, coping strategies of different life situations and so on. However, the most important thing was dua... making dua through good times and bad, through various ups and downs of life. I saw my duas being answered on many occasions through out my life (even before I got married and had this blissful family of ours). We had a strong trust in Allah swt that He will show us the right way and He has time and time again and we just have to find the means. Its one of those 'Eman boosting experiences', and we all go through them in our lives many times.

Making the decision to homeschool was one of those things that Allah swt opened up to us. To homeschool AR in his early years was a decision we had made before he was born, but to be honest we really didn't look into it untill Allah swt planned a trip  for us to Edmonton, Canada, where most of the population is of homeschoolers. At that time AR was around 6 months old. We met sister Elma Harder the writer of the book called Concentric Circle, she took us to her sakin circle, mashaAllah it was a wonderful experience, she has raised her children on a farm-side home, very connected to the nature and a simple life. We also got to visit a family who had been homeschooling for many years, we asked many questions we had in our minds. She gave me a book to get me started called 'Ultimate guide to homeschooling'. MashaAllah that sister was/is an inspiration for me, I would love to meet her and her family again and tell her how far we have come in this journey inshaAllah.

When we started learning about Homeschooling, honestly I was so confused. In the beginning we spend most of the time studying/ researching and learning about what Homeschooling really is. Is to school at home! (as most people think, and so did I in the beginning). However, as we read and researched more and listened to lectures done by some renowned Muslim scholars on this subject, many questions we had were answered. We started to come to a deep realization of the fact that to homeschool is to really transform your life-style to a more natural and pure way. Its a transformative learning style. It is to look at things around us from a whole new angle rather then change things around us. Its a holistic living, its to live by the Quran and Sunnah

In the beginning we made some mistakes as is the case when we start anything new, some things had misled me to believe that our three year old should know all his letters/haroof and numbers/addad and should even recognize them all, he should try to write. We had a rigid over scheduled day! Alhumdulillah this phase didn't last for long! During a period of a week Allah swt opened a totally new chapter for us, I came across this saying of Ali (radi Allahu a'anh) "Play with them for the first seven years of their life, teach them for seven years of their lives, be friends with them for seven years and them let them go." (Paraphrased) SubhanaAllah this statement really opened my eyes. I started looking around for play oriented learning and fun things to do with our AR and before I knew we had a unique bonding.

Allah swt kept opening one door after another for us. We picked up this book we had sitting in our shelf and never got our attention until Allah swt wanted us to see it. At this point we were at a turning point in our life as a family. I remember my husband and I sat down till 2AM looking through this book and the how it focuses on all aspects of our lives as whole. The book was the Concentric Circles.

Alhumdulillah to the internet! I found some very beneficial books, links, blogs, and videos online. Most of our daily activities and learning were mainly based on free play, painting, coloring, drawing, working with clay, sand, playdough, imitations, kids helping me around the house, sing alongs and  memorization of duas and Surahs. I also found these two channels on youtube and most of our activities were based on them. The first one is from ExpertVillage, called 'Preschool Montessori Activities', its inspired by the Maria Montessori's learning approach. The second channel is called TheDreamAngle. TheDreamAngle takes the Waldorf approach to learning, through her channel I came across her site, where I came to learn about 'The Earthschooling Curriculum', although we didn't get their curriculum, I did some of their 'Health and Homeschooling' webinars.

 Another great resource we are all familar with was Talibiddeen jr. MashaAllah TabarakAllaha! She has a resourceful website. There are many other wonderful blogging mommies out there all over the globe that offer a great variety of tips and things to do in life, homeschooling, motherhood, and so on.

Although I was not planing on using a  curriculum  for the kids yet since they are still young, still checked some out to get an idea what's out there. I stumbled over this curriculum called Oak Meadow, through a blog I had signed up for an online workshop. When I visited there site, I ended up reading there articles and free journals and ended up not looking into there curriculum at all. I got so into the reading, that for the next few days I kept reading their stuff. The material was very beneficial and eye opening for me, it was like another new turn in life. I highly recoomend reading the material. Than I got busy with kids and home and forgot all about the site and curriculum for a while.

