Learning names

Prophet Muhammad (saw) said "Keep the names of the noble Prophets, Allah loves most the names Abdullah and Abdur Rahman. The most truthful names are Harith and Humam, while the most disliked are Harb and Murrah (war and bitter)."


Well considering this hadeeth we decided to name our son Abdur-Rahman. MashaAllah it really suits him <3. 


I have to add that its been a challenge to teach him his names spelling. So these are some things we have done to make learning his name fun learning experience.

I made these to togehter with AR, we spelled the names  and stuck them on the foam boards.

He loves hand and foot prints (I let him do them but i personally don't find them too educational). We did this one on a black construction paper with white (non-toxic) water acrylic. Ad the end I added hi name and we spelled it out together a few times.  

This one was a lot of FUN! I printed his name out in ful and with it I printed each letter of his name separately. First he glued his full name (we sang the spelling of his name). Then under it he had to glue the letters by looking at the full name... first 'a' then 'b' so on.

Had some glue and glitter fun.

I am doing more things with him, I will be adding about it.

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.

Signs of independence

Learning to be Independent!

The best what to teach kids something is to watch for there readiness. When we push kids to do things two things are most likely to happen, (1) they will lose interest in learning and (2) they will feel over stressed and frustrated because they might not be physically/emotionally or even mentally ready for learning that thing.

It could be anything...potty training, brushing their own teeth, eating on their own, wearing their clothes or shoes!

As parents we are constantly learning (and should be) about ourselves and these beautiful kids Allah subhanahu has given us.

Alhumdulillah AR is almost 4 and recently he has been wanting to get OLD!! so anytime I am trying to help him he simple refuses and says "I can do it! I am getting older now".

Lately he was showing a LOT of interest in dressing himself...(I would sometimes help him dress himself up but he was just never interested!). So I took this a great opportunity to help him get independent. Here is what I did...

I gave him some basic instructions, such as the tag at the back and stuff... and then I lay the clothes in order he should wear them. I make sure i do it right to left and I tell him that its a sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (saw) to start on your right. Note: the first two days I put the clothes from my right!! (so this picture is old). Now I put them from HIS right since he sits on the bed to wear the clothes.

Alhumdulillah in one week he learned how to wear his clothes...he gets his arm stuck sometimes but most of the times he is can do it. For some people 4 might be too late for a child to learn how to wear his own clothes! but for AR it was the right time!

 We got him a pair of Velcro shoes so he can wear his own shoes too and Alhumdulillah he got a good hang of it now... We just have to tell him 5 minutes before leaving to put his shoes on, he will be ready at the door!

Sadaqah Jar!

We have been doing this Sadaqah jar activity with AR for almost two years now. Alhumdulillah. Although its a bit difficult to have change here because (1) they don't have change (2) normally its the men who pay at the counters.

This is my husbands task to give him change and money to put in the sadaqah jar at least 5 times a week, especially yawm ul Jummah. We try to make him give it to someone in person whenever we see someone outside "asking" (I don't like the word begging). That also gives us as a family to talk about all the blessings Allaah (swt) has given us and how some people don't even have money to buy food and clothing!.

When we moved to Saudi I had a cute little kids bowl that we would collect sadaqah in. When it broke I made one from taping a nesquick box shut, and cutting a hole on the top with a HOT knife.

This is what it looked like after we covered it.

NOW, after we had worked with clay for Adam (a.s) story... he really enjoyed it. He really wants to do another craft project with it. I told him that we can make our own "Sadaqah Jar"! So Here it is...

We didn't enjoy working with this clay! It was tooo much mess, Jovi's white air drying clay works great!

He really wanted a CAR... which was literally impossible for me to make. I did not want him to feel disappointed so we tried the car for a little while and when it didn't work he compromised on a BALL which we would put car stickers on. Alhumdulillah it was nice... InshaAllah next time we can try to make a bigger one with more clay. 

I wanted to add something more to teaching him about the "Giving in the Path of Allah". So, we read a book "Helping the poor" and inshaAllah next I want to do a hadeeth with him.

Any other suggestions.

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."

Bike!!

We bought AR a bike, he is really enjoying it alhumdulillah. H was enjoying watching him. Although Baba and mama had a disagreement on whether to buy him bike first or roller blades. I really wanted to get him a set of roller blades but Baba was saying let him have the bike now and inshaAllah in a few months we will get him roller blades inshaAllah! In any case the kid was happy and got some activity to do! Alhumdulillah!

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

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!

Road map

A little fun boyish activity. AR loved it! He wanted to make a road that would take us from Makkah to Madinah, thats why you see the Kabbah there (we made for Hajj last year). The red thing at the bottom left is the Madinah underground parking lot.

What you will need

1. A garbage bag cut open
2. Masking Tape to make roads
3. Different types of Vehicles
4. Road "accessories" meaning stop signs and trees
5. We added a small farm land and animals
6. Be creative and let the child play with his imagination

Naming the Rooms

We decided to NAME our rooms so here are the names. My intention behind this was to make it fun to go from one room to another. Kids love this kind of stuff, AR was very excited about this one.

So far we have....

Kitchen = Qalb al Biet (Heart of the house)
Our classroom = Rawdah tul ilm (most of the time its just Rawdah (Beautiful Garden))
Master Bedroom =
Kids room/toy room =
Living room =

I would LOVE to get some creative ideas please...

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!

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.

Jumbo Alphabet puzzle

We bought the kids this jumbo wooden alphabet puzzle, its so easy for there tiny hands to handle! Its also a very durable, since the kids can not really chew them up or peel them apart!

Fuzzy science experiment

A little Fuzzy science experiment that got AR extremely amazed. He enjoyed it sooo much that we wanted to do it again.

What you will need:

1. A see through container
2. Dishing washing liquid
3. Baking soda
4. White vinegar
5. Food Coloring 
6. A tray (to make clean up easy)

Mix #2, 4, 5 together and then put put in a teaspoon of Baking soda and watch the kids get amazed!!

  

We loved watching the color blend

Play-dough numbers

We bought these play-dough number cutters the kids, for only 2 RIYALS!!

AR had a great fun/learning experience. Its a great way to teach counting and number recognition. The set also included addition subtraction, multiplication and division cutters to teach Math at a later stage inshaAllah.