And than SubhanaAllah! I met this lovely sister who let me borrow her 2nd grade Oak Meadow curriculum to look through and told me to keep the book 'The Heart of Learning' written by Lawrence William (founder of Oak Meadow and a trained Waldorf teacher). Its truly an amazing book! It focuses on us as parents to transform ourselves and as a result we will see our children transform. In other words doing Tazkiyyah -tun-Nafs and (purification of the heart/soul). While reading this book I kept thinking to myself these are the teachings of our deen. He explains how we have nurture the 'being' of our child, which of course is the fitra. I would recommend this book to ALL parents, regardless of whether you are homeschooling or not. You can purchase is single from there website, here

Although we decided to send AR to Tahfeez for a few hours (in 2011), we still continued doing a lot of activities together at home while constantly making dua to Allah swt to guide us to the best for him and us. And He did. We decided not to send him back for the second term due to some circumstances which I believe were planned by Allah swt as an answer to our duas. We are so happy to have him home, the one that is most happy is H, mashaAllah tabarakaAllaha, they are bonding so well, of course they have their differences but thats normal. AR slows down to teach her duas word by word or explain things to her, in her language. Last semester when he was at school they would just fight all the time!!

Now, Alhumdulillah we are having such a great time together. I can also say, we are for now, officially unschooling with some boundaries. I still try to keep a rhythm in the day, for me it works best to kinda know how and where to start and end, but I don't have a fixed timetable. I have goals that I want to meet by the end of the day, week, month and year for myself and the kids. No rigid schedules! As I learn more and more I keep feeling a very strong urge to ask Allah swt to give us the ability and strength to instill in our children the proper Islamic morals and teachings; instill the love of this deen and His love in their hearts, love to follow and implement the Quran and Sunnah. Ameen!

What I am loving/cherishing the most about where we are now is, being able to connect and bond with my children, understanding them and their cycles of development. Alhumdulillah we as a family have really come together, we started growing stronger bonds with each other. This doesn't mean that we don't have conflicts or disagreements, or the kids don't have differences with each other... it happens, but its less and most importantly the way we look at things has transformed /is transforming (with the permission of Allah swt) as it is a life long thing. We will continue to grow inshaAllah.


Despite all the opposition I have had with the decsion to Homeschool, I still wish to continue it inshaAllah. Just because AR by nature is more of quite and observant child, people have blamed it on Homeschooling. If it was that was the case then H should be like that too! They are totally opposite to each other, she can start talk to a stranger and AR will take time to get comfortable to meet his own friend after not seeing him for a while.


I pray to Allah swt the ALL Powerful and The ALL Wise to keep guiding us to the Haqq; keep increasing our bond, love and understanding with each other. I Pray that He gives us the ability to raise children who He is pleased with, who can lead the Ummah to the right path and sadaqah Jariyaah for us.

This was a glimpse of our looong journey. This is not at all to say that you should homeschool or unschool. We should all do what works best for us and our families. And neither do we know how long Allah has written this for us, its a choice we have made and hope to continue it as long as Allah swt permits us to. 


A really close friend and a fellow blogging homechooler said something very nice that is soo true and I would like to end with that inshaAllah. She said "Its an entire life style with lots of struggles... bad days... exhaustion and frustration...but it also has countless priceless moments which make every struggle worth it!" See her blog here.

Raising Children with Deen and Dunya

GREAT READ!

Its an amazing article with some great points, its long but really worth the time. Some things will just be a reminder for some of us but sometimes reminders are what we need! Wisdom is in benefiting from others experience and knowledge. So, NEVER feel shy or hesitate to learn from someone, regardless of their age, believes religous or non, relation to you, or gender, this is indeed the teaching of our Deen.

Click here and read Raising Children with Deen and Dunya 

The levels of Jannah

Today morning the kids and I were playing with their blocks while talk about Jannah and fantasizing about ALL the things we can have in Jannah. We also talked about how to get to Jannah and the different levels of Jannah. We never mentioned the different levels of Jannah before, so when I started talking about the levels and how if a family member will be in the higher level of Jannah, the lower level family will be raised to the higher level to be joined with them. AR was listening to me very careful and he was so amazed. We talked in great detail about it for about 20 to 30 minutes and then I went to do some work.

5 minutes later AR called me to show me this and he said

AR: Mama look what I made.
Me: mashaAllah really nice, what is it?
AR: These are the levels of Jannah Mama. The mother was on the lower level (the blue tower) and the little girl was on the higher level and Allah raised the mother to the girls level. They were both sad a bit before and now they got soooo happy to be together mashaAllah.  

I was speechless. My eyes filled with tears at the way he explained the process to me, lifting the mother with joy and raising her at the girl's level. MashaAllah TabarakaAllahu, he not just understood the concept but he gave it such and amazing visual from his imagination. I didn't do anything like this with him, it was all verbal with hand movements. It an amazing feeling to see your child grow in understanding step by step.

This really made me think something at very deeper level, by fitarah (nature) children want to learn about Allah and the Messenger (saw), Aakhirah, Jannah and Jahanm, good and evil, and they find a satisfaction in learning these concepts, a contentment, just as we do.

As parents when we are passionate about something, unknowingly we transfer it our children and they absorb our passion in themselves. So if we choose this duniya (life of this world) to be the most important thing to us, they will too and if we choose the Aakhirah (the hereafter), they will too. This absolutely doesn't mean we should become monks and go live in the forest! And have nothing to do with this duniya and the things in it! No, this is not what it means. We need to find a balance. We need this duniya to attain the Aakhirah and Allah swt's pleasure, but we should find a moderate path between the two and our inclination should be towards the Aakhirah more than the duniya.

O Allah fill our heart and minds with Your love and the love of the Prophet saw. And increase us in the desire to meet You. Teach us those ways by which we can instill this in our hearts and the hearts of our children and our spouses. O Allah protect us from the blazing fire and unit us in Jannah and raise our ranks in Jannah so we can unity in with our families and friends. Ameen Ya Rabb!

DIY Tutorial: Monogram Pillow Case

Our 'Jummah special' for AR this past Jummah was a handmade monogram pillow cover made by Mama. I think this was by far the best gift he had gotten, his face was glowing mashaAllah, he took it from my hand a hugged the pillow and said "it says A  R mama... JazakaAllah khair" he was just so happy and excited about his new handmade by Mama pillow case.

The pleasure of taking time and making things to give your family and friends is priceless. And when done for  our children its truly worth seeing the expression on their beautiful faces "you MADE this for ME". When my husband came home from Jummah AR ran to him and said "Baba you know Mama made me a special A R pillow case..she made it last night even though she was sooooo tired". My husband and I were suprised to hear what he said, SubhanaAllah children are so caring and loving by fitra (nature)...its our duty as parents to nutrure this fitra they have.

I have always enjoyed makng my own things, I still have a skirt I had stitched in high-school. Last year I had started an etsy store named 'Handmadebits" alhumdulillah made a few sales but it was really taking from my time with the kids becoming a bit challenging from here, so I had to close it for the time and hope to go back up when Allah permits it inshaAllah.

InshaAllah if time permits I'll be sharing some of our previous handmade and future 'Jummah specials' and some tutorials.

Here's the tutorial for the Monogram pillow case. I didn't buy anything for this project, thats the best part!

You will need:

• Fabric (used or new) for the pillow case or cushion. (I used a fitted  i had lying around)
• GOOD fabric scissors
• Printed fabric for the monogram (I used an old dress of H)
• sewing machine!
• Iron

How to make it:

Step #1

Cut out two same size fabric pieces (square, rectangle,  circle) . Then iron it, when I stitch I  iron my piece after every stitch, it really helps balancing the whole piece.

Step #2

On a piece of paper draw a picture of how you want your final piece to look like and then stick to it. Trace your monogram letters on a paper free hand or print then if you want it to look perfect. I simply drew them straight on the fabirc with a fabric chalk free hand (you can see the orange marks), it washes of right away. Plus I like the natural look it gives when done free hand.

Step #3

Cut and pin your letters on the right side of the fabric. Design it how you want - you can just put the letters in the middle and leave the rest plain or add stripes on any side to give it some accent it will look amazing regardless...because you made it. If you choose to use trips or fabric for accent make sure you pin it to the fabric as well.

Step #4 

Stitch the letters on by keeping the setting of the machine on the 'zig-zag' stitch, this helps the letter stay firm and it looks nice. For the strips I used a straight stitch. 

Step #5

Put the right sides of the pillow case together and stitch the 2 long side and one short side close. Start stitching from the corner of the long side. Now stitch the fourth side half ways leaving enough space for the pillow to go in. You can hand stitch the opening close or use the machine, it up to you.

 You are all done!!

TA DAA!!

To be honest with you, you can make these any way you like... change the size, color, font, style and if you are feeling confident even the fabric! I used 100% cotton. This tutorial was just to give you an idea.

Stay tuned for our girls version of the monogram pillow!

Syria - you are in our duas

Bismillah, All Praise be to Allah Azawajallah

Assalamualikum wa rahmatullahe wa barakathu, 

As most of you know we live in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The Tabuk region touches the borders of what is known as Bilad al Sham, which included Syria. Syria is about a few hours away from Tabuk... the situation of Syira in the past weeks has deeply affected the people of this region. Knowing that we are so close to our helpless brothers, sisters and children is a very painful feeling. 

I feel its very important to share these things and feelings with our children. Its important to remind them (and ourselves before them) of the uncountable blessings Allah swt has given us and our families and at this moment protection and peace is a great Nia'am(blessing) we have. We shouldn't forget that if Allah swt wills He can test us any moment. We shouldn't feel safe and heedless of what is happening around us. Living here in the middle east, so close to all the wars happening around us is to some extent scary, but nevertheless a great reminder...that has really helped me move on/away from the petty things of this temporary life.

If we can from within ourselves feel the suffering and hardships our Muslim brothers and sisters have been and are going through, only than can we help our children feel their pain and suffering. There are so many things we can do with our children to show them the importance of this matter at hand. Tell them about whats happening in Syria, show them some videos (appropriate ones according to their age) of whats happening. Its also a great time to teach them about what the importance of the Bilad al Sham is in Islam. This history of what Sham was and is. Show them where Syria is on the map (We posted a map in the family room to see and remind ourselves and our children of whats happening n Syria). Collect money with them to send to Syria. And most of all ask them to make dua for them, children are pure and innocent, they are free from sin, Allah azawajaAllah will hear their duas against this tyrant and his army and will destroy his just as He has destroyed the previous tyrant and their nations. We need to inform ourselves first and for most so we can inform our children. (Below i have added some recent Khutbahs and lectures done on Syria - please take time and listen to them and share them with friends and family too)

My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not a scholar, I am not as knowledgeable as some of you. BUT, I am woman...and it cuts my heart to hear of another Muslim sister and girl being raped my her own brother in Islam. I am mother and a daughter... and the thought of having a my child die with thulm (injustice) shakes my soul. I am also a wife and a sister...its hurts to see all the Muslims brothers being torched to death by their own brothers in Islam. (May Allah make the suffering of Syrian people come to end and grant those who are dead Shahadah martyrdom).

I wonder if this tyrant and his army would be considered in the fold of Islam or not..??? Allah knows best.

May Allah swt end the suffering of Syria. Destroy their enemies. Protect their women, men and children. AND let US take a lesson from it and not be heedless of the Aakhirah by getting too engrossed in this duniya and its temporary life. Ameen

- Umm Abdir-Rahman

Sh. Saoud Shuraim Khutbah About Syria 10/02/2012 - English

Shaikh Muhammad Alarifi Friday Khutba,19,02,1433, My sights in Syria

2012-02-10 - Khutbah - Yasir Qadhi - Syria Crisis - O Bilaad al-Shaam! You are in our hearts!!

NOTICE

This is a notice that I will be changing the blog url within a week. If you have any questions or concerns you can email me at rawdahs@gmail.com

The url will be from the following two.
ummar-rawdah.blogspot.com
rawdahs.blogspot.com

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Jazakumullahu Khairan

Dirty truth about the CFL light bulbs

What's environmentally safe is not necessarily safe for us. I was not surprised to hear this but its surprising that most people are unaware of the side effects of CFL bulbs. Here in Saudi they use these giant size CFL bulbs, they are becoming increasingly common at shopping areas because they last forever! Extreme exposure to CFL's can lead to many health effects. They can even greatly harm our unborn babies and infants.

Alhumdulillah, in the middle east and most of the world we can still find incandescent bulbs. However did you know that the Canadian government is banning incandescent bulbs!  Alhumdulillah we do have an alternate to CFL bulbs they are known as LED bulbs, they are not as common and are a bit more pricier, but the also last 10 times longer. Click here to read more on this topic.

We should definitely care about our environment and as Muslims even more because we will be questioned about it. But this doesn't have to happen on the cost of our and our families health and well being.

Watch this short documentary film to learn the truth about CFL bulbs!

Book Review - Letters, the alphabet in the natural world

Letters is a wonderful book with amazing really illustrations that chidlren of all ages (including parents) find very fascinating. We've had many different alphabet books for both our children but this eyelike book is just so unique in many ways.

Some amazing things you will find in all their books are:

1. Colorful yet very subtle and cooling color choice.
2. Photos and graphics are very natural and eye catching that even we enjoy the illustration. 
3. Picture selection is very unique and rarely seen in other books. It so simple and the pages are not overcrowded or confusing for a child tiny mind.
4. Helps increase your and your children's vocabulary and knowledge.
5. The verses have a touch of humor and relates the pictures to each other in a very creative manner...it make the child think outside the box. 

Take a peek into this wonderful book. 

Check out more of their books here.

Climbing to Cave of Hira

One of the other things we did this break was, we visited the Cave of Hira. We had been talking about it with AR since before the break, so it was one thing he was really looking forward.

There were 4 main reasons for his excitement, the first being climbing the mountain itself, I just can't find words for his excitement for his first mountain climb. He couldn't stop talking about it, before AND after (MashaAllah TabarakaAllah). The second reason I believe was the name, "Cave of Hira", his one and only aunt/phupoo's name is Hira, so to his little mind this was so fascinating that he was going to a cave which has the same name as his aunt. He even said "did you know phupoo's name is the same as the name of the cave we went too". Third reason was that it was an only boys event, he was excited to go with his Baba, and Uncle/Mamoo. Lastly, but most importantly he was very interested to see where our beloved Prophet SAW used to go and where the Quran was revealed. Although its a deep concept for a 4 year old to understand but he had this excitement to go and see the cave he has heard stories of for so long. 

Here's a small video AR's uncle had made at the top of the mountain and you can also see a special appearance of AR in the video for a second. Hope we all can benefit inshaAllah.

May Allah swt grant you all a chance to visit inshaAllah. 

I'm still here :)

Where have we been??

Well Alhumdulillah for the blessing of living in the KSA. (MashaAllah TabarakaAllah). We had our semester end break afew weeks back, so we decided to get on the road again to go to Makkah to do Umrah, we also spend time with my parents and did lots of field trips.

We did our usual route Tabuk -> Yanbu -> Makkah and on the way back Makkah-> Madinah -> Tabuk. For the drive we kept mostly the same things I posted about in Muslim Travelers Guide. The few different/added things we had this time were a thermos of Saudi Qahwa (coffee) for Baba and for me I had my same old sweet water thermos and a ziplock of my favorite herbal teas. Since it was a bit chilly the kids even enjoyed a cup of warm tea.

This time (just to make it a fun learning experience and implement the sunnah) I wrapped two of the kids not so favorite fruit and veges aside from a surprise toy. MashaAllah TabarakaAllah they truly enjoyed it and eat it! We also got to revise the Hadeeth and even H repeated the hadeeth after me. Kids learn so much from these little practical examples. It really doesn't require too much extra work, its all about our intention, meaning we want to teach them the importance of exchanging gifts. AR wrapped an orange for me and gave it to him as a gift the next day, the wrapper was his drawing too.

One more thing that we did different  this time was, focusing on the nature and what they can see outside the window. I tried to keep them engaged my saying things like.. "SubhanaAllah look at the amazing colors on that mountain... see how the sand changes colors... Look at the SHEEPS and the white Camels..." We kept saying Allah made all this. Eventually they started showing us things masahaAllah TabarakaAllah. It kept them busy for hours and I didn't even have to pull out the activity kit for a long time! We would look for the mosques and chant hurray for who so it. For H we told her to look for the moon on the minar of the mosque and before we knew it she was pointing at every "moon" and "maadeed" she could see, infact shes still doing that. MashaAllah TabarakAllah.

Around Makkah we got to visit some Islamic historical sites.  InshaAllah I'll be sharing the pictures of some of the places we went too. I was initially not going to share these but I thought it would be nice for those mommies who want to teach their little ones about the Islamic History and how they use to travel. (and learn themselves too) inshaAllah. Also, it would be a nice resource for those who live in Saudi to know where they can take their families.

I apologize before hand for not being able to gimp the photos since I have not been able to fix my laptop.

We took the kids to the different Hajj ground. This is the Mina Valley.

Masjid Nimra in Aaraf,

The mountain of Mercy 'Jabal-e-Rahmah'. We climbed it with AR because he really wanted to go up  and see it from the top.

I took the kids to Haram in the morning times as many times as  I could before the Umrah season opened. They just enjoyed running around freely without fearing that they would get lost. It was the best time MashaAllah TabarakAllah. 

Some pictures of the Jeddah Science Oasis at the Andalus Mall, it was really worth the trip. It was kinda sad to see how empty it was, although it was good for us. It was small but a good size for kids to enjoy and yet not get too tired. Most of the stuff was hands on.

This robot was nice... kids were a bit scared at first but then thay really enjoyed it.

Outside of one of the muesums in Jeddah. you can see masjed Aqsa, and the Haramain.

On the way to Taif from the top of the mountain.

The kids fed the monkeys bananas and tangerines. It was amazing to see how they peel the them so quickly

On top of Shifa mountain. It's the place where the Prophet saw went  when he was sick and when he saw came back he felt better. So the Arabs have named this place Shifa.

The mountain where they the Prophet SAW was stoned when he SAW when to the people of Taif to call them to Islam. There is also an masjed there which they say the place where he prayed, Allah knows best. I remember seeing it when we use to live in Taif.

Inside of the masjed

The fenced area you see here is said to be the farm where the he SAW had taken refuge and the slave man became muslim. 

A fort some say was built by Ali (r.a) and some say by the Turks. Sadly there are no description boards telling what the place but my dad knew these from the older Arabs living in Taif who have had these tales passed down to them by there ancestors.

The top of the tower. You can see the holes in the ball on the top, which makes it seem that it was used in wars as a  fort.

Souq Okaz. This is that market that the Propeht SAW talk about in a  Hadeeth. It's a market that's been there since 2000 years (they say). It located in a rollng dessert plain north of Taif. Now it opens once a year. Till this day people travel to visit this market from all over the kingdom. It was the most popular trade stop for the trade caravans. They carry all sorts of things, Scents (itars and incenses) , handmade and homemade gooddess of all sort, food, and traditional and non traditional clothes, dates, honey, different oils.

InshaAllah I will post the hadeeth as soon as I can find it. 

Courtyard of another museum we went to which was closed. 3 out of 3 museums we went to were closed. It was sad. One of them said if you have a group of 10 then you can go in. 

Baab Makkah (Makkah gate) area in Jeddah. Its just a historical site. There are homes building here that are made out of coral.

Coral buildings.

LOL This board was hilarious. I think its funny in English and Arabic

This was a quick 'break in pictures' for you all.